Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Attack on Titan, it’s easily one of most well-known and liked animes to this day, and for good reason. Wit Studios did a fantastic job on this anime, but perhaps they did their job too well. What do I mean by that? I mean that the anime came to define the studio instead of the studio defining the anime. Basically, instead of everyone seeing Wit Studios as this studio that made good anime, everyone just saw them as this studio that made Attack on Titan and nothing else. Think of Studio Trigger and what animes they came to define: Kill la Kill, Kiznaiver, Little Witch Academia, and Darling in the FRANXX. These were all animes that Trigger came to define and showed everyone that they were more than just Kill la Kill. They could be thought provoking like Kiznaiver, fun and relatable like Little Witch Academia, or romantic and philosophical like Darling in the FRANXX. Wit on the other hand were stuck in Attack on Titan’s shadow and through the years would try desperately to escape that shadow only to fail. Owari no Seraph and Kabaneri were good, but everyone saw them as Attack on Titan rip-offs. Cool-Headed Hoozuki had funny moments, but quickly died out after the first season and it required you to have a good acknowledge about Japan’s theology of the afterlife as well as their mythology. As for their other works, I can’t believe I’m about ask this, but does anyone remember Rolling Girls or Koi wa Ameagari no You ni? No matter what Wit did, the anime just wasn’t enough to escape Attack on Titan’s shadow, not even today’s anime, Mahoutsukai no Yome. Also known as The Ancient Magnus’ Bride when translated, this was the studios first shot at a fantasy series. Based off a manga written by Kore Yamazaki in 2013 and still continuing to this day, Mahoutsukai no Yome has become a series beloved by readers of fantasy and romance and has often been called the Japanese version of Beauty and The Beast. The series was praised for it’s artwork, detailed backgrounds, and the relationship between the two main characters. In 2016 Wit released 3 OVAs revolving around the series which were met with high praise. In 2017, they debuted a full anime based off the series to the delight of everyone. This was one of my favorite animes from 2017 and it’s been about 3 years since I’ve watched it. That’s why in the final weeks of February we’re going to be looking at this anime. Seeing if it still holds up, if it failed, and if it helped Wit escape from the shadows of Attack on Titan. Let the magic begin, this is Mahoutsukai no Yome.
Opening and Ending Theme
So our opening is “Here” by Junna. Looking back, this is a very good opening. I knew it was a good opening when I first saw it, but watching it again I’m reminded of just how good it is from a visual and musical standpoint. The visuals and atmosphere perfectly match up with the song. Starting off subtle and dark, then picking up as the music becomes more intense. I’m starting to understand why everyone was pissed I didn’t put this on my top 11 openings of 2017.
The ending is “Wa -cycle-” by Hana Itoki. A very beautiful and sad sung. However, the way it’s sung just puts a smile on your face.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts us off at a slave auction filled with all of kinds mythical creatures where a young human girl named Chise voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki (Lisa from Terror in Resonance) is about to be auctioned off. We see how she doesn’t care who she ends up with as long as she has a place to call home and she gets sold for 5 million pounds to a man named Elias voiced by Ryota Takeuchi (who I swear has one of the most soothing voices I’ve ever heard), a mage who has the body of a man but the head of a demon and who wants Chise to be his apprentice. Why, because she has what’s known as the Sight (not to be confused with the Shining) which allows her to see magical spirits that no one else can see. You think this would a good thing but no, it cost Chise her life. Everyone around her including her parents shunned her for it calling her a freak and monster (why? She can see spirits that’s cool. How was she not the coolest girl in school?). Elias warps Chise back to his home in the outskirts of London (where the weather is surprisingly lovely) and cleans Chise up removing her chains and letting her know that she’s not a slave (scene here: https://youtu.be/q-CJ0gqEPdg). After washing up and getting dressed, Elias explains that Chise is what mages call a Sleigh Beggies, who have the ability to attract and bind all manners of things (basically, things like spirits, fairies, and other mythical creatures will be drawn to her and depending on what they are some will help her while others will harm her). That night, she gets tricked by the local fairies to wander into the forest where they plan to drag her to their realm and possibly eat her. She manages to stop herself from going to their realm and Elias shows letting them go with a warning. Elias then carries Chise back where we end with the surprising twist that Elias plans on making Chise his wife as well (scene here: https://youtu.be/udggEghfXNY, call the cops).
