This first series of The Ancient Magus Bride is a delightfully strange and distinctively magical bit of fantasy. The initial pitch can be a bit offputting, on the face of it – Elias, a very old mage, purchases a teenage girl called Chise at an auction with the express purpose of eventually making her his wife. However, it rapidly becomes evident that both of them are excessively comfortable with this arrangement because they are each in their own ways out of touch with humanity. Chise has lived a life of sufficient neglect and isolation that she is desperate to be valued in any way, even if it’s just as an object. Elias, on the other hand, is something that is neither human nor fairy and can’t relate to either of them, and has a level of emotional intelligence that’s disconcertingly childish. They are both, in their own ways, half formed. The story is mostly about them each growing beyond that point. The story avoids a trap that other things with similar premises fall into, in that it doesn't really endorse the power imbalance between Chise and Elias, nor is Elias the sole agent responsible for “fixing” Chise. He expands her horizons by introducing her to the world of magic, where there are many other people and creatures with advice and kindness to offer, and in equal measure they’re ready to take Elias to task over him not being an especially adequate caretaker. I particularly like Silky, who has a small role as the mute caretaker of Elias’s house, but still gets some time focused on her perspective and demonstrates a great amount of personality despite not speaking. Everyone contributes something to helping Chise to grow into an active agent in determining her own fate, and standing against the darker parts of the magical and human worlds. Those dark parts are depicted very viscerally, the fae feel alien from humans in a way that feels true to the old European folk tales that inspired them, and the central antagonist is a good solid creepy interpretation of the old “childlike but unfeeling” archetype. Watching Chise grow from a pet into a full person is a great experience, and it’s accentuated by little details like the loss of the bags under her eyes and changing of her hairstyle.

There are a few rough edges to it, and this is a good time to talk about it as a work of adaptation. I have read most of the manga that covers the events covered in the series. (Although not all of it) From what I have read, I’d say it’s a very loving and considered straight adaptation. Very little is changed from page to screen. However, in terms of this series I think the anime adaptation is the superior work. Things like Elias’s design have been given a touch of extra polish that is missing from the manga and every scene has been given lush backgrounds that weren’t always present in the panels. As an English person, I very much appreciated the accuracy with which certain mundane details of the English environment were rendered, like patterns on train seats or the livery on police cars. The enforced pace of cinema compared to comics also means you have to sit in certain scenes much longer than you might when reading them, and the ones that have been given that time are chosen very well. Combined with an excellent score, there’s a level of texture and immersion in this screen version that’s just not quite there in print, and I greatly admire how the production team were able to elevate the work without changing it. Still, some things from the manga that don’t quite work are also faithfully recreated. The manga often uses chibis to deliver jokes which I often feel fall flat and they’re no better here. Sometimes the pacing feels slightly strange too. While Kore Yamazaki’s interest in European folk stories is clear, her character designs sometimes feel a little excessively manga-esque, and therefore don’t quite ring true and can feel out of place, especially for the fae folk. Still, while they can be distracting they can’t truly spoil this bewitching and intimate drama.