Maomarimo

Description

This is the story of a village where a deity is--on the day of the village festival, the deity endows a boy, Mao, with a destiny. That destiny is to live as a girl. In a small village where forests, lakes, fields, fish, insects, and flowers flourish, Mao, his sister, and his friend confront fate.

Type

Manga

Related Series

N/A

Associated Names

Mao Marimo

まおまりも

我的毬藻我的球

我的毯藻我的球

Groups Scanlating

genderbenderbb2

JKScans

Reaching-You Scans

Latest Release(s)

v.4 c.35 (end) by genderbenderbb2 5 years ago

v.4 c.34 by genderbenderbb2 5 years ago

v.4 c.33 by genderbenderbb2 5 years ago

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Status in Country of Origin

4 Volumes (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 7 / 10.0 (53 votes)

Bayesian Average: 6.74 / 10.0

13%

19%

15%

17%

13%

Last Updated

April 18th, 2025 9:19am PDT - 1 week ago

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Genre

Ecchi Gender Bender Romance School Life Seinen Supernatural
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Categories

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Recommendations

Pretty Face

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Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Hakusensha

Serialized In (magazine)

Young Animal (Hakusensha)

Licensed (in English)

English Publisher

N/A

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #754

(-33)

Monthly Pos #1704

(-139)

3 Month Pos #3539 (No change)

6 Month Pos #4998

(-189)

Year Pos #7161

(-130)

List Stats

On 395 reading lists

On 257 wish lists

On 76 completed lists

On 20 unfinished lists

On 137 custom lists

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User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

Just Boring

by LordZel
5 years ago

Rating: 4.0 / 10.0

I'm not too into slice of life to begin with but this was tedious even by slice of life standards. I can't say much about it because I dropped it so long ago that I had to re-read the first couple chapters to remember why. It left so little of an impression that I couldn't be bothered to remember it at all outside of thinking "it was boring." It makes me sad when I drop a gender bender, particularly when it's not even close to the worst writing I've seen. However, this story just felt completely empty. I felt an utter lack of interest when I tried to read it. The protagonist not only wasn't bothered by the sudden gender change, he seemed to be pleased with it. The only stir it created at all was a series of brief and mild reactions among side characters. It was to the point where it makes you question why the protagonist was ever even male to begin with, since it serves no real purpose. The characters themselves are mostly boring cliches. Since it's slice of life, there's no real story, no struggle, no romance, no objective, no real point to anything at all and without strong characters to prop up this void, there's really no reason to even bother reading this.

There's multiple reasons to find a gender bender interesting. Most of those reasons revolve around the issue of sudden loss of identity. Whether it's played off as a joke, a plot device or actually taken seriously is pretty much what most of them boil down to. While having it played off as a joke can be really hilarious, it usually just ends up as tasteless and/or boring repetitive jokes. That's by far the most common route chosen by authors. Regardless of whether it's taken seriously or treated as a plot device, it takes rather talented writing to make it good and I can't even remember the last time I saw writing that talented. Pretty much 100% of the time it's treated as a plot device, it's either to force an undesirable/unrealistic romance or simply used as an excuse to use a female protagonist and excuse away lazy writing and characterization. Taking it seriously is by far the riskiest path. It's far too easy to either fail to properly take it seriously or to go to the other extreme and treat it like a fictionalized trans autobiography. I don't read fiction to get everyday real world drama dumped on me and no one enjoys it when an author tries to take a subject seriously only to unintentionally turn it into a tastelessly bad joke. This manga in particular feels like it uses a gender swap simply to excuse away poor characterization of a female protagonist and create needless and boring angst between said protagonist and side characters who are far more bothered by the transformation than the protagonist is.

On the topic of sudden identity loss in general, you don't have to gender swap someone to create an identity crisis. Have a grenade take someone's face off but not kill them and it can be just as, if not more so, brutal as suddenly having your entire body magically changed to an unrecognizable state.

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Hmmm

by Molenir
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

I really don't get the point of this manga. Is it really that big of a deal for a boy to change into a girl, and have to live out their life as a girl? About half the world is female, whats the big deal? Is it really that horrible? So he's not as strong physically as he would have been, and 'she' is probably going to find herself attracted to guys now. Again, I don't see the point.

Having said this though, I'm still interested in reading the story. At least to see how it develops.

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Interesting

by smchronos
14 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

First, this is one of the few gender transformation stories that is not focused on sex and is also not focused on fanservice (although it does have some down the road). I'm picking up this series as my first cleaning, proofreading, and typesetting job. I'm not sure what the group I'm in will be called as of now (I'm leaving that up to the translator, Pixee). From what I've read of the third chapter and seen in the later untranslated chapters, the story picks up a bit.

Of course, if you're looking for another Gatcha Gatcha or Pretty Face where the main character isn't very girly and is merely swept up in various events, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. The main character does act girly (without meaning to) and does try to embrace the reality that he is now a she. That's probably one of the reasons this is a seinen with slice of life elements. I won't spoil any of the plot with my predictions. I'd just give the story a chance before throwing it away.

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Sigh...

by Joentjuh
14 years ago

Rating: 2.0 / 10.0

A 'generic' genderbender manga, boy changes into girl for some unknown (or unexplained) reason.
After reading the first two chapters, I'm still unsure what the point of this manga is. There is no comedy or anything even remotely funny, some minor hinting at romance but as I see it nothing original or special, and the 'supernatural' is only used as a premises, luckily no ecchi or fanservice... finally.
Yes, this could be considered a gender-bender... but the story only hints at the main character being previously male. (S)he is even introduced as a female character.... So it's a gender-bender story that begins (a while?) after being gender-bendered.

I will not continue reading this manga for one sole reason, not sure if it's a translation 'error' (reading the english scanlation)

"Stop being a wuss!"
"I can't help it, I'm a girl now" (being serious)
.... and this made me lose all interest. What is it with people stereotyping girls/woman as weak and inferior beings (especially when gender-bendered from male)... It's one thing to do this in a stupid shounen/ecchi manga (where these things sadly can be expected)... but in a Seinen?
Maybe a silly thing to be hung up about, but I'm getting sick and tired of seeing the same thing over and over again (girls are weak, men are perverts). Please think of something original for once.

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