The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol. 2

Before this year started, Seven Seas wasn’t on my radar as a manga publisher.  Even though they’ve been around for years, nothing they had published ever really caught my eye.  I’ve picked up four of their titles so far this year.  The quality has ranged from god-awful (“Freezing”), harmless (“Pandora of the Crimson Shell”), “jury’s still out” (“Haven’t You Heard?  I’m Sakamoto!”), and really great — which brings us to the subject of this review.  The first volume of “The Ancient Magus’ Bride” was a very welcome surprise in how it skillfully set up its modern fantasy world and introduced two intriguing and complicated protagonists.  Vol. 2 brings more of what made the first one great, while also unpacking the questionable relationship mangaka Kore Yamazaki has in mind for her leads.

Things pick up right where vol. 1 left off as Chise is held captive by the alchemist Renfeld and his apprentice Alice.  They have their own plans for the curse that Elias has come to take care of along with the King of All Cats.  Yet it’s Chise who winds up saving the day, using the magic she has accumulated as a Sleigh Beggy to give a happy ending to most everyone involved at the cost of her own constitution.  This isn’t the only time in this volume that we’ll see her help someone out at great personal risk.  Renfeld and Alice weren’t working to advance their own interests here, there’s another far more powerful alchemist who is forcing them to do his bidding.  And wouldn’t you know, he also has some history with Elias.

The wrap-up of the curse storyline is handled well with its mix of flashbacks, love so strong it turns to madness, talking cats, and human ingenuity.  It’s also one that cat lovers like myself will find hard to stomach in one part, but I can deal with that since the story itself is so compelling.  Yamazaki then spends the rest of the volume setting up the next arc and expanding on Elias and Chise’s world in ways both funny and sinister.  We’re witness to Chise’s recovery and encounter with Titania and Oberon — King and Queen of the Faeries here as they are elsewhere in fiction — her growth as a mage as she learns how to make potions and the basics of magic, and the dire straits she finds herself in after encountering a “black dog.”  It’s a varied mix of sights that holds my interest with ease and has me eager to see what will come next.

This is especially true for the chapter featuring Titania and Oberon.  While Titania is the regal figure possessing all the class that her station will allow, Yamazaki’s take on Oberon is… sublimely goofy, with a hint of malevolence.  You get the hint that something is amiss when Titania tells Elias that she left her husband behind because he irritated her.  It isn’t until you see the king in the flesh, with his childlike face, big hair, and antlers expressing his surprise at Chise’s red hair that you begin to grasp exactly why that is.  He’s exuberant and unrefined, yet still capable of getting under Elias’ skin (which is what he calls the shell the mage is wearing) with the right words.  Then there’s his masochistic side, which we see when Titania unleashes the hounds.  This take on Oberon was unexpected and — dare I say it — delightful.

Their parting conversation also tips Yamazaki’s hand about her ultimate destination for Chise and Elias’ relationship.  The Faerie King and Queen eventually agree not to bet on whether or not the two will have children, but on how many there will be.  This is… interesting, mainly because their affinity is one of the potentially troubling aspects of the series.  It did start off with Elias buying Chise at an auction and then declaring his intent for her to be his bride by the end of the first chapter.  That’s kind of creepy any way you slice it, and Chise’s almost Stockholm Syndrome-like acceptance of her situation didn’t help matters.  What did help was the presence of someone like the artificier, Angelica, to call Elias out on how crazy this idea was.

Here, Chise starts being more assertive, even if she’s still hung up on the fact that Elias is the first person to ever call her “family.”  Elias also doesn’t pull any real creeper moves, teaching his apprentice about the ways of magic, helping control her abilities as a Sleigh Beggy, and coming to her aid though not always in time to protect her from harm.  The mage even admits that he  wants to learn more about humans because he lacks the fundamental understanding of why we act the way they do.  What I’m getting at here is that even if Yamazaki’s endgame is to get these two together, she acknowledges that there’s a lot of work to be done before that becomes a plausible, let alone desirable, scenario for the reader.  Though Angelica isn’t in this volume, her presence is felt enough to underline that last bit.

This is a very entertaining series so far, and I imagine that I’ll be checking Amazon more than a few times to remind myself that vol. 3 will be coming out at the beginning of December.  Not everything clicks as it should, as the bit about Sleigh Beggies dying early feels like an unneeded bit of drama, and Yamazaki’s art, though quite nice, lacks the refinement of other mangaka who straddle the line between shojo and shonen.  I’m looking in Kaoru Mori’s direction here.  These are ultimately minor quibbles in the face of the ultimate quality of this volume.  Even if Chise and Elias’ destiny is set in stone, I still want to see the carving that makes it happen.