Finally caught my Maya/Josy save up to the end of Ep7 and I think I know why I personally am kinda “meh” on Maya but warming up to Josy. I don’t dislike or “meh” the character im just kinda ambivalent about the MC/Maya dynamic.
It’s the little things... all the other girls have lots of these little meaningful moments. Tiny things that bond them to the MC and flesh out and define the relationship between the MC and the LI. As in the MC is characterised, the LI is too... but the relationship is in a lot of ways as well. You know when you go on those wiki’s dedicated to some tv show or whatever and it has a “relationships” tab and it’s just a long list of interactions that define two characters relationship over time? Really common on anime wikis. That’s what I’m talking about, Maya’s one of those would be shorter than the other LI.
It’s hard to explain without just listing examples and I’ll focus on Josy to save being here all week.
Josy keeping his jumper, her mentioning she’s on birth control now and the wry smile when MC says she’s “with” him to assure her nobody would think she’s a slut for being caught with him. When you walk in on Josy having filled Sage in on her history with the MC over summer... when you get caught at her house and have to jump out the window, her kicking Tommy in the balls for sucker punching MC. Josy’s relationship with the MC (and all the other LI) have defining moments that exist purely to demonstrate their relationship.
So much of Maya’s stuff is piggybacking on other plot elements. She gets no room to breath. Theres little to no pure “Maya and MC” Moments after perhaps the first two episodes. So much of their sex was in pursuit of this fucking scavenger hunt and/or with Josy. Their first proper hook up was a plot element to get the MC tasered and to the cumpetition. Her date in Ep7 was built around talking about Lynette. Losing her “virginity” was reduced to a drunken frat house sex scene with no fan fare. That date shared with Josy where fuck all happens just, what? Writing on her arm?
The route isn’t devoid of this kinda intimacy it’s just short on stuff like the kiss in the library or her trying to understand why she likes him and commenting on him being like a girl. The interaction where she quizzes you on what you said in Ep1 and says she’s likes you (even that is dubious, everyone else is more show don’t tell but whatever, I’ll count it.)
I am personally kinda “meh” on Maya because she’s too closely tied to the plot and it draws so much focus from her. We need more Maya just being Maya. Not Maya being a vehicle for plot elements.