Category: Mahoutsukai no Yome

Welcome to another week of Mahoutsukai no Yome. This week continues Chise’s bad relationship with water, Elias’s with Fae and gives Silky a history. Lets jump in!

To start off, I want to talk about the best part of this episode, that being Silky’s history and alone time. For the longest time Silky was a pointless background character, and she largely still is. But now she is a character with a backstory and relationships outside of our leads. Silky’s solo time is spent well, with her cleaning the entire house and demonstrating her loneliness as time passes. Mahoutsukai even uses the chibi are they have been shoving down our throats in the perfect manner, since Silky cant talk. Mahoutsukai is much more successful at making me care about Silky here than say, Joel. Most likely because of the lack of speech, forcing the artists and the watched to pay more attention to Silky’s movements and expressions. It’s a great buildup to her backstory and the better half of the episode.

Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 15 [There is no place like home]” →

Hello and welcome to the new year! New Year, a new Cour for Mahoutsukai no Yome, this time with slightly more plot. These past two weeks have been a bumpy ride of Mahoutsukai, with plenty to talk about. So let’s jump in!

To start off, the new OP is terrible. The music isn’t as good and the actual animation part is mostly just reused shots from the 1st cour. Initially I thought this was a placeholder, but episode 14 proved that wasn’t the case. Disappointing, considering the quality of the 1st OP. As far as animation and art goes everywhere else, it all looks good. There are some interesting bits like episode 14’s ending scene with Joel and Chise’s creation of the Fairy Ointment. Mahoutsukai continues to make the magic and lore surrounding it the most interesting part of its story. More so even than the characters or the non-existent overarching plot. From the looks of things though, the latter is starting to change.

Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 13/14 [East, West, Homes Best]/[Looks breed love]” →

Welcome to the end of Mahoutsukai’s first cour! Apologies for the lateness of this review. I had expected another to come out over Christmas and to simply do a double feature, but Mahoutsukai pulled on over on me! This week we finish up Chise’s wand, get to see Grandfather Nevin again and have an almost literal character rebirth. Lets jump in!

Mahoutsukai finishes up Chise’s wand arc this week with a bang, quite literally. Chise’s flight as a Phoenix was a great payoff. You can tell they put a lot of work into the scene, as she soars through the air and the lighting on her face and body changes. The sweeping Icelandic coastline and the fluffy cloudscape both stood out to me, really selling this whole “rebirth” theme Chise was rocking at the time. Sadly these shots came at the expense of others. Many of the shots of the Dragon Aerie were reused from previous episodes, and Lindel’s song simply didn’t have the magic it had last episode. Its a standout melody, but using the exact same version so soon after its first reveal? It simply wasn’t as special, especially compared to the use of the OP in Chise’s transformation right after it. All in all though, a decent job.

Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 12 [Better to ask the way than go astray]” →

Welcome to another week of Mahoutsukai! Apologies for the lateness of this post. Mahoutsukai is difficult to write something meaningful about, and with Christmas right around the corner I have been rather busy. This week we have a continuation of Elias’s story, another step in Chise’s wand construction and more barely dressed elves! Lets jump in.

Picking up where we left off last week, Lindel continues with Elias’s story. Mahoutsukai did a lot right with this continued story. There was some comedy, without the use of chibi, with small things like Elias falling while skiing. There was some darkness, and interesting world bits, with Lindel trying to heal and Elias freaking everyone out. We even had a show of Elias learning as he uses the spruce to get them to safety! It all made for an enjoyable first half of the episode. It did still have issues however, such as the random chibi after Elias’s admitting to eating humans, or the odd opening shot of Elias in his home. I understand they wanted to show his lonliness, with Chise being off on her own adventure, but it just felt off. Overall though Elias’s story was a hit and framed Chise’s growth this episode well enough.

Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 11 [Lovers ever run before the clock]” →

Welcome to week 10 of Mahoutsukai! Finally, oh so finally, we have are given some backstory on Elias! Our mysterious male(?) lead gets some explanation. We also get the start of a Chise only arc and finally some more information on Lindel. Lets jump in!

