BUT

Maria does NOT look old/sickly enough and she FOR SURE DOES NOT SOUND SICK ENOUGH. You cant just chuck some cough sound effects over that lady shes supposed to be SO DEATHLY ILL from her curse, yet pretending to be strong and okay - she just sounds WAY to healthy. LET SICK GIRLS HAVE THEIR MOMENT

SHe just looks & sounds kinda grumpy - which SHE IS. but like, go to town with that you know?

Feels like the anime was written BY idiots, and the original novel was written FOR idiots.... if that makes sense. But yeah, the per-episode animation budget was clearly about $10 they found down the back of a sofa, so they've done pretty dang good.