READERS BEWARE: there's old versions of the 1st volume's chapters that mention witches or magicians instead of magi as they should.
The Ancient Magus' Bride hits so many niche interests just right and I'm sure my 15yo self would have gone gaga over the series. A wild but gorgeous fantasy world that is realistically integrated with the modern age and isn't overwhelming to keep track of. A (female) MC who experiences a lot of growth and ends up being very fun to follow. The monster, both in body and in nature, who offers her a new chance at life, a cage of thorns in which she can have the peace to heal until she must claw her way out. Their really odd and unique relationship, platonic, familiar, with some romance bait thrown into the mix. How their worst traits make them clash and how this pushes them to better themselves. The good selection of supporting cast (I fucking love Alice and Zoe ;_;) made up of nuanced people, many of them carrying interesting flaws or struggles.
I could go on, but rather I want to move on to the 3 main issues I've had with this series. These seem less prevalent in the latest volumes but given the approaching climax I wouldn't be surprised if they were on hold until the next arc introduction. They are:
* Lack of clarity with speech bubbles. You'll have a mere 3 people in a scene and you can't make out to whom the balloon is pointing, and often times it's impossible to tell from context (maybe it's the translation?);
* Too much love for in media res. It's cheap shock value because it just causes momentary confusion or upset at thinking something got skipped over. Way too often we finish an arc then skip ahead to the midst of the next, and then we go back to explain how did they get there. The earliest example I can give is the dragon episode intro. It wasn't a glaring situation but it was certainly pointless;
* Too many characters with interesting stories to tell but not enough time spent with them. It's like too many cuts in an action film, we spend a page checking in with a character, another on another group... Speaking of, remember Ruth? Remember when Ruth was a brother character and not some tool that only shows up near the climactic end of the arc? Yea.
About the art, it started out a bit on the shakey side? Chise could've stood to look a bit more her age and Elias's face went through plenty of changes. At some point these issues ceased to be and now it just looks gorgeous and cute.
