Maris the Chojo

Maris the Chojo (ザ・超女(スーパーギャル), Za Sūpāgyaru, "The Supergal"), originally titled Supergal in U.S. markets, is a one shot manga story by Rumiko Takahashi. It ran in the October 1980 special edition of Shōnen Sunday and was later made into an anime OVA. The manga was later compiled in the Rumic World collection, which is available in English from Viz Media.

Maris the Chojo
Cover from the VHS release of Maris the Chojo original video animation
ザ・超女
GenreComedy[1]
Manga
Written byRumiko Takahashi
Published byShogakukan
English publisher
MagazineShōnen Sunday Zōkan
DemographicShōnen
PublishedOctober 1980
Original video animation
Directed byMotosuke Takahashi
Produced byYuji Nunokawa
Kazu Tachibara
Ren Usami
Written byTomoko Konparu
Hideo Takayashiki
Music byIchirō Nitta
StudioStudio Pierrot
Licensed by
ReleasedMay 21, 1986
Runtime50 minutes

In North America, it was released on VHS and laserdisc by Central Park Media under the Rumik World series (which also included OVAs Laughing Target, Fire Tripper, and Mermaid Forest). It was originally released under the title "Supergal", but this was changed to Maris the Chojo to avoid potential trademark issues with Warner Bros.[2]

Summary

Maris doesn't exactly have the greatest life. Her father's an alcoholic, her mother's an airhead, and to top it off, she's always broke. Why? Maris is a Thanatosian, and Thanatosians have six times the strength of a normal human being. Generally, this would not be a bad thing, except that the planet Thanatos blew up years ago, and the rest of the galaxy is not set up for people who are six times as strong as everyone else.

So to keep the destruction her race does to a minimum, Thanatosians are made to wear harnesses that limit their strength. However, Maris accidentally destroys everything she touches and as all damages are docked from her wages, every mission she's assigned to by the Inter-Galactic Space Patrol takes her further in debt.

Traveling with Maris is Murphy, from a kitsune-like race. He can create nine copies of anything he wants with his tail and is forever teasing Maris.

However, things may be looking up. Koganemaru, the son of an intergalactic billionaire has been kidnapped. This may be the chance that Maris needed to become financially independent, as she figures that he'll be so indebted to her that he might ask for her hand in her marriage.

There's just one tiny (well, large) problem. The kidnapper is Sue, an opponent of Maris from her days as a wrestler, and she's out for revenge. After causing Maris to crash, she heads back to her highly adored base, where she meets her fellow kidnapper.

When Maris catches up again in an even more broken-down rocketship, she and Sue engage in a wrestling match to the death, made all the more difficult by Maris having a remote-controlled chip on her that prevents her from removing her harness, leaving Maris at Sue's mercy. With Murphy's help, she gets free, and destroys Sue's base.

At the end, it is revealed that Sue's fellow kidnapper is Koganemaru, who was bored and decided to try being evil. Sadly for Maris, he chooses to comfort Sue, and even proposes to her. Naturally, Maris is furious, and the story ends as she is destroying her ship, while being restrained by Murphy.

Characters

Reception

On Anime News Network, Justin Sevakis said the anime was "once-hilarious [but] is now quite boring and predictable".[3]

References
  1. "Rumic World & Rumic Theater - House of 1000 Manga". Anime News Network. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
  2. "Animerica". Animerica: Anime & Manga Monthly. Viz Media. 1 (1): 16. March 1993. ISSN 1067-0831.
  3. Justin Sevakis (2008-09-25). "Buried Treasure: The Laughing Target". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2014-08-31.
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