What a beautiful piece of writing~
Have you ever wondered if there's a divine deity watching us?
Have you ever wanted to escape your repetitive everyday life?
Have you thought for a moment that you could change fate/destiny?

Basic Story Outline: A story revolving around Kazuki Hoshino, a student who lives quite the delightful and repetitive everyday life. However on the 2nd of March, near the end of the class year, a beautiful and mysterious girl named Aya Otonashi is transferred for the 13,118th time in his class and when she introduces herself, she directly targets Hoshino, saying that she’ll break Hoshino. Confusing and pretty bizarre huh?

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria is certainly a complex, mysterious, dark, twisted, and surprisingly rather funny story about people's most basic values vs reality of the world. At first look, the story just seems like a mystery with some random murders/deaths here and there and some suspense. But oh my, is it so much more. The viewers are led to follow the characters in masterfully done multiple iterations of the same day and the struggles they have in each one. The grand suspense that's built up through small, detailed developments are brilliant. The feelings of every character: Loss of a "human" way to think even if our senses kick back just to take us back to reality. The mysterious aspect of this show is similar to that of Death Note (and if you haven't read/watched Death Note, then I don't know what you're doing with your life). The symbolic, and most important things in the manga though are the boxes. The wishes are supposedly "wish-granting genies" and depending on how strong your passion for that dream is, it'll come true. Now, this is obviously not just some easy, Aladdin 3-wish childish stuff. The boxes are a symbol of temptation and they are an escape of Kazuki Hoshino's repetitive everyday life.

Absolutely a marvelous story, but it'd be nothing without the magical characters. All the characters are absolutely genius, and no one will leave you annoyed; they'll leave you rather dumbfounded after each thought (especially Aya). The change in the characters throughout the novel is wondrous, especially Kazuki's perception of "life" itself. The art was average, could have used some better art, but nonetheless it was readable, and enjoyable. Honestly, the art needed a more dark premise approach to it... Oh and did I ask you yet...? Do you believe in God?

A fine masterpiece indeed. One of the more genius writings of literature. Definitely a novel that people should check out, if they can process some complex/confusing/deep stuff. Closest similarity to this novel would be Death Note. Check out both, they're both masterpieces.