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.
For Chise, Mahoutsukai continues her wand creating journey. I was happy to see there was more to it than simply cutting a branch off of Nevin. Now she has to carve it and, once done, have Lindel make the finishing touches. That’s good, as most likely we will be getting one more episode of Elias backstory and serene Chise wand building. Wand building aside, Chise didn’t have much to do this week. She filled in for the audience so Lindel could explain things to us/her. The only scene Chise really had an active role in was at the end, when talking to Elias. That was nice, as we saw more of Elias being alone, showing how cold his life was before Chise came into it. I hope this new realization translates to Elias being more open in future episodes. More talkative about the world and their place in it.
As for the world and general feel of the episode, as is often the case, this is the best part of Mahoutsukai. The random, mystical, things just popping up are the best. Somehow, someway, they manage to fit in. I suspect this is because of the effort Mahoutsukai as put into building its world, now allowing things like this to appear and not seem out of place. Whatever it is, its great, as the Sea Dragon floating in the water and the ending Elf dance were both beautiful scenes. They clearly put a lot of effort into both, from the scales on the Serpent, to the music and lake/lights of the dance. Its scenes like these that are keeping me watching Mahoutsukai week to week. That and the art because when Mahoutsukai wants to be, it can be very pretty, even in still scenes.
Speaking of animation, I have largely avoided it when talking of Mahoutsukai because there simply wasn’t very much of it. Now though I think we have enough examples to make a ruling. Mahoutsukai uses CGI pretty intelligently, limiting it to mystical effects or inconsequential back ground stuff. We see examples of this in Elias’s thorns, and the multitude of flower petals in this episode and previous ones. In general this has worked, because they were either very simple or not the main focus of the shot. In terms of 2D animation though, Mahoutsukai is pretty modest. There are lots of effects, but most scenes are limited to talking heads and small body movements. The best bit of 2D animation I have found so far was Elias in this episode, charging the villagers. Even with that though there’s no truly outstanding “animation”. Just outstanding art.
All in all, another average episode of Mahoutsukai. Its found its niche, that being scenery and pretty lights, and its gonna stick to it. The story is loose, which fits the the slow serene atmosphere (most of the time), and gives the characters time to breathe. However a lot of people are looking for more, they are looking for activity, agency, just like me. In those areas Mahoutsukai falls short and thats what makes writing about it each week difficult. Atleast we get a pretty wallpaper and some music each week though, right?
I’ll see you all next week! Christmas is this weekend, so unless Mahoutsukai blows my mind, I will most likely merge it and the following episode 13 into a single post. The Inuyashiki final review post will also go up sometime next week as time allows. Apologies for the wait and happy holidays!
