Review of The Ancient Magus' Bride

When the Fall 2017 anime season first started, I was on the fence about picking up Mahoutsukai no Yome. It seemed like it'd be a show with wonderful animation, compelling character development, and a genuine sense of adventure, none of which appeal to me in any way. However, with the severe lack of interesting anime in this season, I ended up picking this one up because I was bored and thought "Hell, why not?" This was easily the best decision I made all year. Mahoutsukai no Yome starts out slow, but once you get past the first few episodes, you find yourself completely immersed in itsextremely shallow world, bland characters that never develop, and steadily declining animation quality! Don't even get me started on the hilarious comedic relief that often directly clashes with the tone and trivializes serious issues to the point that you can't take them seriously. I was in stitches every time the characters went all chibi so they could deliver more side-splitting, witty jokes in a way that completely broke immersion for no reason.

This show is a godsend for people like me that like consistency and stability in their anime, since there isn't a single character that develops in any meaningful way. Speaking of characters, Chise is easily the best one in this show. Her role of "perpetual damsel in distress that constantly stumbles into danger and needs to be rescued and never actually does anything herself" is awesome. I never got tired of seeing some mysterious entity pop up and abduct or otherwise threaten Chise. It served as a great way of introducing a random character that would immediately be dropped afterward while also making the audience think that something with actual consequences might happen.

I think my favorite parts of the show were the bits where Chise would be captured by some evil guy at the very end of the episode, but then the situation would immediately be resolved within 5 minutes of the next episode starting with nothing serious happening whatsoever. They're the best because they basically summed up the whole show. I also liked how sometimes they would include a part where Chise gives some speech to the bad guy of the episode or the writers decide she has a cool power that counters them to make it seem like she has some sort of agency when she actually doesn't. It's quite nice how, despite her latent magical prowess being talked up throughout the entire show, she never actually gains any sort of consistent mastery over magic. Her magic powers always manifest as gigantic random asspulls that defeat her enemies when she gets mad.

The animation in Mahoutsukai no Yome is wonderful. In the first few episodes, it was a bit too smooth and detailed, leaving something to be desired, but by the end of the first cour, it developed into the endearingly stilted, slow-paced snoozefest that we all came to love. It's no wonder the production value is one of the most highly praised aspects of this show! Wit Studio has absolutely knocked it out of the park with Mahoutsukai no Yome and it stands tall next to their other smash hits like Owari no Seraph and Kabaneri in the animation department. It's not quite on the same level as Owari no Seraph though, since there isn't much that can top the "it literally looks like the characters are sliding around on gigantic paintings that don't mesh even remotely well with the characters" style it had.

There are other things worth going into more detail on in Mahoutsukai no Yome, like the delightfully disjointed episodic storytelling that seemed to meander around aimlessly for 75% of its run time without adding anything to the overarching plot or character development. There's also the awe-inspiring, forced musical scenes like the embarrassing asspull phoenix scene in episode 12 where they try to make Chise's latent power seem interesting but actually they just wanted to try to sell more copies of the OP single. However, I think I've already made my case at this point, so there's no need to continue. Mahoutsukai no Yome is the best anime of 2017 and you're flat out wrong if you disagree. The only reason I wouldn't declare it to be anime of the decade at this point is because Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is on the horizon and it's looking to be the main contender for that title.