Title: The Music of Marie
Author: Usamaru Furuya
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 528
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
The Story
In The Music of Marie, the world has flooded and has been reduced to island nations. Many islands are in close proximity to one another, each known for different trades such as produce, leather, clothing, and such. Our story takes place on the island of Pirito. Here, they are known for their technological advances and it gives off a very heavy steampunk vibe.
Here, we meet our two main characters: Kai and Pipi. The islands have a very odd culture that on the day of a girl’s 18th birthday, men will flock to her to confess in old tribalistic ways. They will dance, sing, show off hidden talents, and do whatever it takes to woo her over so that she will choose them by handing over an egg. However, the girl still has the right to choose whomever she pleases and since her eyes are set on Kai, her mind is made up; however, her father forbids her from choosing him but never states why… or… each time he does, Pipi closes her heart and refuses to hear it because she loves him very much.
This is a story of the romance between Pipi and Kai but it is much more than that. The entirety of the story is wrapped around a unique take on religion. There exists a massive woman in the sky named Marie. She sings a song to keep the world in a perfect harmonious balance. They believe that in the distant past, humanity waged wars and killed each other over pieces of the land only to sate their thirst for possessions and ownership. God flooded the world and created Marie to sing a song to erase such feelings from the hearts of men. This also meant there was a limit placed on how far man can advance with technology as a way to prevent the past from repeating itself.
The religion in and of itself ties into the romance because Kai seems to be the only person who can see Marie and hear her song. How this will affect Pipi as well as the rest of the people on the island is this series’ biggest hook.
Characters
Kai opens our story by taking a rail car high up into the mountains. Pipi joins him and it is soon discovered what the true purpose of the trip is. He was there to pay respects to his father and the children who died in a mining accident. After that, we skip forward to learn a bit about Kai. When he was 10, Pipi took him swimming but Kai didn’t know how. After nearly drowning, he washed up with the gift of Marie… to be able to hear her music. He could also hear the most minute of sounds from a gear in a factory malfunctioning, to water flowing deep beneath the surface, to a baby crying on the other side of the island. He used this talent to help the island of Pirito progress and advance its technology and many were grateful to him for it.
He also had two unique burn marks on his hands in the form of symbols. He was told what they were but didn’t quite understand what it truly meant. I would explain it but it would unravel one of the story’s biggest plot points which plays a pivotal role in the ending of this series.
Kai, himself, is a rather straightforward boy. He’s caring, he loves being surrounded by his friends, and he loves using his abilities to help people in need. Although there were a lot of great qualities about him, it was Pipi that really stole the show in this series.
Pipi is a rather energetic girl who, one day, wishes to fly. This stems from a question she asked Kai about what would like to come back as when you die? Kai couldn’t answer at first but Pipi said she would come back as herself. Kai thought about it and decided to come back as a bird. From that day forward, Pipi knew that on her 18th birthday, she was going to find a way to fly to capture Kai’s heart.
Pipi is the kind of person who would stop at nothing to fulfill her wish. She can get a bit pushy when she wants to be and some of that translates into stubbornness because she is so determined to accomplish this one goal of hers. Her heart is set on Kai but when Marie enters the picture, she begins to question that heart. Here, this is where her stubbornness comes into play as she refuses to give up despite pushback from everyone around her, including her father. In the end, Pipi is just a lovable girl who wants to be happy with the boy she loves. You can’t really get any purer than that but her antics really sell her as a character!
We have a few side characters to round out the cast… Ghuul is a cleric that devotes his life to Marie but is also a researcher looking to find a way to advance technology. Ghuul becomes the ear to listen to Kai whenever he needs advice or needs to question things about Marie. Ghuul is a true companion and everything an idea cleric should be!
Then, there’s Totto who only dreams of a better future through technological advancement. He is a prodigy when it comes to figuring things out and has a unique quirk about him whenever he gets excited about getting to work on something. He seems to be a loyal friend to Kai and Pipi as well despite his odd behavior.
Finally, we have Maru who comes to the island and sees all of this technology for the first time. He wants to learn about it as well as all of the mining efforts on the island. He heard stories about Kai and wants to desperately meet him as he is a big fan. Despite being a gargantuan of a boy, he’s younger than most of our cast (Ah, this trope never seems to get old, doesn’t it?). He’s hard-working and pretty kind and considerate… a gentle giant.
Final Thoughts
That was quite the journey! The series isn’t very long clocking in at 17 chapters. In Japan, it was split between two volumes but One Peace Books is bringing them together in a single omnibus.
Usually, when a manga series is that short, it feels rushed and/or contrived. The quality will typically suffer but I cannot say that it is the case with The Music of Marie. While short, I feel as if it didn’t need anything extra. This doesn’t seem like a series that wasn’t working and was asked to be cut short but rather it felt like a series that knew where it was going from the very beginning.
The characters have their quirks but I felt that the world was a bit more interesting than the characters. There is a sense that they took a backseat to the world-building aspect of the series but that only lasted for the first half. The back half shifts the focus onto the characters and, more specifically, Kai. Once we get to that point, you don’t really need to know more about the world… you just need to know about what’s going on inside of it.
Doing a heavy balance on both ends of the story is a bit risky because you want to hit it right out of the park from the get-go. You want to have that hook and, at first, while intriguing, I didn’t feel the connection to the characters. I felt more of a sense of wonder about the world which served as the main hook. Then the balance slowly shifted to where I got to a point of accepting the world as it had been established and now, I could focus on the cast at hand.
While I can clearly see the intent, I feel a little more focus on the characters rather than acting as tour guides would be struck a better balance but it’s a small nitpick to something I found to be extraordinary. The ending was something I suspected a little with the way things were built up; however, even after those expectations were met, I still left surprised as there were some twists in there that I didn’t see coming. All of it culminates in a bittersweet ending that you’re either going to love or hate. For me, I loved it along with the journey I took to reach it.
This is a series that I would highly recommend and with it being only 17 chapters, it’s a good way to kill a couple of hours on a slow weekend afternoon!
Overall Score: 4.5 / 5
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @JJPiedraOELN
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by One Peace Books.
