Review of The Ancient Magus' Bride

I'll just divide my review in segments: Story: Honestly story is ranging from quite good to amazing, however i must admit that first 5-6 episodes can feel bit slow and you can feel like story is standing still. Also fair warning- opening minutes and frankly what starts the show is... well, weird to say the least. Most of it is mainly self-contained in episodes (although there are cliffhanger episodes), yet also giving you continous story as plenty of stuff from earlier episodes is coming to play later on. It is definetly slow burn though storywise, as it takes its time setting up, which isnt nessessarily a bad thingas story does feel like its crafted with care and not rushed in any way. Overall tone is mix between warm, serious and sometimes comedic. Definetly interesting to watch.
And despite the slow burn, it still should entertain you enough so that you wont put it down, but slowly get immersed. You also get plenty of interesting stories from outside the main cast.
Still, i have to deduct points for slow start and very weird event that sets this show in motion. Plus it does dump a lot of info at you on start which is part of why it takes long to set up.

Characters:
i know, i know, its huge part of story, but i just had to put it in different segment. Character development is simply outstanding for main cast. While it would be bit spoilerish to tell how characters change, it does feel natural and is great to watch. It also has colorful cast, ranging from magical beings to dragons to alchemists and mages and normal people too. Voice acting cast is also well chosen.
Aside from main duo (Elias and Chise), my favourite characters were Silver lady (house keeper fey (magical being) and Lindel (Sami mage).

Art & sound:
What can i say- it looks really pretty with animation being great for lot of time (although there are few bad spots). It also has a lot of really pretty scenes in it, like flower field. Definetly very pretty anime in terms of sheer artwork.
And music... oh my- the soundtrack is great! Although 2nd opening was worse, it still isnt bad by any means, plus in-series sound is great. Has few good music pieces in it, with Lindel's song being probably most memorable one.

Verdict: Definetly worth watching, 9/10