As I mentioned last week, this arc isn’t one of my favorites in Mahoutsukai no Yome. It’s good, don’t get me wrong – maybe too good. But damn, is it uncomfortable for me to watch. There are a lot of important things happening here in the background (as there often are in this series) but what’s happening front and center is so profoundly unpleasant that it’s hard to get past it. But I suppose in part, that’s the point – to make us aware that there’s a lot of darkness in this world The Ancient Magus’ Bride is depicting.
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have noticed that both of these errands the Church has sent Elias on have given us cliffhangers where the cliffhanger was a bit of a misdirection. Renfred and his associate certainly aren’t the primary drivers of events in this episode, but their intervention is interesting. Renfred presents himself as Chise’s savior – there to free her from the emotionless monster who sees her as his property. But Chise doesn’t want to be saved – in fact she tells Renfred that she doesn’t care if what he’s told her is true or not. Obviously Chise’s views of Elias are colored by the fact that he’s the first person to seemingly value her (even financially). But are they also colored – and too much – by her own lack of self worth?
There are a lot of spins one could put on this, certainly. Obviously the locals hold sorcerers in very low esteem – but as we’ll find out, they have very good reason. And Elias certainly seems to have an antagonistic relationship with Renfred. But is this is a matter of bias and personal animus, or are there deeper reasons to feel such distrust of sorcerers (as opposed to mages)? What’s undeniable is that Chise now knows that her own fate is clouded – that a “treasure” with the powers she possesses is cursed to live a short life.
When Elias (rather easily) dispatches the sorcerer pair and licks Chise’s wound, the cleansing of this land’s blight can continue – but because of Chise’s powers, she sees altogether more than she was intended to see (and more than I wanted to, quite frankly). Simply put, this is an ugly story – a tragedy. But who you consider a victim depends on your perspective, I suppose. The sorcerer (I always assumed he was a woman, but apparently not) who convinces Matthew to commit horrible atrocities in order to save Mina is a villain, clearly. But what of Matthew himself?
My take on this is pretty simple – Matthew was already a twisted and broken man before that scoundrel saw him as a useful tool for experimentation. I don’t excuse what he did on the premise that he acted out of love – at least not totally. There was hate and anger behind what he did, too – and a decent person would never commit such acts in any case, no matter the supposed reward. And of course, Mina – who was a decent person – would never have wanted him to do so. It’s a tragedy in the sense that everyone loses, pretty much – everyone, of course, except for that sorcerer who gave Matthew the push over the edge.
I suppose all that is why I found this arc’s ending somewhat unsatisfying. Mina, certainly, deserved to be freed from the agonizing limbo which held her – and so did Tim (Sanpei Yuuki) and all the other cats who sacrificed their eternal souls to stop Matthew. But did Matthew? Not in my book – but perhaps it’s more important that he did in Chise’s book, because that tells us a lot about her as a person. Her lack of self-worth isn’t all that makes her who she is – she values others as much as she devalues herself. Her kindness at least allows Molly to live out her ninth life to its natural conclusion – that’s about as close to a happy ending as this very unhappy arc has to offer us.
UndeadCalamari
November 5, 2017 at 11:04 pmPersonally while I think what Matthew did is deplorable, many people will go to any length to save those that are most precious to them. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but I do think he deserves to finally know peace. He was driven mad, duped into murdering not just cats, but his own partner in life (albeit accidentally?), and then left alone/disconnected from Mina in what may as well be purgatory or limbo until Chise cleaned them. Yet again, if I was led to believe that killing cats could save the life of my dearest loved one, I’d at the very least consider it, possibly even carry through with it. I’m also someone who would dabble in necromancy if it was real though so…maybe I’m not an average/normal person lol.
Anyway, all of that aside, this was a fantastic episode. It didn’t really on showing the full extent of the gore and horror, but just enough so you’re imagination could fill in the blanks and make what you do see all the worse. And of course, it was visually and audibly a delight to behold.
Simone
November 6, 2017 at 1:51 am“and a decent person would never commit such acts in any case, no matter the supposed reward”
That doesn’t make much sense. I know many people who do “commit such acts”, not even for the sake specifically of their loved ones – scientists who do animal research for medical purposes. And the village sure must have had a couple butchers who “commit such acts” just because steaks and chicken breasts and lamb chops are good. Sure, from our all-seeing viewpoint we know the cats in this show are actually fully sentient, intelligent beings like me and you, and probably so did the wandering sorcerer, but Matthew only thought of them as animals, not very different from any others. The show of course sets everything up for us to see it as an outright monstruous thing, but if we put it in plain words, “would you kill some cats to extract an ingredient that will save the life of a person” doesn’t sound like a devil’s deal. We may not kill cats specifically, but we sure do kill a lot of animals to extract stuff we need from them, and usually it’s not even vital.
