The Ancient Magus' Bride

The Ancient Magus' Bride (魔法使いの嫁) is a 24 episode fantasy series based on the manga of the same name by Yamazaki Kore.  The series aired between the Fall of 2017 and the Winter of 2018.

 

      Chise Hatori has always been able to interact with invisible spirits and beings.  This ability lead to her father abandoning her and her mother committing suicide at a young age.  After her mothers death she lived with distant relatives but her abilities further caused them to distance themselves from her.  Chise, seeing no future for herself, ends up voluntarily selling herself into slavery.  She perks the interest of a number of mages at the auction, held in London and is purchased by a powerful being named Elias Ainsworth.  Elias is a large and intimidating creature with the skull of a cow or ox.  His origins and genetic makeup are unknown.  He has walked the planet for centuries and has gained considerable power in the world of magic.  He initially tells Chise that he bought her to make her his bride, in an attempt to make him more empathetic to other living things.  He also plans to make her his apprentice in order to allow her to tap into her incredible magical powers.  Chise is a special being with immense potential but a fragile body.  Elias understands that many things will seek her out for their own uses and feels he must protect her from the dangerous world around them.

    Elias provides the first real home that Chise has had in a long time, a place of welcome and warmth in the countryside of modern day England.  She is quickly exposed to the greater dangers of the world that more humans can not perceive.  All manner of powerful beings begin to appear around her as she learns the ways of the magic user from Elias.  Fae inhibit every corner of the world, mostly indifferent to humans but some desire to lure them back to their home for unknown reasons.  Along with magicians, alchemists also travel the land offering supernatural services.  Magicians and alchemists generally do not trust each other.  An alchemist named Renfred has an uneasy history with Elias but his apprentice, Alice, soon befriends Chise.  An ancient being named Cartaphilus crosses paths with them, on his eternal search for release from his eternally dying body.  Chise is given the skin of a wolf, allowing her the powers of transformation, from an equally old faerie named Ashen Eye, but he is not benevolent towards humans, seeing them as things to amuse himself with.  Chise is a rare being of magical ability known as a sleih beggy.  They have a strong aptitude towards magic but at the cost of their lives, as the inability to control the flow of magic usually destroys them before long.  Elias will do what he can to keep her safe as long as possible, but when others seek her out for her supernatural abilities that protection may not be enough. 

 

    I watched the series as it originally aired, beginning with the three episode preview OAV series then on to the actual TV series.  That was many years ago now at this point and with the continuation of the story beginning again, I felt it was time for a refresher and to finally finish the review of the original series.  I don't normally enjoy supernatural/magical anime, largely due to many of them falling in the rote shonen battle format.  This series however is far from that type of story.  It is a story of two tragic beings who find each other and lean on each other in times of weakness as they try to make sense of their place in the world.  Much of the world is taken from classic European magical mythology and given a bit of a Japanese animist twist.  The story, its characters and its world is very immersive.  There is much mystery with in and part of the joy of going through the story is unraveling those mysteries.

 

    The main characters are generally uncomfortable in the world around them,  keeping their thoughts to themselves and hiding as much of their inner thoughts as possible.  Its hard to say if this is lazy design as many of the key players in the story tend to share similar traits, or this could be construed as a side effect of the world they live in and the things they deal with.  Either way it gives the story an air of melancholy and ennui.  Chise literally puts herself into slavery because she was unable to commit suicide and just wanted to be with anyone instead of alone.  Elias is a creature of mysterious and unknown origins who is unsure if he can ever share the mindset that humans have.  He isn't even sure if he cares enough about lacking those thought processes to pursue any real change to them, as shown in his willingness to sacrifice another human in an attempt to safe Chise at one point.Elias' master himself voluntarily chooses isolation as he has no desire to interact with other humans and has done so for centuries.    The artwork is enjoyable and sometimes delves into super deform for comical relief.  The effects of the magical world around are what really stand out in the design though along with the composition of shots when some important characters are around.  This is a story that doesn't have any definite resolution or actual central narration beyond the viewer learning about its world along with Chise.  But sometimes, particularly when done well, that is enough.  The show has always reminded me of the tone and feel of Mushi-shi, which is quite welcome.

 

    The series has long been available in dub and sub on Crunchyroll and is well worth the time.