Anime: Mahou Tsukai no Yome

When the anime began airing, the community was split in half. There were those amazed with the fantastical world and the premise of an emotionally damaged female protagonist being given a second chance in life. And then there were those who 5 minutes into the opening scene of the OVAs had ‘nope’d out. It was another pro-slavery series where it’s fine to own slaves if you treat them well. This sick power fantasy that is mostly encountered in bottom of the barrel stories (which so happen to be mostly isekai) is enough to alienate all those who are not willing to see past it. And you can’t blame them, since there truly isn’t such a thing as good slavery. You either own slaves or you don’t. However you treat them does not change the fact you own them, they are in dept to you, and you are allowed to do anything you like to them. In most cases, it’s okay to marry them. And look at the title. Oh my, it’s literally a magus buying a slave to be his wife. How do you excuse this?

You ignore it. It’s as simple as that. You pretend it’s not there and you proceed to enjoy whatever else the show is offering. Pretty sceneries, a fantasy realm, and a frail protagonist that is slowly exploring it. Here lies the second turn-off point that halves the audience for a second time. Those who are content with a very simple slice of life in a magical realm type of story will find it very good. Those who want something other than that will be bored out of their minds, for there is nothing much going on in terms of plot. Yes, the heroine is exploring the fantasy realm, but that is more of a simple excuse to have world building. There is no real objective since it’s just whatever magical thing she encounters on an almost episodic fashion and what she learns about that something, is often done via infodumps by the magus or one of his associates. She otherwise has no agency or urgency over what is going on around her. Because she is a slave, bought to be the magus wife. You see how the same problem keeps appearing?

That aside, the show doesn’t really do much with its own premise, which is not supposed to be ‘the plotless daily life of my future slave wife’. It has a tortured girl getting to live with a tortured magician, both of which had felt alienation. They were supposed to help each other overcome their emotional baggage by one offering what the other lacked. This doesn’t go anywhere. In fact, it’s almost forgotten and all you are left with is a no-stakes tour around the magical land of the magus. Which can be pretty to look at and learn more about, if that is all you expect, but lacks any real meaning and it certainly is not what the premise promised the viewer. There is no danger, no stakes, no worry about the characters failing and ruining everything they were trying to achieve. The protagonist often comes off as a Mary Sue with a super magical ability that fixes everything right away and with no real effort. If that doesn’t work from time to time, then the magus will be the one who jumps in to deflate the tension with his own super hax magic. The show is constantly assuring you there is never going to be something terribly bad in their lives or that they will ever mature through their mistakes and struggles. Because they never have to struggle; it’s a show you are watching to relax. Assuming you can remain relaxed while knowing the heroine is a slave who was bought to be someone’s wife.

Thus, as a whole, this anime is vapid air. It doesn’t give you what it promises, it doesn’t build on what its premise was implying, and it promotes slavery as fine if you treat your slaves nicely. Before you marry them.

Review
The OVAs got the setting laid out. Magical fantasy, a broken protagonist, a mysterious mage with an animal skull for a head, and a lot of magical creatures. All of that backed by an outstanding soundtrack and a solid presentation. We could only hope the full thing, the series, would use that to deliver us one of the best shows of this season. The result? Well, although The Ancient Magus' Bride is a great show, it fails to meet all the high expectations it gave us with those touching three episodes last year.

Once again, this is the tale of Chise, an orphan who ended up being under the tutelage of a mysterious powerful mage in the outskirts of London. The mage, known as Elias Ainsworth, is not exactly human and wishes to learn about the human society as he teaches the secrets of magic to young Chise.

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1. A lack of an objective
   The first thing you could notice about The Ancient Magus' Bride is its somewhat lack of purpose. You could say this is about Chise and Elias getting enamored as in a Beast and Beauty, but this is hardly true until much later. The start of the show is much more like a long presentation of the world, going around the fictional magical Britain as Chise meets dragons, other mages, and understands she is sadly not just an abandoned orphan, but a girl with immense hidden power and cursed by it.
   
   Not that emotional...
   The OVAs presented us a devastating tale of Chise and the librarian, two persons doomed by fate and trying to conciliate their loss and rejection. It established a dark, sad mood within a setting filled with magic. The natural progression from that would be a show consumed by these feelings, where the people in it would suffer and find happiness only in the small things as their reality fall apart around themselves. Yet... that is hardly what we get. The series focus a lot more on Chise and Elias, in how she worships him, how she sees him as the only person in the world that cares for her and whom she must care about.
   
   And they are both boring people
   Yup. Sadly, young Chise was a much more interesting girl to explore. She was affected by her surroundings and enchanted with the magical things. The old Chise is more like an emotionless doll just going with the flow, a flow led by Elias, which, although still mysterious enough, can hardly be an exciting creature to watch. From their voice-acting to their lack of movement and expressions, these two form a couple that can hardly become interesting even with all the fantastic world around them.
   
   So...?
   You might ask, if the protagonists lack impact, what does the show has to offer to lure us in? That is a hard question though. There is no blast here, no big thing that evolves, no intertwining plots, no new charming characters. The Ancient Magus' Bride works though, and the reason lies in the details. There are a lot of small things to wonder, from the stunning sound track, the beautiful scenery, and the interesting layout of this magical land where dragons, faerie queens, and ancient wizards roam the land. These colorful entities of classical knowledge fill the screen to give us a world which can leave us in awe even if the tale happening in it lacks strength.
   
   It could be a lot better though
   Chise and Elias are two bummers. They had the tools to be great with the mystery of the monster-mage and the broken girl rejected by society, but sadly this is only used as an excuse to keep two characters that hardly do something together. There could be romance, but they hardly have the ability to express feelings. There could be loss and love, but their voices are incapable of providing emotions. There could be a grand adventure, but they seem like two statues capable of casting some spells. It only gets interesting when Elias turn into an enraged monster, but we've seen that already a thousand times and by now a Beauty and the Beast rip-off is hardly worth praises for doing only that.
   

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Comments
I can only say I was utterly disappointed. The OVAs gave me hope this would be a touching tale of a broken girl rejoining society with the aid of magic and a mysterious monstrous mage, yet what we got as a bland attempt at a romance between the cute dumb girl and the quiet big ugly guy. Even the amazing magical setting was not enough to save the tale from two simply boring protagonists and that is a pity.

There were only small glimpses of what this could've been, and although it can still be a great watch when compared to the average show, there are a lot of more powerful romances around, even set in the overused-and-annoying high school setting. I was hoping the change of setting would give fresh air to most tales, but it seems a good lead is still required.