I am torn on this weeks episode of Mahoutsukai no Yome. On one hand there we have stunning art and animations, while on the other pacing issues and odd character choices. Lots to talk about this week, so lets jump right in.
Lets start positive, with the animation and general art. Most everything here was great. In particular I enjoyed the background/scenery, with forests and the beautiful field of blue flowers at the end. More than just being beautiful though the scenes did a great job of showing rather than telling. The inside of Matthews shed, with a single lantern flame and the cats hanging from the ceiling, looked great. Could have been lighter in places so we could see some more details, but I understand why that wast the case.
As far as animation goes, Mahoutsukai had a number of highs and only a few lows. For example I thought Elias’s entrance, springing from the shadow in a hail of thorns, looked quite nice. You could tell the thorns were CG in places, but it still looked good. Another standout moment was Mina and the result of the potion. I have never seen someone simply… liquefy before. Psycho Pass had explosions of a sort, but this was nowhere near as violent, it just… happened. Very nice. The low points however include the out of place chibi animations, which completely ruins the tone of the episode, and Mina becoming flower petals. The first is obvious, but for the second, I just felt like they overlay-ed the effect onto her. It was less animation and more post-production, which left me a little disappointed.
Speaking of disappointing, lets talk about the story. I understand if others disagree with my assessment, but I had a number of issues with this week. The pacing and execution of the flashback story felt weak to me, and the handling, or lack thereof, of last weeks cliffhanger leaves much to be desired. Specifically, the flashback rushed through the story beats, knowing it only had this episode, and suffered for it. Mahoutsukai gave us little time to process each event before running into the next. The only buildup to Matthews reveal were comments from side characters literal seconds before the actual reveal. The reveal came last week yes, but I still feel buildup would have been useful here.
Next up we have the Chise and Elias situation, which has both some good and some bad. The good is that Chise finally started being proactive. Chise tore herself out of the hostage situation to save Arial, showing she has finally started caring about things. She made her own decision on how to save Mina & Matthew when everyone else was content to just let them fade away. These are good, shes making progress. However with this progress we see some serious Stockholm Syndrome in regards to Elias, saying she belongs to him because he gave her value. Its very weird and I worry that she doesn’t even question or bother with the allegations Renfred made.
All in all, a decent episode. If you don’t want to worry about things like Stockholm Syndrome, if you want to simply enjoy a nice fantasy story, then Mahoutsukai has and will continue to have you covered I think. The animations and general style are good. The magic of the world is grounded in real world myths and practices, so there is a lot to like. However if you like to dissect a show in depth, I fear that themes surrounding Chise will put many of your off.
Hopefully next week Chise will start asking some questions and Elias will start giving some answers. See you then!
I have to say the chibi stuff is really annoying.
I feel really silly repeating myself every week, but this anime impresses me so much, I just have to write something.
I agree with you about the pacing. It seems like the show’s creators aren’t good at handling cliffhangers.
I don’t see flaws in the characters at all, even though I was actually searching for something this time around:). All I see is interesting, slow paced character development, and original, unique characters.
Please explain “original”.
The chibi jokes, are a mood turn off. I don’t remember the manga, having this many, and even Overlord tone it down. Like I’ve said chibi skits in themselves aren’t bad, BUT, it’s like delivering a joke, and most times it hasn’t hit.
With that out of the way, I still feel a Harry Potter vibe, in the sense that Chise seems like she has a protagonist invulnerability. I’ll like to see the character move forward and have more agency.
The chibi jokes this episode just ruined the tension of certain scenes. They really need to tone it down. Im fine with the cartoony aspects of Ariel, like when shes recovering from the lead glove, but we dont need full chibi after Chise gets herself out of a hostage situation.
You know, I’m starting to wonder if this series is a case of adaptation failure, for me at least. I just read 10 chapters of the manga, and while it still has the skeevy, romanticized Stockholm Syndrome-ish elements that turn me off, somehow manga Chise is a whole lot more likeable to me than anime Chise
Its an interesting thought. There are times I think about reading the manga, but always decide not to too avoid spoilers