Ancient Magus Bride: Season 2 – Episode 1 Review

Normally, its the other way around for her.

Okay, we’ve finished our review of the OAD series after the 1st Season right in time, as today is the airing of the 2nd Season of Ancient Magus Bride. So, as one of my favorite series, we’ll naturally be covering it with a Recap and Review.

Let’s get to it!

Recap

The episode opens with an amazing scene of crystals, an underwater journey, and an expansive hallway that shows the members of the College welcoming Chise. Cue the opening that foreshadows a whole bunch of stuff that you know if you know. If you don’t, you’ll know soon enough.

We cut back to how we got here, with one of the guys who work for the College asking for Chise to attend. Elias asks why they would be interested in having a Mage, which Chise is, attend. He basically gives exposition about her characteristics of being a Sleigh Beggy and having two curses (Dragon and Immortality), all of which are so rare that she’s just the perfect research subject. In exchange for her coming along, she would be able to take classes and potentially break her curses.

Chise asks Elias for his advice, and he outright states he doesn’t want her to go. But after the crap he pulled last season, he’s shown the ability to learn and asks what she wants. She admits she’s been giving it some thought that because she didn’t know enough in the past she was only able to use her own body to resolve matters, which winded up with her getting hurt and everyone suffering. So she wants to know more so she doesn’t need to resort to hurting herself to help others. Elias agrees to let her go… on the condition he goes with her.

We then cut to them meeting the Headmistress of the College. She welcomes them both and gives her a flower in greeting before explaining that the College is meant to serve to nurture and protect those there, but not to drop her guard. Then we get to see they got the technology to explain how it’s all underground and the layout of the College.

We then go to the medical room where we see best girl, Alexandra. She welcomes Chise and examines her, kicking out the guys in the process. When it gets brought up by Adolf that he thought Elias wouldn’t leave Chise’s side, Elias mentions that he gets scared at the thought of Chise learning that he was spying on her again, so he didn’t want to risk it.

He doesn’t know what the feeling is until it’s pointed out to him, but he doesn’t want to feel it again if he can help it. We then get a vision of Elias thinking about a woman in a rocking chair and wondering what she would think of him now. But then we see Renfred wondering what Elias is doing there.

Back with Chise, Alexandra gets her medical history including how many times she nearly died (minimum of three), and tells her she’s a bit reckless but she did well to survive. She then learns about Chise getting excess flashbacks to memories that aren’t hers and becoming more sensitive to malice and gazes. She also gained some extra strength from her draconic arm. Alexandra reasons that having more than a thousand years of memories can be enough to crush Chise’s ego and asks if her personality has changed according to other people.

Chise doesn’t think so, but at that same point, she feels someone’s gaze upon her. She rushes to the door, but they flee as Ruth pops up after having been in Chise’s shadow. Then we see the one responsible is a young woman with white hair hiding behind the corner.

Then back to Elias and Renfred where they talk. Elias reveals they will be commuting to the College, as they have a shortcut to get there faster. He then asks if Renfred hates him, to which he answers he doesn’t just hate him but all demihumans. Elias states that’s fine since Renfred doesn’t hate him enough that Elias would feel the need to have to kill him. Elias then asks what goes into teaching people since that’s his new job.

Chise then goes to her dorm where she runs into a bunch of cats that welcome her. They act as the Dorm Mothers, asking Chise to pick one of them to act as her matron. She picks Roselyn, as she represents freedom and Chise already has a home and she remembers that Nevin told her she could be free. She then has a moment of nervousness as she recalls her past attending a school where no one understood her, inadvertently bonking her roommate on the head with the door.

Well, after that rough introduction, the new girl introduces herself as Lucy Webster. She shows Chise her bed and desk and where her belongings go but tells her she isn’t good with people so don’t expect to make nice with her. Then Chise gets dressed again before receiving a text message from Alice to meet her at the training hall.

She runs out to do so but gets lost. That’s when she stumbles over the white-haired girl who looks ill and promptly passes out in Chise’s arms. She’s not really sure what to do at the moment as the credits roll.

Review

Mmmm…. it’s finally back. Oh, I’m so happy. But I should start actually talking about the episode.

So, basically, we see that a short amount of time has passed since the First Season (see OAD) and Chise has decided to go attend College. Her reasons for doing so are that she herself feels that she doesn’t know enough to be able to help other people, which means that she has to resort to using her own body. The many flashbacks have shown that along with how it affects the others around her and they’re hurt by her hurting herself. It basically highlights her growth in that she’s being proactive in taking a step to improve herself.

At the same time, Chise is still a teenage girl who suffered horribly because she was different from all the others around her. As a result, being in a school and having to interact with her peers leaves her absolutely terrified. She wasn’t afraid of Joseph, but social activity with her peers is another story.

Elias himself has also shown signs of growth. Last season, he could be devious, and even up until the final battle he would normally spy on Chise and hide in her shadow. Here he has learned what being scared is and hates the feeling of it. And it makes sense, as we’ve learned he basically has little context for emotions and has done some heinous stuff because of that. Stella was just the icing on the cake and Chise chewed him out for that before going with Joseph, which we saw sent him on the warpath.

But the memory of that woman on a rocking chair is a new one. We know that Elias has a social circle of people he has interacted with, but for non-manga readers that one is a newcomer. I’ll be looking forward to her introduction.

We also get some reoccurring characters from the last season with Renfred, Adolf, and Alice. They’re the members of the College who have interacted with them the most, so they’ll be getting some screentime here too. But I’m really looking forward to seeing the new students next episode.

Changes from Manga

Okay, there are some changes due to time being an issue. This episode adapts some of Chapters 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 it’s 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 mentions 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 really lucky when she sold herself) because the unique properties of their bodies make studying them difficult. Adolf mentions that it’s his hope that if they study her, being the exception to the norm, they can learn how their bodies work and create an artificial substitute 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 unhesitating 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 inadvertently 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.
• Originally, 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 preparations 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 appearance (caterpillar body with four arms), but that some alchemists 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 transformation 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 from 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.