A figure towers over you – he must be 200 centimeters tall. In place of his head there is an enormous wolf skull with lengthy canines. The horns of a goat extend backward from the skull. Deep within the black sockets of his eyes are tiny orbs of red light, and they are watching you intently. Who is this monster? Why, he is your new teacher. Welcome to class.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride (Mahoutsukai no Yome) was a successful 2017 anime based on the original manga by Kore Yamazaki. After a long break, during which we saw a few OVA specials, a second season was finally released. The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 aired in Spring 2023. Note that these 12 episodes are only half of season 2. The second half will be released in Fall 2023. The following review only covers Season 2 Part 1. With that out of the way, let’s begin.
Note: For brevity, I will use the acronym AMB for Ancient Magus’ Bride
Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers
Visuals: 8/10
The faces of the characters have a fairly classic anime look, just with slightly larger noses and distinct eyes. Chise, for example, has amazing eye detail and color. The characters are drawn with relatively realistic body proportions, making them a bit studier than in an average anime. Something else I love about the style is that the characters often look androgynous. At times, it’s hard to tell who is male and who is female, especially when some of them have unusual hair.
In this season, the character designs for the kids at the College were all likeable. I especially loved the look for Zoe Ivy and Rahab. The unique art and character designs might throw some people off, but for me, they are visual treats.
Besides having good style character designs, AMB also showcases creative and detailed designs for its creatures, including both mythical creatures and normal animals. In this season, the designs for the monstrous fae in Scotland were the highlight. The horse-like Each-Uisg was majestic and menacing, while the one-eyed Nuckelavee was terrifying. The cats who monitor the dorms in the College were adorable and looked very realistic. I enjoyed the design for the centaur postman. AMB season 2 also featured the pair of wolf mercenaries. It would be an understatement to say that I liked their designs. They were amazing.
The rest of the visuals were above average quality for the most part. Backgrounds and settings always looked good, though some of the rooms in the College were a bit basic. The gardens and hedges were nice. The woods in Scotland where the kids went camping looked beautiful. Lighting was generally good, but a few shots seemed too dark to me. I really like the lighting in the scenes where Zoe’s gorgon form is activated. The color pallet was diverse and visually delicious, with a lot of natural greens, soft gray-blues, deep purples and reds.
The only way in which the visuals felt lacking to me was during action sequences. The movements were not particularly smooth and the screenplay was not very cinematic. There were a lot of still frames with action lines when there could have been animation. This is an issue in anime as a whole rather than something especially bad about AMB. To make up for that, however, AMB features great face expressions for all the characters. This is something I actually pay attention to without even meaning to, because expressions are so important for communicating the character’s thoughts. All in all, the visuals category earns an 8/10.
Story: 8/10
The story concept for AMB is a bit like Beauty and the Beast, with a human becoming the bride of the “beast” and teaching him to be more human. Elias is also teaching Chise in the ways of magic. Together, the two of them grow and share their lives. The first season ended with an (unofficial) wedding, and the couple considers themselves married at the start of the second season. (If you’re wondering about my feelings regarding Chise being a child bride, that will be addressed in the final section of this review.)
For season two, the story follows Chise as she attends a Sorcerer’s College to gain more life experience. As fun and exciting as this sounds, however, a dark plot is being hatched within the College. The structure of the season was fairly good, with the first few episodes establishing things at the College. The next few episodes delved into Chise’s relationship with Elias and the way their roles shift. The second half of the season saw a lot of rising action, culminating in the confrontation with the wolves and then the Halloween episode. The pacing was excellent, so nothing felt too slow or too rushed.
The atmosphere of AMB is something I love, full of wonder, magic and danger. There are few if any other anime series that focus on Celtic mythology, and AMB does excellent in its little niche. Many fascinating new creatures were introduced. On a related note, the world-building and lore were also excellent in this season. We learned about the seven families of sorcerers, with special focus on the Websters. The forbidden book was also introduced. The College lectures reminded audiences that there are important differences between Sorcerers and Mages in this world.
The last elements of the story category to mention are the themes. What ideas were explored in this season, and how well were they flushed out? Themes in AMB season 2 included: relationship roles, different forms of love, past trauma, consequences of actions, and self-respect. It’s a fairly interesting collection of ideas and they were discussed and developed throughout the 12 episodes. The story category as a whole isn’t as great as the first season, but it still deserves 8/10.
Audio: 8/10
Although I was not very fond of the opening song, “Dear” by JUNNA, the audio category as a whole was great. I absolutely loved the beautiful ending song, “Mubansou” by edda. Junichi Matsumoto composed the music, just like in the first season and the OVAs. The instrumental OST isn’t the best for background music, as it’s very dramatic and distinct, with orchestral elements. However, the music works very well for the actual anime and I like its unique sound.
