Welcome to the Fall Season everyone! Let me introduce you to Mahoutsukai no Yome, a piece about a young woman made a Magus’s apprentice and future bride. The first week introduced us to our main characters and some basics of the world. This week sets up our first arc, gives us more information about the world and magic itself. Lets jump in!
Mahoutsukai opens with its OP, which I doubt I will ever tire of. It then shows Chise on a plane, right before she sold herself into slavery. We see glimpses of her past, her family and their treatment of her. Apparently they didn’t want her. This most likely has to do with her being a Sleigh Beggy, something I hope we learn more about. Then the dream ends and we cut to Chise in her bed, waking 2 days after episode 1. She gets up, goes to the kitchen and we see Ainsworth and the maid. Mahoutsukai gives us some information here. That the maid is named Silky and that she is a fairy. A type that does housework, more of a landlady than a maid apparently. It’s just enough information to tide us over while actually addressing her existence. After that Ainsworth details the plans for the episode.
According to Ainsworth they will be venturing to London. There they will meet some people and get Chise the basic items she will need as an apprentice. During this conversation Ainsworth finishes writing a letter. We get to see another bit of quality animation as Ainsworth turns the letter into a sort of bird, which then flies off to its recipient. Then the two head off to the city. To avoid stares because of his odd head, Ainsworth covers it with an illusion. Gives himself blonde hair and tired eyes, its relatively handsome. To bad for him though, Chise thinks it looks fake. Poor Ainsworth.
The pair soon arrives at their destination, a bookstore. That is a front however, as Ainsworth leads Chise to the back, where we see the real purpose of their visit. A room filled with magical creatures, gems and creations. There we meet Angelica Burley, an Magus Artificer. Some light hearted conversation, subtle jokes about clean money and how exactly Ainsworth got Chise. For the most part, its some good humor. The magical animals crawling everywhere are a joy to watch.
Eventually Ainsworth is sent out and Angelica spends some time alone with Chise. She explains some more about magic, the difference between it and sorcery, and what exactly she does. As a bit of a demonstration, Angelica tells Chise to make a flower out of a crystal, detailing how to do it. In line with being a special case though, Chise goes far beyond a simple flower. She thinks back to her time with her mother, a field of flowers. A flash of magic and a good portion of the room becomes covered in crystal as a field of frosted crystal forms. Ainsworth appears, telling Angelica Chise is a Sleigh Beggy, yet his over the shoulder look appears very sinister here. Perhaps he isn’t as good natured as we are lead to believe.
Angelic forgives Chise for what occurred, to her surprise, and simply asks her to clean it up. Meanwhile Angelica herself prepares the items Ainsworth came shopping for in the first place. With their business concluded, Ainsworth and Chise head back home. There is some conversation on the walk, Ainsworth learning more about Chise, before the two arrive home. There we see someone new, a priest named Simon Cullum. No one in the house seems to like Simon, but apparently he has business. He places 3 envelopes on the table and tasks Ainsworth to deal with the problems. Their business concluded, Simon leaves and Ainsworth mentions that its time for their honeymoon.
The episode ends with the two walking across Iceland, bundled up. They arrived to check up on some dragons. In a bit of a rushed way, one suddenly appears in front of Chise, grabbing her and flying away. We see a rider, who mentions that they are heading to the “Last Land of the Dragons”. Cut to the ED. All in all I enjoyed the episode. Lots of pretty scenes, some good information and we appear to have started a new arc. My only concern is the pacing at the end. We rushed right into the whole dragon’s business and Chise getting kidnapped. We needed to jump into an arc, I understand, but this felt a bit rushed.
Regardless I am looking forward to the next episode, and I hope you are to. See you next week!
Not to offend. But this read more like a summary than an impression of the episode. More than writing point by point on what happened, I think it should be more about the sense you got from the episode, why is it rushed, and any other more proper opinions on what it did good or did bad that stood out.
What I’m not sure if I like is the premise of Chise selling herself. Unlike the trope of having a bad home like in Harry Potter, it feels odd to me, that selling herself brought her to a (so far) better home.
The Honeymoon comments could be interpret as romantic yet they sounded out of place, and despite being mentioned twice in the episode, I don’t know if those were a joke or not.
