The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2

Episode 21

"There's no way that was 20 minutes!"

That phrase, or something equivalent to it, gets thrown around a lot whenever an episode is so gripping you don't notice the time passing. Like any hyperbolic phrase on the internet, it's probably been overused to death. I rarely say it myself because, as a consequence of watching an inadvisable amount of anime, I've developed a pretty sharp sense of how much time is left in any episode I'm watching. So it was a genuine shock this week when the ED theme showed up to jump-scare me. I suppose I can add "so good it screwed up my sense of temporal relativity" to The Ancient Magus' Bride's list of superlatives.

Granted, this episode isn't exactly "thrilling" so much as it's heart-wrenchingly earnest, seeing our teenage protagonists finally tear down the walls around one another and try to find some understanding. For as much as anime loves to use these types of mystical trips through characters' mind palaces – and for how many times Chise, in particular, has made these trips – it works here because it's perhaps the only way Philomela would ever be able to share her pain and fears with anyone else. Her family has purposefully crushed and impaired her ability to connect with others, going so far as separating her soul from her body to hide from Chise's inexplicable connection to her. They have made her an island, fortified and fragile behind walls of fear. Nothing short of our heroes magically injecting themselves into her soul would ever allow Philomela to reveal the suffocating darkness she's been trapped in for so long.

Even that doesn't divest Philomela from her pain. It's heartbreaking to see her try to rationalize what she went through, insisting that being thrown into a dungeon cell for days on end was a kindness because at least it meant her grandmother's verbal abuse would cease while she was in there. Even after piecing her mind back together and catching a glimpse of Chise's past, she admits that she can't bring herself to trust any help that doesn't come with strings attached. Her upbringing has taught her that every interaction is transactional, and those that seemingly aren't are merely traps. For Chise's kindness, Isaac's empathy, and Lucy's righteous anger, this confrontation comes down to begging Philomela to be honest, willingly vulnerable, and trust that asking for help isn't a trick.

It's a heartrending thing to see and the culmination of all the character work this season has dedicated itself to. This sequence, all building to the moment when Philomela finally, earnestly asks for help, wouldn't work if we hadn't gotten to know these kids so thoroughly. Isaac grew up in a less abusive household, but he knows the insecurity of feeling like a failure within his family's line and how invaluable having a friend's support is. Lucy barely restrains herself from attacking Philomela for contributing to her loss. Still, her anger offers an out that Philomela might be able to emulate – finding purpose and motivation to lead herself out of the dark on her own two feet. Chise knows firsthand how difficult it is to piece oneself back together after isolation has worn you down to nothing, and that makes her all the more believable as an emissary of kindness. The pacing of this season's narrative feels a bit like a lazy river that turned a corner and spilled over a 50-foot waterfall, but it's thanks to all the time we spent with these characters, articulating their motivations and emotions, that this climax can work as well as it does.

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The Ancient Magus' Bride is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.