YMMV / The Ancient Magus' Bride

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Aplenty, which is to be expected when one of the main themes of the series is how ambiguous and complex relationships can be.
  • Chise Hatori. How much is Chise's propensity for putting herself at risk for the sake of helping other people due to her own innate kindness? How much is it due to her deep-seated belief that only by sacrificing herself does she earn the right to exist in the world? And how much is it due to the fact she feels she is worth less than other people, and therefore it wouldn't be so bad if she is the one to get hurt?
  • Alice Swayne. Her feelings of affection towards Renfred could easily be interpreted as romantic, especially due to how their relationship parallels Chise and Elias'. However, when she learns that Renfred sees her as a daughter, what bothers her the most is that it invalidates her efforts towards being a worthy protector for him, rather than him not being interested romantically in her. Even so, the way things played out had more than a passing resemblance to a case of a teenager feeling dejected because the adult they are interested in only sees them as a child.
  • Veronica Rickenbacker. It's clear there is a lot going on with her, despite being an ostensibly kind girl looking out for her followers. She is noted to be hard to read, and her words to Chise when the latter asks her about Philomela's situation could easily be constructed as a warning, a threat, or simple advice. Even if ultimately villainous, it is unclear how much of the kindness she displays is genuine, or fake. Her treatment of Philomela is particularly puzzling, to say the least. Are her actions surrounding Philomela, such as forcing her to be her aide and having her participate in class activities, her attempts at letting her have a more fulfilling school life? Or is she just having fun by forcing the socially awkward Philomela to get involved in things she clearly doesn't feel comfortable being a part of? Even Philomela has no idea what Veronica is thinking, and actually finds her terrifying.The reveal that she is the true mastermind behind the use of the Testament of Carnamagos raises more questions than answers. Was she aware of every step of Lizbeth's plan, and how Philomela would be sacrificed at the end of it? If so, was she okay with it? Or is the fact that it was her familiar the one that ultimately killed Lizbeth an indication that she meant to dispose of Lizbeth before she could sacrifice Philomela?
• Awesome Art: While the animation is a bit lowkey with plenty of still-, and near-still-frames, the artwork, the art-composition, the coloring and lighting of the anime is so gorgeous and detailed, it really more than makes up for it, and outright works for the shows advantage.
• Awesome Music:
  • The first opening theme, with its lovely vocals and strings, is well-known to be simply gorgeous.
  • Lindel's song is just fantastic. He really earned his other name "Echos".
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Chise. Fans either love her for her wit and growth in the story and pity her for her backstory, or feel disgruntled with her because everyone and their mother tells her how special she is and she doesn't do much in the way of action.
  • Elias. Many fans enjoy him for his design and personality, finding his Fae side adds a unique perspective. However, his devotion to Chise splits between those who find it sweet and those who find it creepy and possessive. The fact he was willing to sacrifice Stella to save Chise out of necessity and jealousy only further divided fans between those that find it understandable he'd make that choice and those who view him as little different than Josef at that point.
• Bilingual Bonus: The name of Lindel's familiar is Merituuli, which is Finnish for Sea Breeze.
• Broken Base:
  • The ending of the anime split the fandom pretty hard between those who loved it and found it to be a natural conclusion, those who hated it because Chise ends up reuniting with Elias and agreeing to become his bride so shortly after his stunt with Stella, and those who found it mediocre for different reasons, such as feeling that the final showdown could have been much more impressive.
  • The College Arc. Many in the fandom weren't keen on the idea of the series moving to a seemingly cliche school setting, and the bigger focus on the alchemists (and the human characters overall), as they feel it detracts from the magical and whimsical feel from the early series. The sudden introduction of numerous new characters is also a point of contention, particularly since many memorable, well-established characters from the early series like Lindel, Simon, Oberon, Titania, Spriggan, and Mikhail are Demoted to Extra to make room for the College Arc characters. Others, however, enjoy the increased focus on Worldbuilding, Elias becoming more of a viewpoint character, and the Character Development received by both the main couple, and the rest of the cast. They also point out that we are meant to feel as overwhelmed as Chise is when she meets all these new people, and that the old characters are still getting focus, instead of being completely sidelined by the new characters.
• Common Knowledge: Most people describe the story as a "Beauty and the Beast type" with a young girl being sold into slavery, and her developing Stockholm Syndrome for her buyer while becoming adjusted to her new circumstances. While the rest can be debated Chise sold herself into slavery because she was convinced that her presence was a detriment to those around her.
• Fan Nickname: "Bone Daddy" for Elias.
• Genius Bonus: Those familiar with English and fairy folklore will get a huge kick out of this series for its accuracy.
• Harsher in Hindsight: At Ulthar, the cat town, Elias avoids Molly's owner, mentioning that he doesn't like children because they can sometimes see past his disguise to what he really is. His backstory reveals that when he was first living with Lindel, a child saw him in Lindel's shadow when they came to a village to offer aid. The scared child told her parents, which led to the people of the village chasing the two of them out of town after mistaking Elias for a demon, and nearly ended with Elias slaughtering the villagers in self-defense.
• He Really Can Act: Even before DEVILMAN crybaby came out, Ayumu Murase shows just how much range he has in his role as Josef, especially when his voice turns from boyish and light to ominous and low to frantic and emotional in the blink of eye. It shines all the more in the scenes where Josef loses his cool or exhibits other intense emotions.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading:
  • With the parallels between Chise/Elias and Alice/Renfred, it wasn't hard for fans to read the latter relationship as also being intended to be romantic. It came as a surprise for some, then, when Renfred emphatically says he sees Alice as his daughter.
  • All of Alice's gestures of affection towards Renfred could easily be seen in a romantic light, yet when she overhears Renfred calling her his daughter, and referring to her as still a child, she gets dejected, not because he doesn't see her as a suitable romantic partner, but because he doesn't think that she should be the one protecting him, despite Alice's main mission in life being exactly that. That being said, the whole thing came across in a very Does This Remind You of Anything? sort of way.
• Ugly Cute: Elias when he was young was kind of adorable. There are even some who find Elias himself attractive. There's a reason he's called "Bone Daddy".
• Vanilla Protagonist: Early on, Chise's personality could easily be described as plain. Before Character Development kicked in, Chise's role mostly consisted of playing off of the unique and colorful creatures and characters she encountered. As such, she was in a position to be just relatable enough that she could be a vessel for the audience members to put themselves in her shoes to be in awe of the world-building and magical creatures that feature in the series.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Happens occasionally, due to Yamazaki's taste for drawing androgynous characters. The fact many of said characters will also have Gender Blender Names just adds more confusion to the mix.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Little Girls?: You will never hear the end of even some fans mistaking this work for a shoujo fantasy manga. To be fair, the plot isn't exactly unheard of in that demographic, but even so it is marketed in a shounen magazine.

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