Finally, the jokes and gags played with chibi character designs feel a bit forced, like the ones Full Metal Alchemist had. I suppose it’s just to add levity.
Thank you. I have worried about this for the past few weeks but never knew what others thought. I wanted to put more of my thoughts in, but I have a tendency to be wordy and dont want to get to long.
I’ll cut down on the point by point and get more general thoughts in. Point-by-point was simply easier to go through everything that occurred in a reasonable order.
For your other comments. For me the self-slavery will make it or break it by how perfect her life ends up being here. I mentioned the sinister overtones of Ainsworth in certain places, so I expect things to not be all flowers and roses for her.
Honeymoon comments I think were a joke? I interpreted it as such. Finally, yes the chibi jokes were a bit much. Small things like the clean money gag or the Arcanist pointing out that he bought a girl at a slave auction being suspicious were the ones I prefered more of. The chibi aspect just takes away.
I am also covering Inuyashiki this season, so if you are interested in that, make sure to tell me your thoughts there to!
I expect my writing will change alot this season.
I do think the bride part really is unnecessary for the show IMHO. The apprentice and enter magical world parts could hold it more than enough. That said from what I have read there is a reason for the bride part.
The slavery issue did not grate as much as I thought. Partly because Chise did not feel like a slave. From the treatment of the “seller” to her own stance it seemed like she was always master of her destiny in the whole scene. We will have to see how it plays out though with the Elias-Chise interaction.
From what I have read, we will eventually learn that Ainsworth thinks a bride is actually a “Woman who lives with him”. He has some issues understanding regular human society.
If this is true, then yay. Id love to see him with some gaps in his knowledge.
That’s interesting, because right now he’s just kind of creeping me out (treating her like a dog & calling her puppy, touching her face without asking, etc), he just keeps reminding me of a possessive boyfriend-type character, which just makes my skin crawl…
Anyways, thanks for the review! Next time definitely don’t be afraid to add more of your opinions on the series and reactions to certain scenes, etc. It helps give readers like me more of a sense of what you felt was strong or weak about an episode, which is helpful in deciding whether to watch some series or not.
I appreciate the feedback. Still new to this. Most of the writing I have done before has been analytical, because of my career, so adding in opinion is something I will be doing more and more of.
The next episode should hopefully deal with that.
I also agree the show would be better off, it needs no paedophilic connotations, not in the slightest. Humorous or not. Not on top of brushing off slavery and romanticizing the Stockholm syndrome. I’m a slave, but hey I’m free, so it’s cool. And maybe he even likes me!
So far, the show is falling short of its promises (of the OVAs), selling me some kind of twisted shoujo dream instead. I mean, Chise already had to be saved once and now she gets kidnapped? I sincerely hope the show will start to get it’s shit together. I’m not much hopeful, since the settings and characters all look like from a story that tries to sell ‘living happily ever after in seclusion’.
Something horribly irks me about it. Is this a psychological horror about magic an escape from reality for little girls?
Depends on how she gets out of this kidnapping. If she gets out on her own, then I think its fine. Shes empowering herself. If Ainsworth has to save her again, then there will be issues.
Based on the OP, I think its not going to be all sunshine and roses forever though. Some shots of Ainsworth give me a sinister overtone to him.
Personally, I dont see this as stockholm syndrome. Shes not trapped there, she can leave whenever she wants. Ainsworth said as much in the first episode.
He saved her, but in a way that gives him complete power over her. He’s got money, he’s got power, he’s got establishment, he OWNS her. He holds her in moral debt – that’s not how you do relationships. He gives her food, she continues to live because of him. She knows not where she is, why is she there or what’s about to happen. She is a captive. And she likes it (I mean the audience is supposed to).
Can she do whatever? There certainly is an illusion of that being a case, but let’s not get ahead. Just because he isn’t abusing his power, doesn’t mean he is not holding it. He CAN just command her anything he wants and she would obey, let’s not pretend.
She left for 5 minutes and he is onto her bringing her back. It does not matter why. The fact is, she can’t just leave. He holds her like she is his property. He gives her commands (when he gets serious). He forces future onto her without much thought about what she wants. He already got her naked.
