The Ancient Magus' Bride

Episode 8

After already taking lots of initiative last week, Chise is determined to save Ulysse from suffering the same fate as Mina, Matthew, and Isabelle – or Isabel, as her name is written on her tombstone. (It's not the first nor will it be the last time that the Roman alphabet spelling of names differs between a show's artwork and official materials.)

Generally speaking, all our good guys are fed up with the silver-haired sorcerer wreaking havoc in their backyard, from Renfred and Alice's no-nonsense approach of shooting him in the head point blank and nonchalantly severing his arm, to Elias losing all his gentlemanly disguises. His monstrous Pilum Murialis form is well-portrayed as frightening and inhuman, not the sparkling vampire brand of pseudo monster whose humanity can be saved by a maiden's embrace. Even so, the latter part does happen, and even though I can imagine Chise having seen much more frightening things than Elias' true form, resolving the situation like that doesn't exactly feel groundbreaking.

Things get more interesting when it's time for Chise to get terrifyingly pissed, absorbing so much of Elias' energy that she appears to be eating his arm. All that talk of supreme Sleigh Beggy powers wasn't just empty flattery, and even if Chise can only keep up her rampage mode for so long, I'm looking forward to seeing the ramifications not just for her lifespan, but for Elias and the others around her.

Even if there are rules in this world that every mage and sorcerer must abide by, no matter how powerful, none of our friends can be blamed for being fed up with the crap that this no-longer-nameless sorcerer has put them through. Cursed with immortality, Cartaphilus has all the time in the world to deceive and play with humans and faeries to his own amusement. Given his condition, his motive for doing so doesn't seem to be conquering death, but suspending his own decay – probably just to fill the time he's been cursed with. After doing this for a few centuries, immortality has taken its toll on both his sanity and life's purpose, as he forgets instantly what he had just been looking for. There's some nice subtle editing early on to reinforce Cartaphilus' detachment and creepiness, showing him from unusual angles, while Ayumu Murase shows off his incredible range even when cast as a textbook anime lunatic.

But this isn't Cartaphilus's episode, he's just there as the catalyst for something much more important to happen, as Ulysse becomes Ruth to join Elias's little surrogate family as Chise's familiar. His black dog form is gorgeous, so I'm glad we'll see more of him in general. Originally just a simple dog, Ulysse became a fairy out of loyalty and grief, waiting at his master's grave until his own death. Given the flashback's dress code and death by carriage, this happened quite some time ago. I especially loved how Ulysse remembered having conversations with Isabelle, when in truth she only heard him barking but still understood him perfectly. Now that he's become a church grim, it's time he realized his own nature to unlock his true potential.

Ulysse and Chise's pact provides the backdrop for this week's insert song. It's a pivotal moment for both characters, marking their decision to stop weeping for the dead and start living together. Unfortunately, their beautiful exchange of vows loses some momentum due to the fact that a) Chise should be more badly hurt and in need of medical or magical attention, and b) Cartaphilus politely watches from the sidelines until they're done, stretching suspension of disbelief uncomfortably thin, even if their new bond makes things too troublesome for Cartaphilus to bother with them any longer for now.

For those reasons, my favorite part of this scene wasn't the pact itself, but how the song continued to play after their bond was forged, under the violent demonstration of Ruth's loyalty to both red-haired girls, underlining the sad origin and possibly sad ending of his new pact with Chise. For poetic symmetry, an awakened Ruth has to kill the chimera Cartaphilus created from his old master in order to go home with his new one. When he's standing over Isabelle's chimera body after taking her down, his eyes seem to be glowing with rage and bleeding with tears at the same time – even Cartaphilus stumbles witnessing this emotional fury.

Unfortunately, some patterns surrounding the show's highlights are becoming predictable, with Chise's magical empathy establishing a mental link to others' emotional states that enable her to peek into their past lives, followed by moments of great melancholic beauty accompanied by carefully selected insert songs. I want to enjoy these moments wholeheartedly, but I doubt their magic can be sustained at this pace. If it hadn't been for the song's brutal visual conclusion, this would have been the episode that the magic began to crack for me.

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.