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.
On Lindel’s front, we get more on him from both the backstory and his time with Chise. What I find most interesting here is he calls Chise “grandaughter”. This means first that he considers Elias his “son”, and second that he sees Elias as more of a father to Chise rather than a husband. To compound on this, just like Angelica from last episode, Lindel calls Chise on her relationship with Elias. Its nice to see the characters themselves addressing this and recognizing the problems in it. As for Lindel himself, we learn he has “healing hands” and that magic is a “dying breed”. He is basically in the same boat as the dragons, with even his eyes seeming inhuman.
Finally we have Chise, who really doesn’t do much this episode, and mostly gets talked at. Her role this episode is to act as an audience surrogate, so that Lindel has someone to talk to. Considering they waited this long before relegating Chise to this job, I am ok with it. Mahoutsukai also starts a personal quest to craft a wand, a nice call-back to episode 2. I was hoping we would get to see that, so there better be more to it than just chopping off a branch. I wish there was more to talk about in regards to Chise, but she really didn’t do much of note. Her interactions with Ruth continue to be amusing and sweet though, so atleast we got more of those.
Story and world lore wise there were a lot of small things in this episode. Chise mentions how Lindel looks like Elias’s human form, which is a nice detail. The ice paths created by the Reindeer and the culture specific clothing for Lindel in his flashback, that of a Sami, both were unnecessary but added to their scenes. We also meet Rahab, Lindels master. We didn’t get much from her, so for now she is just a pretty face with a name, but I suspect that will change. Overall it was a simple episode, with a straight forward story, designed to setup a prolonged multi-episode flashback. Elias really needed the backstory, and pairing a story of his growth with Chise growing and crafting her own wand is a good pairing. So long as Mahoutsukai doesn’t drag, the next few episodes should be fun.
In total, a fun episode of Mahoutsukai. There were some eh moments, mostly the end with more chibi art, but overall it was good. Dull in places, but good. The backstories weren’t jam packed, letting everything move at a good pace. The main story these flashbacks are being told in has potential, so long as Chise actually has more to do in regards to making the wand. Silke, Lindel’s familiar, was cute and much to my surprise was actually a good addition. I am looking forward to seeing more of her!
But tell me what you think. Did you think it was to slow? Or was this right up your alley? Let me know, and ill see you next week!
