Reviews

Mar 24, 2018
Mixed Feelings
Depression. I think most of us has experienced depression at some point in life. Anyone who has can recognize the lack of energy, self-preservation, emotions (good or bad), life lust, motivations and drive. When the world feels grey and empty, and you question why you even bother with even the easiest tasks. The reason for being in such a state may be very different; the death of some close to you, money problem, bulling, stress etc. A depressed character could be winning card in a story, if portrayed right, and create relatable feelings in the viewer/reader. To follow a depressed person´s journey out of the grey fog can be very emotional and touching and make up a good story and/or characterization.

But why am I talking about depression when reviewing the new big contribution to the fantasy, magic, shounen, and slice of life genres? I will get down to that now.

Mahoutsukai no Yome (The Ancient Magus´ Bride) may be one of the most anticipated anime of late, both by fans of the manga as well newcomers, me belonging to the latter category. The visuals looked colourful and sparkly, the story appeared unique and gave the impression of caring a certain depth by embrace darker subjects such as depression and loneliness. I´m sucker for fantasy stories with loads of magic and character growth, so I had high expectations for MnY. I´m going to be honest, I was a bit disappointed. Not that the show was all that bad or boring, in many ways it holds a high quality, it just contained some bits and parts that didn´t rub me right. Mainly the relationship between Chise and Elias, the pacing, and the shows episodic nature. I will discuss those later, but let’s talk about MnY´s strong suit´s first.

MnY tells the “hidden-magical-world-in-the-real-world” kind of story, little like Harry Potter. Mages, fairies, banshees, sorceress, dragons, talking animals, and many other creatures lives side by side with humans, who doesn´t know about their exotic neighbour’s existence. Personally, I love this type of set up, it has almost endless potential to turn into something really magical. This element is what really made me watch the whole show. Each little new treat of world building, such as collecting and preparing herbs for a magical potion, exploration of mystical creatures or realms, or the art of making a wand, was accompanied by stunning visuals. I enjoyed those parts a lot. MnY slowly but caringly explores this subject, which shows us both the beauty and the dark of magic.

And of course, the art and animation are one of MnY other strong suits. The character designs have a unique and distinguished style, colourful and cleanly designed, which speaks for a great innovation ability from the creator’s side. Wit Studio is behind the animation, so if you have watched “Shingeki no Kyojin” or “Owari no Seraph” you know what to expect from it visually. Backgrounds looks detailed, colourful and all over very stunning. A dark winter forest, a blooming garden, or a living room with a crackling fire, have all a great atmosphere and detail, which makes you want to be there and experience it yourself. As mentioned before the characters have a distinct design, which luckily fits in the stunning backgrounds. The animation is clean, with very few scenes were something look out of place. Well done Wit Studio.

Normally, the slice of life genre isn´t what I prefer, I often go for more action filled and goal driven shows/stories. MnY has “it´s about the journey, not the destination” kind of narrative, which often have a “yay” or “ney” effect on me. It highly depends on the other content of the story/characters, and the enjoyment I find there. MnY has a pretty slow paced and episodic nature. This is necesserly not a bad thing, it just didn´t fully worked for me this time. I get that the main theme is Chise´s and Elias emotional journey´s, as well introducing new characters and world building, but a little clearer direction would´ve made this a more enjoyable watch to me.

As individual characters, both Chise and Elias are very interesting and fresh. I talked a bit about depression in the beginning of this review, and the reason why is because or young female protagonist is deeply depressed. Chise is not only very depressed, but also extremely lonely. Life has treated this young girl really cruelly, which has brought her to a point to where she don´t care what´s happening to her, and passively want´s to die. Chise´s journey through the grey vail of depression fog was emotional to watch, and her slow progress forward felt aligned with what happened to her. Elias is a 500-year old magical experiment gone wrong (my personal guess), belonging to no race at all. He has with guidance been able to gain control of his animalistic instincts and have learned how to interact with those around him. Elias journey is more about loneliness, alienation, and to learn what it means to be human. The depth of Chise´s and Elias problems was portrayed with care and dimension, so my expectations for deeper subjects were mostly for filled.

I mentioned before that Chise´s and Elias relationship didn´t rub me right. This section contains minor spoilers to exemplify why I had problems with it, so if you want it completely spoiler free, continue to the next section. The first thing that really bothered me after Elias bought Chise on an auction is that he declared that she is to be his apprentice and bride. A 500-year old creature who states that the 15-year old suicidal girl he just bought is to be his bride, is just wrong. It´s not like he takes her to his bed and have his way, far from it, but right there and then it became creepy. That he takes the liberty to bathe said 15-year old girl the first thing he does when they arrive at his home, only amplified that creepy feeling. And throughout the show, similar situations are not to uncommon, and most of the other characters doesn´t even raise a brow at it, and sometimes even encourage it. They have for the most part a dysfunctional relationship, were the power balance between them were quite skewed. They grow together and strengthen each other at one hand, and at the other hand, they are completely destructive to each other. There is spelled out that they depend on each other to learn about self-value, to trust people to not to leave them, and what some emotions really is. Some of it is kind of heart-warming but having the bought-slave bride thing in the background kind of ruins the beauty of it. Had they gone for just the apprentice route and let the relationship grow more naturally I would´ve liked the show so much more. I wouldn´t even have minded a romantic relationship developed later on, but Chise´s situation and behaviour remined me all too much about a kid falling prey to an adult predator.

The quality of the supporting characters varies in depth and importance, but some of them were quite nice to follow, such as Ruth, Mikhail and Alice. They were interesting characters with interesting pasts, I wouldn´t minded if they had gotten more screen time then they did.

To get to some conclusion, MnY had some brilliant parts, some mediocre parts, and some out right disturbing parts. The magic part was satisfyingly inventive, beautiful and interesting, and is the part of the show I enjoyed the most. Chise´s and Elias individual emotional journey´s were slow but nicely executed, and their coupled was at times warming to watch, and sometimes down right disturbing to watch. Some episodes were better and felt more important than others, and some I forgot almost instantly. Since I´m not a slice-of-life person in general, I won´t hold it against MnY that it stayed true to its label. Over all MnY is a good show, it just didn´t hit bulls eyes on every point for me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice Nice0
Love it Love it0
Funny Funny0
Show all
It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login