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Nov 10, 2018
Looking for a true romance, one with suspense, fluff, and drama? Then I will make this incredibly clear that this anime is not for you! I feel like I have to make this clear because I went into this anime based on description, genre, and rating expecting a romance and it really did not deliver.
It has a lot of good qualities however. Anime and game lovers will find themselves identifying with the characters, and you’ll find yourself laughing at the exaggerated, but still relatable content. The art is also really cute, all the characters are distinct and different despite all being categorized as otaku’s.
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You get a peek into the lives of otaku’s of all different types, cosplay, crossplay, manga, videogames, anime, bl, etc. The main fandoms are all represented at least briefly. In its purest form, this anime is just about balancing otaku life with work life, that’s it.
Still don’t believe me this isn’t a romance? Then I will spoil (but not really) the romance involved in this anime. For starters, the couple gets together by the end of episode one and it’s treated more like a joke. There is only one kiss scene the entire anime and all it is, is a peck (and it’s not even at the end of the series that this happens, so yea...no kiss at the end either) and again, it’s treated more like a joke. There’s really no development shown in the relationship, no misunderstands, or ups and downs. It’s more like two coworkers who share similar interests that happen to be a couple.
I will confess that my score may be on the lower end than what this anime deserves. It’s actually a pretty good light-hearted, comedy. The art is cute, the characters are distinct and fun, and I admittedly got some laughs out of it, but I didn’t get what I wanted out of it and thus ended up rather disappointed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 20, 2018
When watching Mahoutsukai no Yome, here’s what to expect;
The highlights of the series include:
*A beautiful fantasy world, that makes you want to explore it.
*Eye-catching art where every character is distinguishable and easy to tell apart.
*Simplistic, but unique plot.
*Enjoyable music, specifically the first OP and second ED are my favs.
The downfalls of the series include:
*Character personalities fall flat.
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*Fails at building up to the ‘mood’.
*Repetitive Story
*Can be confusing, doesn’t fully explain things.
I’ll now go into more detail on these aspects listed, from which point on there will be spoilers so tread carefully. First, I’ll start with the highlights.
One of the major aspects I have to commend Mahoutsukai no Yome on is it’s world building. All the different locations, creatures, and scenery is beautifully done and well presented where you can immerse yourself in the magical, fantasy world with little effort. From the town of cats, land of dragons, magical forests, the world of faeries, all of the setting changes can stand on their own and are very beautifully animated. This major appeal of the anime is only possible thanks to the unique spin on a simplistic plot paired with the rather charming art.
My original attraction to this anime was the plot. Before I watched it, It came off to me as a different take of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in a way; a beastly-looking creature captures a girl and they fall in love. Though there are some aspects of my original expectations in the series, I would say romance is only part of the focus. This series tries to add a little bit of everything into it; a touch of humor, some horror, mild romance, a lot of fantasy, etcetc. Though there’s a tons of magician/sorcerer/etc anime out there, this one stands out that in the sense it stays away from the typical shounen route that many of them go down. I do however, think the series would’ve done better if it had honed in on a particular genre, but I’ll go into that more later.
Another good aspect of this anime was the art, especially the scenery though the characters were well animated too. Each character looked very different from the next. I really liked how each character had its own distinguishable features, different face structures, eye shapes, etc. The artist definitely put in the time to make each character stand out with their appearance.
Lastly, the music was also very enjoyable and memorable. I specifically really enjoyed the first OP, and the last ED of the series. There’s also some scenes where a character or two sings which I thought was very pretty.
Now for the Downfalls of this anime, which I have to admit really put a huge dent in the series.
For starters, though the artist put a lot of work into making each individual character stand out, the same effort was not put into the personalities unfortunately. I could describe almost every character as ‘nice’ with only one or two quirks, but overall everyone is relatively flat. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of character development in the series, though it tries to force you to think there is with ‘Chise gaining confidence’ and ‘Ainsworth feeling human emotions’, but it feels artificial and not well hashed out.
Not only does the character personalities feel incomplete, but so does a lot of the scenes. The series some reason fell into a weird spiral of repetition where Chise and Ainsworth get some sort of task, Chise gets hurt or uses too much magic and almost dies, Ainsworth freaks out, Chise passes out for days(or even weeks), and then she wakes up and all is good again. Then this exact loop happens several times throughout the series. As a result of this vicious cycle, every ‘mood’ the series tried to create seemed to fall short. The chibi-art moment’s that was suppose to serve as comedy relief felt poorly timed, the serious moments lacked any depth, and so on. This is why I feel that the series should’ve picked a genre (either romance, mystery/horror, comedy, etc) and used one of those as the main focus. It would’ve made the series feel more complete and solid as a whole.
Lastly, and one of the most frustrating things about this series, is that it left more questions than answers. What was the relationship between Ashen Eye and Cartaphilus? Also, what was up with Simon? All the characters who met him showed in obvious dislike/distrust towards him, which I took as clear foreshadowing of something but in the end it was brushed off as nothing. Also, the series states that there is a dislike between the Mages and the Sorcerers, but it’s never explained why and it’s not taken very seriously considering not long after this is stated, everyone’s all buddy-buddy afterward. Also, what happened to Chise’s dad and brother? These questions and more spiraled on and on through my head when the series ended and it made me very unsettled.
In saying all this, keep in mind I did score it a seven in enjoyment despite all of its major plot/character issues. For whatever reason, I still found myself liking the characters despite their lacking - personalities, and though I was frustrated with all my questions at the end, I never found myself feeling bored while watching it. Plus, I’m a sucker for good art. Overall, I wouldn’t go into this series with very high expectations, and unless you are an avid fantasy-genre fan that will allow you to look past it’s glaring flaws, this anime will be complete bust for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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