Hello and welcome to another week of Mahoutsukai. This a good week for us, as Chise becomes more independent, Elias hulks out and information comes to light about the Sorcerers dark plot. Lets jump in.
To start off, let’s talk about Chise. Compared to the first episode, she is like a different person now. She has confidence and a new found enjoyment of life. This comes through in most everything she does this episode. She studies under a tree, surrounded by fluffy magical creatures. She brews her own potions and does work without Elias looking over her shoulder. Chise even defends herself against spirits and humans with her own power and knowledge. Its nice to see her starting to stand on her own to feet and handle herself. Naturally fixing larger problems is beyond her, but she is clearly growing through the episodes. I can’t wait to see where she goes magic and ability wise, for when she stands next to Elias instead of behind him.
Speaking of Elias, he doesn’t have much screen time this episode. He is in the background, getting Chise to the location of the plot and acting as an explanation for her increased competence. Beyond that however, he isn’t even present outside the beginning and ending of the episode. In that ending though we see a new side, as he transforms. It has been hinted/mentioned before in Mahoutsukai that Elias is something between Fey and Human. Up until now, we have only seen his “human” side. Now however, as he transforms and abandons all semblance of humanity, we see the ghastly for that I can only think of as his true form. This is who Elias really is, a wolf pretending to be a sheep. Next episode is no doubt focused on him and I am looking forward to a much needed backstory on Elias.
Next I have to mention the story. The two set out to complete the last of the 3 tasks given by Simon the priest, which is to deal with a Church Grim. A black dog which protects/haunts a church. In general it’s a fine hook. We have the mystery of the dog, the mysticism that surrounds graveyards and a continuation of the over-arching Sorcerer plot. It works, but it has issues. First it is obvious from the start that the Ulysses, the dog, is going to become Chise’s familiar. Not only was Elias talking about her needing one, but she reminds Ulysses of his old owner/sister (?) with her red hair. I am glad Ulysses will become the familiar, he has a good design and the symbology of a Church Grim is interesting. I just wish it wasn’t made so obvious.
Mahoutsukai also uses it times this week to expand on our Sorcerous villains and why they do what they do. We open the episode with some shady dealings between Renfred and the Short Sorcerer. With that and Alice’s comments later on, its clear that Renfred is being threatened into doing these things. I am glad the two are a little more complex than we were initially led to believe, I just hope that the Short Sorcerer doesn’t get the same treatment. Mahoutsukai isn’t complicated or faux-philosophical enough to need every villain to have a sympathetic or tragic backstory. The classic evil fairy tail villain works just fine for it, and the sympathetic pair of Alice and Renfred are enough.
Finally, lets talk about the animation and world building. The designs of the fluffy creatures, the background art and the evil spirits were all good to me. The spirit which tried to get Chise to speak reminded me of Koh in Avatar, but I would not be surprised to find a real world equivalent. Afterall everything else has had one so far, even the Church Grim. Speaking of the Church Grim, his little story is interesting. I suspect he was originally a dog, whose owner died, and thus he became a Grim. Hes clearly not a werewolf and the “sister” routine with Isabelle just doesn’t feel right. Personally, I love this. The Brothers Grimm were always my favorite Fairy Tales, so I like a bit of darkness in mine.
All in all another good episode. During conversations with Ulysses, I couldn’t help but feel an awkward silence. Like the scenes were dragging on at times, yet no one else I talk to agrees. The story is manageable and Mahoutsukai gave us a suitable cliff-hanger to draw us into next week. This is a good opportunity to expand on Elias, give us some background information. Hopefully some questions get answered and more get introduced.
Until then, see you next week!
