Not the least bit surprised at this point. The story's been trending for a while now towards a Maria endgame for Mei, and in retrospect and re-reading the manga recently, I do think that there was nearly always a bit more depth given in Mei's scenes with Maria over the course of the series compared to the rest of the harem. Not super deep, mind you, but certainly more nuance and dimension to their relationship beyond the baseline "Student x Teacher" archetype or Maria's sensory theme in relation to the rest of the other girls.
Early on, Maria is notably confident that she can just "go get Mei and make her her gf" anytime she wants to without any struggle, only to quickly realize that she's got a LOT of competition and from there, Maria seems to be struggling between her personal desire to pursue a relationship with Mei versus attempting to hold onto whatever tiny semblance of 'professionalism' she has left in not violating teacher-student protocols.
For example, Maria treats Mei to a dinner date as a reward for helping her with reviewing papers at a fancy hotel and spends the entire time teasing and flirting with her... only for Maria's last bout of teasing in their shared hotel room to backfire magnificently on her and spend the rest of the night having trouble getting any sleep because suddenly she wound up being the one fantasizing over Mei and running her memory of the sincere compliments that Mei gave her on repeat all night long.
Obviously that doesn't mean the two of them are written as a particularly deep or heavily developed romantic couple, but again, in hindsight, Maria did always have a bit more going on narratively with Mei during her appearances and episodes across the series than the rest of the harem.
last edited at Oct 7, 2026 10:46AM
.jpg?1777608780)
.jpg?1670681643)