The Ancient Magus' Bride

Episode 24

Just in time for the final episode, we're treated to some shiny new OP visuals that immediately feel shiny when we realize that we're still looking at a clip show that now covers both cours. Unfortunately, the editing isn't quite sharp enough for the sequence to create the intended feeling of look-how-far-we've-come.

Before Chise will eventually become The Ancient Magus' Bride, Joseph/Cartaphilus needs to be taken out of the picture, ideally while pushing back the immediate expiration date on Chise's triple-cursed life. Since someone with her backstory shouldn't be forced to kill someone else wishing to be freed from his own life's suffering, Chise saves Joseph by showing him the empathy she learned to appreciate over the past 23 episodes. Of course, before she can grant him the peaceful rest he hasn't gotten in millennia, first she has to be injured enough to cough up blood. Self-sacrifice is apparently still the most powerful tool to save and connect with others in this story. For now, Joseph can rest, but when he wakes up again, who knows how he'll be changed. This still isn't the kind of show where killing others would solve problems, which unfortunately means that Ashen Eye is also still around post-decapitation. After the time he spent spouting tired shōnen villain clichés about the beauty of seeing humans torn between joy and distress, I wouldn't have minded a more permanent exit from this specter.

But he isn't wrong. There was a lot of beauty to be found in how things played out between the boy unable to die and the girl unable to live. Taking on part of Joseph's curse helps Chise reach a balance between the forces pulling at her, turning the dragon's curse into little more than the death sentence that all humans are born with equally. Where Joseph doesn't get to keep the part he took from Chise, she makes his eye her own. As it changes to green, the clock is set back for her to decide what to do with the time she is given – just like everyone she used to envy.

Unfortunately, there wasn't quite enough screen time left between resolving the Joseph/Cartaphilus situation and Chise and Elias' eventual (re)union to address everything in a satisfying manner. The brief moments spent on reconciliation lost all possible momentum and seriousness due to chibification. Glossing over issues instead of forcing the characters to work through them ultimately made the happy outcome feel not entirely earned, a pity for a show that made Chise's liberation from her past feel like the epitome of earned just two episodes ago.

Depending on where you stand on the nature of the The Ancient Magus' Bride's titular relationship, the mock wedding ceremony that concludes this series, complete with an exchange of rings and vows, might leave you tearing up or slightly creeped out. For me, I was mostly disappointed about feeling very little either way. The scene obviously wants to reaffirm Chise's will to live by planning a future at the side of the man so crucial to her discovering that joie de vivre. The fact that their whole exchange relies on Chise's initiative gives her a power and agency she didn't have when Elias "proposed" to his purchased girl in episode one. Yet I can't help thinking that what brought us this Disney ending was the need to keep the title's promise, like a pressure that wrapping things up nicely would make for a better conclusion than leaving them open to ambiguity and interpretation, even if that was one of the show's star qualities. More than the exchange of the rings itself, the mirrored image of Chise and Elias' white and black hands told the story of their shared suffering, a nice detail in an overly sweet (but very pretty) scene.

My favorite image wasn't the beautiful Chise in her wedding dress, but Chise standing outside her house in the field, looking toward the horizon, with the vast world open to her. Her journey was the series' biggest strength, giving episode 22 the emotional impact that this week's finale couldn't quite repeat. Beyond its nuanced character development and a clever use of side plots to provide thematic reflections, The Ancient Magus' Bride provided intriguing wordbuilding too. Despite some pacing problems in the second half and a tendency to overuse its cliffhangers, the show was able to create many strong and memorable moments, not least thanks to one of the best soundtracks in recent memory. It's been a good journey for this pair and their many new friends. Maybe we'll see them again someday in the future.

Rating: B-

The Ancient Magus' Bride is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Anne is a translator and fiction addict who writes about anime at Floating Words and on Twitter.