AMB boasts a variety of talented seiyuus and voice actors. Atsumi Tanezaki has mostly played supporting roles, but recently won fame playing Anya in Spy x Family. She did a fine job as this anime’s main character Chise. I also love the voice of Elias, Ryouta Takeuchi, but I’m not sure if his lack of emotional expression is intentional or not. Either way, it works for the character of Elias. I was impressed with the performances of all the kids in the College, and I especially liked the voices for Zoe (Daiki Kobayashi) and Lucy (Minami Tsuda.)
There are a few other cast members I want to mention, as I’m quite fond of their voices and recognize them easily. Akira Ishida appeared as Will ‘o The Wisp, and the College medic Alexandra was voiced by Aya Endou. The supporting roles of Mariel and Seth were played by Maaya Sakamoto and Junichi Suwabe, respectively. Kouki Uchiyama was the distinct voice for Ruth the dog. I could go on all day about the voice actors and their histories and particular talents. But to keep the review to a reasonable length, I’ll end it here.
Characters: 8/10
There were a few issues, like the amount of new faces, but the character category was impressive overall. The new characters had interesting starting concepts. Most of the College kids were members of the seven sorcerer families. Philomela’s family are typically spies, and she uses magic that lets her diguise her presence and listen into conversations undetected. Zoe’s character concept as a Gorgon-human half-breed was intriguing. Even the staff at the College were entertaining, including the medic Alexandra Heath and professor Simeon Paladile.
As I mentioned, the cast size was a bit of an issue. There were a lot of new characters as well as supporting characters returning from the first season. It’s a bit difficult to keep track of everyone. The characters were generally developed well, or as well as possible with so many of them and only 12 episodes. The supporting characters who got the most attention in developing were Alice, Lucy, Philomela, Rian, and Zoe. As for the main characters, Chise and Elias, they both saw good character growth and insights as well.
Even with fairly creative concepts for some of the cast, I would normally rate the characters category as 7/10 for this quality. However, the score deserves an extra point just because I love the two main characters and their psychology so much. I genuinely think they are fascinating and well-written. It was especially good to see Elias making so much progress. I usually have more to say about the characters category, but I guess it’s good to be concise.
Personal Enjoyment: 7/10
This category is for discussing things I did and did not enjoy. We’ll start with the negatives. The biggest problem of AMB has not changed: Chise is a young teenager (around 16 by season 2) and thus has no business getting married. This issue did take a bit away from my enjoyment. However, I don’t consider it as much of a dilemma given that three certain conditions are being met in the story. The conditions are: 1) Elias is not after a sexual relationship with Chise; 2) Elias is roughly the emotional maturity level of a teenager himself; and 3) Chise wants to be in the relationship.
While you can contest these points, I believe they are all backed up by evidence in the series. With these conditions met, I have no moral objection to Chise being in a romantic relationship with Elias. My opinion on this might change with time and new information, but this is where I stand for now. I also think it’s important to note that even if I 100% disagreed with the relationship, I can still tolerate it – or even enjoy it – in a work of fiction. It’s the same thing as when you admire your favorite cool anime antagonist. That doesn’t mean you would admire such a villain or his actions in the real world.
As for other elements that took away from my enjoyment, I really disliked the opening song. I have heard songs by JUNNA before and liked them, but “Dear” seems to be the exception. Additionally, while I still loved the art and animation, they were a step down from the quality and creativity of visuals in the first season. Similarly, while I loved the design for the two wolves, I was unhappy to see the trope of wolves always being evil. It’s not some big moral issue, but just something that pisses me off. We could really use more good or neutral wolf characters.
With my complaints out of the way, we can finally address the positive elements. Even though I spent more time on the negatives, my enjoyment for this anime was definitely still significant. There was a lot to appreciate, including all the new characters, the psychology of Elias and Chise, and the fantastical creatures. I also enjoyed the setting of the Sorcerer’s College, learning more about the world of mages and sorcerers, and seeing the development of Chise’s curses.
I already mentioned that I loved all the new characters – especially Lucy, Zoe, and Philomela – but I’ll say just one more thing. Zoe is absolutely adorable and I want to adopt him!
Overall Score: 7.8/10.0
I wish I could say I was happy with this score. I mean, it’s almost an 8/10, and that’s a pretty great score on its face. But when you compare it to the rating I would give the first season – probably 8.8 – it’s a huge step down. Other fans seem to be mostly in agreement with me. The reception was good but not great. The current rating for AMB season 2 on MAL is 7.79, with most reviewers saying they have mixed feelings.
Despite the drops in quality and enjoyment, I still recommend watching season 2 if you enjoyed the first season of AMB. It’s a truly magical story that holds a special place in my heart.
Thank you for reading~
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