Review of The Ancient Magus' Bride

Mahoutsukai no Yome a flawed diamond. Before I begin let me just say I will be comparing it to the manga quite a bit, but I will also address some problems I've read that people have with the show. Some which are trivial and pointless and a are actually critique. I will also try to avoid spoilers as much as possible in case anyone wants to read this before watching it. The relationship between the two main characters. The most unique detail about this series is the relationship between Chise and Elias. Chise a fragile 16 year old girl whose traumatized by the abandonment of family andsociety meets Elias a mage of unknown origin who seeks to understand humans and emotions. Their relationship is sweet and endearing while also being toxic and cancerous. A lot of people will dilute their relationship to Stockholm syndrome, but anyone who glances at the show more than a few seconds can realize its much more than that. Their relationship is both simple and complex. Chise is weak willed and has little desire to live, but as she grows as a mage she also grows as a person. Elias desire to understand humans and emotions is obsessive and twisted like his love for Chise, but slowly he realizes changes need to be made for a future with Chise. Their relationship is questioned by many people. What are they? Are they man and woman, student and teacher, master and apprentice, husband and wife, or a mother and son?

Damsel in Distress and Morals

Throughout the show Chise goes from a fragile girl into a competent apprentice, but most people would have you believe that Chise gets into trouble every episode or is at fault. While I must admit that she does get into predicaments frequently it's not completely her fault in every scenario. While she is partially to blame sometimes its also her environment. Surrounded by mages and spirits whose definition of safe is questionable and whose morality is as gray as a polluted sky. While the characters are kinder they aren't necessarily better for her. All the characters have their owns agendas and back stories which intermingle occasionally. The show handles Chise's acceptance of life and willing to live very nicely. While she is slowly changing people rag on Elias for constantly not protecting her. Several things need to be said about this. First of all while Elias is a talented mage this is his first time ever having an apprentice and one of the few interactions he has had with humans. So he literally has no clue what he is doing and trying his best. It would be like me just handing you a baby and saying raise it and try not fuck up. Also the baby is magic and just happens to attract all kinds of weird shit that wants to kill it. Also he is a powerful mage and what he considers dangerous isn’t the same, but he still tries to set limits and protect her. Though the show does show how immoral and twisted their relationship is with how far he is willing to go to protect her. While disturbing its also sweet and it just adds another layer into their chemistry and helps show the growth each of them make, but also shows they still have a lot of progress to make. The growth made is methodically slow, but it gradually happens even with setbacks. The setbacks being realistic since they are both essentially experiencing new concepts for the first time, but especially Chise whom has experienced trauma. Complaining about a depressed and socially abandoned person not getting their life back on track and making mistakes is like complaining how a person in a severe car accident can't recover fast enough and get out the hospital. It take time and many cases of trial and error.

The Main Antagonist

The Ancient Magus Bride's world is being built ever so slowly. Every panel in the manga had a point or provided us with something to expand the world or a character. The main antagonist has had several lines and scenes omitted from the show which is detrimental to his character. Without these scenes we don't see how fractured and broken he really is. Also his behaviors and goals might be lost on some viewers. It makes the later episodes feel like a quickened attempt at a sob story and one of redemption. Omission of details and lines is really the biggest problem with the antagonist.

Pacing and World Building

The interactions between Elias and Chise are good, but the world has many supporting characters. The supporting characters in Mahoutsukai no yome provide Chise a new outlet on life and give her a reason to appreciate life while helping build up the world, but ultimately we never really see them too often. Though I believe that to be due to the age of the series. Despite the anime having about 45 chapters of material to work with its still really young. The manga is still laying down the foundation and building up the world. The series has introduced many concepts such as magic, gods, spirits, alchemy, college, and more, but rarely dives into detail in any of them. In the anime the detail is almost non existent making some viewers wonder what Elise is actually teaching her if anything. The manga shows us that Chise is great at magic, but not the spells you see like in the Harry Potter films. She excels in sleeping potions, magical elixirs, potions, and etc. Chise is more of a herbal mage, but the anime glosses over this. Back to the supporting characters. All of these encounters are more like starting points to show where Chise and Elias can explore later, but for now they are still taking it slow. The way they paced the episodes also affects the characters. The first half of the show is slow , but it was perfect minus the cliffhangers. You have Chise and Elias slowly learning and growing one second, but then shit hits the fan and Chise is now fighting for her life. Ending episodes with Chise in mortal danger really undermines her character and makes her appear like a damsel in distress. The second half is extremely fast paced at the cost of omitting many details which explain the world. Sure it is possible to get by with some of these details, but some are actually important and explain things to the viewer. While the manga keeps a very slow pace it’s also steady and consistent. You can absorb the information and scenes which gives them more impact. The anime on and off speeds means some scenes while dramatic lose impact and aren’t as memorable or important. The manga being more steady rarely does this and the chapters usually have clean resolutions.

Visuals and OST

The visuals are pretty nice most of the time, but falter occasionally. However they failed to really capture the magical atmosphere and fantasy of the world. Yes the animation is good and the visuals are beautiful, but the magic looks no different than the rest of the world most of the time. Some scenes they did a phenomenal job with, but most of the time it doesn't feel like they captured the world properly. The OST is fair as well. I'm not really qualified to judge anything especially music, but I find it decent. Also since I'm talking about visuals and music let me just say visually the Ops and Eds are really disappointing and basically just scenes of the show put to music. The song for OP1 is amazing, but the rest are disappointing.

Overall Opinion

Now I’m not saying Mahoutsukai no Yome is a masterpiece just yet, but I believe firmly that it has the capacity to be one in the future in terms of the manga. The anime is no where close to being a masterpiece due to several problems. The anime while being mostly accurate suffers from omission of small details that help explain things, pacing issues affecting emotional scene experiences and creating cliffhanger syndrome, and lack of an overall plot. The lack of a clear overall plot, supporting characters doing little supporting, and hollow world building all stem from the same problem: The age of the series. Each one of these aspects is at the fault of the source material being so young. There is no overall plot yet because the world is still being developed. The world is hollow because it’s still building itself up despite us seeing so much of it. The supporting characters aren’t seen much because they will be the key to building up the world so they simply haven’t had their time to go back and revisit them. The source material is amazing, but as of now it feels like the story has just begun despite it being 24 episodes or 45ish chapters. It feels like we just finished Book 1 of the Harry Potter series and got 6 more books to go which is why the anime at the moment while great is still plagued by little problems which won’t be fixed for a long time. The quickened pacing of the second half rushed through chapters to the point where its caught up with the manga despite their being 2-3 earlier good points to stop the show at which would have helped. The manga is produced monthly and it took years to get the material out so a Season 2 if it happens won't be for a while. Now for an introduction to a show I say the anime did a phenomenal job, but not perfect. However if the ending they gave us is anime original and the conclusion then it will be disappointing. If they were going to conclude without a season 2 I wish the anime tweaked a few things since it feels pointless to mention so many things if you weren't going to visit them later. It's like riding a train and seeing the sights, but never stopping to actually see them.

Score : 8/10 but technically I would give it a 8.4/10. A decent 8, but not quite a 9. However if this is the end of series....than I still would give it an 8 or a 7.7 or 7.8. Basically its stuck at an 8.

I also want to add as a manga reader that the anime is decent on its own, but strongly feel the manga is much better. Now if you don't like the characters or their relationship, the atmosphere, the growth of the characters, or any of the core aspects the manga most likely won't dramatically increase your fondness of the series. The biggest strength of the manga is the details and the steady journey.