Reviews

The college arc is meant to expand on the world further, but this time focusing on young alchemists. The alchemists are explained to be more common and different from mages. This might be wrong, but the way the season presented the information, it seems that alchemists are weaker than mages, yet they still can do most things that a mage can. The takeaway is that mages draw their power from making contracts with gods and spirits, alchemists prefer magical materials and craft their way out of situations. I would have liked to see this expanded on futher, there is a hint that the alchemy system is more or less based on the law of equal exchange, but it's not clear, since living beings are simply mana bateries. It is also not explained if anyone can be an alchemist or mage, or you have to be born special.

It was interesting to see that the alchemist families still follow the traditional ways of old nobility. It does not seem out of place, since the story basically takes place in the UK and such things would not be so much out of place there. The idea of alchemists poisoning each other and how that means they will never eat or drink what other alchemists give them is a cool one. This season did show that being an alchemist is not all good, and some people simply leave to pursue other stuff like investments, or just a simple life outside the family. I think we are missing some sort of explanation if some form of governments or intelligence agencies are aware of the presense of alchemists or mages, because they could distrupt the economy and the order of things if they mess around with magic too much.

You can detach your own soul without consequence, wut ?

Part 2 focused on Chise growing as a character. In season 1 she starts as an almost suicidal, very down character. She then proceeds to heal slowly. Season 2 part one Chise is already growing more selfish, which is exactly what she needs to become integrated into society. Fianlly, season 2 part 2 is about Chise helping someone else regain their self a classmate by the name of Philomela. It's fair to say that this part is focused primarily on Philomela. The story makes a lot of sense on paper, a person who thinks themselves only as a victim who managed to get over it, rallies some people to save another person who is in the same position. The power of friendship overcoming abuse. The villain of the story has a pretty clear motivation, raising Philomela without love and treating her as a slave. This Cindarella like story drags out a bit to long, and while it reaches a satisfying conclusion, I can not say that I liked this season more than the first. I think that it would be more interesting to get more world building questions answered, unless Philomela will somehow serve a very important role in the future (which I doubt, since she is not special in any way). We also failed to see how she will deal with her situation serving another family. Will she break away from the system completely ? Can she do that ? Are there any consequences for her or will she be viewed only as a victim ? She did bring the book to school knowing that it would endanger people, and she didn't go to reach out for help.