Manga / The Ancient Magus' Bride

The Ancient Magus' Bride (Mahou Tsukai no Yome) is a shonen manga by Kore Yamazaki that tells the story of fifteen-year old Japanese orphan Chise Hatori, a sleigh beggy who is bought as a slave by the enigmatic, inhuman British mage Elias Ainsworth. He announces that he will tutor her in the ways of magic... and then abruptly announces he's going to marry her.

The problem is that Elias has a Dark and Troubled Past and an inhuman sense of morality, while Chise herself is practically a magnet for terrible luck, so supernatural horrors quickly start bearing down upon the two of them. Between doing odd jobs for the local church, fighting off curious demons, and trying to find a way to keep Chise's power from overflowing and killing her, the two of them end up getting into far more trouble than they manage to get out of.

The manga began serialization in Monthly Comic Blade in 2013, moving to Monthly Comic Garden in 2014 and later Bushiroad's Comic Growl in 2023. Seven Seas Entertainment (A Certain Scientific Railgun, Gunslinger Girl) began releasing the official English translation in May 2015.

A anime adaptation began airing in October of 2017. Funimation's Simuldub of the anime series premiered on October 30th, 2017. Watch it here.

Spin-Off media includes:

• The Ancient Magus' Bride: Those Awaiting a Star (2016-2017): A 3-part Prequel-OVA written by Kore Yamazaki herself and animated by WIT Studio released as extras for the 6th, 7th and 8th manga volumes.
• Light Novels containing a collection of short stories:
  • The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Golden Yarn (JP:2017, EN:2018)
  • The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Silver Yarn (JP:2017, EN:2019)
• MahoYome (2017-2018): A series of humorous animated shorts.
• The Ancient Magus Bride Jack Flash And The Faerie Case Files (2019-): A series that follows the faerie-born Jack Flash and her human-born brother, Larry as they run a detective agency in New York City.
• The Ancient Magus Bride Wizards Blue (2019-): A series set in Paris about an orphan called Ao who dreams of becoming a painter who is taken under the wing of a mage, Giselle.

See also The Girl from the Other Side which is also about a girl and an animal-skull headed mystical being.

Its Japanese name is not to be confused with Mahou Tsukai No Yoru.

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Tropes appearing in The Ancient Magus' Bride include:

• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Chapter 24 focuses on Silky, and reveals how she came to work in Elias' home.
  • Chapter 73 follows Marielle and Isaac as they try to find The Testament of Carnamagos.
• Adjective Animal Alehouse: Chise and Angelica visit one called The Horse and Hound.
• Affably Evil: Even though they're only the intermediaries for it, the auctioneers are still involved in a really sordid business, which includes the sale of human slaves and sapient magical creatures. Among them, Seth still behaves in a very friendly manner with Chise. When she decides to sell herself into slavery, he asks her whether she really wants to do this as opposed to gleefully jumping on the occasion. Later on, once he gets the occasion to, he even gives Chise her half of the money she earned by selling herself.
• Affectionate Nickname: The Fae tend to refer to Chise as "Robin", while Elias refers to her as "Puppy".
• Afterlife Antechamber: Nevin, the dragon whose branch is used to make Chise's staff, connects with Chise and explains that the boundary exists to allow for meetings between the living and the dead.
• Alchemy Is Magic: Alchemist is used in the official release instead of wizard.
• All of the Other Reindeer:
  • Chise's dad ran away and her mother committed suicide because they no longer could deal with the supernatural creatures attracted by Chise's power. She spent her childhood lonely and unwanted, sent from a foster home to another until she thought of commiting suicide. When Seth suggested she sold herself in slavery, she agreed because she was desperated to find someone who wanted her. After she goes to live with Elias, however, Chise makes tons of friends.
  • Elias fits the trope, too, because he's shunned by both the fairies and mages, with a few exceptions, like Queen Titania. Apparently, he did something terrible in his past that he can't remember or doesn't want to talk about. In the college arc, things improve a little, since he's became one of its teachers, so he'd be allowed to stay around Chise and has to become more social. One of the teachers even wants to make friends with him.
• Angry Collar Grab:
  • Renfred towards Elias in Chapter 34. It starts to happen rather often during the College Arc:
  • Occurs twice in Chapter 74. First Rían grabs Philomela's collar when he feels she purposely lost the game they were playing, angry she wasn't giving her all. Soon after Isaac grabs Rían's, accusing him of being an insensitive jerk who doesn't understand what Philomela is going through.
• Animorphism:
  • Marielle can turn into a bull for brief moments of time. This allows Chise to catch up to Cartaphilus when he was running away.
  • Turns out all witches have this power, though they are limited to just one animal, which they don't get to change.
• Arc Welding: The three-episode Those Awaiting A Star OVA—or rather, the framing around its events—is shown to occur during a timeskip montage in Episode 13.
• Artificial Hybrid: Alchemists' experiments often lead them to become this, which leaves them unable to live among normal people.
• Asian Fox Spirit: The auditor from the Church uses one.
• Asian Speekee Engrish: Averted. Chise is Japanese and has only been learning English for a few months at most (she is specifically said to be conversant but not yet fluent, and carries a Japanese-to-English dictionary with her in case of difficulty), but her English is never implied to be anything less than grammatically and phonetically correct (though most likely with a strong accent).
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: The Ariels, Fire Sprites and Vodyanois fit this trope.
• Beast and Beauty: Chise and Elias, especially when Elias goes berserk.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In the middle of an argument, Stella said that she didn't need a brother who didn't listen and Ethan didn't wish for a sister like her. Ashen Eye heard them and proceeded to kidnap Ethan while also using magic that caused almost everyone to forget he existed. Once they are reunited, it warns them that they should always be careful because you never know who is listening.
• Bedsheet Ghost: Some of the College's elementary school kids disguise themselves as ghosts during Halloween. Alice even gets one of them to let her borrow his disguise.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Chise is, for the most part, unfailingly kind and polite, but she will go to great lengths to protect even those she barely knows, and when push comes to shove, she has shown herself to be surprisingly clever and resourceful.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • When Ruth becomes Chise's familiar, he becomes very protective of her and loyally stays by her side whenever she goes out, whether it's for errands or on a trip to the world of fae.
  • Seth also has his moments of this towards his little sister, Lucy.
• Bigger on the Inside: The first time she enters Renfred's home, Alice notices how bigger it is inside compared to how it looked outside.
• Blessed with Suck/Cursed with Awesome: One of the larger themes of the series is that a supernatural ability can be seen as both a blessing and a curse depending on your perspective.
  • Most mages and alchemists are jealous of the raw magical power sleigh beggys can command and their ability to attract fae. Chise, being a Sleigh Beggy herself, considers it a curse since being able to see fae tormented her as a child, not to mention that Sleigh Beggys always die young, either through being unable to handle the magical power that builds up in their bodies, or through ruthless experimentation and exploitation, or just by being harassed by dangerous fae.
  • Many alchemists would love nothing more than to unlock the secrets of immortality or at the very least extend their lifespans. Mages, however, are a bit more ambivalent on the matter since their long lives usually result in them becoming increasingly alienated from humans. Cartaphilus meanwhile is looking for ways to remove his immortality, or at the very least remove the ability to feel pain due to how his impossibly long life has tormented him.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: As expected from a series with so many characters belonging to the The Fair Folk, a lot of people in the setting fall under this, with Elias as the most noticeable among them. Notably, despite being reckless and occasionally almost suicidal in her attempts to help others and how overall accepting she is of others' problems on a dime, Chise isn't this, which confounds Elias to no small degree in his attempts to understand humans.
• Blue Blood: Among the alchemists, the Seven Shields would be the equivalent. They are the seven great houses which founded the College after the great war.
• Boarding School: The College, which even serves as a permanent home for the students that have no home to return to.
• Body Horror:
  • Minor. Angelica has crystal fragments embedded in both forearms because early in her career she miscalculated while crafting an item and it exploded. She uses this example to show Chise how dangerous the irresponsible use of magic can be.
