マリア様がみてる 1

A Classic Worth Checking Out

I was mainly interested in reading this due to hearing that this series heavily influenced the visual novel Flowers. I've only read through one volume of マリア様がみてる so far but it is an interesting story.

The story takes place in an all-girls catholic school. The title of the book comes from the fact that there is a statue of the Virgin Mary near the gates of the school. Every morning they pray to her as she "watches over them". The school has a "sœur" system where the older girls give a rosary to a younger girl and if accepted, the younger girl becomes their petite sœur and receives guidance from them.

Some of the language can be difficult throughout, all of the girls are kind of お嬢さま like. Not that they're going おほほほ all the time but they're kind of prestigious so the way they talk reflects that at times. You will see a lot of わ used as sentence enders and さま suffixed to names as well.

The grammar portions aren't too hard, a few N2/N1 lookups but I think that's natural in any native material. If you've read any "beginner" type manga, I don't think the grammar in this one will be much harder; it'll be difficult enough to learn some new things but not hard enough to make you completely lost. The vocabulary tended to give me more issues than the grammar though.

I think this is a good read for anyone who likes shoujo-type manga with some interesting drama thrown in.