The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol. 17

The ongoing narrative of this series kicked into high gear at the end of the previous volume and that momentum carries through the entirety of vol. 17.  While Philomena’s awakened form isn’t able to cause (much) more damage at the college, she still manages to slip outside the wards guarding the place.  Where is she going?  Home, to bring the fruits of her labor to her uncaring grandmother as we finally learn why this horrible woman has been putting her granddaughter through such an awful situation.  Naturally, Chise isn’t about to take any of this lying down and proceeds to follow after her friend in the most reckless way possible (it involves an ancient dragon).  Things only get more complicated once the girl arrives at Philomena’s family’s manor as it turns out the Morrigan she met a while back has now come for the gift she was promised.

Vol. 17 is this series firing on all cylinders once again.  While the action involving the chase for Philomena is every bit as exciting as you’d hope it would be, there’s a substantial bit of narrative payoff here as well.  Specifically in regards to Philomena’s history as we’re treated to the backstory of the girl, her parents, and her guardian spirit.  It’s fraught with drama and heartbreak that only serves to deepen the emotional nature of the story while bringing the action to a near-perfect climax point by the end of the volume.

My one major concern is that all of these revelations only serve to make Philomena’s grandmother an even more detestable character than she was before.  If you thought she was awful when we didn’t know the reasons she was making her granddaughter do the things she did, wait until you find out the reasons why.  It all serves to make you hope that the character gets some serious payback before the arc is over, but retribution is something that this series hasn’t had a serious interest in.  Reformation, yes, which is why I’m concerned about how hateable they’ve made this character.  I wouldn’t put it past mangaka Kore Yamazaki to vault over this issue, but it’s something I won’t be able to rest easy about until I read vol. 18.