As the main focus of this weeks episode, naturally I have to talk about Elias first. Turns out, Elias has some form of amnesia, so we only get his story since coming to the human world. Told from Lindel’s perspective, is interesting to see how modern Elias differs from his old childlike version. He’s taller and acts more like a child, which both explains Lindel’s relationship with him more and has some genuine humor. Elias drinking the sea-water or shrinking to fit in the door were much better jokes than anything the Chibi are has given us. It also did a decent job of showing Elias a bit more animal than the man he is now. Like the zoom shot on Lindel’s neck as they eat their soup. All in all, not a jam packed backstory, but its more than we had before and I expect more to come soon.

Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 10 [We Live and Learn]” →

Hello and welcome to another week of Mahoutsukai! Lets hop right into it.

First and foremost, let’s talk about Chise. As the main heroine of the show, naturally it’s going to focus on her a lot. This week zooms in on her relationship with Elias and what it actually is. Characters and situations comment on it throughout the whole episode. From Simon the Priest mentioning Elias is rubbing off on her, to Angelica calling out her Stockholm Syndrome. Even the little side story about the Leannan Sidhe, which I will talk about later, is a commentary her relationship. Usually, I would applaud this sort of commentary, making the characters think about their lives. But with Chise, while I like how she has grown, we know based on previous experiences she won’t question anything. Its not that it’s bad writing, that’s far from the case, I just find it uninteresting to watch.
Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 9 [None so deaf as those who will not hear]” →

Hello and welcome to another week of Mahoutsukai. This week, as predicted, Chise gets a new friend, our evil Sorcerer gets a name, and Chibi art ruins scenes. Lets jump in.

To start off, lets talk about Chise. Its a good week for her. She shows off her own magic power and smarts with the Tarantula Hawks, a wasp species that hunts spiders. She shows to have potential equal to or above Elias’s, with devouring his hand accidentally, and she binds a familiar. Who, by the way, I am looking forward to seeing more of. Our pair needed a third person to bounce off of. For Chise, I am glad she is standing out more and more, as this is her story.  Shes no longer the cowering new slave from episode one. However, there are still some things that bother me.

Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 8 [Let Sleeping Dogs Lie]” →

Welcome to what is, in my opinion so far, the most beautiful episode of Mahoutsukai. Stunning art, world-building and character progression await you inside. Lets jump in.

The best part of Mahoutsukai this week to me was easily the art/music and the world-building. I bring these up first because they were easily the most standout parts of the episode. The entrance of Titania, the Gaelic (?) folk-like music. Her and Oberon’s designs, the filters/lighting whenever they do anything was all fantastic. I could do without the weirdness of Titania’s brazier, but shes Fey, i’ll let it go. This all did a lot to really sell Titania’s other-worldliness. The forest changes just by her presence, every time she moved there was a soft sound and then she just appears, we never actually see her “walk”. Oberon just appears next to Chise once we pan back over to her, surprising even Elias. Mahoutsukai did a good job of depicting the Queen and King of Tir na nOg and the Summer Court and making the Fey stand out.

Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 6 [The Faerie Queene]” →

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.

Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 5 [Love Conquers All]” →

This week on Mahoutsukai we get a Kingdom of Cats, a Serial Kitten-Killer turned formless evil and some new not-so-nice faces.

Mahoutsukai did a lot right this week in my opinion. It created an interesting 2-3 episode story arc with the Cat Killer formless evil. It introduced us to the Sorcerers and setup what will probably end up being a prolonged conflict. Finally, it had Chise finally start doing things, regardless of how reluctant she might be. That last one may not seem important, however when a story is able to proceed regardless of its lead, a viewer will start to ask why they are even there. We will get to that in a moment though, so for now lets jump in.

Continue reading “Mahoutsukai no Yome – 4 [Everything Must Have a Beginning]” →