Mahou Tsukai no Yome - The Ancient Magus' Bride (Anime Thread)

Well, the thing's pretty cute so....

Man, this series feels... well, enchanted is probably the perfect word here, actually. I'm really excited to see more of this world.

The manga is like that too, in so many instances.

Despite taking place in the modern world, it really has this fairy tail quality to it. Chise might not have went with the fairies in the first episode, but she very much been spirited away already.

Spirited away by a boneheaded benefactor who doesn't seem to have a solid grasp on what marriage actually constitutes.

Silky doting on Chise was adorable as heck.

Something I noticed is that they completely reanimated the scene where Angelica punches Elias compared to the one they used in the first trailer.

I forget if the little salamander thing also follows Chise home in the manga, but that really caught me offguard. I also found it really funny how Chise didn't even budge as the thing started climbed on her, girl was like a statue.

For better or worse she's used to weird critters crawling all over her body.

@Shlugo: I guess you meant fairy tale and not fairy tail? .-. Since latter doesn't really bring quality to mind xD

What... ohhh, I see. Yeah, I obviously meant fairy tale.

See what you did, Mashima!

And now I'm getting Heaven's Feel flashbacks. Thanks.

edited 18th Oct '17 8:56:33 AM by Lyendith

I... didn't think of that. Yeesh.

New episode, new beautiful artwork.

We see the Land of the Dragons, their last refuge in this age... and once again we see how messed up Chise is even as she gets some important lessons from an Ancient Dragon at the end of his life... "The Living Should Not Envy the Dead". Beautiful episode.

Seriously, this series' beauty is gonna make me cry. ;__; I thought Kujira would be this season's Made In Abyss, but this might be a better candidate for the title actually.

I like how Chise calls the old dragon "kono hito" (this person) when she meets him. The youngsters are a bit annoying though. =.="

Yeah, this episode was tremendously beautiful, and moving. Passing of a life so old, and filled with such dignity. This series really hit hard with the feels.

That was a beautiful line, and it more than anything made me feel sorry for Chise.

I also have to commend the organic creature designs, especially how the show avoided the standard dragon look.

So episode 2 didn't need that cliffhanger, but episode 3 more than made up for it.

New episode and first case we get that isn't resolved in a single episode. We see the country of Cats! And boy, what a beautiful King they have. Gorgeous cat. Chise gets her first magic assignment and we see some very disturbing events in the past

Man, things are getting super tense now. I hope Chise won't listen to the obvious bad guy but she probably will.

I'm still not sure what happened in the past? Why did that guy started killing cats?

I'm eagerly waiting for the 5th episode, this is the arc where things start getting really good at least in my opinion.

Not actually seen the episode yet but IIRC that gets explained a bit later.

So yeah, follow up on my previous post.

This developed basically exactly as I was expecting it to, Chise is bounced around like an object with no agency of her own. It just really kills the show for me. Things are being done to her rather than her doing things herself. She's been kidnapped, what, three times in five episodes and has needed to be saved by others in every single one of them. Being thrown into bodies of water seems to be her specific thing.

It's the format of trashiest shojo dressed up real nice.

The sole light of hope is that at least in this episode she chose to do something on her own but even then it was something others told her to do and she was kind of under duress, so it feels like they gave her a choice with no meaning.

Also I really dislike use of seeing visions of the root of troubles of the episode for no good reason just so we can have the back story. Even if there's some (weak) justification for it in story, it's still a crutch not in line with good storytelling.

It feels to me that the show is purely coasting on the beauty of its animation and the general popularity of the fantastical settings to make do, as writing is clearly not its strength. It is pretty though, so the coasting seems pretty easy.

edited 29th Oct '17 6:34:16 AM by GabrieltheThird

I wasn't expecting talking cats, for some reason, even though I probably should have.

Isn't Chise being bounced around kind of the point…? Her lack of reaction to… anything seems to be part of her trauma to me.

^^She is character who starts as really traumatized and passive who goes through slow character development/healing process through the thing. Thats all I can say pretty much

Chise starts out having mostly given up on life and resigning to become someone's property just so she could feel wanted for once in her life. Of course she's not going to be a plucky, active heroine. This is not a show about Chise being awesome and doing cool things, it's one about her getting healed through the encounters she makes with the supernatural world.

Basically. Chise being passive is justified (my perspective might be a bit biased already because I've seen the OVAs and there Chise is more chipper).

Re: the guy killing cats: probably some weird ritual to transfer the cats' extra lives into his wife, which he probably learned from some jerk.