It’s just not funny. I see glorified SS pretty clearly, but then again, I’m just a lousy shrink-wannabe.
I think it’s a bit unfair to hold this all against the author, since ultimately, I think this is just another of numerous cases where media presents SS as something useful and meaningful, because the writer himself does not notice, because he himself has been sold the same food for all these years, like everybody else.
But, I see a problem, so I feel the urge to point it out.
Since the author appears to appreciate some basic feedback, I’ll happily chip in with my own.
Didn’t read it.
As someone who basically just watched the thing, I truly do not need it reiterated in written form. I’m here for opinions (the more eccentric and opinionated, the better), I want people (writers) to tell me I’m wrong and sell me their ideas, if they can’t do that, I leave.
However, my ultimate point is: who cares about what I think and want. You should write in the format YOU prefer to write in, write about things YOU feel comfortable writing about in length you feel is necessary to make a point and keep doing that, but while striving to reach a balance between what you want, what the blog owner wants and what the readers want. So I guess, take what you can from the feedback, but find your own thing. If you need to make a mistake to find it, so be it.
Its nice to know my opinion is sought after. I promise it will become more prevalent. Nerves of a fledgling writer I suppose.
On a second reading of my post I do think I was being stupid. If I can explain it I do think that coming from the depiction of slavery in Bahamut VS, to the depiction of slavery in Ancient Magus Bride, might had mucked up my empathy meter. Now that I think about it, I am a bit uncomfortable with the whole slavery and bride thing. I will still give the show a chance because the premise beyond that sounds interesting.
I will point this out though. Chise was suicidal when she decided to sell herself to slavery. There is a part of me that thinks this partly explains her reaction to the whole situation. I guess in one way Elias does stand under an inquisition know. How he uses the undoubtedly real power he has here over her will greatly determine the shows worth for me. On another level how Chise reacts to that situation.
I also feel the slavery bride stuff is the biggest question mark for me right now. I, on the other hand, agree and believe it’s intentional that Chise was suicidal trying to sell herself to slavery. She’s an emotional damaged girl to the point she basically gave up her whole life (now that I think about it, where does the money go to? Chise or the agency????) Her saying “I don’t handle pain very well” cut me deeply. Really hope they address the bride and slavery thing with reasonable thoughts because they’re playing with fire here.
Agency got the money. So yes she was sold as a slave even if she was ok with it (in this sense she was like most ancient greek slaves who would be people who sold themselves to slavery to escape debt).
Yeah, I will really be despondent if they muck it up. Because I actually do like the series vibe a lot, and despite everything think Elias is an interesting character.
First off, it’s overwhelmingly obvious that this is a show deep in Celtic folklore. And slavery was something that existed in Celtic Britain. There were also various pre-Christian/early medieval forms of marriage in Wales and Ireland (as well as among the Saxons et al), and they were mostly distinguished by “what was the legal/social status of each partner” and “how much does each person own, coming in”.
The show mixes this up with apprenticeship, which could be either a form of fosterage, or a form of indentured servitude.
And finally, we mix things up with older attitudes towards age expectations. In most of these societies, Our Heroine would be an adult for most legal purposes, other than selling land.
If you bring a modern girl into a radically different set of societal norms, of course it is going to be creepy at best. That doesn’t mean that the author is advocating Fairyland Magical Laws For All; in fact, there seems to be some societal satire going on, both of modern and more ancient ways. Throw in the fantasy elements, and it is extremely hard to tell what will happen next.
But actually, it was extremely important for most Celtic societies to make sure that the guest or new arrival received the full three forms of hospitality: food, drink, and a bath. Usually clothes, too. Nakedness was not all that big a thing, and being shown to the bath by your host or your host’s wife, instead of a servant, was a sign of high status.
The first ep seems to have been playing a joke with this. Kind of a hentai joke, but a lot of the Celtic legends included as much earthy humor as the Japanese ones.
And of course a Silkie/selkie/selchie is a sealwoman. So either this one has a sealskin somewhere hidden around the house, or somebody burned it or stole it and she’s stuck in this form. (Haven’t read the manga.)
Anyway… Ainsworth also seems to be “stuck” in another form — that of a dancer wearing a stag-skull costume, such as is worn in the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. The fake head has replaced his real head.
