Review of The Ancient Magus' Bride

Based on the premise and quality of the art and animation, I really wanted to like this show. But even in just the prequel OVAs, there were some warning flags I really should have paid attention to, because they forecasted the subtext of the rest of the series pretty well. In the fewest words possible, Ancient Magus' Bride is a quintessential girls' escapist fantasy. In a sense, it's a bit like Sword Art Online in that it knows its target audience very well, and feeds them exactly what they want to see. In the case of Ancient Magus' Bride, this generally revolves around "a unique powerthat makes you misunderstood and miserable", "a male benefactor who accepts and loves you for who you are", and "sacrificing your health, happiness, and well-being for the greater good makes people love and admire you".

I had a very difficult time just watching this show and accepting it for what it is, getting way too stuck on the tropes to enjoy the story it was trying to tell or the characters it was trying to develop. Whenever I was able to look past the patterns and just enjoy it for what it is, it was a perfectly okay time with hard-to-follow, magically-themed stories of some intensity, charming-if-cliche characters in Chise and Elias as they experience this weird quasi-marital relationship, and generally beautiful art.