Guardian Enzo
November 6, 2017 at 8:05 amYou raise a valid point, but – while this is no defense – most people aren’t really aware of that aspect of their pharma and cosmetic products in a visceral sense. Would they feel differently if they were? Maybe most wouldn’t – but I think they would if they were the person who had to do the foul deeds themselves. It takes a special sort of person to have the stomach for that – and what’s more, Matthew specifically took a distinct glee in it. He reveled in it – and that’s not the sorcerer’s doing.
elianthos80
November 6, 2017 at 4:46 pm@Simone and @Enzo : “Enzo you are a precious bean and may you never be tested on how far your decency can be pushed to the breaking point under extreme duress because in the end we only know how true and fast our principles hold only post facto” notwithstanding you both raise valid points. To the general specieism and cultural/religious arguments I’d also add – skip the numbered paragraphs for comment on the episode specifics –
1)as the granddaughter of farmers (also going on a bit a Gin No Saji tangent here…remember Butadon the piglet?) that the attitude to kill animals – for survival and for meat trade/business – is heavily dependent on context and education and most people in that context would think nothing of doing the deed if it’s deemed necessary. Also in some areas of the world cats and dogs are human food and the best way to kill a chicken in some – Indonesian I think it was – villages is to slowly beat the poor creatures to death with a wood bat (their sounds of agony will forever be haunting my dreams)… so we had this otherwise gentle mild mannered wholesome decent man who just proceeded to slowly and methodically torture that chicken with that frigging wood stick for about 15 long LONG minutes until said chicken eventually emitted one last sad squawk of way too many and hung forever limp from his other hand. It was part of a doc series about culinary traditions around the world btw and generally a jovial affair. But dat chicken man. It was way worse even compared to the Spanish pig stabbed in the throat and left to bleed out upside down from one of the farm’s olive trees. Those Spanish farmers were absolutely delightful and hospital people… Disclosure: I still eat chicken and pork. I would kill them if my survival depended on it. I just hope I can kill them quickly in case. I hold no such reservations for mosquitoes. Dem bloodsuckers deserve to suffer and I would gladly exterminate them even without a life at stake :DDDDDDDDDDDDDD
2) most cosmetics by law are cruelty-free hence not tested on animals – under European laws at least – . There is one big brand (l’Oreal I think? ) currently under fire because of expansion on the Chinese market where animal testing is still a thing. One current – but going out of fashion – exception is a red pigment used both in food and cosmetics that is basically parasyte bug juice (If I can appreciate bees’ sweet poop I can live with bug juice ohohoh ) . And then of course there’s the whole scientific research area… animal testing was the main reason I didn’t choose to study to be a reasearcher in the bio/medicine field.
3) recent researches have demonstrated that plants are sentient have an awareness of their surroundings (if anything they seem to possess a diffuse sort of awareess to compensate being literally rooted to the spot)… basically short of living on pure air and prana (good luck with that…) we have no way on not being cruel and killing to live.
TL;DR we have to draw the line somewhere but… it depends. And it changes. And it’s less absolute that one could like to think imho.
—-
BACK ON THE EPISODE ITSELF
– Concerning Matthew’s relish in the killing of the cats. I had the impression since last week he was sort of jealous and frustrated of /at Tim but also at Mina -for her health, though that’s no guilt of hers to be born that way; but also for her bond with Tim and the precious time and attention she gave the cat when he could not but also when he was present in the house. Our bonds with pets are often compared to a parent&child one… and similiarly to that they can breed resentment into the ones [in this case your partner] left out of it – and his slaughtering gusto was the release of his suppressed dark feelings towards both of them. The sorcerer quickly pinpointed the cracks in his love and used that as leverage.
– About Chise’s self-worth (or lack thereof) affecting her judgement: spoilers make me hush. But as far as Renfred is concerned here she deserves some credit I believe. Guy was acting like an ass and threatening her with some nebulous idea of freedom (can you trust an ass and at knife pint to boot?) vs the good treatment and comparative freedom (to wander and also to make mistakes and learn for herself without being punished or threatened for that so far*** ) she received at Elias’house . Plus after years of abuse/trauma/neglect for better of for worse she has developed a sense of/for it and after Nevil if anything she is on enough of an upward curve to pick the better option of the two (or the lesser evil). Trust that magical gut feeling! ScarFace vs SkullHead: 0 – 1 XDDD.
***YMMV if the ‘tracking device’ (jade has many properties in lore after all) and Elias’ shadow powers – he could virtually be with her at all times via her shadow if he so wished, yes? – that he nonetheless waited until the very last moment every time so far or until she was having a hard time before materializing to the rescue are to be considered a show of trust on his side she can learn and do it eventually or a manipulative strategy. Good training vs bad grooming 😛 ? Or another clue he just doesn’t know how to human (seriously. It’s pretty clear he’s not quite human. Maybe he’s not human at all and this Beast in the tale is 100% beast) and he is just lucky guessing. Dat quirky Pilum Murialis.
Guardian Enzo
November 6, 2017 at 8:46 amI also think the cultural aspect of this needs to be considered. Killing animals in the way Matthew does might seem acceptable to Western values, but it’s totally anathema to Buddhist teaching. And even though Mahoutsukai is set in Europe, it was written by a Japanese author for a Japanese audience.
