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Note: This will cover the whole franchise up until this point, since I don’t find much to say about each entry on their own.
I didn’t know about this series until the ova mini-series came out and got me interested in the concept right away, as it seemed to be like a fantasy version of The Sixth Sense or something, with the protagonist being the only one able to see supernatural creatures. It didn’t turn out like that at all, but still, a young girl learning magic and finding out about all the supernatural stuff lurking in her world was catchy enough, the occasional tragic deaths, dark elements and great visuals and atmosphere added to the positives, even though at the end of the day it was just a media res demo of sorts.
Then the tv series started and part of that magic was lost to me. Not on the presentation though, as the visuals kept the gorgeous artwork, backgrounds and special effects, that make up for the usually static animation and simple character designs with repeated facial features, while the sound retained the immersive sound effects and atmospheric soundtrack, along with cool and atypical openings and endings, that were also accompanied by a fine voice acting.
The drawbacks were in the plot, as it starts in a very creepy way, with a young human girl being bought as a slave by a skeleton, undead, monster, thing who even has a hidden much more hideous form, thus giving off very bad vibes. Everything seemed to be fine when he intended to make her his apprentice, but as soon as he revealed that he intended her to become his wife, with every secondary character supporting them, everything became hella weird and creepy again.
Aside from that, the atmosphere from the mini-series, while still there, was now interrupted by the typical chibi comedy that you encounter on a shoujo series. It’s still better than most comical moments on a shounen series, mind you, but it still clashes a lot with the rest of the series, resulting in a very annoying mood whiplash.
The setting is somewhat interesting because it takes place in Europe, and because of the influence of European folklore that makes for somewhat captivating vibes and aesthetics, even though the series plays out in a typical fashion for a contemporary fantasy series. The occasional dark themes and violent moments that are presented in a tasteful way are a nice touch too.
Despite that, as much as the series tries to make it seem that there are stakes and the main characters are in danger, both are exceptional and whenever they encounter a threat, they come out fine, are cured by either a super powerful supernatural being that favors them or a risky procedure that comes out just fine, and they get allies and power ups every so often, or reveal to have a hidden super power that lets them face anything just fine.
As for characters, they are memorable more for their characteristics than their personality. A redhead suicidal young female mage that can see creepy supernatural creatures and gets power ups by being cursed, apprentice of a skeleton undead thing that turns into a…I don’t even know how to describe it. Other than that, Chise is mostly an excuse for the viewer to learn about this world, and Elias doesn’t know how to communicate well. Secondary one off characters are somewhat one note but at least have an explored dramatic and sad back story to flesh them out, even though they don’t appear again. Development and catharsis are otherwise nonexistent for the mains, and the secondary ones don’t get that because they disappear from the story soon after they appear.
Thus, I began watching the series thanks to the ova mini-series that presented it as a darker Ghibli movie, and what I got is the most off-putting non-pornographic version of Beauty and the Beast ever, that even though it is a shoujo series, plays out like a typical shounen action series, by giving the super special protagonist favors from super powerful creatures and big powers ups, even with former enemies becoming her allies. The presentation, the dramatic secondary stories and characters, and the occasional dark elements, make it a watchable time waster for me, but nowhere near as promising as it seemed to be.
Then, a later mini ova series came out some years later while the second season was already announced, but unlike the first one it wasn’t liked much. The studio changed, the artwork was a bit compromised and the special effects now included a bit more crude looking CGI. The story was another semi-dramatic story about a secondary one off character, but the uneventful finale and the slow pacing in the beginning and the rushed pacing in the end of it made it very passable and forgettable as a whole, so it’s understandable why it’s the lowest rated entry in the franchise. The sound department was on par with the previous level, so there weren’t complaints there.
Then the second season came out and it wasn’t nearly as popular nor liked as the first, why is that?
No recency bias, no longer a new show, second season of a series with already three entries, with thirty episodes amongst them.
Split cour, the majority doesn’t like that, especially when it comes to a sequel of a two season series.
Also, since the studio changed, the visuals aren’t as polished as they used to be, even though they were improved from the second ova mini-series. The second part in particular has a lot more crude CGI than the first, thus being the worst entry so far in that regard.
Audio wise, the special effects and the music kept being captivating, and that includes the opening and endings, so no complaints there, again. The voice acting for the newly introduced characters include both more veteran and young seiyuus, with everyone doing a good job, so that was actually improved as the franchise went on.
The plot changed slightly though, what used to be a learning process across the countryside with its creepy and captivating encounters with some supernatural horrors, was replaced with a Harry Potter-esque magic high school and arc, Chamber of Secrets for the first cour, with someone attacking others with a dark magic book, and Prisoner of Azkaban for the second, with everyone trapped in the school, in specific. Thankfully, the creepy creatures and vibes, the secondary characters with tragic backstories, the newly introduced conflicts among different families of wizards that reminded me of Fate/Zero and the Waver spin off and led the author to explore the closed, caged, oppressive world of wizardry, along with some slight level of development for Chise who opens to more people and learns to be not AS suicidal, while Elias slowly learns about humans and how to communicate with others, are there, it’s just that the sense of adventure and exploration was lost. The plot progression wasn’t lost however, even though some claim it did, the series was about Chise learning about this world, and it still is about that, only on a school instead of the countryside, ok? The only major difference is no death for a secondary character, but other than that the series remains the same, only on a more limited setting.
What’s unforgivable is how the series had the chance to fix the most off putting aspect of the relationship between the main characters, by revealing that Elias is confused about what his intentions for Chise actually entail, and both of them questioning said relationship, only for them to go “well, as long as we are together, it doesn’t matter if we’re husband and wife, master and slave, teacher and apprentice, father and daughter”, fuck that, it made things even worse.
The opening of the second cour made it look like it was going to be far more action oriented, and although there is a bit more than before, that was never the strongest aspect of the franchise. It also set off all of the alarms for a time travel sort of subplot to take place, but thankfully that wasn’t the case, it was just the characters going down the memory trip.
As a whole, this is a franchise you follow not for the plot, which isn’t very special and progresses very slowly, not for the action, which isn’t very spectacular nor particularly well animated, and doesn’t have much stakes because of how powerful the main characters are or become, and hopefully not for the dynamic of the main characters, which is off putting as hell. You watch it for the presentation and atmosphere, the setting and its creatures, the creepy vibes, and the secondary stories and characters. A mixed bag of a series, but in the end an ok time passer.
5/10