In episode 2 Elias takes Chise into town to meet some of his acquaintances. Their first stop is a bookstore run by a mage named Angelica who has a little girl who’s also a mage in training and she teaches Chise the difference between sorcery and magic (there’s a difference? (Baron): Of course there’s a difference between magic and sorcery. Magic is done by mages cooperating with fairies and spirits and bending reality to their will. In layman terms, miracles. Sorcery is what me and Corbin do. We have an understanding of reality and instead of relying on fairies and spirits to help bend reality we instead use our own powers to bend reality to our will. (Nitsuj): Okay, I get it now. So an alchemist would be considered a sorcerer because he’s bending things to his will as opposed to asking others for help. (Baron): Exactly. (Nitsuj): So which one is better, magic or sorcery? (Baron): Well this might be biased of me, but I say sorcery. With magic it requires you to have a vast knowledge and an understanding of your limitations. If you go past those limits, the results could be devastating. On top of that there’s the whole thing of cooperating with spirits which at times can be frustrating and dangerous as seen in the last episode. Not to mention you’re practically surrendering your body to them in order to perform magic). Chise wonders if she can do magic so they test it out by seeing if she can make a crystalized flower from crystal. She not only makes the flower but she makes multiple flowers in the shop and would have probably encased the whole place in crystal if Elias hadn’t shown up to snap her out of her daze (scene here: https://youtu.be/u7k2XLTuW2c. Well one thing’s for sure, she’s going to be one strong mage). After they clean up, Angelica gives her some magic training tools and they head back home where we meet Simon a father/priest in a village who comes to Elias for medicines as well as an overseer from the church to relay messages to Elias on magical issues going on. One of these issues is investigating the dragons which are on the move in Iceland so Elias and Chise go there (you’re bringing a girl who has no idea how to defend herself to investigate dragons? Oh this won’t end well) where Chise gets kidnapped by a dragon (told ya) who is under the control of a hooded-man.
Episode 3 opens up where episode 2 left off as we see the hooded man take Chise to the dragon’s nest (which is like 100 times better than the dragon house). Elias quickly catches up to them and reveals that the hooded man is Lindel a mage who is the caretaker of the dragon’s nest. From there the episode goes by in a flash as we spend most of the time with Chise who plays with some of the hatchlings and spends time with a dragon named Nevin who’s about to die. In this world when dragons die their bodies turn into big trees bringing beauty to the world (that’s pretty cool). Nevin isn’t sad that he’s dying, he’s lived a full life and as a parting gift to Chise he allows her to experience flying. Due to his old age he doesn’t have the strength to fly anymore so he lets her experience flight in his mind (and the scenery is amazing. It’s like something out of a Studio Ghibli film. Scene here: https://youtu.be/YabC7fVwbr0). Nevin finally passes away and tells Chise that once she becomes a mage to come back and use one of his branches to make a wand.
In episode 4 Chise and Elias are on a train heading towards Ulthar to meet the King of Cats (hopefully there’s a humanoid princess of cats. (Corbin): There is. They say the sight of her makes you stiff below the belt in seconds). They make it to Ulthar which is a village in the countryside which is crawling with cats (Stephen King’s next book, Cats of the Country. A spiritual successor to Children of the Corn). They meet the King of Cats, Molly (which means it should be queen not king you sexist bastards) who says that their land is in danger (danger to the world or danger to cats like no more catnip?). Elias does some investigating around the village while Chise gets shown around the village and talks to Molly who tells her about a man (well more like a sick fuck) who in the past used to go around and kill cats in the village (I’m guessing he was allergic to them). The first king of cats gathered all of the remaining cats in the village and together they attacked the man killing him and leaving no trace of him behind (holy shit, this really was the cat version of Children of the Corn). Molly shows her the corruption, this black goo that carries the grudge and evil of the man the cats killed in the past. As of right now they’ve managed to keep it contained in a lake but if it isn’t dealt with soon it’ll be released upon the village and kill both cats and humans. Out of nowhere a mysterious hooded figure grabs Chise and throws her into the water (her one weakness) where she sees the core of the corruption a woman named Mina and her husband Matthew who is the corruption entirely. In the past Mina had a frail body and got sick quite a bit but Matthew still took care of her and loved her. Mina tells Chise to kill her and Matthew to set them free and she returns back to reality where Elias is there tending to her. That night, Chise is given the task of cleansing the corruption because Elias isn’t really all that good at cleansing (he’s more of a destroyer class mage. Scene here: https://youtu.be/cKU_QA6uj1A). So, she walks on water to reach the corruption (please let there be a scene where she and Elias dance on the water together) where before she can do anything she gets captured by these sorcerers who say that Elias is just using her as a test subject and her fate is death (scene here: https://youtu.be/zLY98ZmSab4. Well yeah, we all die).
