Oct 8, 2024
I really wanted to love this series, and for the first 16 episodes of the first season (produced by Wit Studio), I did. The series had a wonderful world-building, atmosphere that draws you in.
I don’t understand why they decided to go with a school arc in what’s supposed to be a 'Beauty and the Beast' type story. Elias doesn’t fit into that setting at all and feels completely insignificant. As a viewer, it’s uncomfortable to watch him awkwardly try to insert himself into everything, almost like a stalker, while he’s clearly out of place. It's Chise's show now. If you were to compare the screen
...
time between Elias and Chise, it’s about 1 to 20 in her favor
Speaking of Chise as a character, I understand that she needed to grow and not remain broken, but there's a big difference between that and what we actually got. She is got op af which I don't personally like. The best and shortest description I can give for Chise now is: 'Allen Walker from D.Gray-man, but with an ugly boyfriend as a distinguishing factor.' Been there, done that, it’s boring and feels out of place, especially in an anime titled The Ancient Magus' Bride. Chise's tendency to stick her nose into everything, combined with her 'Mary Sue' behavior, has become exhausting.
I swear, the story is treating Elias with total disrespect this season, he is reduced to a walking Q&A session/encyclopedia. They treat him no better than Ruth (the dog); in fact, it feels like he's the one on a leash. Chise constantly disregards his wishes, and instead, he’s the one always following her. They ride him as mount ffs. Even in the last episode Chise fails to consider sharing her problems with Elias and instead turns to Joseph dude while being strangely intimate with him. Chise just comes off as unlikable. She can’t keep her promise to stop risking her life for no reason either
Elias character went downhill for me after Elias was revealed to be a giant man-child, jealous of a 10-year-old spending time with Chise. It feels like the author made this decision in an attempt to make it 'less weird' that Elias took a 15-year-old as his bride. By portraying him as someone who doesn’t fully understand emotions and discovers them with Chise like a "just like a child" the story overlooks the inherent power imbalance that exists regardless. To make things less weird, I kept waiting for a moment where Elias would say something like, 'You know you can leave at any time,' but that moment never came. Instead, we got a weird ass pretend wedding arranged by Chise just to calm Elias down and stop his jealousy. The wedding felt completely out of place—why would they go through with that right after their big fight, when their relationship was more unstable than ever?
I don’t even want to talk about the new supporting characters—they're boring and bland. I really have no interest in learning more about them or seeing them again.
From an animation quality standpoint, Studio Kafka did a great job. The source material is the real issue—it’s lacking and disappointing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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