  • Centuries in the past, Mina melted when given a medicine made from the extract of cat lives.
  • Chise's arm lengthens and swells when she manages to Mana Drain a rampaging dragon. Even with help and after the curse is suppressed, it still never looks quite normal.
  • Phyllis is bound to a tree due to a curse she tried to cure it of. The roots are attached to her legs.
  • Joseph's entire existence is constant Body Horror. His body parts are constantly rotting and he says that he can feel the insects crawling inside his own dead flesh. When they rot away completely, they turn into a nasty-looking purple sludge.
  • Ashley (originally Alex) from the Defender and Ash short story has a horrible burn on half of her face, her hair whited, and crystals covering her body beneath her cloak after a few years of trying to learn magic on her own.
• Body of Bodies: The Chimera that Cartaphilus made using Isabel's head.
• Born Lucky: Elias believes Chise was lucky to be born with such gifts, but she feels that she was Born Unlucky.
• Breath Weapon:
  • Ruth is capable of breathing out fire.
  • A dragon whelp devolves into a a huge dragon and regains this ability.
• Caged Bird Metaphor: More like a flightless bird metaphor, but the principle is similar enough. Violet compares alchemist children to birds, many of which are never taught to fly and are instead stripped of their wings and weighted down by rocks. He claims only the lucky or privileged enough, like Rían, would be able to escape such an environment.
• Canine Companion: Ruth, to Chise.
• Cast From Life Span: Sleigh Beggys have tremendous magical potential, at the cost of shortened lifespans.
• Casting a Shadow: Manipulating shadows is how a lot of Elias's magic works.
• Cats Are Magic:
  • All cats learn how to talk the more lives they go through.
  • There are also Cat Sidhe, some of whom serve as the guardian beasts of the College.
• Cats Are Mean: Only if you're a wizard/alchemist in Ulthar. They see them as deceptive power-mongers. This makes a lot more sense after what happened to Matthew and Mina.
• Charm Person: Marielle has an aura about her that makes her be seen in a motherly light, likely playing into this.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Tome of Eldritch Lore Elias reads in Chapter 39, The Testament of Carnamagos, ends up being very relevant when it is stolen, and its power used to attack the College's students and staff.
• Childhood Friend: Most of Chise's classmates have known each other since they were kids.
• Children Are Special: Elias explains that his dislike of interacting with young children stems from the fact that their innocence and brutal honesty tends to allow them to see through his glamours, meaning he can't disguise himself as a human around them.
• Cold Iron: Fae are vulnerable to iron (which is part of their mythology). Threading a glove with it is enough to restrain an Ariel easily.
• Combat Pragmatist: Renfred, who only accosts Chise once she's separated from Elias, and later on waits until Cartaphilus is distracted before shooting him in the head.
• Cooldown Hug: Chise gave one to Elias early on, in order to stop his rampage at the cemetery, where just a few moments ago Cartaphilus had injured her. Much later, she gives one to Cartaphilus himself, in order to get him to stand down.
• Cool Big Bro: Ruth acts like this to Chise.
• The Corruption: Impurity, stagnation from a soul that cannot be purified, will attempt to devour life without care for species. It manifests itself as a black shifting mass.
• Costume Porn:
  • The Chapter 2 title page shows Chise in an extravagant mage outfit.
  • Silky always wears an elaborately trimmed Victorian dress complete with bonnet.
• Cry into Chest:
  • In Chapter 35, Elias lets Chise cry into his chest as she is getting overwhelmed by the rampaging dragon's emotions.
  • In Chapter 41, Chise started to cry against Joseph's chest after he finished the eye swap. He allowed this and even tried to comfort her.
• Cultural Translation:
  • In the English adaptation, Chise is referred to as a "sleigh beggy" instead of a "surei bega". This in itself is a slight Cultural Translation, as it's the English spelling of the Manx Gaelic term "sleih beggey", a type of fairy.
  • "Magi" are instead called "Mages", and "Wizards" are called "Alchemists" to further illustrate the difference in their approaches to magic (since in the western world, "sorcerer", "magus", and "wizard" are synonyms for magic users, while "alchemists" are something entirely different, as "magi" and "wizards" are here).
• Curse:
  • Chise falls under a dragon's curse by drawing in its power in an attempt to save it. The cost of doing so is that the power flowed into her and since a human body can't handle it, she only has a short time to live.
  • Witches deal in curses, though only when it comes to countering them, at least when it comes to Marielle's coven.
• Damsel in Distress:
  • Stella. The poor girl ends up being kidnapped or hassled by something every few arcs.
  • Lucy starts falling into this a lot, as the people that killed her family are looking to finish the job.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Chise. Her father left with her little brother, her mother committed suicide, no relatives would take her in, she contemplated killing herself, and then allowed herself to be sold into slavery just so she wouldn't have to worry about anything. Yeesh.
  • Elias did something so terrible that, according to Spriggan, countless humans and spirits were lost. This may or may not have involved him eating quite a number of people.
  • Alice's father got her hooked to drugs to turn her into a dealer and user, leaving her a homeless junkie until Renfred took her in.
  • Most of Lucy's family was killed when she was a kid. She found their corpses in a dark room, where there was blood and body parts everywhere. Their killers were standing near them, but they let her live. However, they also stole their magic spiders, which were the pride of the family.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Elias's powers are based on shadow manipulation and he's incapable of wielding purification magic, and he's also very capable of being threatening and intimidating people. Despite his powers' nature, he is not such a bad guy. Most of the time anyway.
  • Witches, in stark contrast to their popular portrayal, are in fact very benevolent, with many of them outlawing the creation and use of curses and instead focusing on finding ways to cure and remove them.
• Daughter Of A Whore: Mariel has the blood of temple prostitutes and is quite knowledgeable about tantric arts.
• Death Faked for You: Chapter 32 reveals that the Superhuman Trafficking market faked Chise's death in order to avoid any investigations into her whereabouts, though considering her family, it was probably unnecessary.
• Death Glare:
  • Angelica gives Elias one when he says he bought Chise.
  • Ruth has done this both as a human and as a dog, both times when threatening someone not to harm Chise.
• Deep Sleep: Chise usually falls in one of these after using too much magic, and then wakes up elsewhere.
• Destructive Romance: Ultimately Subverted. This could easily have been the case for Elias and Chise's relationship at first, given Elias possessive behavior and Chise's lack of self-esteem and dependence on Elias. Fortunately, numerous characters call out how unhealthy their initial relationship would be in the long term, and Chise herself starts becoming more assertive over time, leading to necessary changes in their relationship. However, it takes Elias attempting to do something despicable for Chise to call him out on his behavior, which does lead to Elias deciding to change himself as well, if only so that Chise would be happy remaining by his side.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: With some help from her friends, Chise is able to derail Lizbeth's ritual with the Testament of Carnamagos, which was being used to summon ''The Treader of the Dust'' into reality.
• Disappeared Dad: Chise's father left with her little brother for reasons unknown.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Alice overhears Renfred referring to her as his daughter and gets dejected. The reason is that it means he doesn't see her as suitable to be protecting him, despite Alice's main goal in life of being a good bodyguard for him. However, the entire situation comes across as a teenager feeling upset because the adult they are in love with only sees them as a child. Not helping matters is the fact Alice attitude towards Renfred in the past could easily be seen as romantic attraction, and that they serve as Chise and Elias' biggest foils in the series.
• Dream Walker: Chise does this often, entering the memories and dreams of other people. She has yet to fully control this power, so it tends to happen by accident.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Chise contemplated doing this via jumping off a roof.
  • Chise's mother actually committed suicide after something got to her and tried to make her kill Chise.
• Drugs Are Bad: Alice is a former drug addict who came to despise them after getting over them. Chise even asks her about them, to which Alice plainly states they suck.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady:
  • Shanahan, husband of Shannon. They even have the same hairstyle.