Episodes 5-8
At the start of episode 5 the sorcerers named Redfred and Alice tell Chise that Sleigh Beggies create an unending supply of magic however their bodies are fragile (this would explain why she looks so frail). Eventually, her body will buckle under the pressure of generating and absorbing magic and she’ll die. The sorcerers try to turn her against Elias by saying he’s just using her for his experiments (yeah I’m having a hard time believing you guys when you’ve got a knife to her neck) but it doesn’t work. She doesn’t care if Elias is using her or even if they’re lying about him. The bottom line is he was the first person to care about her and that’s all she needs to stay by his side. Elias rushes in to save her (a little late there Elias. Scene here: https://youtu.be/Uaot6SBZJ9k) and tells Chise to take care of the corruption while he handles the sorcerers. Chise enters the corruption with Molly and Ariel (the fairy that tried to eat her in the first episode. Were there really no other fairies we could trust?) where we see the past memories of Matthew. Hoping to help Mina, Matthew goes to meet a sorcerer passing through town who convinces him to create a potion using the blood of cats since they have nine lives (I think we need a second opinion. (Corbin): Ahem. (Nitsuj): One that actually makes sense and doesn’t involve anything sexual or insane. (Corbin): Nevermind). So, Matthew literally catches every cat in town, locks them in a shed, and begins killing them to create the potion (this is grotesque. And this is coming from a dog lover). Mina came upon the shed to see the cat killing where Matthew forced the potion down her throat and it kills her (turns her into black ooze and everything). Turns out the sorcerer was just using her as a test subject for condensing souls. The sorcerer leaves and Matthew loses his mind and decides to keep killing cats but the king of cats came and killed him before anymore cat genocide could happen. After seeing all of this Mina reappears and asks Chise to erase her along with Matthew and the souls of the dead cats (it’s either that or this corruption will continue to exist and their suffering will continue). Chise instead creates a new option for them that helps them all pass on peacefully. Using Ariel, she transports Mina to a field of blue flowers where she’s reunited with Matthew (this time he’s sane. Although I’m sure he has a fear of cats now) and they pass on peacefully with each other in hand (scene here: https://youtu.be/0Adlisr93qE).
Nothing much happens in episode 6. After Chise cleanses the corruption and returns the sorcerers retreat and Chise passes out from overusing her magic but not before talking to Elias where he reveals she only has 3 years to live but he has a plan in place to save her and she trusts him. Elias returns home where Chise has been asleep for 2 weeks now (long sleeper). Elias places her in the woods saying that will restore her magic supply faster and he receives a visit from the queen and king of faeries Titania (where her boobs defy the laws of physics) and Oberon (who is eccentric and has the lower body of a goat). They talk for a little bit, Oberon restores Chise’s magic supply allowing her to wake up, and they take their leave (scene here: https://youtu.be/3MhIaTkZf78). We also get a cute moment where Chise cuddles Elias for the first time showing that she’s developed a love for him (scene here: https://youtu.be/C6yU1LR9cZs).
In episode 7 after finding out Elias’s true goal, he begins to train Chise in the art of magic (seriously this time). We see her have a good idea of what she does, but she unconsciously adds too much magic in her potions. However, she actually does look like she’s enjoying herself (and she looks livelier). Elias takes her on an errand to investigate a church hound, a dog which guards the church and the graveyard (a guard dog that doesn’t need to be trained). A church hound just recently started living at a nearby church and Elias’s job is to investigate it to make sure it’s not a threat (gotta make sure it can distinguish between who’s on the list and who’s off the list). While going to the church, Elias gives Chise a ring made by Angelica which will slow down her production of magic (your wedding ring will come at a later date). They arrive at the church only to find a dead body lying out front for everyone to see (apparently somebody follows the old testament way of asking for forgiveness). Elias investigates while Chise also investigates where she winds up in the graveyard and gets attacked by a spirit but saved by the church hound named Ulysse (scene here: https://youtu.be/8H16qyDoJoY). The hound seems to be injured and faints from his injuries just as Alice shows up trying to capture him (this is one popular dog). Chise puts her to sleep using a sleeping potion (failures become success) and tends to Ulysse who upon waking up reveals that the wounds came from a chimera who attacked him and also killed the human that was found in front of the church. Alice wakes up and reveals that she wants Ulysse to use as material to create a chimera (they’re getting FMA up in here) in order to save Renfred who is being forced to do the biding of Cartaphilius (the same sorcerer who tricked Matthew into committing cat genocide). Elias appears out of the shadow of Chise (rude much?) and comes to the conclusion that Ulysse isn’t dangerous. Alice begs Elias to help save Renfred from Cartaphilius which he agrees to do since the church would have asked him to do it anyway. Cartaphilius does a surprise attack trying to kill Alice but Chise senses the danger and pushes Alice to safety (her on the other hand, not so much). Chise gets impaled by Cartaphilius’s attack and slowly begins to die in the arms of Elias (oh you have made a huge mistake Cartaphilius) who transforms into his true form, an inhuman monster (scene here: https://youtu.be/-q-HXRdfdks, and to be fair, that design is savage).
