Philomela Sargant was ripped away from her parents at a young age and brought up by her abusive grandmother. The old lady raised Philomela to believe she was useless and that she had no right to even exist – let alone make her own choices. Daily life was agony for Philomela as her grandmother forced her to carry out shady tasks like spying on other mage families. Philomela was even made to harm others, which made the naturally gentle girl sick on a regular basis.
In the midst of the darkness, Chise Hatori was a gentle but persistent light. She validated Philomela by telling her she was free. Philomela was not used to the concept of freedom. In order to escape her abusive situation, she would need to ask for help. But that had to be something she decided on her own. Nobody could force it.
“You’re free to do as you like. Freedom is hard, but even if you make a mistake or you fail, you can always try again. It will be alright.”
Chise Hatori, The Ancient Magus Bride
Change is scary, and for Philomela, embracing freedom would be a huge change. She took a long time to finally admit she needed help. I think that’s because it was so terrifying to think of the new world of making her own decisions and being apart from her abuser for the first time. If Philomela’s story speaks to you on a personal level as it does to me, then watch her story unfold in The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 (part 2).
Article Contents
Warning: Some spoilers will be present in this review
Story
Score: 8/10
The story this season was the continued character arc of Philomela Sargant as Chise helps her become a more liberated person. The mystery goes on as students are drained of magic power and the thief of the forbidden grimoire remains unknown. A number of other subplots are explored and completed, including Lucy’s search for the truth of the Webster disaster and the arrival of a certain War Goddess. However, at its core, this season was about Philomela’s personal journey and how Chise helped with it.
The pacing of this season is fairly good. It’s even thrilling at times. The most climactic parts of the story start around episode 18 when Philomela becomes a monster possessed by the evil god in the Grimoire. The action is consistent through episode 24. Before then, there are enough smaller events to keep things exciting. (For example, there’s the test of courage in episode 16).
The narrative is occasionally unclear about something, or it brings up an event that seems random. The best example is the appearance of the Dark Lady (Goddess Morrigan) in episode 20. Her advent felt like a bump in the story that almost didn’t belong there. In addition, it wasn’t clear why she demanded tribute from Chise, nor why Elias interpreted it as a blood sacrifice. (It was later revealed that the Goddess only wanted a branch of Golden Mistletoe, not a sacrifice.) The Ancient Magus Bride often brings up mythology suddenly and randomly, so I wasn’t too thrown off this time.
The second season may not be as beloved as the first among viewers, and that’s understandable. However, I think season 2 did a good job keeping the same sort of story themes as the first season. Major themes include friendship, trauma, identity, and self-acceptance. Moreover, the themes of magic, mystery, and wonder are always present in both seasons. Thanks to all this, the story category definitely deserves a high score.
Visuals
Score: 8/10
In my review of Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 part 1, I forgot to cover an important fact about the visuals of this series. The first season was animated by studio Wit, which did not pick it up again for the second season. It was studio Kafka that handled the animation for both parts of season 2. It’s basically impossible to do better than Wit studio in its glory days, so I’m forced to admit that the second season is a little bit of a step down in quality compared to the first.
That being said, I think the quality difference is quite small. Studio Kafka still made this anime look great, in my humble opinion. There’s very little smooth animation for battle sequences or important moments – instead, extremely detailed and colorful still-shots are typically used. For example, when Zoe awakens to his Gorgon personality for the first time, there is a beautiful freeze-frame of him grinning at the werewolf while holding its jaws shut. This looks epic.
The lighting wasn’t always perfect, as it often seems slightly too dark. But I absolutely love the bold colors used in this series – a lot of gold tints, bright reds, beautiful greens, and striking blacks. I also enjoy the face expressions in this series. Philomela’s expressions of emotional pain were perhaps a little extreme, but I think that’s just the style of this series. Sometimes slightly over-the-top is just right for setting the mood or understanding the character.
On a final note, I always enjoy the designs for the creatures and mythological entities in this series. We saw more of the werewolves in this season, in addition to Chise’s red dragon, Goddess Morrigan, and the evil tree-like God that inhabits the cursed grimoire. Gregory’s bear mode looks ferocious and bad-ass. And let’s not forget Philomela’s monstrous form when she’s possessed. This anime was definitely a visual treat for me.
Audio
Score: 8/10
JUNNA is a Japanese singer who creates Jpop, Jrock, and anime songs. She’s been involved in Ancient Magus’ Bride since season one, when she performed the first opening song, “Here.” (That’s still my favorite JUNNA song.) For season 2 part 1, the opening song was “Dear” by JUNNA, which is my least favorite of her songs. This artist is very hit-or-miss for me due to her strong vocal style and unusual rhythms. In season 2 part 2, JUNNA once again performed the opening: a song called “Nemurasareta Lineage” which I find chaotic but amazing. JUNNA has won my heart again!
The outro is “Fam” by Yuyu. It’s a melancholy, piano-heavy ballad that’s easy to get swept up in, assuming you like slow and emotional songs. The instrumental music for this series was composed by Junichi Matsumoto. I didn’t listen carefully enough to notice if there were any all-new additions to the OST, but most of it seemed like reused tracks from the first season. And I have absolutely no problem with that, since the music in season 1 was charming and memorable. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
The voice-acting in Ancient Magus’ Bride has always been amazing, and this season continues the tradition. Protagonist Chise Hatori is played by Atsumi Tanezaki, whose broad range of voices is shocking. She is now best known for voicing Anya in Spy x Family. Ryouta Takeuchi is the voice of Elias Ainsworth, and I think he plays the part perfectly most of the time. Philomela is voiced by Maki Kawase, a young seiyuu who shows great promise so far in her seven years of voice-acting.
