An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

No Sharp Line – The Ancient Magus’ Bride Spoiler Review

There isn’t a sharp line dividing what some can find beautiful and what others might find troublesome, even sick. This goes double when it comes to romance, since different people approach the topic with different hangups, expectations, and auto-failure situations that won’t be shared universally. Some things will usually get a pass, and other things will usually be found disturbing. Sat right in the middle of the gray area between the two is the core romance of The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

Here’s the basic summary of the setup: Chise, a teenage girl, is bought at auction, as a slave, by an ancient and powerful inhuman sorcerer named Elias, who intends for her to marry him. Full stop. If you think that sounds like thirty-one flavors of wrong, I don’t blame you. If that sentence (run-on though it may be) is enough that you think you could never like this show… you might be right. For me, there are mitigating factors, but I blame no one for being unable to make it through episode 1 of this.

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