Review of The Ancient Magus' Bride

It is really hard to pinpoint why I liked this series. From the synopsis, I was intrigued by the unusual romance, but for the whole run of the story I found quite disturbing the fact that Chise was literally bought and that Elias was her mentor. Then we have the excruciatingly slow pace, which generally I don't mind, but it has to lead somewhere: here, for the most part, episodic stories seemed to go nowhere (I am not talking about the main arch, but in the episode itself) and to be totally unrelated one to the other except for the fact that they build anincredible world. On the top of this, I feel like I missed some passages to understand the logic of the story, but to be fair this is down to me not paying enough attention, and maybe something was lost in translation.
Still, I felt compelled to keep on watching, and it was not for the cheap cliffhangers.
I suppose what I ended up loving most is the overall kindness which permeates this world, the soft spoken characters, the lacking of regular antagonists and yes, the tender relationship between the two MCs. Not to mention the gorgeous art, both for the natural landscapes and the views of London (being familiar with this city myself, it was fun to see how accurate this aspect was), and the extensive representation of Anglo-Saxon folklore.
Many of the above features reminded me of Miyazaki's works, adding to these the amazing food scenes!
The whole cast was excellent, and I particularly liked Elias: both animators and voice actor did such a great job at conveying the emotions of this almost unreadable character, with the utmost subtlety. Even a minor character like Silky, without speaking any lines, is given incredible depth with a 5 minute flashback: this is great character writing.
I am satisfied with the finale, but I'd be happy should a second season be produced.