Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria review

Blood_Diver_A8
Apr 15, 2021
Despite being one of the highest rated novels on MAL, I must say I was pretty disappointed with this work as a whole.

At a first glance, the story appears complex in the ways it's mysteries unfold but in truth it's more convoluted and frustrating than anything. We have magic "boxes" that grant the wishes of people given to them but only to the extent that a person believes their wish can actually be granted. While this concept is interesting, it's rarely used in any sort of relevant way since all of the boxes can generally be divided into those that have real world consequences and those that don't. Overall the rules for boxes are fairly vague and it's often that vagueness that is taken advantage of in order to allow our main protagonists (Maria and Kazuki) to succeed in rather unsatisfying ways most of the time.

Speaking of protagonists, I really didn't like either of them very much. Kazuki has a fairly weak and meager personality and while he does get development it ends up feeling rather sudden and disturbing. Maria, on the other hand, has a more assertive personality and appears very intelligent but seems to fade into the background in most volumes beyond volume 1. I cared far more about the trio of side characters: Daiya, Kokone, and Haruaki and their backgrounds and stories than either of the main protagonists. I honestly would have rather read a story dedicated to just those three and just remove the two main protagonists entirely which is why volumes 5/6 are my most liked. If volume 7 had been remotely as enjoyable I may have been more willing to recommend this series, but, in all honestly, it was a very tangled and disappointing conclusion to the series.

There aren't any really deep or meaningful takeaways I had from this story and it's themes either which was particularly disappointing in a story that involves the granting of wishes from often times misguided humans. Absolutely none of the "antagonists"/box-users were unique in motivation or backstory and felt like rehashes of stereotypical villian backstories that, while sympathitic, are widely overused and cliche.

I don't think "The Zeroeth Maria" is a terrible or even bad story, it's okay, but considering the time and monetary consideration that goes into reading a light novel I would recommend you pass on reading this story.
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Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria
Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria
Автор Mikage, Eiji
Художник