The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol. 20

The last time I checked in on this series it had just finished up its second arc where Chise and Elias started attending a college for magic users and wound up stopping a power-mad sorceress from using the power of a dead god to resurrect her son.  Vol. 20 features a little bit of follow-on from that as several concerned parents come to check on their children in the wake of those events, but it’s mostly a transitional volume where we catch up with the cast between arcs.  So expect to see Philomela dealing with her newfound freedom, Lucy angsting about not finding out anything about her family’s murder, Rian trying to put the moves on his guardian Torrey, Stella continuing to work with Ashen Eye, Zoe having a close encounter with Auberon, Isaac dealing with family drama, and the St. George twins being set up to go into the family business.  Chise and Elias are also here too, dealing with their own issues as they always have.

You may have already guessed that I think this volume is overstuffed when it comes to dealing with the large cast it has accumulated over the course of the “College Arc.”  It’s not that I don’t like these characters, just that the storytelling here feels unwieldy as mangaka Kore Yamazaki tries to give all of them a little something to do in this volume.  This also has the effect of making it feel that Chise and Elias are being shuffled into the background in order to accommodate all of the above-mentioned characters.  One of the chapter titles here is, “Guests, like fish, begin to stink after three days,” and, in addition to being one of the best I’ve ever seen, also feels like an apt description of how this large ensemble is weighing down the storytelling here.

Still, it’d be unfair to Yamazaki if I didn’t say that there were any good moments among the clutter here.  Rian gets some interesting developments here, along with a good running joke throughout the volume.  We finally learn why Isaac’s appearance is the way it is, and I like the way Stella and Ashen Eye’s relationship is developing.  There’s also the fact that this next arc looks like it’s going to involve the St. George family and some dragon-slaying, and it’s hard not to look forward to that.  However, if Yamazaki suddenly decides to send most of the cast back to college in the next volume, then I wouldn’t mind that at all.