The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol. 18

We reach the climax of this arc towards the end of this volume, but before we get there we’ve got to spend some more time with Philomela.  Not that it’s a bad thing as the saga of this poor, put-upon, and deprived girl has been one of the strongest plot threads of the “College Arc.”  Which is why it’s actually uplifting to see Chise work with Philomela to help put her mind back together after all that’s happened over the last few volumes.  Not that this saves her, as the girl still has to muster up the courage to do the most difficult thing possible for herself:  Asking someone to save her.

All that stuff is solid and the action builds to a fever pitch over the course of this volume.  We even get some more revelations about certain characters and the return (after a fashion) of one that is quite pivotal to this arc.  Overall, vol. 18 is just about everything you could ask for from a series that’s one volume away from wrapping up its current extended storyline.

…and yet you’ll recall that last time I expressed concern about how hateable that mangaka Kore Yamazaki has made the antagonist of this arc, Philomela’s Grandmother Lizbeth Sargeant.  To the point where simply seeing her lose wouldn’t be enough to account for all the awful things she’s done here.  We do get a decent amount of her backstory here to explain why she is the way she is, but being raised in an awful household by awful people does not grant you an excuse to be just as terrible to your own children and grandchildren.  

While retribution – from multiple parties – looks to be in the cards for the character in vol. 19, I’m honestly left wondering how satisfying it’ll be.  It’s not that I want to see her destroyed for all that she’s done, simply for her to recognize that everything she’s done has been wrong and to live with that regret.  Still, my money is on her doing some kind of heroic sacrifice to avert the crisis that arises at the volume’s end.  I could be wrong, but whatever the resolution is I’m still very much invested in seeing how it all turns out in the end.