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.
My concerns have to do with consistency and predictability of where the story is going. First, consistency. Chise was stabbed through last week by everyone’s favorite chimera Nina Isabelle, yet this week she acts like nothing happened. Even a small bit about her being healed by someone would have been nice. For predictability, Mahoutsukai looks like its going down the road of repeated conflict with Joseph, rather than weekly magical story time. At this point, I am unsure which one I would enjoy more, but my initial thoughts made me think the former.
Next up lets talk about Joseph, AKA Caraphilus, AKA The Midget Sorcerer. He is an acceptable villain, with a backstory worthy of an epic level D&D campaign. Cursed by the Son of God (Jesus y’all) so that he can never die, but his body rots so he needs new parts. We know his motivation now, he is searching for an immortal body. Whether that be through Chimera’s like Isabelle or potions like the Cat Murderer. I wish his insanity was done better than the class “Laughing, feel no pain, homicidal maniac” though. Its a trope for a reason. However, he has served well enough so far.
As far as world building goes, everything was done well. The Will-o-Wisp, was interesting though I remember them being more malevolent in folk-lore. The familiar binding ritual, which seemed very similar to a marriage ceremony more than anything else, stood out. The holly being the Crown of Thorns from Jesus, Silver Thread representing the thread of life, ivy being eternity and the Oroborus were all interesting details. Someone really did their homework here. The connections made with real world mysticism in Mahoutsukai’s magic add a lot to its world.
Finally, I have to mention once again, the Chibi art. Can this just go away? It consistently ruins scenes. Scenes which were once dramatic and dark, get shattered by bright colors and simple drawings. Tension washes away when Elias turns into a plush toy. It’s a shame as, for the most part, the animation and art works. The characters are detailed, the environments are pretty and the effects such as CGI chains are acceptable. In the Chibi art though, none of that exists. Its just sub-par still frames and sliding characters. It’s a shame.
All in all, another acceptable week. At this point Mahousukai has established what it’s about and where it’s going. If you don’t like it with the conclusion of its 2nd major arc, I doubt there will be much you will enjoy coming up. However, if you’re like me and have found these first 8 episodes enjoyable or perhaps even phenomenal, I think the next few months will be very good to you. Personally, I’m not sure how much I enjoy Mahoutsukai, just that I do. The individual arcs have promise, it’s only small details of each that have rubbed me the wrong way. Here’s hoping with all of our characters established, the next arc starts to kick things up a notch.
See you then!
It was a enjoyable episode but yes the Chibi still ruined conditions.
This anime really feels like it takes place in a Harry Potter world. The villain seems to be the same like the one in the original anime of Full Metal Alchemist.
It did show a grow in Chise as a character, with the sleeping potion, the empathy towards Elias, and subconsciously using her power to defend from Cartafilo.
All in all, seems like this episode ends act 1 of this series. And like everyone notices it, the chibi stuff doesn’t work in this anime. It’s too much of a whiplash and makes the staff look like they were cutting corners since several of these moments aren’t even jokes, more like quirky moments. That’s also a criticism the original Full Metal Alchemist had ironically.
The subplot of Ruth sadly was undercut with the OVAs apparently being later in the story, considering he’s already in the house on those. Since these two episode had a lot things his emotional moment with chimera Isabelle didn’t felt with as much gravitas as it could have taken.
Finally I don’t know if I like Cartafilo feeling confused it made him feel a bit random in his goals. Though to be fair it could be foreshadowing the memories of his latest host. Kinda like Naraku in Inuyasha.
Now that I remember, the other girl also having an orphan origin and finding happiness with a man she calls master. Seems a bit on the nose, I suppose.