Maria Akizuki

Introduction

Relationships

Gallery

Maria Akizuki
12 Years 14 Years
Name
Kanji	秋月 真理亜
Rōmaji	Akizuki Maria
Information
Age	12 / 14 Years
Gender	Female
Species	Human
Occupation	Student
Status	Deceased
Voice Actors
Japanese	Kana Hanazawa
English	Monica Rial
First Appearance
Novel	Part I: Chapter 01
Anime	Episode 01: The Season of New Leaves
Manga	01. Season of the Young Leaves

Maria Akizuki (秋月 真理亜 Akizuki Maria) is one of the five main characters and a member of Group 1.

“	Once the kiln is opened and the pottery inspected, all that are crooked or bear cracks are fated to be smashed. If all that awaited us was the fate of smashed pottery, then we decided we would rather run away in the hopes of finding a different future.	”
—Parts of Maria's goodbye letter to Saki, Episode 16: To My Beloved Saki

Appearance

Maria has red, flowing, straight hair and bright blue eyes. Unlike the others, her appearance remains very similar before and after the first time skip. She wears the same school uniform at age twelve and fourteen, which consists of a beige vest with a radiant orchid shaded seam, and a purple bow tied over the midsection. Additionally, she wears a skirt in the same color as the seam, as well as fitting boots combined with a large part of beige and black stockings beneath. A yellow patch on her left sleeve denotes her group number. Overall, she is a young, thin and pretty girl with beautiful arched eyebrows, sparkling eyes, a straight, perfect nose, and expressive mouth which carries her with confidence and determination, who is the most popular girl in her school.

She is also seen in various other outfits, such as an orange halter-style dress, as well as a fancy lavender winter coat, with thin white sleeves and black gloves. On the camping trip, she is seen wearing two different outfits - one being a pink dress with a white undershirt and tan leggings, the other a white shirt with a lavender V-shape near the collar, which appears to be a hood, as well as a pair of dark tan shorts.

In the flashback played during the opening of episode 16, she is seen as a child wearing various outfits such as a long pink winter coat, a fancy violet dress, the elementary school uniform, and a light blue yukata.

In the Manga she is seen wearing a white top (Yukata style), with a bright red ribbon over her stomach and a matching red pleated skirt with black leggings.

Biography

Maria is considered by Saki to be her best friend. In the anime, there is a montage showing their meeting and childhood days before meeting the rest of the characters. She seems to be relatively calm and collected in the group during potentially dangerous situations, however, she perceives herself to be a coward who runs away at the first sign of trouble.

During the summer camp, Maria was not captured by the Ground Spider colony of Queerats after having her Cantus sealed by Rijin, who died in the colony's attack. She successfully hid from them and later regained her Cantus like the rest of the group.

After the first time skip, she and Saki begin dating, but she remains the object of Mamoru's adoration. Even while dating Saki, she remains affectionate to Mamoru, and appears to feel responsible for taking care of him. This is possibly due to how Mamoru has somewhat come to view her as his surrogate mother, since his own died in his childhood. She eventually forms a duty pair with Mamoru at Sage Academy.

When the group discovered that their memories had been altered and sought to uncover the truth, Maria persuaded Saki to keep their pursuit a secret from Mamoru due to his delicate nature.

Maria was the first to of the group to discover that Mamoru ran away from home. Together with Saki and Satoru, they followed his trail out of the Holy Barrier. When they found his sled at the foot of a cliff, Maria turned frantic thinking about how he might have been fatally injured. However, they found another trail and followed it to a snow cave where Mamoru was resting after being rescured by the Queerat Squonk. When Mamoru reveals the reason he ran away was because he had been targeted by a Tainted Cat, obviously for disposal, Maria supported his decision to leave.

While Satoru and Saki return to the villages, Maria stayed behind to care for Mamoru. However, when the pair later returned to bring them back, Maria and Mamoru had disappeared, leaving behind a letter from Maria informing the former of their decision to leave rather than be killed. In the letter, Maria requested that they not look for them and to tell the village leaders that they have died.

After the second time skip, Saki discovered that two or three years after their disappearance, Maria and Mamoru's bones were presented to the Security Council by Yakomaru. Before being killed by the Robber Fly colony, Maria gave birth to a child which was taken away by the Queerats and raised as the Messiah to revolt against humanity.

In the manga, Maria was the one targeted and Mamoru ran away with her. It is shown that they had Messiah before the Robber Fly colony threatened them when Saki came to visit. In the "Rest in Pieces!" extra, Maria mentions that Mamoru wasn't there to protect her when they took Messiah.

History

Maria was born two weeks after Saki and like the latter, was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. On top of that, she was also a premature breech birth. Had the birthing assistant cut her umbilical cord a bit later, Maria would no doubt have died.

The anime showed that Maria formally met Saki on their first day in Harmony School, and their childhood together. Satoru was also present, but as the montage was shown after the group had their memories altered, Shun was noticeably absent.

Trivia

• In the anime, Maria was the one to read the story of the boy and the Fiend, possibly foreshadowing her role as the mother of a Fiend later in the story.
• The anime gave further evidence that having a child was by Maria's own will, by adding a cutscene at the end of Episode 18: Scarlet Flower where Maria said that she and Saki cannot have kids anyway as they are both girls.