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This is a cult movie. Seriously.

And I don't mean a movie with a cult following, I mean a movie directly connected with a current Japanese cult, created to spread it's screwed up propaganda.

And trust me it's not the only one either. There are others just like it tied directly back to the same cult as well.

I came across this movie around maybe 6 years ago on vacation with my family in the middle of the night while scrolling on youtube. Since I was pretty new to the whole anime thing and would literally watch whatever I got my hands on, legal or youtube-wise, I ... thought why not.

My memory is pretty blurry about the experience as a whole, but I could remember a few weird things. 1, the reincarnation of Buddha into a japanese man, an athiest father(the antagonistic 'non-believer) being proven wrong about his son's illness by the powers of religion, and this really weird battle between human Buddha and this guy in dark clothing that I assumed to be their version of the Devil(since I was a Catholic school student at the time).

After a while, I forgot about the movie's existence for the next some years, while my tastes in anime had evolved. Then a youtuber I follow, ThePedanticRomantic, posted a new video, 'The Japanese Cult Producing 20+ Years Of Anime'. I highly recommend you to check this out.

Though she opens up the vid with mentioning the infamous cult that lead the devastating Sarin Gas Attacks of 1995, she quickly moves on to another similar cult that has been rising in popularity and more specifically has been making many original anime films for many years, this cult is called Happy Science. And yes, these are the people behind this movie and many more of it's like.

Though some of their movies may have people finding them uplifting and whatnot, when watching them be aware that these are tools to spread their ideology. This is not a religion like Buddhism(which I thought it originally was), Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and etc.

This is a CULT, and it deserves to be categorized as such. Though they may give off a sound foundation that you might at first find harmless ,what's added on top to that foundation is a bunch of screwed agendas like their denial of Japanese war crimes and their leader proclaiming to be the incarnation of not just the Greek God Hermes, but also Buddha, Jesus, and allegedly even Yodah from Star Wars.

And yet, one of the weirdest things I've learned of this was that this movie was able to get an official Western release and Dub by Eleven Arts, the same people who licensed Maquia and Liz and the Blue Bird, And this wasn't the only Happy Science movie licensed by them as well.

Whatever you do, don't support this movies and other movies connected to this cult, because Happpy Science spreads dangerous far-right Japanese nationalist agendas that can easily be taken seriously by anyone, and even if viewers can't outright make out this propaganda through their viewings, just watching it alone indirectly supports and highly problematic group that can be considered as Japan's Alt-Right.

Whatever you do, don't support this movie, it's sibling movies, or it's parents at Happy Science it any way.

Besides, the movie is pretty shit anyway so why bother.

For more of a solid grasp on this whole situation check out 'The Japanese Cult Producing 20+ Years Of Anime' by ThePedanticRomantic on Youtube.

This is going to be a rather short review. If you don't agree with what I'm saying, then that's great, I just hope you just respect what I'm to say.

How I really, REALLY, wanted this show to be my favorite. There's so much that should be up my alley and for the most part is! Amazing animation, kickin' soundtrack, fantastic environment, and highly enjoyable characters.

Yet the story was such a mess, didn't know what to be or knew where to go. Some episodes it wants to be a completely world building story, next a completely character driven, and then in the blink of an ... eye there is a great enemy ready to destroy the world.

This show doesn't have a tone problem, but more like a mix of a pacing problem and a focus problem. It doesn't know how to even out it's focus on all the things I just listed, instead using a whole episode or two to go all out and explain it instead of balancing the info to build up to the climax while attracting the viewer's intrigue by equally mixing character development and the fleshing out of their world building.

I don't think that having more than 12 episodes would've helped the series with it's problems, as now a second season already exists. I just feel it has some fat here and there it just needs to trim while needing to readjust it's focus on other areas.

No offense to those who like it, but I can say for myself and some others that the vampire plot was either disappointing or poorly set up to begin with. Though there's a second season out now, meaning more episodes to flesh out the vampires to someone's argument, it holds no merit in this case as this season is being judged and graded separately. It must take responsibility for handling it the way it did, which though not awful, could've been done a lot better as well.

I have yet to see Season 2 while currently writing this, and I can only hope it fixed the problems I have with it's first season, giving more of a gateway to gush about it instead.

This is not so much a review as more of expressing personal thoughts, so please take this with a grain of salt.
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The Ancient Magus Bride was hyped up a lot for a long while before it's release, following up a year long ova series for the manga to introduce the said upcoming media. The ova was used to help grow a more hyped fan base, and I found myself being one of the many who jumped aboard, but alas not without caution as I did so.

Even though I was pleased by the ova, giving it a 7 out of 10, I could still make out ... some problems that could potentially hold the potential of the show back a few notches. Examples of such were pacing, misfocus on characters and plot points, and directing that at times was indecisive about it's theme.

Yet even with these rather apparent flaws, I was still able to find some good enjoyment and awe from the short series, and made myself believe that these mistakes would be gone by time of airing the official series.

Oh how wrong I was.

To trace back, I did pick up the manga and read to the first chapter. That's it. Never got back to it because I thought the anime was going to do most of the good show don't tell for me.

Yet even though I haven't picked up the manga in over 4 months time, I have come across screenshots of it online. And what I can get from all that I've read and seen, there is very much a consistent theme happening on those pages. The vibe I get from the manga is a magic fairy tale like feel, yet with an insidious feel lurking in the shadow of the magic.

Like blending Disney, Grimm Brothers and harry potter together to create it's own dark fantasy, an all time favorite genre of mine, and a solid theme from what I've seen.

The anime fails to capture it.

The anime's theme even without the manga to compare was always indecisive, the directing having to difficultly maneuver between the lighter and more heart warming scenes to the much more grimmer and horrific scenes. Even though not impossible, still highly difficult, and could only be done well by a professional or someone talented specifically in smoothly connecting such opposing tones.

The Director even though not bad, still doesn't have the skill to direct this media as of now. He has potential, but I don't think he's there yet, and his work on this anime I'd say shouldn't be given anything higher than a 6 to a light 7. In my opinion, I don't think he did anything to improve and degrade the media, only keep it in place.

The animation is rather solid, so I don't have many complaints. The scenes jarring even though are consequence of the animation, not nearly as much as that of the directing and screen writing. I couldn't find an official screenwriter for either the ova series or the official anime series, so I don't have much to say but an okay yet rather flawed outcome by someone with around just as much experience as screenwriting as the director with his directing. To chalk it all up, good story with good animation, with mediocre directing and bits of jarring writing.

Because of my lack of knowledge with the source material, I don't have much of a right to nitpick this adaptation, if not call it a bad one, which I'm not. The manga could've gone down hill and fans believed it to better media than the original, or it could be that the original was great and that adaptation suited the positive fan's needs.
Or it could be fans that loved the original and felt betrayed as well by the anime, only more because of their closer connection leading them to hate the anime. Because of lacking that closer connection like others, I'm not as shaken as some others who are also upset by the result, yet my disappointment still exists, and enough so to write this messy rant. Even though I aim to complete this series and give it a rather positive score, 7/10 that is, I won't be returning for it's next season. Unless like one punch man there will be a new director and maybe a person listed for series composition at the helm, people who are actually talented at their jobs. Yet because of that being highly unlikely, I'll probably return to the manga in the near future.

I don't mean to throw shade at the director and people in charge of the series composition, but I won't deny my saltiness towards them. Yet I only mean to be critical of them, their strengths, but mostly focus on the weaknesses I hope for them to realize and take on assignments with that in mind if they really want to put out some real amazing anime.

This just isn't one of them.