The other members of the cast did fine as well, including Daiki Kobayashi as Zoe Ivy and Minami Tsuda as Lucy Webster. Several seasoned and well-respected VAs also appeared in supporting roles. For instance, Junichi Suwabe played Lucy’s brother, Seth Noel. A personal favorite of mine, Maaya Sakamoto, voiced Mariel. Finally, the female werewolf was voiced by the extremely talented Mamiko Noto. As you can see, this show has excellent voice-acting.
Characters
Score: 9/10
The heart of this season was definitely the character growth of Philomela. Chise also played a huge role in helping Philomela change. Many fans were disappointed that Elias took backstage place in season 2 part 2, and I understand the feeling. But he did still have a few important moments, and I loved the way his character was compared to Alcyone. She is another character who played an unforgettable part. I really love Alcyone. I also feel deeply for Philomela, so I’m glad there was so much focus on her psychology. By the end of the season, her relationship with Chise is profound.
People who didn’t like season 2 complained about the supporting cast of students. I thought most of them were interesting and entertaining characters, so I don’t really get the hate. Lucy is a fascinating girl who deals with a lot of trauma. Zoe is ashamed of his heritage and unsure of how handle himself around other kids. The twins are exploring their gender expressions in unusual ways. Also, there’s the enigmatic Veronica. I still don’t understand her, but I think she’s intriguing.
Besides the students and the main cast, there were many supporting characters with engrossing concepts and personalities. For example, Philomela’s father Adam had a compelling story as he rebelled and tried to leave the world of corrupt sorcerers. One of my favorite supporting characters was the female werewolf. We never actually learn her name. Her story was tragic, but by the end of the season, she finally becomes free of Lizbeth’s control. There are just so many captivating characters in this series!
I didn’t give this category 10/10 because of the lack of well-developed adult characters in this season. Ideally, a cast of characters should include a varied age range. While there are interesting adult characters in this anime, they are not fleshed out nearly to the same degree as the teenagers. In addition, there are so many characters in this world that there isn’t sufficient time to focus on all of them. Besides those two shortcomings, however, the character category is pretty much perfect.
Personal Enjoyment
Score: 8/10
There is so much I enjoyed about this season that I could write several blog posts about it. For brevity, I’ll try to stick with a few main points. Before that, though, I will also say that my enjoyment wasn’t 100%. I wanted more content about Elias. In addition, we didn’t see much about Chise’s dragon curse. Lastly, we could have used more detail about magic in this season. For example, how do souls work? My enjoyment might have been 9/10 or higher if this kind of content was covered.
In episode 21, “A Burnt Child Dreads the Fire,” we see Chise and Philomela exploring the soul of the latter in the form of young children. This was probably my favorite section in the second season. Philomela’s identity is falling apart due to despair, trauma, and the influence of the evil god from the Grimoire. To help her get a grip, Chise walks around with Philomela, collecting the pieces of her psyche, which appear in the form of memories. I loved everything about this idea – the perfect mix of magic and psychology.
The true antagonist of this season, Lizbeth Sargant, is also Philomela’s abuser. While I do hate her, I’m also glad that we learned about her past. Good writing should make villains somewhat sympathetic. In the case of Lizbeth, we saw that she was shaped by a cruel system that turned her into an even crueler person. She never had the power to choose her own path. Even when she finally discovered love – for her son Adam – it was a twisted and selfish love that naturally drove him away.
I absolutely loved the werewolves and I’m glad they were not painted as heartless monsters for once. Most fiction completely demonizes anything wolflike. I also loved Goddess Morrigan and her character design. Alcyone was a character I appreciated very much. Her undying loyalty was truly moving. This is random but, at one point early on, there was a little lizard in a top hat who served as Liza’s messenger. So cute!!!
There’s one more thing I wish to comment on briefly. It’s about the thematic significance of season 2. Compared to the first season, the second wasn’t as popular. If season 2 isn’t your cup of tea for whatever reason, that’s fine. However, thematically, it fits into the story perfectly. Chise helping Philomela is the natural next step now that someone has helped her. Thanks to Elias and others giving her stability in life, Chise can now reach out and do the same for others.
Overall Score
Score: 8.2 / 10.0
The overall score is the average of the five scores explored in the previous sections. The reception for season 2 wasn’t great. Less than 40k users have rated it on MAL (MyAnimeList.net), suggesting that not many people bothered to watch it. The ones that did gave it a decent score, but one that’s much too low in my personal opinion. The current MAL score is 7.89 for The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Part 2. I think it deserves better, as you can see from my own score.
You should watch The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 if you enjoyed the first season and can tolerate a large focus on characters other than Chise and Elias. You will probably enjoy the series as a whole if you like classic fantasy, European mythology, and good character drama. I’m very glad I watched it and saw Philomela’s smile at the end.
~Thank you for reading~
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Anime Rants 
I want season 3.
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