(There’s a lot of speculation, but it actually seems to be a variation on a standard hobbyhorse dance, from relatively modern times. So Ainsworth is probably a newbie, from a fairy’s POV, even though he seems old to the human mages at the slave auction.)
So it may be that some of the problem is that Ainsworth has been forgetting normal human ways, even from his own time, and replacing them with the magical ones.
Re: “Bride” meaning “a woman who lives in the same house without marrying or consummating the marriage” — Again, this shows up in a lot of fairy tales and legends. The implication is usually that the guy is inviting the woman to break a curse; then they can get married and live happily ever after.
Actually, even in medieval times in most of Europe, they were very into making sure the guest got a chance to take a nice hot bath, first thing. Partly as a survival of Roman niceties, and partly because there was a lot of cold and wet in Europe.
So it shows up as a trope in medieval adventure stories and love stories. The knight is more likely to get shown to a bath by his male host if it’s an adventure, and more likely to get shown in by his wife or daughter if it’s a love story. Heh. (Monty Python’s Holy Grail movie parodies this bit at one point.)
“slavery was something that existed”
There is no problem with depiction of slavery. It’s the way it’s presented. In the same way I hate on glorification of war in western games, I hate on glorification of emotional abuse in romance or objectification of women in harem shows. It is hypocritical, contradictory and plain stupid.
I understand the distaste of the glorification of it, but I dont see how its hypocritical or not worth showing.
The distasteful aspects of things like Slavery or Emotional Abuse deserve to be depicted as well. If everything depicted Slavery and those who practice it as irredeemably evil, things would get stale quickly and I think we would lose something. Does Mahoutsukai depict it poorly? We will find out. But I see no reason to lambast it so early.
Its also worth noting, Japan doesn’t have the same history with Slavery that the West does. So I am sure there are some very different connotations to it over there.
I dislike hijacking comment section with personal agendas and I do not want to cause a flame, but I suppose as far as we have a civilized discussion, more comments will not hurt anyone. In the end we will have to agree to differences in our opinions, which are always based on intuition coming from the subjective experiences and knowledge we gained through our lives. But expressing them and talking them out may bring about greater understanding, so here I go:
“The distasteful aspects deserve to be depicted”
Again, there is never problem with depiction of . It’s always about presentation and the message.
When someone hurts you, you should be hurt. If you fall in love with that person instead (let’s exaggerate) and it is presented as if everything is ok, we have a problem.
I’m only judging the 2 episodes here, but any normal person in Chise’s place would gtfo of there. Noone has the right to run my life, not Elias, nor anyone and it does not matter whether they are malicious vampire or good guy Greg. Yet this show says it does not matter as long as the guy has ‘right’ intentions.
Does anyone buy this? Did Chise actually decide to stay (without being manipulated and basically forced against any will she might have had)? No. Why doesn’t the adult do the responsible thing and ask her directly: “do you want to stay here?”. Would he say ‘okey’ if she said no?
On top of it, the series has no breaks when it comes to making a joke of all this, like stalking (he saved her so it is alright), intimate physical contact, giving no chance to express yourself, suggesting marriage, or leaving her with more strangers that encourage her to do weird shit (with fairies she almost loses her life, with Angelica’s magic teaching getting out of hand)… Is this for real?
These would work out, maybe, if she gave consent, but she did not, nor she can because guess what, she is a child! This makes it completely wrong.
Chise: “Apprentice or bride, which one do I take seriously?”
How about neither?!
The show completely ignores this option, taking away any power/freedom she may have. Instead, we have secondary characters that ‘oppose’ Elias and provide an illusion that Chise can, in theory, leave whenever she wants. Right.
The moment Elias bought Chise and ‘proved’ he is not a pedo was the moment we ‘established’ a premise that everything he says is good and Chise should (and will) do. Elias was intentionally framed as mysterious and powerful when he came to buy Chise and the show definitely wanted to provide catharsis by putting her in position of no control, yet not hurting her, which would (in theory) cause her to realize her fear and hopelessness is just what she perceives, not the reality.
