The Ancient Magus Bride Season 2

[MCAL]

Second PV:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/K6o4tPph3po

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JUNNA returns to sing the opening song "Dear"

[Frontier]

Looks and sounds great !

[Frontier]

Spoiler:

Starting the new season off right off the bat with a visual spectacle that gives the craziness of Hogwarts a run for it's money! The Ancient Magus Bride is definitely back for a new adventure for Elias and Chise !

Well, Adolf can't really rely on Elias to talk to Chise about it, so unsurprisingly he just directly asks her if she wants to attend the college. He also doesn't mince words and tells her a big part of inviting her is just because she's just too much of a research opportunity to pass up, though he does say they might find a cure for her curses through said research (I wouldn't hold my breath). I love how you could immediately tell how little Elias cared for this conversation .

But to his credit, he's willing to go along with it if it's what Chise wants, which shows a lot of growth on his part, and Chise herself recognizes that getting a more formal magic education might help her in the future so she avoids endangering herself and others. Looks like our bride and groom are heading to college !

The new Opening is a strong and powerful ballad like theme, very in-line with past OP's of the series and featuring the least amount of reused footage to boot (I'm assuming)! And showing off Chise, her friends and loved ones, her new class, and the crazy magic they'll get up to at the college !

I'm very amused by the fact that this is a magic school but they also have a 3D model of their school on a computer system .

First big-boobed mature onee-san of the season in Alexandra !

Y'know Alexandra just matter-of-factly bringing up all the crazy stuff Chise has gotten up to really puts things in perspective. I guess if anything good came out of the Joseph arc it's that Chise now has super-strength and better senses. Senses strong enough to pick up when someone is spying on her .

Elias and Renfred teaching at a school together? I expect that to go along swimmingly. Looks like Elias is also bringing back his white-haired form to teach. I wonder how his and Lindel's teacher is doing too...

Look at all the cute cat dorm matrons! Though they do have those scary, piercing, eyes that only cats have. Rose Lynn seems so fluffy though, I think Chise made the right call !

Chise may have survived Joseph, but even that pales in comparison to the anxiety and depression of going back to school and getting along with your classmates. Especially with Chise's lingering emotional trauma of her past school experience .

Chise's new roommate Lucy has legs and a surly disposition, but this raven-haired beauty also doesn't mince words and is probably the most realistic college student ever from sleeping right up until classes start. I can't wait to see more of her !

Now Chise is the one helping collapsing girls in trouble, though wasn't that the girl spying on her? The hair color looked similar .

The new Ending is pretty serene, with beautiful illustrations of Chise, Lucy, and the white-haired girl. I guess we know who Chise's gal pals at the school are going to be !

[Twi]

It's out already!

I thought I had more time!

Edit: Okay, review done. Changes below.

Spoiler:

Okay, there are some changes due to time being an issue. This episode adapts some of Chapter 46-47 “Birds of a Feather Flock Together I & II”. Let’s get straight into them:

• Lyza tells Elias that he can take whatever shape he prefers the most. This is because Elias tends to change his appearance around other people, as we’ve seen in the opening.
• Chise makes a note of the flowers growing on Lyza before she departs, with Adolf mentioning she personally greets every new student on their first day, but she doesn’t show up often since she’s busy.
• We miss an entire flashback leading up to her decision to come to the College, where we see her accidentally crushing things due to her mind wandering and her enhanced strength.
• Joseph pops up here, showing that he’s living on their grounds and she basically treats him as a guest despite everything. He also doesn’t eat (or poop) and only needs a little water every now and again. He tells her its too late now even if she plucks his eye out, as the Curse is with her, but she tells him she’ll keep it for a little while. He leaves before mentioning she still hasn’t answered the question he asked her before.
• That’s when Adolf drops in and mentons he discussed her attending College with Elias (who told her nothing) and explains that Sleigh Beggy are precious but not rare. There are more of them born than people with a talent for magic, but they all die young for many reasons, often due to poor health or being accident prone. Her living this long is legitimately a surprise.
• However, most living Sleigh Beggy are basically used up like batteries for Alchemists (again, Chise got real lucky when she sold herself) because the unique properties of their bodies make studying them difficult. Adolf mentions that its his hope that if they study her, being the exception to the norm, they can learn how their bodies work and create an artifical subtitute and would no longer have a reason to hunt people like Chise.
• Normally, they weren’t eager to bring her on, but the mess with Joseph and the Dragon and the fact that she’s got two curses makes her highly valuable. Elias himself points out that those interested would be no different than him, as they would be unhesistating and amoral. He doesn’t want that and wanted to keep her out of the public’s eyes.
• That’s when Chise asks if he would teach her the stuff he would rather she personally didn’t know, which is why the offer to learn from them was so appealing. Since she feels that her lack of knowledge inadvertantly led to others doing things to save her, like Elias kidnapping Stella to sacrifice her. Elias even points out he still thinks it would be the right thing to do even now.
• Adolf also reads manga. Just thought I’d bring it up.
• Orginally, Chise gets introduced to the Dorm Mothers before the examination where she splits off from Elias as he takes on a new face. Adolf mentions it makes him and Chise look like a pair of sisters, but Elias doesn’t remember whose face it is, only that they are no longer of this world since his ordinary choice doesn’t fit.
• The scene with the spying girl happened when Chise was getting changed in her room. Chise had that moment of sensing her, but she escaped. However, she also had Ruth memorize the scent before Elias popped up and told her that he had to make some perparations for classes.
• They basically reshuffled the scene with Alexandra, which should happen in Chapter 48, to happen earlier instead of after she met with Alice. She explains that she’s still human despite her apperance (caterpillar body with four arms), but that some Alchemist choose to basically conduct experiments and change their bodies. These are known as Muryans, named after Ant People from some lore, and since their bodies make living on the surface difficult they are hired by the College and live there. There are five stages of transformations for Muryans, with her being at the third stage.
• It’s Ruth who comments on Elias not hiding in Chise’s shadow, as both he and Elias get the boot by Alexandra. Also that Elias feels fear.
• There was some minor shuffling, likely due to getting things to feel more natural and time constraints, but overall it isn’t bad. Looking forward to meeting with Alice and Elias class next episode.

[Kanon]

Rewatched the first season + the OVAs a few weeks ago as a refresher and I definitely needed it. I had forgotten a lot of stuff.

Going by the first episode alone, I can see why this is called the Hogwarts arc. Not that I remember much Harry Potter, was never a big fan. I wonder how important choosing the cat was, I'm pretty sure it was a case of all the answers being correct but I'm thinking it could affect aspects of her life at the college.

Chise mentioned being in first year of junior high, I'm guessing it's meant to be magic junior high? I know she quit school early but her classmates look to be around the same age as her. Certainly don't look like 7th graders.

It was a good start. I really like Chise and this universe so I'm happy this got another season. I believe the studio changed but I didn't notice any drop in quality.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Rewatched the first season + the OVAs a few weeks ago as a refresher and I definitely needed it. I had forgotten a lot of stuff.

Going by the first episode alone, I can see why this is called the Hogwarts arc. Not that I remember much Harry Potter, was never a big fan. I wonder how important choosing the cat was, I'm pretty sure it was a case of all the answers being correct but I'm thinking it could affect aspects of her life at the college.

Chise mentioned being in first year of junior high, I'm guessing it's meant to be magic junior high? I know she quit school early but her classmates look to be around the same age as her. Certainly don't look like 7th graders.

It was a good start. I really like Chise and this universe so I'm happy this got another season. I believe the studio changed but I didn't notice any drop in quality.

I thought Chise was referring to when she dropped out and not the actual educational year of the college.

[Twi]

I think the College has its own grade system due to the nature of it being so tied to magic.

And you also have to remember that Chise didn't drop out of her previous school. She was made legally dead in Japan when she sold herself (again, she got really lucky that Elias was the one who picked her up). So its not like they can just pull her previous records.