  • Oberon also fits.
  • Violet fits as well, not helped by his Wholesome Crossdresser tendencies.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • David is seen in a few panels of Chapter 26, arriving home to spend Christmas with his family, before being introduced properly in Chapter 32.
  • Stella and Ethan briefly bump into Chise at Paddington Station in Episode 16 before they become the central focus of the next episode.
• Eldritch Abomination: Ashen Eye hints that there are darker, more powerful, and more terrifying entities than regular fae lurking about.
  • One such entity happens to be summoned during the raid at the Sargant Manor, requiring Elias, the Morrigan, and several others to banish it before it could become permanently tethered.
• End of an Age: This is noted in Chapter 3, with the death of the last Old Dragon. Elias muses that Chise might be the last of the mages in her age and that other magical things are vanishing.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Ruth.
• Evil Genius: Josef/Cartaphilus is a scheming bastard only looking out for himself, with a seemingly endless line of victims of his experiments over the centuries.
• Evil Poacher: They definitely exist in the setting, with Cartaphilus at one point hiring some to grab a dragon from the Dragon's Aerie. They are also known to target Gorgons. Zoe actually mentions how sometimes they would come to their villages and snatch people away.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Matthew was surprised when he found that Josef, the wandering alchemist, was (or at least looked like) a small child.
  Joseph: Fufu... are you surprised that I'm a pipsqueak?
• Eye Scream: When Josef pops out his and Chise's left eyes in order to swap them. Soon after, Ruth rips Chise's eye out of Josef's eye socket in order to allow Chise to use her magic on him.
• The Fair Folk: They exist all over the world, though most people can't see them anymore. Mages usually require their help in order to use magic.
• Fairy Companion: A lot of magic users take fairies as Familiars.
• Fairy Sexy: Titania, Leanan Sídhe, and even Chise herself to some degree.
• Familiar:
  • Mages seem capable of housing different fae as familiars, such Angelica's vodyanoi named Hugo, and Chise's grim Ulysse (who she renames Ruth). A familiar uses their master's magical power to move around, and shares senses, emotions, powers, and time as well, so when the master dies, so does the familiar, though it is later revealed there are other ways to form a contract with a familiar that don't involve sharing their lifetimes.
  • Alchemists also use familiars of their own, but they tend to use animals or chimeras since, unlike mages who look for a partner in a familiar, alchemists tend to look for servants, which most fae find unacceptable.
• Family Business: Alchemist families tend to specialize in a trade, including the Seven Shields, as they still need to make money somehow. The Scrimgeour family produces mercenaries, and Beatrice's family creates custom familiars, for example.
• Fantastic Nature Reserve: There's a dragon reserve in Iceland that's enchanted so that normal people don't notice it.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Renfred is noted several times to have an intense dislike towards magical creatures.
  • Four-legged centaurs look down on two-legged centaurs. Two-legged centaurs are human in appearance and abilities, and are seen as a burden becuase they can't hunt with the herd, are prone to sickness, and can't have children. In the old days, they were killed at birth. Nowadays, they are sent away to be raised either by humans or other two-legged centaurs, and raised in human society. Still, even keeping in contact with two-legged centaurs could result in one's entire family being ostracized by the herd.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Mother: Sophie, the mother of Alex and Ashley, as featured in "Defender And Ash". She forbids them from speaking to their magus grandmother, destroys the magic books they are given, and gets rid of the herbs they grow in the garden. Then it's Deconstructed; they ignore her for so long that she eventually just stops treating them as her daughters.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The setting introduces Mermaids, Aerials, Wolfmen, Fae and Elves in the first chapter alone.
• Fat and Skinny: Beatrice and Sofia.
• Feel No Pain: Cartaphilus's ultimate goal. To that end, he makes everyone else suffer.
• Fiery Salamander: They exist. One can usually be found in the hearth of Elias's home.
• Fighting for a Homeland: The apparitions (similar to the one that attacked Chise when she first met Ruth) that appear in Pyrite Knight have a version of this as their goal. They are looking for a place to belong, and they set their sights in the crystal that Felicia finds in the cemetery, since they are fragments of the world's memories, while the crystal (being a stone) contained the world's memories. Felicia doesn't allow them, since their presence would corrupt the crystal.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: The check Elias paid for Chise with is in English and has pounds as the currency used. This tips the reader or viewer off that he's from the UK before Chise learns about it.
• Flash Forward: Chapter 95, the last chapter of the College Arc, ends with one of these. It shows Chise and Elias confronting Lindel in London, as the latter tells them he won't be on their side during an upcoming conflict. Elias calls Lindel out for forsaking his duties as a mage of serving as a bridge between humans and non-humans, while Lindel replies that he is tired of non-humans being thread upon by humanity.
• Forced Bath: Played with in the first chapter. When Elias buys Chise (who had sold herself into slavery and is implied to have been denied things like baths during that time) and takes her home to become his apprentice, he orders her to take a bath soon after they arrive. It's not the bath itself that Chise opposes, but Elias' insistence on being there in the bathroom with her and helping scrub down her naked body. He does so anyway, much to her embarrassment.
• Forced Sleep:
  • Chise ended up doing this by accident with a lullaby on Elias.
  • Chise later does it on purpose in order to stop Joseph.
  • Elias attempts to do this to Chise when he attempts to transfer Chise's curse and pain to Stella.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Whenever she uses too much power, Chise feels dizzy and/or falls asleep for days. It foreshadows that Chise's abilities take a toll on her body, and it will cause her death soon.
  • Chise and Alice note at different points how Cartaphilus looks blurry somehow, as if his image had been superimposed over something else. As it turns out, the Cartaphilus they know is the result of a fusion between the original Cartaphilus, and the necromancer Joseph.
  • The fountain shown prominently in the second ending sequence is where Chise confronts Joseph/Cartaphilus for the last time.
  • In Chapter 37, Elias warns Chise about giving away parts of herself once she is cursed, as there is no telling how her curse might react to another person. Then in Chapter 41, Chise is forced to exchange one eye with Cartaphilus, which had the benefit of keeping the dragon's curse at bay, thanks to Cartaphilus' curse of immortality. However, some time later, side effects start manifesting themselves as a result of taking Cartaphilus' eye, including the development of a new personality inside Chise.
  • When Jasmine appears in Chapter 75, there is a brief focus on Chise's surprised expression, even though nothing seemed to be out of place. The following chapter reveals that "Jasmine" was actually a ghost, and Chise had realized as soon as she appeared.
  • Chise smells Philomela's scent coming from Alcyone in Chapter 79. At first, she dismisses it as Philomela's scent rubbing off on Alcyone due to spending so much time together, but a few chapters later it is revealed that Philomela's soul was stored inside Philomela at the time.
• For Science!: Torrey and the other wizards express that if the College had gotten their hands on Chise, they'd probably have tried to see what makes her tick; the fact that it's noted she would be a rare example of a living sleigh beggy doesn't help. Heck, this still doesn't stop Torrey from pestering her like crazy. Renfred explicitly wants to avoid this by having her be a student rather than a research project, not that Elias is in any mood to listen.
  • Eventually, after she overcomes two different curses on her body, Chise does take up the offer to be a student since they hope that the information they can gleam off her will allow them to save the sleigh beggy born from dying quickly, allowing them to live longer and preserve magic.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While Chise can sympathize with his pain, she claims that Cartaphilus's suffering belongs to him alone, and it gives him no right to hurt other people.
• Friend in the Black Market: Seth, the guy who convinced Chise to sell herself on the black market, is rather friendly to her, to the extent that she calls him when she needs help in finding dragon whelps that have been kidnapped for it.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Gabriella, as it turns out. She hates to bully the weak and avoids killing if possible.
• Friend to All Living Things: Chise's powers mean that magical beings are attracted to her (and most instinctively like her), and since a mage's abilities come from tapping into these being's power, Elias notes that this means she'll most likely never have trouble doing so. Chise herself is also highly sympathetic to any being that's in trouble, whether they are human or not.
