I must confess to finding myself a bit detached with Mahoutsukai no Yome this season. It’s not that I don’t care about Lucy and her family per se, but there’s just not that much investment when we’re talking about what’s basically the season-concluding conflict. And the school setting has rarely captivated me the way the more traditional series locales have. We’ve gotten enough of those this season to keep things from getting stale, but the moments of real narrative magic have been pretty rare.
Really, the best moments of the season have been the brief sojourns back to the countryside and the camping trip in Scotland. That’s what Mahoutsukai does best. The Hogwarts thing just feels like the series parading around in an ill-fitting borrowed suit. This is all going to pay off with Chise’s arm-related developments eventually, but not this season. For now we have to be content more or less with bits and pieces of what makes this series special, mixed in with a pretty conventional supernatural mystery plotline.
“The Testament of Carnamagos” is clearly the MacGuffin of this final arc. Its ability to steal magic is the gift that keeps on giving, with both Lucy and Simeon Paladilhe (the centaur professor) relapsing even after being gifted magic power. In the latter’s case it’s by Elias, who clearly let that “friends” thing get under his skin (if he had skin). I don’t remember Marielle, honestly, though she clearly had a role of some importance previously in the series. Marielle saves Seth’s guard (guess we didn’t see an on-screen murder last week after all) and Elias enlists her to try and figure our what’s happening Simeon and the others. And whatever it is, it clearly isn’t good…
There’s also some further exploration into the Webster family history. Tragic it is no doubt, though after the way the they treated Seth it’s hard to feel too much sympathy for them. The assailants who murdered most of the clan are a pair of wolves, and they’re back to finish the job, though in point of fact we still don’t know exactly why. Chise’s inner voice tells her to take the siblings and flee into the shortcut, and Elias coldly encourages the attackers to follow them knowing exactly what will happen.
The most interesting part of that is Chise deciding to save the wolves (though one is already dead), despite what they’d done and were trying to do. She’s kind-hearted to a fault and it’s easy to see why she felt moved to do it, but under the circumstances if feels like a highly risky choice at best and downright misguided at worst. I suppose it’s possible that there will be some residual gratitude for what she did but the way it played out, I wouldn’t bet on it, and that she-wolf is going to be one more reason Chise needs to watch her back (never mind the Webster siblings).
SeijiSensei
June 9, 2023 at 11:08 pmI’m with you. This season has been nowhere near as captivating as the prior two. I think the school setting has something to do with it, but I also worry that the manga-ka and series writers have run out of story ideas. I want to watch Chise travel to the valley of the dragons, or change into a phoenix, or something, not running around frantically in her school uniform. Her killing of the monster in the lake was over in an instant, undermining any dramatic power it might have. I just don’t see where any of this is going. Any real drama will likely have to be an end-of-season cliffhanger.
Guardian Enzo
June 10, 2023 at 8:36 amThe short answer of course is, I don’t know. Haven’t read the manga in years. But I too would be skeptical that it could ever get back to what it was until it proved that to me. I actually thought the second half of S1 was weaker than the first TBH.
Princess Usagi
June 10, 2023 at 12:34 pmMarielle was a witch from a local coven that Chise and Elias contacted about dispelling Chise’s arm, IIRC.
Antony Shepherd
June 11, 2023 at 6:47 amYeah, I’ve not liked this season as much as I liked the first. Rearranging my manga recently showed me that I dropped the manga (having started reading it after the first season) during the school arc as well.
Nicc
June 11, 2023 at 12:46 pmMy issue is not the school setting itself but how it’s being utilized. For this cour, there’s just not much to work with. As you said, all of the more compelling stuff has happened outside of the school grounds. It’s the same for this episode where what went down in the secret passage was the highlight. “Mashle” has somehow done more interesting things with the magic school setting.
Lucy has recovered enough to move again, though she’s still not at 100%. She’s fit enough to shoo away her brother, at least. Elias found the passed out centaur professor and brought him in. Something has been stealing magic energy. It’s that book that was mentioned earlier, but we don’t know who has been wielding it or why.
We get quite a bit more about the Webster family and we meet the assailants; a pair of werewolves who have now returned to finish what they started. And, right, why didn’t they complete the job then and why are they back now?
After brief tussle on school grounds, Chise lures the werewolf pair into the secret passage. The guardian hounds don’t take kindly to the strangers and goes on the attack until Chise calls them off. However, one of them is already dead. I really wonder where this is going to end at because everyone here is right that there’s no way we’re close to being done with this arc by the end of this cour.
Panino Manino
June 13, 2023 at 10:13 amThe first season had a lot of small and fast arcs. This season is just one single arc, and it’ll end at the middle of it. Even if there’s another season will be another season of this.
After watching the first season I went to the manga and ended dropping not far from this point. Oh man, this whole idea of a “college arc” was a mistake. I gave up on this season finishing to pick the manga again, I’m a bit ahead, but it feels like it just doesn’t finish, and not a lot happens. It’s just so slow.
I can see some of the things that author wanted to do, but…
I fear many will stop caring about the seires because of this season.