So The Ancient Magus' Bride is a show I'm eagerly waiting for when Fall 2017 finally decides to arrive. I have not touched the manga so I knew little about it, but the synopsis and the magical elements piqued my interest enough to check out this prequel OVA that took a year to finish airing 3 eps. After finishing it, I'm not exactly sure why this was necessary.
The plot is simply a back story to the main girl Chise Hatori, seeing what her life was like as a child way before she found the world of magic. The drama shown during these episodes are pretty standard, we've all seen the same type of scenario before. You have the struggles of a strange and lonely orphan trying to find a place to call home, (The Ugly Duckling) and the forsaken love of a mysterious librarian. (similar to The Little Mermaid, and no not the happy Disney version) To be honest, this didn't do much to get me invested into the main series, as it felt kinda pointless to see the past of these characters that I have never met before I've actually gotten to know more about them. There is not given much reason to actually care about Chise, you’re just suddenly given a character that you're supposed to like and feel sorry for. This may have been enough for some people to care about her, say they have read the source and/or are able to relate to her as a character, but I personally feel that I needed to see more from Chise before I could actually see her as someone I should harbour feelings towards. Maybe if I had read the manga I would have enjoyed it more, but as someone that's never watched or read anything else from the series, I'm just left with a lacklustre taste in my mouth.
I'd recommend watching this after the main series is finished airing or at least reading a decent amount of the manga, it might have been more impactful if I had actually gotten to know who these people are before delving into their previous lives. As something to start off an anime adaptation, I enjoyed the experience but I'm not too impressed with this OVA.
Send feedback if you have any, thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts on this!