• Functional Magic: The story utilizes this to a fair degree, combining different systems, Elemental Powers, Wild Magic, and Background Magic Field.
  • Air Magic: Wind magic is good for annihilation and purifying.
  • Water Magic: Water magic is good for flowing, but also detaining and sealing.
• Gender-Blender Name:
  • Chise names her male dog familiar Ruth. It is even lampshaded that it is a name usually given to girls, but Ruth appears to be fine with the name. Elias also brings up that the original meaning of "Ruth" in Hebrew is "companion".
  • Violet, Zoe and May from the College also come to mind. They are all male.
• Gentleman Wizard: Elias is a user of magic with a lot of discretionary income and dignified bearing (sometimes).
• Good Parents:
  • Chise's parents were this. Her father would protect them from spirits and work while her mother kept house and took care of them. Even after her father left, her mother still tried to take care of her until something literally pushed her into trying to kill Chise.
  • Zoe's parents are great too. His father in particular made it very clear they don't regret having him, and encourages him to seek out friends that would accept him.
• Going Native:
  • Shannon's backstory. She is a changeling who lived as a human for about fifty years, only starting to suspect something was off when she didn't age. Then she met her future husband (who was the human baby that she'd been swapped out for), and she learned her true nature. She chose to live among Fae afterward, although continuing her profession as a doctor, for fae instead of human now.
  • Shanahan, the human that was swapped with Shannon in infancy and Shannon's husband, has lived so long in the faerie realm that he's physically transformed into a sort of wolf-centaur...thing.
  • Titania also suggest this to Elias to prolong Chise's life as sleigh beggy tend to have short lifespan.
• Gory Discretion Shot: We don't get to see Josef removing Chise's eyeball. He just puts his hand over her eye, and next thing we see they had already switched their left eyes.
• Griping About Gremlins: They looked like horned rabbits with goggles and an aviator jacket.
• Groin Attack: When one of Alice's old dealers tries to get her back on drugs, she gives him one of these. Every guy there winced.
• Guardian Entity: Lewis from the short story, Pyrite Knight, is a protective spirit born from the pyrite brooch that has been passed down through Felicia's family line.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Zoe is the son of a human father and a gorgon mother.
• Half-Identical Twins: Violet and Jasmine St. George, some of Chise's classmates.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: The fate of one of the apparitions attacking Felicia and Lewis in Pyrite Knight.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted. Alchemists/wizards have to work much harder than Mages to obtain the same effect. However, that is not to say Mages have it easy. Their magic depends on the whims of fickle entities and mistakes can be catastrophic.
• Hates Being Alone:
  • Upon learning what loneliness is, describing it as a never ending cold that the summer heat and fire can't get rid of, Elias comes to despise it.
  • Silky as well, after the death of her clan.
• Healing Factor: Magi tend to heal faster than regular people, though only a few are ever gifted with Healing Hands, like Lindel.
• Healing Hands: Lindel has this power literally in his hands.
• Heir Club for Men: Averted among the Alchemist families. The heir is chosen depending on how fit they are to lead the family, regardless of their age or gender.
• Hell Is That Noise: In the anime, whenever you hear the distorted horns and "Psycho" Strings combo, you’re likely facing something that’s pure Nightmare Fuel.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • The King of Cats offers to accompany a restless ghost into the afterlife rather than destroy it. Averted when Chise manages to Take a Third Option and open the gateway herself.
  • Chise does this basically all the time, such as when she jumps in the way of an attack aimed at Alice, or when she intentionally took the clearly dangerous magic of a dragon into herself in order to save it. Also, every single time she uses her magic to help others, at the cost of her own health safety.
• Horror Hunger:
  • Played with, Elias admits he finds Chise Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious and that he likely ate humans in the past, but states he doesn't have problems not acting on such urges.
  • Although there is a scene where he is visibly slobbering over the half-asleep head of Chise]], and others where he quite literally licks bloody wounds on her neck or her arm.
• House Fey: The silky that looks after Elias's house. Eventually, it's revealed she was a former banshee who was given a new lease on life as a silky.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Chise barely reaches Elias's ribcage. In fact, most people are dwarfed in comparison to Elias. The fact that Chise is a small Japanese teenager who at least one person thinks is around 10 also helps.
• Hulking Out:
  • Spriggan does this when holding down Elias to avoid him going after Chise carelessly.
  • Elias does it too at times, such as when he believed Chise had been killed, as well as when Lindel was attacked.
• Human Disguise: Elias and Ruth can make themselves appear human in order to interact with regular people.
• Humanoid Abomination: Elias and Cartaphilus.
• I Am What I Am: Titiana and Oberon openly admit that being what others would consider monsters is what's in their nature.
• I Am Who?: Ulysse believes that he is human when Chise and Elias first meet, having only recently awakened as a Church Grim.
• Identical Stranger: Elias's human glamour looks a lot like Simon, and an author's note says this is because Elias based it on Simon's appearance. Elias decides to avert this once he starts attending the college, since its more convenient to use a face of someone who isn't currently alive, so he starts using the same appearance he used during the auction for the dragon whelp.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The manga chapter titles are all English proverbs that fit with the events of the chapter in question.
• I Have Many Names: Elias Ainsworth (which was the name given to him by Lindel's master Rahab) has a couple; faeries call him "Thorn" on several occasions, he's referred to as the "Thorn mage" a few times, and the wizards call him "Pilum Muralis" (or "wall spear").
• Implausible Hair Color:
  • Chise is Japanese, but has red hair and green eyes.
  • The anime states the same about Chise's mother, though the manga doesn't confirm this.
• Instant Sedation: Chise accidentally turns a cure for insomnia into a Sleeping Potion by using too much magic power. Comes in handy when she needs to knock out someone holding her up.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Chise is human,^note Though it's debatable: she's repeatedly referred to as a Sleigh Beggy, which is actually a type of Fae. Her red hair and green eyes (practically unheard of for a Japanese) also raise a lot of suspicion. while Elias is some kind of fae in a body made of flesh. He has purple skin and an wolf's skull for a head.^note The author's notes indicate his features also incorporate elements of a very large dog's skull, to give it a weirder, more unclassified appearance. They're engaged.
  • There is the Redcurrent and Joel, a vampire-like fairy and a regular human who both genuinely fall in love with each other.
  • Shannon, a changeling, is married to Shanahan, a human raised as a fae. Admittedly, Shanahan has turned into some sort of centaur creature himself, this is mentioned to happen to any human who spends long enough in the world of fae.
  • There is more than a little Ship Tease between Spriggan, a spriggan and Silky, a House Fey.
  • Zoe's parents, a Gorgon and a human wizard.
• Invisible to Normals: Fairies and other beings can't be seen by people who don't have the Sight. Some are able to make themselves visible at will.
• The Jailbait Wait:
  • Chise is fifteen at the start of the story while Elias is hundreds of years old or more. However, while Chise is technically his betrothed, Elias does not even appear to have interest in engaging in any sort of sexual activity with her, and its eventually revealed that to him, a bride is just a partner to spend your life with. The reason he chose Chise to be his bride is that he was seeking an apprentice, and a bride, and found it most expedient to have both roles fulfilled by the same person.
  • Elias was under the impression this is what Renfred was doing with Alice, as having children with their students to preserve and strengthen their bloodline is common among alchemists. Renfred, however, is utterly disgusted by the prospect, as he sees Alice as his daughter.
• Jerkass: Ashen Eye in a nutshell. He claims the "lessons" he gives are necessary, but his way of going about it is particularly harsh by human standards.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Chise's natural talents allow her to enter other people's dreams and memories, usually by being in contact with them, though it can even happen at a distance. Initially it only happens randomly and by accident, but in time she learns to control it to some degree. She is still unintentionally dragged into other's heads sometimes though. The biggest example is when she ends up bringing herself, Philomela, Lucy and Isaac into a shared Mental World, composed of all of their minds and memories, in her attempt to save Philomela. Chise notes that her repeated viewings of other people's minds has probably caused her own to become prone to mixing with others'.