[Master_Yoma]

Well a very nice start and and the way Alexandra Heath was really well done with they way she moved

So Lucy not a morning person

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep1:

I have almost no memory of the first season remaining and they sure didn't bother to fill in the gap, so I'm just gonna say this seems to be a rip-off of Harry Potter and go about my day

[Twi]

Not surprising though. The way anime are structured these days means if it doesn't happen after a year or two but instead five, people just aren't going to remember what happened. Too much anime is shotgunned out every season now.

It's different if you kept up with the entire arc until the manga went on hiatus after they concluded it earlier this year or did a re-watch. But unless you're willing to go through the trouble, the bits that Chise and Elias brought up are all you really need to know for the moment.

[SeijiSensei]

I was surprised Ruth wasn't consulted about the choice of cat.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Master_Yoma

Well a very nice start and and the way Alexandra Heath was really well done with they way she moved

So Lucy not a morning person

Peak relateability .

[FlareKnight]

The episode was alright. Full respect to Lucy though. If someone slammed a door right into my skull I'd probably be in a much worse mood.

[ryllharu]

The episode felt a little strangely framed. As if each sequence was zoomed-in more than I would have expected.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

The episode was alright. Full respect to Lucy though. If someone slammed a door right into my skull I'd probably be in a much worse mood.

She came across as very cold but yeah, considering what happened it actually went pretty well.

[SeijiSensei]

I want to talk about Chise's eyes. I rewatched the entire series in the past few days which helped a lot in providing continuity. After Cartaphilus swaps eyes with Chise, she has two differently-colored eyes, one with his silver-gray coloring and enlarged iris. She stays that way up until the final confrontation where Ruth pulls Chise's eyeball from Cartaphilus's socket, and it falls on the ground. After that, both here eyes are identically colored, and they continue to be in this series. So are we to assume that during the magical repair work needed to fix Chise's midsection they also re-inserted her original eye? If so, then what are we to make of the school nurse talking about how she still had Cartaphilus's eye and memories? I rewatched this whole sequence and saw no explanations for any of this. Also what happened to Cartaphilus's eye?

Wit set a high standard; this show is often incredibly beautiful to watch. The entire scene where Chise transforms into a phoenix was extraordinary.

Also I missed the bit about the dragon curse. (When you watch a series in just a few sessions, you can miss things.) I need to go back and rewatch that section again.

[Frontier]

Elias is back in his female human form and striking quite the figure around the college .

Good to know that Chise can pull off a solid princess carry with a cute girl! Even if she and said girl realize how embarrassing it is. I'd love to see her carry Elias more though .

It's nice to see Chise trying to help this girl with her anxiety and nervousness (she's a proper medicine lady!), although I feel like there's way more going on with Philomela. Especially when Veronica talks to her .

Alice is back with a haircut and Will-O'-the-Wisp! Though he's not about to compare himself to a Familiar as easy as Ruth, but it's nice to see Alice and Chise together again and Alice pushing Chise to get over her anxiety about going to school .

Reina Ueda as Veronica! Though something about her feels suspicious to me. She's very beautiful and comes off quite polite and well-mannered, but that smooth and refined smile feels like it might be a mask for something .

How many shows is Kosuke Toriumi in this season? And he's playing Narcisse, a teacher who will give you an epic and involved speech about the wonders of sorcery...before telling you you're just going to learn Latin that day. Bit anticlimactic .

That green-haired kid looks like he's about to have a nervous breakdown .

I guess Elias had some practice with Chise to be able to play a proper mage teacher for her class, although he still puts Chise and Alice on the spot to demonstrate for the class. It must be weird going to class with your groom and have everybody think he's a cool beauty female professor. I'm almost a little bummed Elias gave the game away at the end .

"Hello, beautiful person" smooth Rian, smooth! She even called him handsome, though that's the first time I've seen a girl turn an attractive guy down because he smells of rust .