Simone
November 7, 2017 at 3:13 am“Killing animals in the way Matthew does might seem acceptable to Western values, but it’s totally anathema to Buddhist teaching.”
Actually reminds me of how I was surprised at how hard it was to find truly vegetarian food in Japan considering that in theory, while the country is not very religious, there certainly should be a lot of Buddhists… short of vegetable tempura, I think I only found some vegan ramen in Shibuya once, and the occasional bowl of meat-free udon.
Anyway, dunno. I just think it was meant to be a horror-ish trope. I just don’t think this was thought through more than the obvious fact that we all *like* cats because they’re fucking adorable (adorable little murderers themselves but still) and so it’s just hard to sympathise with that sort of action. Replace cats with chickens and we wouldn’t have batted an eye. It makes sense why we’d react like that, and of course it’s at least a very cruel thing to do to the owners of those cats, but if one looks at it rationally, most of us would probably do the same as Matthew and would think little of it. Killing animals over letting one of our own die seems to be a non-issue to us every time the situation presented itself. We even think it’s perfectly fine to shoot a gorilla (who is much closer to us in intelligence and sentience than a cat) just because he *might* perhaps hurt a human child even though he’s not showing any signs of wanting to. So this should be a no-brainer.
Guardian Enzo
November 7, 2017 at 8:21 amVegetarianism is not universally accepted as a tenet of Buddhism (Siddharta himself ate meat). Prohibition of cruelty to animals is.
Simone
November 7, 2017 at 1:53 pmWell, maybe Matthew was killing the cats in just one, merciful blow.
Though the whole “distilling their souls into a magic elixir” does sound somewhat shady admittedly.
Simone
November 7, 2017 at 3:15 am(also: JAPAN STOP KILLING FUCKING WHALES FFS. There’s few of them and they’re among the most beautiful, smartes animal to ever tread this Earth. Well, “treading” here is figurative, but)
Dein
November 6, 2017 at 8:33 amI’m still not very invested in the characters or story, but the presentation makes the whole thing really enjoyable nontheless. The tone, the music, the scenery – everything is wonderful, and this is coming from a person who usually doesn’t really like fantasy as depicted by anime. That being said, the gags, while rare, are so unbelivably offbeat they actually actively annoy me. It’s like listening to an orchestra performing and then someone drops a tray of pots every now and again. I understand that it might seem like a petty thing to complain about, but I haven’t seen a show work against itself so much since the Shigatsu trainwreck, albeit for different reasons. Sinicerely hope they axe the whole thing entirely.
Stefan
November 6, 2017 at 8:57 amWhile Shigatsu and FMA:B have gags which, in my view, would fit your description entirely… I actually do not feel that in Mahoutsukai no Yome. To me, they don’t come across as offbeat notes, but as low-key relief valves for the potential darkness of interpersonal interactions in this world. I find them pleasant, actually.
I might be alone in that? What’s your take, Enzo?
Guardian Enzo
November 6, 2017 at 9:18 amI don’t find myself especially bothered by the humor in Mahoutsukai, though occasionally the jokes feel a little skeevy (mostly in the premiere) and I don’t find them generally hilarious or anything. There’s too many chibi-distorted cuts for my taste, but on balance I’ve seen a lot worse.
Yann
November 30, 2017 at 11:31 pm“a decent person would never commit such acts in any case, no matter the supposed reward”
Right… Because what a decent person does instead is pay someone else to do it for him so that he can keep on thinking about how decent he is while stuffing himself with a chicken sandwich.
“Chicken and cats are different” you say? Ask chicken what they think about it…
Akka
April 15, 2018 at 6:13 amI gotta admit, beyond the examples of regular kill-animals-to-feed already used, I’d have to say : the guy has already spent centuries in Limbo. That’s already several lifetimes worse than prison. Even if he were a really heinous murderer, can’t we say he just paid his debt already ? Seriously ?
Also, am I the only one whose first impression is that the two new sorcerers look more sympathetic than Elias ? They seem to actually care (and I prefer the concept of sorcery to magic in this setting, though I expect they’ll put the sorcerer as the “soul-less scientists” later).
Finally, I find the Chise-Elias relationship creepy and nauseating. I wouldn’t mind if it were really presented as messed up (with Elias seemingly pretty out of there but slowly understanding humans better, and Chise captive of her broken emotional trauma but slowly becoming better and realizing the problems), but the problem is, despite the spoken text trying to claim said mess-up, it’s always shown as romantic (with poetic music when Chise proudly refuses to not be a dog in chain, “good” characters being all “awww they’re cute” and the main characters themselves showing all shades of the typical shoujo manga romanticized abusive relationship tropes.
I find it surprising that you expressed a lot of reservation about the supposedly creepy relationship in “Koi wa Ameagari”, while seemingly giving a free pass to this one – despite the latter being INFINITELY more disturbing and yet romanticized then the former. I’m having a hard time enjoying Mahoutsukai because of this, despite the superb worldbuilding behind.