• Kimodameshi: Violet convinces his classmates to go through one of these after hearing from Chise they are popular in Japan.
• Land of Faerie: Tir Na Nog.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • Elias can destroy certain memories and offers to do so numerous times for Chise.
  • Ashen Eye managed to eliminate the memories that a boy existed with the exception of his sister.
  • Wizards at the College are also able to erase memories.
• Legacy of Service: Great Houses often have lesser houses that serve them. In particular, the Fowler family has served House Scrimgeour for generations. Same with House Sargant towards House Rickenbacker.
• LEGO Body Parts: Joseph and Chise swapped their eyes in Chapter 41.
• Life Energy: Magical energy is described as being akin to a human's Life Energy. Should it drain out completely, there would be little to sustain the human's life.
• Like Brother and Sister:
  • Chise and Ruth's relationship is like this.
  • Felicia regards her relationship with Lewis much like this.
• Living Battery:
  • Chise is this, and her lifelong unconscious absorption of ambient magic is responsible for her ability to see magical creatures. This also allows Elias to tap into her power and teleport them from the auction house to his home in one jump, and makes it harder for her to learn beginner's magic, since she has more power than the magic requires and hasn't learned to restrain herself.
  • It's also not uncommon for alchemists to use sleigh beggys like Chise as literal batteries.
• Living Shadow: Some creatures that have white masks assault Chise in the graveyard in Chapter 9.
• Lockdown: Vice-chancellor Liza Quillyn has the College enter lockdown in Chapter 69, as a result of the recent incidents surrounding the students. The Cat Sidhe use their magic to seal off the College from the outside world, until around Christmas.
• Lovecraft Lite: The first major arc is loosely based upon one of Lovecraft's least Lovecraftian stories, "The Cats of Ulthar".
• Love Hurts: While it is normal for a Leanne Sidhe to drain the life force of a man they have fallen in love with in return for artistic talent and inspiration, a Leanne Sidhe tried to refuse her love for a old man who tended to a garden of roses in order to prevent this only to realize how wrong she was.
• Love Makes You Crazy:
  • Matthew was told sacrificing cats would help his wife, Mina, get better. He proceeded to do so and take a flying leap off the sanity train. Then she melted right in his arms and broke him entirely. This means that it overlaps with Love Makes You Evil.
  • Happens to Elias whenever Chise is in danger, or even if he just gets jealous. He takes it to the maximum when Chise is cursed by a dragon and he decides the best way to save her life is by ritualistically sacrificing 10-year-old Stella, a dear friend of Chise's.
• Lover and Beloved: Rían would like to develop this sort of relationship with Torrey, much to the latter's vexation.
• Loyal Animal Companion: Ulysse to Isabel. He stayed by her grave even after she died, so that she wouldn't be lonely when she woke up, eventually dying himself and becoming a Church Grim. Afterwards he became Chise's familiar under the name Ruth.
• Lying on a Hillside: Chise giving him a Lap Pillow allows Elias, whose horns protrude backwards, the opportunity to look at the sky while lying down for the first time.
• Made a Slave: Chise sold herself into slavery to not have to concern herself with anything anymore. It's lucky that Elias is the one who bought her.
• Mage Marksman: Rather, Wizard Marksman. Renfred and Alice shot Cartaphilus with enchanted bullets in the head and in the left arm, respectively.
• Magic A Is Magic A: The rules for both mages and wizards are made fairly clear early on in the story.
• Magical Eye:
  • Chise's eye had enough magic left within it to allow Joseph to force Chise to see her own past.
  • The Auditor from the Church has eyes that can bind supernatural entities. Unfortunately for him, Gabriella is "human" enough that they can't work on her.
• Magic Music:
  • Lindel uses this the most.
  • Angelica later explains that songs are signals that magi send to ask for help, like sheet music. A lullaby might just be a song, but if the purpose to strengthened through magic it works well.
• Magic Is a Monster Magnet: In Chise's case, this nearly got her killed as a child.
• Magic Staff: Magi use wands which allow them to better communicate their intentions to The Fair Folk. They carve it themselves while unconsciously transferring their essence into them, and once its done, its customary for an elder magus to add the finishing touches.
• Magitek: The product of Magus Craft, which uses magical power as a power-source rather than electricity.
• Magnetic Medium: A side effect of being a sleigh beggy is that supernatural creatures will follow you everywhere. Oftentimes they just want to help, but The Fair Folk's idea of 'helpful' is, well, not.
  Elias: Fae notions of gifts and favors aren't always in a human's best interest.
• Mama Bear: Chika, Chise's mother, in the past. One night she woke up to find some creature trying to eat Chise and promptly grabbed a knife to cut it in half.
• Mana Drain:
  • A Dragon Whelp does this to the crowd in the auction house to age itself up. Chise does the same to calm it down.
  • The Testament of Carnamagos can be used for this, and once it is stolen, several people fall victim to it.
• Manchild: Elias is in fact this, despite being centuries old. Several of the older magi and fae consider Elias a child by their standards, and Chise observes that despite Elias's claims that he cannot feel emotion, the truth is that Elias simply has no emotional maturity. As a result, he can't comprehend what emotions he's feeling at the time and therefore acts out when he gets agitated.
• Maneating Plant: Cannabis plants in the short story The Man Who Hungered For Trees will lay roots into sacrifices placed within a planter and devour them to the bones, including humans.
• Mark of the Supernatural: After taking both the dragon's corruption and Joseph's curse of immortality into herself, Chise's entire left arm is left black in color.
• Master-Apprentice Chain:
  • There is one that goes from Rahab to Chise (Rahab → Lindel → Elias → Chise).
  • Lindel was also Adolf's mentor at some point.
• Mayfly–December Romance:
  • Chise is fifteen at the start of the story, whereas it's implied that Elias is really, really old. On top of that, Chise's powers as a sleigh beggy drastically shorten her lifespan. That being said, if Chise manages to become a magus, it could potentially become Eternal Love instead.
  • Angelica and her husband have this sort of relationship. He's a plain human while she hasn't aged since the day they met decades ago, but states they should enjoy the relationship for as long as they can.
• Medusa: Gorgons exist, though they can't communicate with humanity since their voice registers on a different level. They also prefer to live in isolation, since they are often hunted down for their eyes.
• Mental World: Chise, Philomela, Isaac, and Lucy end up in one in Chapter 86, thanks to Chise's powers. The world is a representation of all their minds, somehow mixed together.
• Metaphorically True:
  • In Rahab's words, a mage should be able to hide the truth while avoiding outright falsehoods.
  • Ashen Eye claims that fae have no need for lies, but as Stella immediately points out, this doesn't mean they have to be truthful.
• Mind Hive: Cartaphilus has taken in so many pieces of other things in the past that its basically left a mesh of them within him, referring to themselves as it.
• Mistaken for Romance: Not exactly romance, but Elias was under the impression Renfred was raising Alice for the purpose of having children with her and continuing his bloodline. Renfred is not pleased when he learns about it, and proceeds to very thoroughly explain to Elias that this not the case.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Chimeras. And Cartaphilus to an extent. Elias also tends to take the form of one when shapeshifting.
• Monster of the Week: Early on, when Simon showed up, he asked the duo to deal with several of these on behalf of the church.
• Mook Horror Show: The Sangart guards don't stand much of a chance once the goddess Morrigan is fully manifested into the world, despite their efforts to prevent it. Morrigan soon unleashes her own army of warriors and starts slaughtering them without mercy. For a moment we even see the point of view of a young guard as he is being dismembered and impaled, lamenting the end of his everyday life.
• Muggle Best Friend: After helping save her brother Ethan, Chise becomes close friends with Stella despite their distance and a five year age gap. She is only allowed by Elias to see his true form because of a contract they made, and can see Ruth because his Grim form isn't being hidden from humans; Chise briefly considers but ultimately decides not to cut ties with her despite occasionally being put in danger because of faeries.
