Ancient Magus Bride: Season 2 – Episode 6 Review

Sleepovers in a Magus’ house are so interesting.

The sixth episode of Ancient Magus Bride Season 2 aired earlier this week but I was indisposed, so here we are now. After last week’s reveals, we could use some downtime. And what better downtime than sleeping over at a friend’s house?

Let’s get into the Recap and Review.

Recap

The episode opens with Chise asking Elias what he meant when he said he intended to make her his bride the first time they met. Before he can give her an answer, the bell rings and she asks him to tell her later. The question lingers on his mind as he crosses Renfred in the halls and asks him if he ever considered taking someone as his spouse.

Alice ends up coming across the discussion as Elias explains further he wants examples to present to Chise. So he asks what Alice is to him, as she has a lot of magic power but not the talent to match, so he assumed she was being brought up to maintain his lineage. Renfred states that a lot of people might think that way but Alice is a daughter he took in, honest in her attempts despite her flaws, and someone he wants to protect until she can live her own life.

Then we cut to Alice taking a train until Father Simon comes with Chise, having decided to stay with them for a bit. Simon is happy Chise made a friend, referencing how it’s a three-hour trip for them. They eventually arrive and Alice gets a taste of the Silver Lady’s food while Elias questions why she’s there and sulks when she states that she’ll be borrowing Chise for a night. Chise can only tell him she’ll sleep with him tomorrow, which broaches a question from Alice about that.

They end up sleeping in the same bed and Chise asks what happened. Alice explains that overhearing Renfred talking pulled the rug from under her as she wanted to become his Guardian and he doesn’t need her. She then recalls when Joseph had attacked them and he lost his arm protecting her, leaving her to be beaten and her Master forced into cooperation. Renfred sees her as a daughter but she wanted to be his protector, so it was humbling and humiliating.

She then goes into Chise’s relationship, which is vague even to her. Elias is her master, but they’re also married. Chise brings up how Simon mentioned different people would have different interpretations, which applies to Alice as well. Then Blue Flame shows up and chimes in that if she wants to be his bodyguard what does it matter how Renfred sees her when it comes to intentions as they won’t change?

Once Alice is asleep, Chise sneaks off to the rooftop where Elias is while the other two familiars sneak off. They sit there and discuss the answer to his question, which Elias claims was that it was meant to be a convenient solution. Having an apprentice and spouse all in one living with him would be easier to deal with rather than two people. Chise figured as much, so she isn’t too disappointed.

Elias then mentions that an apprentice would leave eventually, but she has been teaching him instead and he can’t let her go. Since Chise said she was his bride, he figured that meant they would stick together as couples do. Chise brings up that a lot of couples get divorced these days, but also that even the same roles can be interpreted differently. That being said, she likes being both to him since he was the one who saved her and she’s happy with him and that he didn’t want to let her go.

Elias brushes her hair and asks what being happy means, which she explains as a feeling of being able to go on another day, and as long as she has the memory she can make it through a hardship or two. He realizes that means he’s happy to speak with her and to take the role of her husband, so he asks if can continue that role as they share an embrace beneath the moonlight.

The next day, Alice effectively thinks that she didn’t figure out anything and ended up dumping it all on Chise. Renfred shows up and she eventually tells him that she doesn’t think of him as a father, even though she appreciates him thinking of her that way. She then asks if he thinks she’s inferior, to which he explains he forced her into her current path in a way she wouldn’t notice to explain himself. If he hadn’t taken her in, she would have chosen a more normal path.

Alice refutes that claim and states he showed her a path and she decided to take that because she thought it would fit her. There are no what-ifs, she chose him and the path she wants. She doesn’t want to be protected, but at least wants to protect him to make up for the arm he lost. He pats her on the head and tells her she’s still a child as long as she’s standing there shouting.

He then walks away, telling her that it’s an adult’s duty to protect a child before walking away and telling her not to skip classes. She only shouts he doesn’t get it. We then skip to a couple of researchers heading down into the grimoire vault as one of them has a mysterious glow.

Review

So in this episode, we get some emotional introspection on the position of roles and those assigned to them, as well as how they are interpreted. Specifically those between the apprentices and their masters. There’s also that bait at the end, but that’s a plot point for the second half of the season.

