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「Talk of the Devil, and He is Sure to Appear」
I can say this about Mahoutsukai no Yome so far – it’s delivering on every level. I was expecting it to be a leading contender for the best series of the fall, and it’s pacing the field right now. I was expecting Wit to deliver gorgeous backgrounds and fluid animation, and they’ve done it. And every episode has been a near letter-faithful adaptation of the corresponding manga chapters, with only very minor changes made for the sake of narrative fluidity. If anything the anime is an even more engrossing experience than the manga, but with this studio and staff on-board that’s no surprise either.
While I have a few niggles with the writing of the manga, on balance I think The Ancient Magus’ Bride is an excellent series that has an undeniable quality of “specialness” to it. And one of my favorite aspects of Yamazaki-sensei’s work here is that she takes her time setting things up – characters arcs progress at a natural pace, and events never seem to be rushed to a conclusion. That’s especially welcome in the era of the light novel, when even many manga rush through development in order to appeal to an audience bereft of attention spans. I have heard complaints that Chise is too passive, too helpless – but given her background, how could anyone expect this girl to overcome her issues and change overnight?
This part of the story is largely concerned with Chise’s education, largely an experiential one. But Elias is teaching her along with life, albeit slowly – at this point she’s helping out in the apothecary side of the business, but her sense of proportion could still use a little work. Her first prescriptions run a little potent (a potion to prevent nightmares turns into a sleeping potion), but before she has a chance to fine tune her skills Elias takes her out on another job – the third and theoretically final one he has to do for the Church.
Why does Elias have to do these jobs? “A long time ago, I made a mistake” he tells Chise cryptically. It’s hard to imagine anyone forcing Elias to do something he truly doesn’t wish to do, but we don’t know what consequences there might be for his refusal. This particular assignment is to investigate a black dog that’s been seen around a village church – a possible “church grim”. This – like almost every legend in Mahoutsukai – is a part of real-world folklore, again from the British Isles and Scandinavia. The church grim does not always have to be a black dog (the reason why it often is one is grim, indeed) but that’s the most common form the apparition takes.
By the time Elias and Chise arrive, a crowd has gathered around a mutilated dead body, horribly scratched and bitten. There’s company here, too – Alice is on-hand. And when Chise wanders into the graveyard to investigate, she sees malevolent spirits gathered by many gravestones – and an especially terrifying one accosts her. She’s saved by a young man named Ulysse (Uchiyama Kouki), who notes that she reminds him of his sister Isabelle before morphing into a black dog, then passing out from what appear to be grave wounds.
The other part of this story is Joseph (Murase Ayumu) who’s blackmailed Renfred (whose arm he’s taken) and Alice into providing him materials – materials he needs to produce chimera (Joseph is not doing the reputation of sorcerers any good). Alice describes him as a kid – which is how we’ve seen him of course – but says that his form appears to be strangely “overlapping”. Alice sees the dog as potential material to offer up to Joseph, but Chise won’t have that – and she (rather proactively) uses her accidental sleeping potion to help Alice take an unplanned nap.
Give Joseph credit – he’s managed to do something no one else has been able to so far, and that’s push Elias into showing his true form. It’s probably just as well Chise was unconscious when that happened (though not that the reason was that she’d just been impaled by a giant thorny tentacle), because it certainly would have been traumatic seeing him that way. The only conscious being who doesn’t seem horrified is Joseph – whose visage is as infuriatingly scornful and mocking as ever. What happens when a sorcerer and a mage stare each other down with hostile intent? In a series that’s overfond of cliffhangers, we’ll have to wait until next week to find out.
Preview
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It’s really hard to put into words why this Anime is good, I’ve been struggling since Made in Abyss and that was great too. Perhaps it’s because Mahoutsukai no Yome doesn’t crush the audience with too many terminology and the rules of the series that make up the plot to the show Instead this Anime keeps the mystery going and allows the audience to descover at the same time Chise discovers.
I think “show, not tell” is the best way to describe it. Mahoutsukai right now is using the conventional storytelling approach, where setting, scenery, and character action/response are allowed to dictate the flow. Whereas a light novel or manga would verbally throw the explanations in our face with endless technobabble, Mahoutsukai lets its world speak for itself. We have received little on magic and the sorcerer/mage dichotomy for example, yet we know a lot just from watching the characters and how they interact.
Much like Made in Abyss, Mahoutsukai is as much about discovery as it is about plot, which (at least for me) makes it an absolute joy to watch. There’s good depth hiding in the shadows, but much like a swimming pool it lets you explore its reaches at your own pace.
I’m with you on this, but I wouldn’t necessarily lump manga and light novels together in terms of exposition. Avoiding the kind of clumsy technobabble and wordy explanations you describe is more common in manga than LNs, IMHO.
OMG Chise and finally Elias’ true form!
I completely understand the complaint regarding Chise being too passive. I felt that her resistance to Alice in this episode shows that she has a lot more backbone than she’s been in a situation to show off so far. I expect she’ll grow into a position of greater strength and knowledge in time.
Everything in this world is new to her. It’s as if she was reborn into a brand new life. There are new rules, types of beings, layers of life. I’m glad she is taking care in exploring and acting in it.
I’m glad we don’t have the opposite trope: the brash, demanding, insensitive type who runs off on his or her own heedless and disrespectful of their new situation.
Well said.
And the rest of fairies think Elias has no human emotions or capacity for understanding them? BS! He clearly cares for Chise and now we have a magnificent example of a good old human emotion: RAGE. The only question is what is going to be left of Josepph when Elias is done butchering him.
From the Preview pictures of the anime, he had an mantis behind his back and on the other some sort of undead version
So perhaps Joseph somehow base is Undead Mage. That could also explain his eternal youth
I love the duality given to this world. Most of the events are dark, but that doesn’t stop most of the fairies and other “unseen neighbors” from being cute as all hell. Usually if the world is darker then the fantasy elements tend to be uglier in general, but there’s a nice divide here. The woolly bugs are my personal favorites because they’re so absurd, especially after one was too concerned about Chise last episode to not even back down from Titania and Oberon. The mandrake got a lot of points this episode, though, after that whole “helpful scaredy-cat” scene with offering the petal. Even the “black dog” has a certain unkempt charm to it.
Just cause things are serious doesn’t mean they have to be ugly. 🙂
Geez, Elias is the worst fiancé ever. Episode after episode, he’s been constantly leaving Chise in danger of being attacked by others, and she does. How about looking after your wife a bit more, man?
Emotions. He need to learn what is emotions? in a way he is Cmdr. Data, that want to be Human, with emotions and such…
I think with his reaction, he is about to learn the strongest one.. Rage.. Rage because his “lover” got killed or badly hurt
That big black insect spirit in the graveyard was creepy as hell.
Ep 08:
The Sleeping Black Horse have awaken!!.. You should watch it, its good.. full of tension, “power ups!” and pacts are made.. Watch it
or to add some spice here…
What can happen if the strongest mana Battery on two Legs gets on Overdrive mode?…