• Multistage Teleport: Elias said he would have had to do this to get from the auction house back to his home if he wasn't using Chise to get there in one jump.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Chika, Chise's mother, after being manipulated into nearly killing her. She kills herself afterwards out of guilt, asking for forgiveness.
• A Mythology Is True:
  • Most of the magical creatures are based in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon folklore; the fairies from Tir Na nOg, the guardian form of the Black Dog from basically every British Isles mythology (called a "Grim" in the English translation, which is a black dog, or other animal, that guards a churchyard from the Devil in Old English/Scandinavian folklore), banshees, brownies, selkies, Talking Animals.... Even Elias himself bears a striking resemblance to depictions of Arawn — Welsh leader of The Wild Hunt and Grim Reaper rolled in one. ^note In Chise's sporadic flashbacks to her life before Elias, we see that certain entities and creatures from Japanese legend and myth also exist, though she didn't understand at the time what was happening.
  • The Horned God and The Winter Goddess show up briefly during the Winter solstice. Upon even catching a glimpse of them, Elias grabs Chise and hides, warning her not make even the slightest noise that could attract the two.
  • In a chapter about Yule, the younger version of the Winter Goddess appears and is thankful for the Yule offerings not long after.
  • In addition, Titania makes an offhand remark that Simon, a priest, is a follower of "that foreign god" and legend has it that Cartaphilus was cursed with immortality by "the son of God", heavily implying that the Abrahamic religions also exist. Cartaphilus himself is apparently the original Wandering Jew.
  • Angelica's familiar Hugo has been identified as a "vodyanoi" - a water spirit of ancient Slavic folklore.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While having selfish motives, Cartaphilus offers Chise a method of counteracting her curse and extending her life without hurting anyone else, which is surprisingly way more ethical than Elias's solution.
• Non-Human Head: Elias usually takes the form of a very tall humanoid, with an animalistic skull with prominent horns for a head.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: In the English dub of the Anime, despite many of the scenes taking place in England, most of the cast, including extras, all have American accents.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Alice claims this with Chise. Both had crappy lives but were taken in because they had talent to an extent, only Alice feels she's more incompetent.
  • Elias points this out to Renfred, with both of them taking apprentices who were in such dire circumstances they really had no other choice but to accept their offers. His words clearly get to Renfred, who starts to regret that he might have robbed Alice of a normal life. Alice, however, reassures him that she made the choice herself, and is thankful to him for showing her a new path in life.
  • At several points Josef mentions that Elias is as much of a monster as himself. Doesn't have much meaning until Elias attempts to sacrifice Stella's life to save Chise's.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Fairies prefer to be called "neighbors".
• Odd Friendship: Sofia is mildly afraid of animals, yet she is childhood friends and roommates with Beatrice, whose family's line of work involves raising and taking care of animals.
• Offscreen Teleportation: When Chise is momentarily distracted by talking to a little girl, Elias vanishes into a pool of shadows to hide. He explains this is because children can more easily see his true nature, and he doesn't particularly care for them either, probably because it was a child who outed him when he was hiding in Lindel's shadow.
• Oh, Crap!: That dragon whelp on auction that was supposed to be magically binded? It gets so scared and angry that it morphs into an full-sized, Impurity-corrupted, fire-breathing dragon. No one saw that coming.
• Older Than They Look: Many magi and fae folks are this i.e. Lindel who is several centuries old and his master, a woman who could pass as mid-to-late 20s.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. The witch Isaac is different from Chise's classmate Isaac.
• Our Banshees Are Louder: The silky used to be one of these.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: In The Golden Yarn its revealed that while you have the four-legged Centaurs as per usual, in some cases they are born with two legs like a human. As a result they take far longer to learn to walk and have weaker hearts, resulting in shorter lifespans and being frail, but they can use their hands easier. They're seen as something of a disgrace because they can't keep up with the herd, so they're sent to be raised with humans or other two-legged centaurs as babies, with it being noted that in the past they were outright killed instead.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The dragons, or at least the Wu-Li, turn into trees and grass as they age and die. And they live without regrets, use Telepathy, and can share their memories, even with other creatures.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Titania and Oberon are apparently the same species as Ariel and the "neighbors". Elias is disliked by many of them because of his "incomplete" nature, though Titania and Oberon appear to have a friendly relationship with him. All of them will deceive you if given the chance (though Elias appears to prefer lying by omission than deliberately telling an untruth).
• Our Werewolves Are Different: There are two types of werewolves (or werebeasts in general): Those that are born into it and those who are given a Curse that turns them into a mindless animal. A pelt from the latter can inflict it upon another person.
• Out of Focus: As Chise goes to college in the second season of the anime for the College Arc, many of the established recurring characters such as Silver, Spriggan, Oberon, Titania, Lindel, Simon, Mikhail, and Josef from the first season are given significantly less focus as Chise's fellow students get the lion's share of the spotlight, with their lack of focus ranging anywhere between getting very few scenes/dialogue to only showing up as cameos to some not even appearing at all. Any redemption story Josef could've had was also put on hold as he pretty much stayed in the well for the entire time Chise was at college and only had a chat with her at the end of the season about valuing her own life. And while Alice Swayne makes it to college along with Chise, even she falls out of focus after a while in this particular arc.
• The Paralyzer: Gorgons are able to freeze those who look at them in place by gazing at their objective with their snakes. Them being able to turn others into stone is only a myth.
• The Phoenix: After constructing her wand (and getting some not-so-subtle nudges from various people to have a talk with Elias), Chise tries to return home by performing the spell he used when teleporting them from the auction house to Elias's home in the first chapter. However, since she's in a volcanic region populated by fire spirits, they 'help' her by instead forming a phoenix effect around her and letting her fly back to England that way.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Spriggan. He's barely three feet tall, but he and a few others of his kind can effortlessly hold down a transformed - and berserk - Elias.
• Placeholder Titles: The broadcast version of the anime's second opening is basically a clipshow of the first half. The actual animation sequence wasn't ready until the season finale.
• Place Beyond Time: Rahab resides in one. It takes the form of an island in the middle of an ocean upon which you can walk. The place has connections to everywhere and every time, allowing Rahab to be aware of what happens on the outside.
• Primal Fear: Chise is afraid of thunderstorms.
• Pointy Ears: Some of the Fae have these.
• Poke in the Third Eye: As Lizbeth's guards are alerted there are intruders in the grounds, one of them uses a spell to see where they are located. He quickly notices Chise, accompanied by a strange woman, in which he focuses on. Unfortunately for him, said woman happens to be The Morrígan, who stares back at him and promptly has his eyes destroyed.
• Poor Communication Kills: Defied. Before entering the Sargant manor in search of Philomela and the Testament of Carnamagos, Isaac makes it a point to have everyone involved say exactly what they aim to achieve, explicitly so they don't later find out they have conflicting interests at the worst possible time.
• Power Incontinence: Early on, Chise would end up drawing too much magic when casting spells, resulting in this. The first few times Chise overuses her powers, it knocks her out for a few days at a time.
• Power Limiter: Elias has Angelica make a ring that limits the amount of magic that Chise produces naturally to extend her life. After it breaks, they move up to a bracelet.
• Psychopomp: Will O' The Wisp has to take people to the afterlife when he's not leading people into swamps.
• Punch a Wall: In a moment of rage, Chise smacks a wall with the bottom of her fist when Angelica warns her that she is growing too dependent on Elias. She apologizes right after, knowing that Angelica is right, and was just looking out for her.
• The Punishment: Cartaphilus was cursed with immortality in an eternally rotting body for throwing stones at Jesus. While powerless to do anything but waste away at first, he eventually fuses with a young necromancer named Joseph, the resulting person now able to conduct terrible experiments upon humans and magical creatures alike, all with the goal of stopping the pain from the eternal rot.
