General Impression: The Ancient Magus Bride Cour 1

Synopsis

Chise is a young woman who hasn’t has the easiest of lives, and in this rocky path she finds herself at a slave auction. When she is purchased by the mysterious Magus Elias, she finds a new door open to her and a new life awaiting as an apprentice and future wife.

First Impression

In the beginning portion of the series, you can’t help but appreciate how much attention to detail was placed into the different settings and how the art and animation just seemed to make it look larger than it is. Add it with the way that the music and soundtrack works around it just ties all of the fantasy elements together. On the note of the fantasy elements, just like in the manga, Elias’ design remains to be a high point of the series, especially with how the animation worked his movements. As for the magical moments, they were few but they worked highly well.

The most negative that can be said over the beginning portion of the series is that for the most part, it can be considered a little too faithful to the manga, and while not bad, it left quite a few missed opportunities in terms of character exploration. For one thing, rather than monologuing and taking focus on the surroundings, the anime could have given focus on the different expressions and their thought processes. Then there was the way that the relationship between Elias and Chise, there could have been more scenes given between them but at the way the story flowed from the start it’s forgivable.

General Impression

Out of all the fall anime that has been released, this series by far has presented, in this writer’s opinion, the best anime fantasy of 2017. Story wise, art wise and even animation wise, the fantasy element of the series shone bright for its originality and visual work. If there was any dark fantasy work that managed to stray away from being completely dark, and inserted good lore along with it, it’s this series. There was just so many elements to the series that made the series so unique that it’s hard to find any fault within it.

More than being an amazing fantasy work however, it’s developmental and world building factors also shine as well. From the first to final episode of the cour, you can clearly see the development that Chise goes through along with Elias and given how the story integrates some commendable continuity in certain points is a plus given how some fantasy works simple shift to different branches of the story. The one issue that can be said in this area is that the shift in tones between scenes could have been done better as it comes off as somewhat flip flop at times.

Again, it’s clearly highly faithful to the manga, but at the same time, there could have been a bit more exploration with the characters and their moments of monologuing outside of the whole scenery exploration moments. Still, when it did go into certain tones and mood sets, it worked it to the highest potential. Certain scenes especially worked in terms of impact with how the insert songs worked them. So, when it went dark, heartfelt or just full on fantasy, the music helped tie things together.

Conclusion

What else can be said? If you’re looking for a work that takes on a unique twist to the usual dark fantasy (though only in certain parts) with amazing art and animation work, then this is the series to watch. There’s quality story and character development, though there could have been more done in in terms of the character’s emotional exploration and general scene exploration but the way that the music and tone settings work makeup for most if not all the flaws. In terms of the relationship between Elias and Chise, at first it may seem slightly off given how quickly they attach to the other, but as the series progressed, it presents a rather sweet development. So again, very little critique on the show from this writer.

Rating: 9.5/10