At the start of episode 8 Elias in a state of rage attacks Cartaphilius’s monster while Ulysse senses that Chise is still alive. He does. . .something which sends Chise into his memories where we see that in the past he lived with his sister Isabella and watched over her. Everything was going well until one day she got hit by a carriage and died (wow, usually it’s the dog who gets hit in these kinds of scenarios). Ulysse refused to believe that Isebella was gone so he stayed by her grave waiting for her to wake up (sorry pooch but she’s hitting that eternal snooze button and not waking up). Chise returns to the land of the living and manages to stop Elias returning him to normal and actually not being afraid or fazed by his true form (he already looked inhuman so this change doesn’t scare her). Renfred comes in and shoots Cartaphilius in the head killing him (scene here: https://youtu.be/g6V7pnAs4nA), but he gets back up because the man’s immortal. He pissed off God in the past and was cursed with immortality (doesn’t really seem like a fitting punishment for someone as sick as him). He now walks the Earth performing experiments and trying to figure out a way to break his immortality and finally die not caring who he uses or hurts in the process. He finally reveals his chimera which actually has the soul and upper body of Isabella. Pissed by this display of inhuman nature, Chise is about to break the rules and crush him but Elias stops her and they all get saved by a will-o-wisp (helping souls cross over before it was scary) who tends to Chise and returns Ulysse to his dog form (scene here: https://youtu.be/JKclYYzHsbc) where he says he wants to become Chise’s familiar. Cartaphilius shows up with Isabella just as Chise agrees to form a pact with Ulysse giving him the new name Ruth completing the pact. Ruth attacks and kills Isabella (scene here: https://youtu.be/rTcdsOqzqYw) and Cartaphilius decides to leave realizing he’s lost the fight. Renfred and Alice also take their leave while Chise and Elias also head home with their new pet (it’ll be good practice for parenthood).
Episodes 9-12
Episode 9 is a relaxing episode. It starts with Chise going to see Elias who has locked himself in his room for some reason. Ruth suspects that he’s resting his body after transforming in the last episode. Silky (the maid spirit of the house) sends Chise and Ruth out for the day where they go shopping with Angelica where she tells Chise to spend her time wisely like go back to school and that triggers something inside of her (bad memories). She returns home and finally works up the courage to go into Elias’s room (be sure to put a tie on the door) where we see he’s transformed back into his monster form because his body is out of balance. Surprisingly, Chise isn’t scared by this at all and stays with him in the night hoping to get answers into what’s going on in the morning (scene here: https://youtu.be/GRkTmAw66io). When morning comes, Elias is gone (Isis: Typical man. Always leaving women without a word in the morning. (Yume): Simply terrible). She and Ruth go out to search for him where they run into an old man named Joel who is a gardener/writer and living with him is a Leanne Sidhe (it’s basically a vampire fairy that grants you wishes in exchange for blood) that Joel can’t see (scene here: https://youtu.be/sg8qILRT7ZM). Joel invites Chise in for some tea and to read one of his short stories while Ruth searches for Elias. While reading Joel’s story, Chise notices she can’t sense the work of the Leanne Sidhe and sure enough it’s because she hasn’t drank his blood. Joel desires nothing so the Leanne Sidhe has no purpose to hang around him but still does because she’s in love with him but doesn’t see it as love (and it’s here that I figure out the relationship between Chise and Elias. Fairies have a different meaning on what love is. For the Leanne Sidhe her meaning of love is granting Joel’s wish but in the process hurting him. Because she’s not hurting Joel and denying her nature, she believes that what she feels for him isn’t love but instead some sort of odd and deep connection to him that stops her from leaving. I think this kind of mindset can apply to Elias and Chise. Elias loves Chise and these strong feelings are messing with his nature which calls him to hurt her. Elias is battling with an emotion he doesn’t fully understand which is to love and protect Chise while battling his nature which calls him to hurt that which he loves. Chise, on the other hand, is afraid to commit herself fully to Elias because of the emotional and mental trauma she experienced in the past. She’s afraid she can’t fulfill her love for him and is worried that she’ll be hurt again just like she was in the past. Both characters are subjective to their nature and are trying desperately to fight against them and express their feelings for each other). After leaving Joel’s house, Chise receives a message from Ruth telling her he’s found Elias in the forest just west of the house. She rushes there to see Elias where she’s mad at him for running off without a word and not keeping his promise. He somewhat apologizes for this and asks for a little more time where he promises to explain everything. Their conversation than gets interrupted by seal fairy belonging to Lindel who requests Chise to come to the land of dragons (scene here: https://youtu.be/Gv-q_wrPRgk).
