The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol. 21

The Winter Holiday continues and things are as normal as they get around Elias and Chise’s place.  Which means that the former’s ostensible landlord has shown up to ask for the former’s traditional help in dealing with the curse that has plagued his family for generations.  That’s small potatoes compared to what the head of the St. George family comes asking about, as he wants to enlist Chise’s help in dealing with the potential awakening of some Legendary Dragons in Britain.  It’s not the only issue the St. George family has brought to this household as Violet and Jasmine have found some strange magical creature that they’ve decided to take in that’s as cute as it is hungry.

Last time it turned out that “Guests, Like Fish, Begin to Stink After Three Days,” as mangaka Kore Yamazaki tried to address the status of every new character introduced in the “College Arc” and wound up shoving their protagonists to the side in the process.  I’m happy to report that Elias and Chise have a much more central role in this volume, both in the story about the family curse – which reads like a proper story from the series’ first part – and in the volume’s back half as the overarching story begins to take shape.  Yamazaki also makes it feel like the understanding between the two is further deepening, as seen in the consideration Elias gives to Chise joining the St. George’s investigation.

There’s still a decent amount of space given over to the title’s extended cast in this volume as well, but it feels more focused here and relevant to the ongoing story.  Particularly with Violet and Jasmine’s new pet (which comes off as a magical version of the thing from “The Thing”) which will certainly play a part in upcoming events, and it’s nice to see how their dad is shown to not be an idiot about it.  Though the back half of this volume is given over to a lot of infodumping and exposition about the threat posed by the dragons the overall presentation and management of the series’ cast makes me feel a lot better about its future than what we were given last time.