So, yeah, good rule of thumb...if a Neighbor doesn't want anything to do with you, don't antagonize them .

Well, I guess Elias only has, like, three people he needs to teach who actually had the aptitude to be Mages. And Beatrice who seems to admire his real form. Though it seems like Rian wants to learn from Chise even though he failed .

Something shady going on at the college? What a surprise .

Next week: Stella! And Joseph !

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I want to talk about Chise's eyes. I rewatched the entire series in the past few days which helped a lot in providing continuity. After Cartaphilus swaps eyes with Chise, she has two differently-colored eyes, one with his silver-gray coloring and enlarged iris. She stays that way up until the final confrontation where Ruth pulls Chise's eyeball from Cartaphilus's socket, and it falls on the ground. After that, both here eyes are identically colored, and they continue to be in this series. So are we to assume that during the magical repair work needed to fix Chise's midsection they also re-inserted her original eye? If so, then what are we to make of the school nurse talking about how she still had Cartaphilus's eye and memories? I rewatched this whole sequence and saw no explanations for any of this. Also what happened to Cartaphilus's eye?

Wit set a high standard; this show is often incredibly beautiful to watch. The entire scene where Chise transforms into a phoenix was extraordinary.

Also I missed the bit about the dragon curse. (When you watch a series in just a few sessions, you can miss things.) I need to go back and rewatch that section again.

That was my understanding.

[Twi]

Review done on the blog.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I want to talk about Chise's eyes. I rewatched the entire series in the past few days which helped a lot in providing continuity. After Cartaphilus swaps eyes with Chise, she has two differently-colored eyes, one with his silver-gray coloring and enlarged iris. She stays that way up until the final confrontation where Ruth pulls Chise's eyeball from Cartaphilus's socket, and it falls on the ground. After that, both here eyes are identically colored, and they continue to be in this series. So are we to assume that during the magical repair work needed to fix Chise's midsection they also re-inserted her original eye? If so, then what are we to make of the school nurse talking about how she still had Cartaphilus's eye and memories? I rewatched this whole sequence and saw no explanations for any of this. Also what happened to Cartaphilus's eye?

To answer that, she still has his eye. When the curses came to an agreement with one another (Immortality and Dragon), the eye colored itself her regular color as her arm went back to a humanoid shape. Check before the wedding scene at the end of last season, after she put Joseph to sleep.

[SeijiSensei]

I rewatched that entire sequence carefully yesterday, including freeze frames of Chise's face, and was left confused. At the point where she was wearing the veil her left eye seemed neither its normal color nor his. Rather it seemed a mix of the two. (I have some mild red/green colorblindness so I may not see details that others do.)

So what was the point of showing Ruth ripping out Chise's eye and throwing it on the floor? I thought that implied it was available for some sort of surgical reinsertion after the battle.

Maybe manga readers got a more detailed explanation of events. There seem to be a few continuity details missing in the anime adaptation. Even just a minute's worth of explanation in the final episode of season one would have helped a lot.

[Twi]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I rewatched that entire sequence carefully yesterday, including freeze frames of Chise's face, and was left confused. At the point where she was wearing the veil her left eye seemed neither its normal color nor his. Rather it seemed a mix of the two. (I have some mild red/green colorblindness so I may not see details that others do.)

So what was the point of showing Ruth ripping out Chise's eye and throwing it on the floor? I thought that implied it was available for some sort of surgical reinsertion after the battle.

Maybe manga readers got a more detailed explanation of events. There seem to be a few continuity details missing in the anime adaptation. Even just a minute's worth of explanation in the final episode of season one would have helped a lot.

It was because Carta resisted her first sleeping spell. Chise tried to put him to sleep first time, but because he had her eye he was resistant and then plunged his hand through her stomach. Chise used that to keep him in place and had Ruth tear out the eye to take away his resistance to the sleeping spell, which she recast and then passed out as the others headed to her.

That's when she chatted with the Curse and got the details.