The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Season 1/ Episode 5 “Love Conquers All” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

Additional details of what a Sleigh Buggy is, and why Elias may have an interest in Chise, gets revealed. That alongside the truth about Matthew and Mina.

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Previous Recap: Episode 4 “Everything Must Have a Beginning”

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Crunchyroll

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Despite The Truth, I Don’t Wanna Be Free: Chise, Elias

From Alice, the blonde working under Renfred, we learn of the attraction of Sleigh Beggy’s to those like Elias. It isn’t them attracting all sorts of beings, more so it is because they are an unending well of magic. Which, thanks to them being human, Sleigh Beggys that is, naturally their bodies can’t handle the magic.

Yet, despite being talked about as something simply amusing for Elias to observe, this doesn’t end the fact he called Chise family. With that in mind, it doesn’t seem much, if anything at all, could change how she feels about him. After abandonment, outright scorn, he welcomed her with open arms. He gave her a home, showed her kindness, and perhaps reminded her, or introduced her, to what love is. Why would she ever want to be free of that?

And with those words said, Elias pops from Chise’s shadow to scare off Renfred and Alias. He even licks a wound she got from escaping Alice’s grasp, which assumingly heals her. Thus allowing her to return to the cleansing.

The Trickster Sorcerer: Matthew, Mina, Chise

It is noted that Alice is Renfred’s protégé and with that said, you have to wonder if their reason for wanting this corruption is because it is the work of his predecessor? You see, this small, silver-haired, person is what turned Mina into this black toxic looking goop. The idea of the sorcerer, which Matthew fell for, is that with the 9 lives cats supposedly have, take that blood, add a little something to it, and if Mina drunk it, she’d be better.

Thing is, all it did was turn her into goop and we know the fate of Matthew. So with that in mind, after what Matthew did, much less for her, Mina just wants to disappear. However, with Chise not being able to do something like that, rather not wanting to, she decides to just help them pass on. A task which Molly, on her 9^th life, alongside everyone’s favorite Ariel help complete.

Question(s) Left Unanswered

1. Considering Elias and Lindel’s age, would it be wrong to expect the sorcerer who tricked, rather used for an experiment, Matthew to pop up?

On The Fence

The Breadcrumbs

Like Garo – Vanishing Line, there is just this vibe that with such a huge episode count, in comparison to most anime which tap out at 13, everything is being dragged out. You want to learn more about the character? We’ll give you one or two lines which actually matter in the long run.

Of which, for this episode, was just building upon the fact Chise is going to become too powerful for her own body to handle. Something that Elias seems to be dragging his feet on preventing what may be the inevitable. But, perhaps one thing which messes up The Ancient Magus’ Bride in comparison to Garo – Vanishing Line is the OVA. From what it seems, the OVA has to be at least around episode 7 or 8, if not beyond.

Something that boggles the mind. For while watching the establishment of the commitment between Elias and Chise is cute, even after Renfred and Alice’s reveal, it throws you off a bit. This whole idea that you are watching a prequel to an OVA that she show will eventually surpass. To me, it is an odd way to tell a story and perhaps the first time I’ve seen a show handle its narrative that way.

But, even with all that said, there remains something undeniably appealing about Chise. To the point that it makes any complaints feel like minor things. The kind of stuff which can be fixed over time versus major issues.