The Ancient Magus Bride Anime & Manga Review

The anime and manga is one of my absolute favorites! I began reading the manga before the anime was released (I’m a real Otaku now) but I can completely understand why the anime had to exist. The Ancient Magus Bride is full of fantasy, magic, a bit of science and a beautiful, romantic relationship between Elias and Chise. I don’t even know where to begin but I love this romance trope where it’s kind of like forbidden, dark love. I’ll get into that in a second, so our main character here Chise is a sleigh-beggy. Sleigh-beggies are people who can see magical beings and still be mortal with usually little to no magical talent themselves. Sleigh-beggies are a rarity because they absorb all this magical energy and dispense faster unconsciously aware which decreases their lifespan, so they tend to die early. Chise chose to sell herself at this auction and Elias the highest bidder, claims her. Elias is this unknown, misshapen, dark entity. No one really knows who or what he is but he’s ancient, the author hasn’t released any information more about his origin but I’m crossing my fingers that she does!

The entirety of this tale in a nutshell is these two falling in love with each other and learning more about themselves along the way. Chise learns to take charge of herself, communicate more with her friends and Elias and to like her own existence. Elias learns to understand his human emotions such as jealousy, anger, loneliness and love. As much as I want to talk about the depths and inner workings of these two’s relationships, this would end up like a 14 page essay but what I will say is that because the story based of their relationship isn’t only about sappy love, but the hardships between two souls who don’t know how to communicate and still see things through a child’s eyes. I love how the author shows such growth between them, within their spirit and mentality and how the bond between tightens.

These two are complete opposite and so it can be hard for Chise to explain her reasonings for certain behaviors and thoughts because she’s so full of emotion while Elias is not. Elias is basically like Spock when it comes to feeling anything for other people, he only feels when it’s towards Chise. Elias is by far the most interesting character in this story because he’s so mysterious and I’m so curious to know so much more about him. I have all kinds of theories popping here and there and I’m just curious if he’s just ultimately evil or some cursed human that gradually became what he is today. I have a theory but to hear that theory you’ll have to check out the podcast over on the Audio page because it’s a bit of a doozy. Of course, most likely my theory is wrong but I’ll just have to wait and see. The second person that was so damn interesting was the antagonist; Cartaphilus or Joseph.

I was so happy that the author reveals Cartaphilus’s origin story in Episode 23 & 24! I could hardly contain my excitement honestly. Cartaphilus was such a hard case to crack in terms of creating theories on the character and the possibility of his becoming and such. Unfortunately, I only read up to Volume 7 in the manga and so the rest of the story was revealed by the anime. Money was tight okay, so I wasn’t able to purchase the next volumes in time before the episodes were released. I still plan to buy all the mangas because this story is more than worth having a physical copy.

Everything in the anime and manga, the story, twists, characters, everything is absolutely amazing. The story is so engaging with twists and turns that are unexpected and different each time. The drama that happens of course happens with Cartaphilus instigating the situations but the author did such an amazing job in creating such a mischievous, intelligent, genuinely evil person that the stunts this guy pulled were pretty out of this world. Chise is such an amazing heroine in which we should all try strive to be more like. The way she saves the day is unlike any hero ever does. In a way it’s like the usual anime trope but there’s just something about how Chise saves the villain rather than ending him that is completely different.

I love her raw emotions, her noble spirit and her unmistakably causing more problems by throwing her life into danger just to save another soul’s life. It’s beautiful in a way that she’s constantly wanting to be a martyr for the people she loves. All the characters involved are completely different from each other and bring something new to Chise and Elias. There’s dragons, fairies, selkies, immortal wizards and alchemists and forest Goddesses, Gods and nymphs. The story is such an experience and because fantasy is my all time favorite genre, you probably already know what rating I’ll score this.

There’s so much more to talk about, which I will go through each episode to discuss further and in way more depth of my analysis and why I love it so much. There isn’t a lot of animes, shows or movies that really stick out but trust me when I say that this anime does. I think this anime could have a few more seasons but I do also think that there should be a stopping point where it wraps up nicely. Please. No more 10,000 seasons please… I’d like to see what you guys think, if you disagree, why, what didn’t you like about it and if you do let’s rave about it together. If you have any other suggestions as to what you want me to review, comment below and subscribe to stay updated on further reviews!

Overall Rating: 10/10 or 5/5

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