The problem however left us in situation of Elias doing everything and Chise the doll complying because he ‘is her saviour’ or because he didn’t hurt her before. It’s not about whether he did, is or will hurt her, it is only about whether he can. She has no defenses against him and he IS exploiting it everytime he so much as tells her ‘it’s allright’. It’s manipulation of her will without her intention. It is what parents do. But he is not her parent. He is just a guy. Who bought her! It’s sick. And here it is framed as a natural thing and even romantically.
Hypocrisy: “feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not”
I hope I have managed to explain where I’m coming from. I don’t mean this show is bad or terribly wrong, but it commits to fallacies that I can not overlook and it hurts particularly when the show takes itself seriously. This one isn’t objectively portraying Chise’s circumstances. It has a bias to slowly grow them intimate and unfortunately, not in the best way so far.
TLDR
One does not simply shock traumatized children back on their feet by isolating them in his magical castle.
“like stalking”, dangerous magical forest. Seemed to me like a parent making sure a child got home safe. He only intervened when it got dangerous. Shes only 16 afterall.
“intimate physical contact”, Im not sure intimate is the correct word here, as it was just putting her in a bath. Remember cultural differences.
“suggesting marriage”, its been said before, but I dont believe Elias knows what marriage or a bride is. Not as we do atleast. Its part of his character that he knows little of actual society.
“leaving her with more strangers that encourage her to do weird shit”, The fairies approached her in the middle of the night, so he didnt leave her with them. Magic hardly seems weird, as its suggested what she was doing was innocent enough by the young child of Angelica’s who entered earlier in the scene.
Personally, I disagree with the assessment. It was her agency that got her here in the first place, as she placed herself into slavery. If she was forced into this, you’d have a point, but its made clear she chose this, for whatever reason. You say no one would stay in that house if given the option to leave, yet is being stranded homeless in a foreign country better?
I also dont see it as romantic, not yet atleast. More of a surrogate father/daughter.
Each their own though.
Im not going to respond to each of the points (you’ve made some good arguments and I believe we can leave it at that), instead I’ll focus on the one that is interesting:
“I dont believe Elias knows what marriage is”
The knowledge of the character is not what matters here, it is the intended effect of the message the viewer receives. Behind every joke, therein hides a bit of truth. It is not the character that takes a jab at Chise’s predicament, it is the show itself.
PS: Thx for not leaving me out there like a self-serving lunatic pinning his stupidly long comment badges all over the net.
Someone takes the time to write out a long post detailing their opinions and reasons why they believe that, I figure it would be rude to not at the very least acknowledge it.
I’m just glad that folks here can discuss such emotionally-charged topics without devolving into slinging ad hominems at each other. It’s a thoughtful exchange, and I’m closer to Lenlo in opinion, so I appreciate Victim’s counterargument.
I think victim has a point. The only defense I might give to the show is the fact that Chise seemed to be between committing suicide and doing what she did. Now I have never been in deep depression in my life (U have been depressed, but not to the suicide point) so I cannot say how people in that condition react. But perhaps Chise’s passiveness might have to do with it. Victim is right, Elias is not her father. But perhaps we should start viewing him as that? The incongruity between what he thinks he is doing “marriage-bride-apprentiship” and what he is doing “father figure” might be part of the goal of the show. I do think if you decide to see Elias as a father-figure (or parent if you wish to leave out the gender relations) things become a bit less weird….except for the bloody marriage thing! If the show is trying to say marriage is a bit like being a parent, that is fallacious. If it is trying to say, ha look at this guy who mixes being a parent/mentor with being married, that is also fallacious. I still think the whole marriage angle was needless (there are other ways to show Elias lack of knowledge of humans).
Anyway I am choosing to see Elias as a parent-figure, and willing to tolerate, barely the shows terrible attempt at a meta-joke. Because I do like Elias, and do like the premise. So let us see where they are taking it.
It does seem that Chise is currently trying to figure out whether to see Elias as a parent figure or a romantic partner, but first and foremost, she needs to see him as an individual and I think that is where this show is headed to. Whatever will be between them at that point is fine.
I agree that seeing Elias as a parent puts the show into a better light, but there is a process that is a prerequisite of that and I feel like its been largely skipped over.
I do believe this will simply stop matter in the episodes to come.