I guess I should have saved that theology warning for this volume. Phantom Thief Jeanne comes to a close, but not before it can make some of the weirdest takes on Christianity this side of Evangelion.
This book leads off with my other least favourite story in this series, where Chiaki has suddenly decided to give up on Maron and get together with her best friend in the most public ways possible.
Naturally Maron just accepts this because she is now a strong, confident character. Except it just makes her look like a dope because people have been getting possessed left, right, and centre and until it is pointed out that maybe her friends looking so evil might be a bug, not a feature, she never even considers that a demon might be behind it.
Then we get extended stuff between Finn and Access, probably the nicest parts of this ending, and the most insane take on the Garden of Eden story. Plus god justifies chauvinism!? Thanks a bunch god.
Maron faces down the demon lord, the same strategy is used in both fights in this book and works both times. Heroic sacrifice, everything gets cleaned up so tidily you could eat off it, here’s some bonus manga of everybody being happy. Seriously, the forests of Vermont have less sap than the conclusion of this series.
Sigh. This series was like the San Andreas fault. Shaky at the best of times, but when it really acted up it went to some crazy extremes. Maron and Access made this series better and I enjoyed most of my time with them.
That said, Chiaki did not and I think your enjoyment of the series will largely hinge on how you view him. For me, even recognizing that this series is over twenty years old, the gender politics are atrocious.
The end thesis here is basically put as ‘woman is awesome, but when she inevitably falls it is the job of a man to pick her up again’. I think I died a little inside reading that. Even though Maron makes her own choices, most of the time it’s framed around her relationship and I genuinely believe she is better than that.
2.5 stars, rounded down because this thing really went up its own butt at the end. I would say 3 stars to the series as a whole, with variance based on how well you can handle the gender stuff.