In episode 10 Lindel wants Chise to come to the land of dragons so she can craft her wand which will help her have better control of her magic (and then she’ll really become a mage). She goes there with Ruth on the back of one of the baby dragons she played with last time now grown up (maturity hits them fast and hard. Scene here: https://youtu.be/WyFhMEZwfNE) and Lindel instructs her to cut off one of the branches from Nevin’s tree (happy cutting). That night, Lindel decides to tell Chise a story about Elias and how he met him. It was a long time ago (back before our lives were controlled by the internet and even the tele) where a young Lindel wandered the land as a nomad. One night, he was on the lookout for wolves in the area where he never found any but found Elias (well we can’t eat him but he’ll be good for conversations). Elias passes out due to hunger and Lindel looks after him where he wonders who, what, and where Elias came from as not even he himself knows what he is, he just woke up in the forest one day and just started to walk around without a destination. Lindel takes Elias to his master Rahab where not even she knows what Elias is. All she knows is that he’s close enough to be classified as a spirit or fairy but he also has a hint of human in him. She decides to have Lindel take him as in apprentice but Lindel says he has no time for one so they instead travel together as acquittances. Rahab also gave him the name of Elias (scene here: https://youtu.be/Kshfs6TbjVg).
In the first half of episode 11 we continue the story of Elias and Lindel where Elias believes that he’s eaten human before (oh well that’s pleasant to know). Lindel’s response is to this revelation is funny as he asks not to eat him which he says he won’t (any normal person would be running away screaming). After that they turn in for the night and the next day Chise gets to work on making the handle for her wand by carving it herself. Time goes by as she gets lost carving the handle and Lindel shows off some of his magic by singing where he brings the flowers to life and summons the spirits of the wind to dance with Chise (it’s about as beautiful as it sounds. Scene here: https://youtu.be/TIZ02hsTnBA). Chise then accidently uses a water portal to contact Elias where they talk for a few minutes. Elias says he misses her and she lets him know that she’ll be home soon and can’t wait to see him (scene here: https://youtu.be/zx5frSKqFRA). There was also this one scene where Lindel is helping a child in a nearby village where another who has the Sight sees Elias and everyone freaks out believing Lindel to be a demon. He gets attacked and Elias protects him (scene here: https://youtu.be/tQvK122KCPY).
In episode 12 Chise’s wand is finally finished (scene here: https://youtu.be/7tdfgweoLek) and once she grabs it she goes to another world filled with trees, a mysterious fog, and Nevin (alright he’s back). They really don’t explain why he’s there my guess is his soul is in the wand because the wand was created from his branch so you know magic and whatnot. From there Chise talks to him about her worries and doubts. At first, she didn’t really care about Elias throwing her out and stuff but as time went on she came to love being around him and got mad whenever he kept things to himself (you’ve found your home kid). Nevin tells her that she needs to stop worrying about those things and that it’s okay to be selfish and want things from him. He also says that he’s happy Chise’s parents gave birth to her because he got to meet such a wonderful girl (we got such a wonderful anime out of it). She returns back to reality and wanting to get home to see Elias as soon as possible, she uses her wand and gathers up fire spirits who turn her into a phoenix and she flies home (that might just be the coolest scene in the anime). She arrives back home in the arms of Elias ( scene here: https://youtu.be/6Nx_6gh5nwI, just like in the opening) where he welcomes her back and she falls asleep from overusing her magic (she did fly far). She wakes up 2 days later after having a pleasant dream about her childhood where she and her parents were happy together. Once she’s back up we see that she’s smiling more now (she has a smile that just warms the heart) and we end the episode with her talking about how much she loves this place and has breakfast with everyone.
And that’s the first half of the anime. So far nothing all that bad. If anything it’s even better than I remember it. I can’t wait to see what the second part has in store for us. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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