• Really 700 Years Old: Magi have a long lifespan. Elias, a few centuries old mage, is regarded as young by magi's standards, and he's also a fae who lived who knows how long before being found by Lindel. A witch who has been around since Marie-Antoinette lost her head is considered The Baby of the Bunch by her coven.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • The Church turn a blind eye to Elias's existence in return for him occasionally providing assistance to cases the Church can't handle on its own.
  • Phyllis serves as this among her fellow witches.
  • Liza proves to be this for the College.
• The Red Mage: Sleigh Beggys can do both magecraft and wizardry, and are more powerful than most other mages at the cost of it being Cast from Lifespan.
• Red Right Hand: A rare heroic example with Chise. After absorbing curses from both a rampaging dragon and Cartaphilus, Chise's left arm turns black from shoulder to fingertips.
• Resentful Guardian: Most of the relatives of Chise that took her in after her mother's death ended up feeling this way towards her, due to the stress of dealing with a weird child they couldn't understand, not helped at all by the incidents the fae caused around her.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: A lot of the fairy creatures and elemental spirits that are drawn to Chise are weirdly cute. The "cotton flies" that practically swarm around her are adorable, looking like a weird cross between a moth and a sheep. (They even go "baa" and can be sheared.)
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue:
  • When Chise is forced to teleport to Cartaphilus' hideout, many of her friends and allies storm said hideout in order to save her.
  • After Philomela escapes the College, following the reveal that she was the one using the Testament of Carnamagos to steal magical power, Chise and allies go to the Sargant manor in order to get answers, and save her if it comes to that.
• Runic Magic: When used for magical purposes, runes have a variety of uses, depending both in the meaning of the rune, and the caster's interpretation of it. They can be used for divination, as wards, and even to project magical attacks.
• Running Gag: Chise is always falling into bodies of water fully clothed.
• Scars Are Forever:
  • Played with. While Renfred could easily have his facial scars and missing arm healed and replaced through alchemy, he decides to keep them as reminders of his mistakes.
  • Turns out, alchemists tend to wear their scars as badges of honor, since they show the lengths they were willing to go through in pursuit of knowledge. Most would still replace a missing limb though, at least according to Torrey.
  • A magical version with Chise. Namely, the coloration caused by the dragon's curse on her arm remains even after taking in Cartaphilus's curse, leaving her left arm permanently blackened even after the deformities die down.
• School Is Murder: Deathly incidents often take place at The College, with so many occurrences that the locations where some of the most notorious of them took place in served as the basis for a Kimodameshi event. During the time of the College Arc itself, many among the students and staff have their Life Energy drained away, though fortunately there were no casualties among them.
• Secret Path: There are actually numerous paths hidden throughout the world. These can take you through different layers of reality, invisible to the normal eye. In The Golden Yarn, it's revealed that cities like London have secret paths the supernatural entities can take. In the case of Hazel, he travels through "back" roads reflected in pools of rain water.
• Secret Test of Character:
  • The fae love doing this to Chise. Shannon nearly drowns her in order to get her to fight back so her body can heal itself.
  • Ashen Eye seems rather fond of this as well, such as by turning Chise into a fox to see if she's truly attached to Elias, and kidnapping Elias and Ethan and then challenging Chise and Stella to use their familial bonds to find them. However, Ashen Eye's main motivation for these tests is less about teaching his victims a valuable lesson and more because he thinks it's fun.
• Seeker Archetype: This is what alchemists are, as their primary motivation is the understanding of the world around them.
• See-Thru Specs: The stone that Elias gave Chise can be used like this when peered through, granting her an even stronger form of True Sight than she already has.
• Selkies and Wereseals: Lindel's familiar Merituuli is a selkie, having the appearance of a small child wearing an oversized sealskin coat.
• Semantic Superpower: Runes are symbols that can be used to cast magic. Their powers can be used as long as their meanings are understood, though the interpretation of the caster and their intention plays a part in the nature of the resulting magic.
• Sentimental Drunk: Renfred. Anything more than a couple of drinks turns him into a weepy clinger.
• The Seven Mysteries: Mixed with Kimodameshi, Chise and her classmates pair up randomly and go to all seven mysterious places in the College in the middle of the night.
• Shapeshifting: Ruth can shift between human and Chruch Grim, while Elias can change forms as he sees fit. For an involuntary example, Ashen Eye uses a fox pelt to change Chise into a fox as a Secret Test of Character in Chapter 20.
• She Is the King: The current King of Cats is female.
• Shipper on Deck: Several people aware of their relationship are supporting of Elias and Chise's romance. Special mention goes to Titania and Oberon, who take it up a notch by wagering not on when/if Elias and Chise will marry, but on how many children they will have. Oberon even asks the couple outright.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Seth is polite, personable and social, all things his sister Lucy is not. However, Lucy has a softer side hidden behind all her bitterness, while Seth is part of a very sordid business involved in the purchase and selling of slaves. There is also the way they respond to the Webster tragedy. While Lucy grieves for her dead family and seeks to avenge them, Seth, who had been cast aside by them, thinks they had it coming.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Chise.
• Skull for a Head: Elias has some kind of canine skull.
• Slave Collar: Chise is shown in the first scene shackled and collared at the slave auction. Shortly after purchasing her, Elias says there is no need for them and dissolves the chains and collar with magic.
• Slipknot Ponytail: During the incident at the cemetery, Chise's ponytail is undone when she starts violently absorbing magic energy from her surroundings, meaning to deal with Cartaphilus right there and then.
• Smug Snake: Renfred initially appears to qualify, but it quickly becomes apparent that it isn't the case.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Chise met three dragon hatchlings and a few weeks later one of the dragons is big enough so Chise can ride its back. Elias explains that dragons and other fae folks can grow as fast as they want and stagnate as long as they want.
• Spell Book: Alchemists have their own spell book. It contains their most used spells, or the most troublesome ones. Upon death, they are often recovered and examined by other alchemists. A lot of the most famous ones have made their way to the College.
• Spirit World: Elias explains that there are some different layers to the world only accessible to those who know how to reach it.
• Storming the Castle: Chise's friends and allies end up attacking Cartaphilus' hideout in order to rescue her.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Elias compares mages to computer programmers and alchemists to hackers. Chise thinks this is sort of a weird comparison to make.
• Super-Deformed: The manga and anime go into this art style sometimes during humorous moments, such as Elias's fairy housekeeper staring menacingly at them both to finish breakfast. It's fairly amusing when you see Elias's scary skull-face boiled down to little more than a cutesy rectangle with an eye and squiggly mouth.
• Superhuman Trafficking: The story starts with Elias buying Chise from an auction that deals in magical creatures.
• Swamps Are Evil: The marsh featured in the “Defender and Ash” short story. It’s an old place with a long history of tragedy and death. An old god, which used to receive human sacrifices as offerings, is said to have become a monster living in the marsh. While it is unclear if this is true, there is clearly “something” there.
  • To elaborate: It corrupts people, making them give into their worst instincts, it drives them to madness, and entraps the souls of its victims.
  • Its effects even reach the surrounding forest, where the air is heavy and the sunlight barely reaches at all. Both neighbors and humans know to stay away from it.
• Taking the Bullet:
  • Chise pushes Alice out of the way when Cartaphilus attacks her in Chapter 10, taking on a heavy wound in the process.
  • Later on, Elias pushes Chise out of the way of a dragon's fireball, although Chise ends up being worse for wear afterwards.
  • Renfred has done it twice for Alice, resulting in his scars and his missing arm.
  • Seth gets in front of Lucy to protect her from a wolfman, resulting in said wolfman running his hand through his chest. Seth only survives thanks to his Protective Charm reducing the damage.
• Talking in Your Dreams: A variation. There are several layers of reality, at least one of which can only be accessed while dreaming (and after a few other preparations). Marielle's coven uses this place for their gatherings.
• That Was Not a Dream: At one point, Chise realizes that she wasn't just dreaming when she woke up. She had actually entered Cartaphilus's mind while both of them were sleeping.