For those who don’t remember, because Season One (Episode 16) was a long time ago, Alice was effectively from an abusive household with a father who was a drug dealer that got her hooked and then made her become a dealer before he died and left her homeless. Renfred found her, detoxed her, and showed her magic before assigning her to be his Guardian since she doesn’t have a head for complex stuff. His facial scars come from protecting her, which earned her trust and devotion.

So Joseph rolling up and nearly killing her, resulting in Renfred losing his arm protecting her, only served to remind her of her failings. She wants to be the one protecting him, but time and again he has protected her. And that frustrates her because she feels she can’t pay back the life he gave her after everything that has happened. The Guardian is supposed to protect them, not the other way around, so hearing him state that it was his duty to protect her as a child hurt.

Renfred, meanwhile, has come to see her as a daughter he didn’t have. That is something he feels very passionate about, as every time she’s in danger it isn’t his legacy in magic he’s concerned about. It’s her well-being, which he has put himself in danger to maintain time and time again.

This sort of mirrors Chise and Elias’ relationship, but also contrasts it. Their relationship is father-daughter / master-guardian, whereas Elias and Chise’s master-apprentice / husband-wife. Or at least that’s one way to interpret it, as they are still spinning their wheels on what their roles mean. Chise is both a student of magic and a teacher of humanity, while Elias is a teacher of magic and a student of humanity.

There’s a give-and-take present for Elias and Chise that isn’t there for Renfred and Alice, which adds to the latter’s frustration. Even in the end, Renfred either can’t see where she’s coming from or can’t change his opinion since to him she’s still a child who needs protecting. Sad, but that’s life.

Changes from Manga

Not that much was skipped or changed this time (unless you count the Spring Cleaning bonus chapter), just some small bits from Chapters 54 to 57 to: “First Impressions are the Most Lasting (I) – Better Bend Than Break (II)”:

• Renfred asks why Elias doesn’t just tell Chise what he thinks and if he makes a mistake learn from it, but Elias states he can’t afford for her to be disappointed in him anymore (due to all his previous screw-ups).
• Elias even apologizes that he hit on a sore spot about Alice, with Renfred noting that he was being serious about the apology despite not looking the part.
• Alice informs Renfred that she wouldn’t be making it home that night before going to Chise after she finished exploring the Gardens seeking out Zoey, asking if she could come over for the night.
• Chise couldn’t use the backways for obvious reasons (Alice would be eaten), but Simon didn’t mind since he didn’t have plans other than couch surfing. He then brings up that Elias would buy Chise a car if she asks, explaining that she could get a Learner’s Permit at 16 and a legal one a year later. Chise asks how much it would cost to maintain while Alice brings up she has a Driver’s License already.
• Simon also realizes that he should have reported that Chise and Elias attend a Wizard/Sorcerer’s School to his boss.
• Part of why Simon considers Alice one of Chise’s friends is because he knows she hates burdening others, so asking for a favor like a three-hour drive is pretty out there. Then Chise turns his words back on him about being Elias’ friend, which has him state they aren’t since he wouldn’t be able to help Elias if he was in danger and he can’t imagine Elias would shed a tear if he died. So he can’t call their relationship a friendship even by his standards, meaning they should cherish what they have. (And keep in mind this takes place after Elias helps him deal with the Auditor from the Church not covered in the anime yet.)
• Alice likens her situation to being a rat in a maze, where someone has been watching over her all this time wanting to see if she could clear it rather than her working towards a goal of her own.
• The reason Alice doesn’t consider him her father is because to her that word is associated with her drug-addicted birthfather (who got her hooked on drugs to act as a dealer and then died).
• Ruth originally brings Chise her jacket when she goes onto the rooftops before heading off with Blue Flame, while Chise muses that Rahab was right in why Elias chose to make her his bride. Elias likewise references the relationship between Angie and her husband as a couple being together.
• When they discuss the role of a couple, Chise thinks back to her father and mother. She notes that they looked so happy together and questions why her father chose to forsake that role when he abandoned her and her mother. She can only speculate that to live means to consider things like that which can’t be ignored.
• To elaborate on Renfred’s admission, he explains that what he did was coercion even if he made sure she wouldn’t notice. He suggested she become his guardian to make sure she would never turn away from magic, which is more dangerous than a normal life even considering the fact that he picked her up out of an alley.

There was some more stuff on the incoming gym class, but since the next episode looks to be covering some of that I’ll leave it unless it doesn’t.

Until next time.

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