| Maria Takayama/Relationships | |
|---|---|
|
| |
| 高山 マリア Takayama Maria | |
| Character Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 10 |
| Job |
|
| Family | Kate Takayama (Older Sister) |
| School | St. Chronica's Academy |
| Novel Debut | Volume 2, Chapter 3 |
| Manga Debut | Chapter 12 |
| Anime Debut | Episode 1 (Cameo)
Episode 4 (Official debut) |
Relationships
Kodaka Hasegawa
Initially, Maria saw Kodaka as one of Yozora's underlings. Kodaka didn't pay her much attention as well, until he noticed that she was eating potato chips every day. Seeing this made him concerned about the state of her health and awakened his brotherly instincts, as Maria reminded him of a younger Kobato. Thus he started to bring her home made food and prohibited her from eating chips (later Kodaka's responsibility was succeeded by Yukimura). After that, Maria has begun to see Kodaka more as a brotherly figure, even calling him "Onii-chan".
As a result, Kodaka often pats Maria on her head, which Maria seems to enjoy. Maria often seeks Kodaka's protection from Yozora and Kate. It seems that Maria seriously considers Kodaka her big brother and Kate is grateful to Kodaka for his influence on her. She mentions that around Kodaka and Yozora, Maria can act as a normal 10 year old, and not be treated as an arrogant child prodigy.
Maria is also the only member of Neighbors club who likes Kodaka's jokes and scary stories (which she doesn't differentiate since both make her laugh).
Yozora Mikazuki
Maria thinks that Yozora is a bully who always makes fun of her. That is, if she realizes that she has been tricked by Yozora in the first place. When she is unaware (and due to her being only 10 years old she forgets Yozora's misdeeds quite quickly), Maria sees Yozora as sort of mentor and follows her "advice" (orders actually), and as result Maria is usually seen doing labor for Yozora. As the series progresses, it seems that Yozora is slowly taming her habit to bully and use Maria.
Sena Kashiwazaki
Although Maria and Sena almost don't interact in any way, Sena does seems to have a some sort of soft spot for Maria, (probably due to the latter also being exposed to Yozora's insults daily) as she doesn't mind buying a ticket for her in the theme park trip. And again, offered her a position of being a temporary lecturer for the Neighbor's club, much to Maria's excitement (though she may have only done this to save the club from being disbanded, and mostly, to get back to her game).
Rika Shiguma
Rika and Maria haven't really talked to each other much, yet when Rika is angry, she also starts to bully Maria, making fun of and scaring her.
Yukimura Kusunoki
Other than Kodaka, the person who's mostly "interacts" with Maria is Yukimura. However, knowing Yukimura's personality and habits (aside from serving Kodaka she is usually seen spacing out) it is unknown what their relationship really looks like and if there really is one. But when Kodaka ordered Yukimura to bring lunches for his "little sister", latter seemed to be quite pleased, that is until Yukimura forced Maria to eat "healthy food". But after Kodaka has revised his order, Yukimura continues to bring food that Maria likes and she seems to restore her good opinion of Yukimura. However, Maria doesn't mind insulting Yukimura if she were to make her do something she dislikes.
Kobato Hasegawa
Kobato is Maria's "arch-nemesis," and similarly to how Sena and Yozora's "friendship" functions, Kobato often tries to insult and verbally abuse Maria and vice-versa. This stems from Kobato's dislike of Maria's clingy attitude towards Kodaka, but Maria does not appear to understand this reason and simply thinks that Kobato is a vampire and enemy of the Church. Despite age difference (Kobato's 3 years older), their mental age seems to be same and Kobato can be considered the only member of Neighbor's club that is similar to Maria and can understand her to some extent.
At one point, when the whole club went to watch Kobato's play at her school, Maria became upset and jealous at Kobato, not knowing that the latter is actually very popular, not only with her classmates, but also with the whole school. But later, when Kobato arrived at the club-room, Maria went back to her happy-playful self and proceeded to lunge at the latter (which is her way of expressing her love to others), much to Kobato's annoyance.
As the series progresses, although both parties still engage in verbal battles, it becomes apparent that both are becoming more and more friendly towards each other.
Kate Takayama
For Maria, Kate is an annoying adult and she treats her respectively, childishly insulting her and thinking that she is old. In this sense, she treats her worse than Kodaka or Kobato (giving Kobato a real pendant as birthday present, while giving Kate a cicada's shell). Their interaction in the series was brief but it can be inferred that, though Maria doesn't realize this, they are quite close. It seems that Maria relies on Kate when it comes to everything besides studying, as she calls her "my big boss" and "scary hag" telling that she is the one who forces her to work and etc. This becomes apparent when Maria comically runs away from home to Kodaka, as Kate seemingly made her sick, while being delivered to Kodaka's home by Kate herself.
Kate is the one who controls Maria actions and is responsible for her upbringing. Kate in a sense is a motherly figure for Maria.