• This Is My Human:
  • The King of Cats, Molly, is owned by a normal little girl who does not know the cat's true nature. Molly sees the girl as a daughter and feels responsible for her safety.
  • A previous King of Cats, Tim, saw Matthew and Mina as his as well. However, when Matthew snapped the King had no choice but to put him down and Curse his soul into impurity.
• Title Montage: The first opening ends with a montage of scenes from the actual episodes. The Place Holder Titles that take the place of the second opening takes this to a greater extent, with almost the entire opening sequence consisting of scenes from the first half of the show.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Testament of Carnamagos, which contains information regarding the life and death of mortals. More specifically, it shows how to steal people's life force, how to create and destroy immortals, and how to bring people back from the dead. The original is located in the United States, while a copy can be found in the College's English branch. Its from this copy that Elias learns of a way to transfer Chise's dragon curse to another person. Some time later, said copy is stolen from the College's library, and is used to drain and almost completely deplete the Life Energy of several people.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Oberon is a masochist.
• To Serve Man : Elias might have eaten humans in the past (he's not sure himself) before his meeting with Lindel.
• Tracking Spell: The adder stone Elias gave Chise has one of these, which allows him to locate her wherever she is.
• Training the Gift of Magic: Elias buys Chise in the first place to teach her magic. He says it's a common last resort since magically talent children are rare in the modern era.
• Transhuman: Several members of the college have transformed their bodies to be more than human, with there being about 5 levels of transformation. They're called muryans.
• Translation Convention: Naturally, given that the main setting of the series is England, characters are canonically speaking English most of the time, even though the work is originally written in Japanese. This was explicitly confirmed by the author in Volume extras, as well as the fact Chise was made to learn as much English as possible before the auction that takes place at the beginning of the series.
• Tree Cover: Elias, Chise and Ruth are forced to do this in order to hide from the Winter Goddess and the Deer during the winter solstice.
• Troll: "Afterwards, Elias told her a ton of ghost stories."
• True Sight: Mages can see the fae by trade, as otherwise they would't even be mages, though it manifests in non-mages as well from time to time. There are also aids that allow others to see fae, like fairy salve. However, because fae intrinsically hate anything that puts them at a disadvantage, such methods can't be carried out with their help, as they literally can't muster the strength to provide assistance. Alchemists also have their methods to be able to see fae, if only temporarily. And even among mages, not all of their Sights are at the same level. Theo, despite being a mage, notes his Sight is rather weak by their standards.
• Under the Mistletoe: Chise kisses Elias's forehead and Ruth's snout under the mistletoe, a few days before their first Christmas together. Elias does his equivalent of kissing by nuzzling her face against.
  • The following Christmas, prompted by seeing Elias nuzzling Chise under the mistletoe, Rían attempts to kiss Torrey as well, but the latter prevents it.
• Unequal Rites:
  • Wizards, who treat magic as a science that can be learned by those with the innate potential, use a form of Hermetic Magic; mages are born with their powers, which stem from communication with the world of Wild Magic and are therefore both much more potent and much more dangerous to learn. They have an unspoken agreement not to breach into each other's territory.
  • In addition, mages use magic by absorbing ambient magical energy, while wizards use their own internal energy. A sleigh beggy like Chise can use both, but there is no support for the organs and thus their bodies fail on them quickly.
  • Elias later reveals that its possible for a wizards to become a magus via having an affinity with the neighbors, though it's mostly theoretical and they must succeed in negotiations with them.
• Unholy Ground: On a small island in the middle of a lake, a man who routinely killed cats was sealed after the surviving cats turned on him. Now that island is cursed. At least until Chise sends them to the afterlife.
• Vagina Dentata: The spider/corpse creature that Cartaphilus creates has a vertical, fanged mouth between her legs.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Cartaphilus takes an interest in Chise in Chapter 37 due to her cursed arm.
• The Voiceless: Silky.
• Walk on Water: Chise does this to reach a cursed island in the middle of a lake that needs to be purified. Others are seeing doing it soon after.
  • Rahab's home is surrounded by an ocean that can be walked upon.
  • The each-uisge found in the camp in Scotland can do it as well.
• Wandering Jew: Cartaphilus turns out to be this.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 36, where the results of Chise's attempts to quell the dragon whelp are shown in their Body Horror; a grossly misshapen and clawed arm, and the likelihood of not living to see the next year.
  • Chapter 39, where Elias resolves to sacrifice Stella by transferring Chise's declining health and curse onto her, with Ruth agreeing to it as well as they both refuse to tell her about it. Things only go From Bad to Worse from there in the following chapter, as Cartaphilus has Demonic Possession over Stella, ruins Elias's plan, and Chise ultimately warps with him to find an alternate deal - else Stella would die.
  • Chapter 42, where Chise's memories start to return of her past and reveals that her mother was manipulated into trying to kill her by some kind of spirit, driving her to suicide when she snapped out of it.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Nevin the dragon gives Chise one when she relives her memories of her Dark and Troubled Past, stating that the living should never envy the dead and that he is glad she hesitated when she was Driven to Suicide because she would never have met Elias and had a chance to improve her life.
  • Renfred calls out Elias on the fact that he hadn't told Chise about the College's offer for her to become a student, claiming that he is selfishly keeping her tied to himself and preventing her from developing.
  • Chise gives one to Elias and Ruth after finding out their plan to sacrifice Stella to save Chise from the dragon's curse, stating that if he's going to do something like that and use Exact Words to go back on his promise of finding a solution together, then she will not follow him any longer. Considering her vow to stay with Elias until he no longer wanted her, this comes as especially brutal.
• Wife Husbandry: This was one of the reasons for Elias to take Chise under his wing. Lindel explains that it is common for masters to marry their apprentices.
  • Later on, Elias explains Chise that, since a spouse and an apprentice are both supposed to live with him, he decided to save himself the trouble and just have both of those roles played by one person.
  • Its not uncommon for wizards to have kids with their apprentices, as magical potential is passed down through their blood. There are those who disagree with this practice though, such as Renfred, who is downright offended when Elias suggests that he raised Alice for such a reason.
• Will-o'-the-Wisp: They loiter around graveyards and woods and trick humans. They also act as guides for the dead to escort them to the afterlife. This allows one to deal with the wraiths that Cartaphilus calls up.
• Wizards Live Longer: It is shown that magi live a lot longer than normal humans. Angelica's husband mentions she looks the same as the day he met her over a decade ago. Ironically, actual wizards/alchemists just live regular human lifespans.
• Wizarding School: In theory, the College is supposed to be one. However, Renfred cynically points out the College is just a front for older wizards to exploit the young with magical talent and that they've forgotten their original mission in educating the next generation of wizards and mages. When Chise starts attending the College, it's actually not that bad, though the ugly underside that was alluded to earlier clearly exists.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: Chise goes to the land of the Fae (the anthill in specific) in order to be healed from using her magic too much to make the Faerie Salve. She spends a few days there at best, but comes out to find that she's lost two seasons.
• Yin-Yang Clash: Downplayed. Cartaphilus/Joseph is cursed to be unable to die, no matter how decayed or broken his body becomes. Chise gets cursed to die within a year (on top of her already short life-span as a Sleigh Beggy) by absorbing the magic of a rampaging dragon, but said curse also keeps her strong. Joseph offers to exchange each other's curses with an organ transplant, because they're equally potent, but diametrically opposite, so they might be able negate each other. For Chise at least, it works. Kind of. (She will still die, but as the part of Joseph's curse now in her body tells her, there's no way of knowing when, just like a normal person. This, of course also leaves open the possibility of her not dying if the dragon curse ends up getting removed.)
• You Monster!:
  • Renfred calls Cartaphilus this. He's not wrong.
  • Much later, Chise throws this out at Elias when the latter stoops down to Cartaphilus's level in his attempts to save her. And shortly after he himself went out of his way to label Cartaphilus this for effectively the same reasons he's using to justify his actions.