10 Second Anime - Junketsu no Maria - Episode 3

Junketsu no Maria - Episode 3



Michael calls on Ezekiel to observe Maria. Bernard offers absolution to her as well.

Heh.

A short, precocious looking know-it-all girl acts exactly like you think she would in anime.

 

Wow, it's a good thing Joseph is such a pure-pure boy, otherwise God would not have stopped Michael from punishing Maria.

 

That was a neat reference to Jesus' saying that the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous. In context, that comes from the "love your enemies" sermon starting at Matthew 5:44, because Joseph said he loved his neighbor Maria, which caused an actual state of grace. Although, sending Ezekiel down may end up more punishment than grace in Maria's eyes.

 

Hah! Talk about obeying the letter of the law. If Ezekiel didn't see Maria use ostentatious magic, then she doesn't know who used it!

 

Of course Ezekiel is a white dove with a cross on her chest.

 

Owls are raptors, right? Time to establish pecking order.



I liked the expressions Artemis and Priapus made in their owl forms when Michael laid down the condition that Maria would stop being a witch if she gave up her virginity. Priapus was just shocked, but Artemis looked annoyed, as if she would have to keep breaking her hips and Maria wouldn't be sharing the workload. Priapus is ready for that big "snake" Maria saw!

 

We got a few more names connected to Mary with the introduction of Bernard and Gilbert the monks. Bernard is an obvious reference to Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian Order and Doctor of the Church. Not only was he well known for grooming a future pope and tasked with putting down heresy, but we was the foremost Marian theologian of his time. Interestingly enough, he didn't believe in Mary's Immaculate Conception, which was only decided by papal bull under condition of papal infallibility in 1854.

 

Gilbert could be a reference to Saint Gilbert, who established the Gilbertine Order after being rebuffed by Bernard of Clairvaux when he petitioned for his English order of nuns, who followed the Cistercian observance of the Rule of Benedict, to join the Cistercian body.

 

Maria knows exactly who she's NOT giving her virginity to.

 



Definitely NOT that guy who said he loved her. That guy Joseph, NOT that guy.

 

Speaking of innocence, Maria knows enough to protect innocent eyes and ears.

 



 

 

Obviously a witch is someone with short hair and shows off her legs. Ezekiel has long hair, see? Not a witch. Ezekiel even tried to convince Maria to convert to Catholicism under the guidance of Bernard. A witch wouldn't do that either.

 

 

Hmm.

I found it interesting that this show makes a very important distinction between the Church of Heaven and the Church of the World. While the Church of Heaven may not interfere with the actions of the World, the Worldly Church has to be active in interfering to prepare souls for Heaven. Maria notes the hypocrisy that if she is part of this world, then the Church of Heaven better not get in her way.

 

Towards the end of the episode, the glowing sparkling shadow, which we had seen near Maria's home in the first episode, finally takes form and addresses her. He says he used to be called Cernunnos. Very interesting way of introducing yourself. Cernunnos is a celtic horned deity dating to the first century AD. Also very interesting is how a written reference to this old god was found beneath Notre Dame in Paris on the Pillar of the Boatmen, which was a bas-relief carving in an old Roman temple built in the same location as the current cathedral.  All we know of Cernunnos was that he has horns, but what kind of god he was or why he was worshipped has been lost to the mists of time. In any event, he is the oldest known French god, so he makes an appearance in this anime.

 

Cernunnos makes the same point to Maria that Michael did, except his examples are not "bad" things happening to people, but to the animals living in the forest. The lesson is the same: this is the natural order of things, so why resist it? Right now, Maria's reason still sound selfish. She doesn't want these bad things happening in front of her, and she will stop them if she can. That impulse is still referring to the "willful witch" part of the title card.

 

Maria has an awful lot of other-worldly beings observing her now. I wonder where the overall plot is going. Will Maria be the Pucelle de Force who ends the war between France and England? Even Joan of Arc died twenty years before the official end of the Hundred Years War. Maria has already mentioned her, so perhaps that's the mashed up timeline we're seeing in this show.