The Ancient Magus’ Bride Ep 7 Review: Oddly Familiar

Alright the start of the next arc. Well, I guess it would be an arc anyway. Most anime and manga make it clear with titles for an arc. Ancient Magus’ Bride doesn’t really have that. But anyway, let’s get right into it.

The Plot:

So, that mage from the past. Yeah, well apparently, he took Renford’s arm, and is threatening him and his apprentice to work for him. Thus, Alice questions why, but Renford simple continues to do the work to protect his apprentice.

Meanwhile, Chise is actually doing magic, well making medicine with magic. She still needs a lot of practice, since she made a sleeping potion when she meant to help cure insomnia. But she has been spending time studying so she may improve.

Her and Elias then go for another task the church had for them. This is the final one. While walking to the location Chise asks why they are doing this. It turns out awhile back Elias got in trouble, so now the church keeps an eye on him. They leave him alone in turn he does them a few favors from time to time.

Also, Angelica apparently gave Chise a present, a ring. This is to help control Chise’s magic so she doesn’t use too much. She also not so jokingly tells Chise not to put the ring on her wedding ring finger as she is still too young.

Anyway, Elias also points out that he would like to find a familiar for Chise. This is because familiars take some of their master’s magic to do tasks. Since too much magic is what is causing Chise’s slow death, well, having something that takes magic away from her is a good thing.

They get to the church only to find someone murdered. They really are not having any pleasant honeymoons.

So, Elias does his whole “Well, I am going to go over here and find stuff, and you can go off your own, but be careful,” routine to Chise. Well, it was fine at first. Like last time it was going well until she got attacked at the cemetery.

But she is quickly saved by a mysterious young man. Sort of, she knows the guy is not human. It also turns out he is a dog.

Alive shows up, and well, she wants the dog boy. Before she can do anything Chise throws a sleeping potion at her. Even mistakes can be useful.

The dog boy also happens to be wounded. He did also only save Chise since she reminds him of someone he was close to. It was just the red hair, but it was still his little sister.

Anyway, everyone wakes up. Alice and Chise have a lot more in common, mostly the whole being abandon by everyone and their masters being some of the first people who actually care for them. The dog boy also insists he is human. Chise only found this out after questioning Alice why they want him. Turns out it is so he can be used to make a chimera.

Elias then appears from Chise’s shadow, and Alice continues to spill more beans on what is happening. How her master was being threatened and such. She also asks Elias for help so they may put an end to everything. She even says that there are more Chimeras so, there is that issue.

Elias surprisingly agrees to help, mostly since if he does nothing now the church will bug him about it later.

Alice tells more information, only to have Chise step in to protect her. That evil mage from earlier tried to kill Alice. With Chise mortally wounded, Elias does not take too kindly to it. Turning into his true monster like self, the episode ends.

Overall Thoughts:

This episode certainly had a snowball effect. It started off slow, but that ending was just a great place to stop. Now, I am not always a fan of cliffhanger endings. But other times they work wonders when at the right spot. Granblue Fantasy (which I reviewed earlier and the source of my reason to hate cliffhangers) had nearly every episode end in cliffhangers. This show has had two so far. But this one of those two certainly was at just the right time. It brought out the serious aspect of what happened. It just wasn’t whatever. It brought more attention to Elias, who, until now has not played a huge role despite being a main character. We know who he is, but this brings out who he really is. But there is also a connection here. At the start of the episode Renfrod said a master would do anything for his apprentice. Well, Elias certainly is going full-blown over protection mode to protect his apprentice. He clearly cares for Chise, at least so far in a master and apprentice relationship, and this is seemingly that example.

This episode felt a tiny bit slow, the cliffhanger certainly brought back attention. It also seems like more time has passed since the previous episodes. Probably not too much time, mostly since they are working on a task for the church. My guess a week at most since the last episode ended. Still, seeing Chise practicing magic was refreshing. Until now clearly, she hasn’t, but also there are some challenges she is now facing. Seeing that she has too much magic, she has yet to find proper control, thus the potion she tried to make turned into something else. It is nice to see this small touch has a lot to say about both magic and how Chise is going about with this. She studies diligently, but also has still not gotten the basics down. Yet, she does not let this hold her back.

Another thing about Chise, more episodes have passed since her first encounter with Elias. Now, one could assume they only known each other for a month, most of the time Chise has been out cold due to exhaustion. But regardless, she shows more attachment to Elias as episodes pass. This is probably due to Elias being one of the first people who actually cares for her. Chise has been seen to show some caring for others, but so far there has been no other signs of her allowing someone else to care for her. So, seeing how she would react to someone actually caring for her, there is nothing to compare to see if it would be like how she is with Elias.

Anyway, that was a bit off track. This episode was still enjoyable. There were a few minor aspects with pacing that made it seem a little slow, mostly around with Alice explaining everything, but everything else picked up, and certainly still showed a lot of information that goes on behind the scenes.

Overall Enjoyment: 95/100

Overall Score: A-

Feel free to comment your thoughts on the series or Manga. (Try to keep mind of spoilers, for others who may read comments)

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– Joe