I recently obtained Volume 7: The Maid Moved by Tears, and read it even though I have not gotten the first six volumes yet. I have ordered them, however, a while ago in fact, but have not received shipping confirmation.
Anyway, on to my impressions of the book. I'm going to be looking back through the book as I review it.
It opens with a very light-hearted scene of Mahoro informing Minawa that it's her birthday, setting up what looked like what would be a happy chapter or two before it gets into the darker, more action-packed parts with Feldrance and Methris. I was wrong. Not displeased by that fact, though. I always found Feldrance to be a very interesting character, always carrying out his actions with a disarming smile while still appearing not to have a soul.
I thought it made sense that Suguru's friends found out about the existence of aliens and androids, but they seemed to be surprisingly acceptant of that fact. They didn't question what was going on that much, they just seemed to... not care. I was glad they found out, though, and that they became aware of Suguru's intentions of joining Vesper as opposed to the anime's ending in which they were all simply discarded without any form of good-bye.
Suguru's reaction when he found out that Mahoro killed his father made sense. He was clearly unsettled by it, but knew that it was what she had to do. Pretty much the same as the anime, just occurs at a different time.
When Ryuga and Slash show up and Feldrance decides not to fight, then takes Minawa and tells her the truth about what would happen if Methris completed his operation successfully, it did make me wonder whether Feldrance really had a soul or not. I think that's something that was supposed to be up for interpretation; he could have been operating out of self-preservation and not wanting to be scrapped, but he didn't have to enlighten Minawa. He didn't outright kill the Professor as in the anime, but seemed to know that Methris was doomed and decided to just leave him. An interesting different path from the anime; I think that the path chosen by the anime and the path chosen by the manga both made sense.
One thing that didn't make sense, though, was the fact that after the battle, it said Mahoro had 120 days left to live, but after she was treated it said that her remaining life span was minimal. As she hadn't been in any combat since it said she had 120 days left, the 120-day estimate was obviously erroneous.
Now we get back to the more light-hearted part of the story. Minawa gets a little sister, Nanami-chan, Mahoro comes home and everyone celebrates. I laughed out loud at Chizu's "We're pregnant!" comment. She's always so blissful. She also seems to have a lot of insight into Suguru's and Mahoro's relationship, and appears to have had insight into their relationship since the beginning. Although she generally acts younger and less mature, she is definitely very wise at heart.
Again, as in the anime, the supporting characters conspire to leave Suguru and Mahoro alone, but, unlike the anime, this is before the onsen. They appear to have a great time together, although Mahoro still bears the secret that she has very little time left to live.
Of course the scene at the onsen is the ecchiest part, and was funny, but lacked the heart that the anime version had. In the anime, Mahoro bathing with Suguru was a beautiful scene, and showed that she recognized the difference between ecchi and love. This, however, was absent in the manga and the onsen trip appeared just to be there to showcase ecchi humor. I didn't think it took away from the story, it just wasn't poignant as the anime was.
This volume of the manga ends in a similar way to episode 11 of Something More Beautiful: with Mahoro saying to herself repeatedly, "I don't want to die!" This was, in both the anime and the manga, a very profound part. However, in the manga, Mahoro has one more profound last line afterwards: "I don't want to leave him!" I disagree with Dr. Memory's comment that it looks like Volume 8's ending will be worse than the anime's; even if it's a sad ending, it looks like it will be a beautiful one. The manga already eliminated one of my gripes about the anime's ending, and that was that Suguru left all his friends without giving them any idea of what was to come. I can't believe Tokyopop's waiting until March to release Volume 8, though... what advantage will that give them?
One last thing: considering the similarities between the manga and the anime, even though GAINAX said in an interview that they didn't know how the manga would end, I think it seems very likely that Nakayama was also still planning the smaller details of how the story would end and gave GAINAX his general notes to work off of. It may not be what happened, but it seems probable.
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Sujet: Read Mahoromatic Vol. 7 Last Night, My Impressions (Spoilers A-Plenty) (Lu 422 fois)