MAHOUTSUKAI NO YOME SEASON 2

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA DramaMahoutsukai no Yome
OVA DramaMahoutsukai no Yome: Nishi no Shounen to Seiran no Kishi
ONA DramaFuyu no Okurimono
ANIME DramaMahoutsukai no Yome SEASON 2 Part 2

REVIEWS

• 

  RebelPanda

  64/100
  Doesn’t quite capture the same awe-inspiring feeling of the first season

  The second season of The Ancient Magus' Bride continues the enchanting tale of Chise, a Sleigh-Beggy with extraordinary powers, and her enigmatic master, Elias. This season lacks the creative visual storytelling and captivating artistry of the first, but it provides a compelling plot nonetheless.

  As Chise navigates the magical world, she is offered a place at a college by Adolf. This sparks uncertainty and support from Elias. In her first class, she learns about sorcery basics and meets new classmates with unique magical abilities. Amidst her exploration of her unique physiology, Chise encounters a silver-haired student who faints, leading her to question their mysterious connection. Elias watches over Chise at school as a temporary professor, maintaining his relevance to the narrative.

  The season further delves into Chise's relationships with her newly made friends. Chise's happiness with her friends sparks jealousy in Elias, revealing their relationship's complexities. Amidst personal growth and character dynamics, Chise encounters Rahab, Elias' master. These revelations shed light on Elias' mysterious nature and provide a deeper understanding of his motivations and inner struggles. This revelation sheds light on Elias' struggle to process emotions and his growing concern for Chise.

  The plot takes a darker turn when a mystery arises, solving the stolen Grimoire. Chise seeks answers from Cartaphilus, who has connections to her cynical roommate Lucy: She’s perhaps the most prominent side character at Chise’s Hogwarts-esque school. Lucy is one of the last surviving members of her family and initially confrontational. As her past is explored, she reveals glimpses of vulnerability and curiosity. Slowly the two roomies bond, even leading to processing trauma and thoughtful drama between their other classmates. Lucy's character carries much of season 2’s fleshed out themes, such as mistrust, loss, and resilience. Her relationship with Chise also allows for comedic moments. These quick cuts to chibi art are less forced than the first season’s tonal shifts.

  Chise's encounters with various magical beings intensify, despite this season’s plodding pacing. One of whom is a Banshee who is cursed to sing until someone hears her true voice. Meanwhile, the story explores family dynamics as Chise and her friends assist a young sorcerer in reuniting with her estranged father trapped as a monstrous creature. This allows Chise to reflect on forgiveness and acceptance from her own history. Furthermore, the story introduces a powerful ancient dragon named Nevin, who seeks Chise's help to stop a malevolent force. Throughout the arc, different magical creatures and forces are brought together, allowing Studio Kafka to set their production standards high. The animation manages to breathe life into these creatures despite their not overly detailed designs.

  Within these overarching storylines, the season explores individual characters' personal growth. The most compelling character I witnessed was Zoe Ivey, a half-Gorgon student at college who constantly wears headphones. Initially fearful and hostile towards Chise and Elias, whom he saw as hidden monsters, Zoe gradually grows to accept them as friends. Zoe struggles with self-esteem issues, feeling caught between two worlds due to his mixed background. When Chise tries to reconcile with him, Lucy removes Zoe's headphones, triggering a transformation that exposes his fear. Zoe's past provides an intriguing connection to Chise's Dragon's Curse—the curse in her arm that grants her shapeshifting abilities.

  Despite her struggles with self-worth, Chise eventually embraces her magic abilities as a Sleigh-Beggy. She might not win over viewers who were frustrated by her subdued personality, but I never had an issue with it personally. Notably, her friendship with her classmate Alice provides a supportive bond and an opportunity for both characters to heal together. This season’s robust character growth is showcased in the climax as Chise and co. confront the dark forces threatening their world.

  Season 2 of The Ancient Magus' Bride weaves together a tapestry of personal journeys, magical encounters, and complex emotions. While it doesn’t quite capture the same awe-inspiring feeling of the first season, it still offers moments of heartfelt storytelling and character growth for the next installment to build upon.

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• 

  09philj

  70/100
  It's not quite like the first season, but still much like it and does a pretty good job of being it's own thing too.

  (This review covers all 24 episodes of the second season)

  The second season of The Ancient Magus Bride has a considerably different feel to the first, yet just about manages to avoid losing what made the first season compelling. The setting and plot hook are, on the face of them, fairly pedestrian - Chise goes to the sorcerer's college in London to get a bit more magical life experience, and Elias tags along to keep an eye on her, but something nasty is loose inside the walls. What makes this well worn stuff work is that it's being seen through Chise and Elias's eyes, and they bring the strangeness of their world into the college with them. Sorcery might bring forth horrors beyond human comprehension, but our protagonists might as well have been horrors beyond human comprehension to start with, and are friendly with a few more to boot.

  There's a good contrast between the slightly odd but genuine bond between Chise and Elias and the jealous, possessive, exploitative aspects of sorcerous society. The two mages are still learning, still growing, still figuring each other out, but give each other a supportive environment to foster this. Many of Chise's new peers, on the other hand, have had such things taken from them, or fail, or be denied them outright. The challenge for Chise is to learn to interact with them well enough to be able to change those things. Elias is less of a presence this series as more time is given to Chise spending time with people her own age, but there is also valuable time spent with him as he gradually starts to talk to new people too.

  The overall plot sort of wobbles along in fairly predictable fashion (although it is more of a whydunnit than a whodunnit from the get go), and the nature of being a mere slice of the story of a longer ongoing manga means that some character threads are picked up only to be lightly toyed with. For example Lucy and Rennfred's own slightly dysfunctional relationship gets a lot of focus until it doesn't, and there's a fair number of characters who feel like they're just sort of there to pad out the world. Still, it's a perfectly solid story, well told, and now and then it still shows you something delightfully unexpected and weird.

  The animation uses a lot more CGI than the previous season, which does rather change the look of the show compared to the previous instalment. It's used well and generally isn't distracting, but it is noticeable. It is overall not quite as pretty as the first season, but it's perfectly serviceable. As with the first season there's some jarring use of chibi and some excessively outlandishly "anime" character and creature designs, which are faithfully translated from the manga.

  Overall, if you enjoyed spending time with Chise and Elias in their first outing, this will probably see you right. If you were hoping for more of the weird creepiness of the more standalone episodes of the first season there's more of a chance you'll leave disappointed.

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