The Ancient Magus' Bride

Episode 23

After delivering one of its most emotional episodes last week, The Ancient Magus' Bride isn't quite able to maintain those fine-tuned levels of execution in the follow-through. So much stuff still has to happen as we race toward the end, which turns out to take place at the fountain from the ED in a nice case of foreshadowing. But despite the significant increase in action and cast members present on screen, these events feel less like a build-up to the grand finale and more like an afterthought to the climax of Chise's internal conflict that we already witnessed. Joseph hasn't featured prominently enough over these two cours to warrant becoming the final focus over the relationship between Chise and Elias and its uncertain future. Hopefully, something in the way his story is resolved will offer opportunities to bring us back to the main story's heart.

Before we dive into Joseph's backstory, Elias has to work through his own suffering. After his pain becomes so physically intense that it threatens to defile his queen's lands, he might be tempted to accept her help in securing Chise for himself forever, but it's time for him to stand up for something greater. In Elias' case, he literally has to stand up, reject Titania's offer by deciding against his obsessive fairy ways of love, and reaffirm his desire for a human relationship with Chise by speaking in his human voice again.

Joseph's story is confirmed to be a sad and unfortunate version of a Christian myth that doesn't even feel out of place in a world of Sleigh Beggies and dragons. Making the co-existence of different mythologies seem effortless has always been one of the show's strengths. The tragedy of Joseph's existence doesn't hit as hard as its origin would have suggested, partly because it feels like an epilogue to the main story, and partly because we've seen what evils the character is capable of, eternal suffering or not. Any sympathy for the poor abused pre-Cartaphilus gravedigger Joseph is muted when his first act of business post-merge is to murder the one person who extended a helping hand to him/them. But making us feel sorry for a presently irredeemable character is less the point compared to enabling us to understand why Joseph has become such a desperate madman. This is the cruel reality of what immortality would look like without the ability to stay sane and sexy. Instead of brooding over his fate while sitting pretty, Joseph/Cartaphilus is rotting away, fully conscious that his pain will never end and that transplanting other people's body parts will only bring him temporary alleviation. Cartaphilus wasn't able to do this, so he likely would have spent the coming centuries rotting in the dirt without inflicting suffering on others. Joseph the sorcerer is capable of much more, which also enables him to transfer his pain onto others as a bonus.

Throwing stones at Jesus Christ wasn't Joseph's sin. He's just being punished for needing someone to need him so badly that he would rather merge with the decaying, amnesiac stranger he found buried in the dirt than be alone. In all his gross, mad, and upsetting ways, Joseph fits right into our cast of characters doing stupid, unhealthy, and outright inexcusable things out of fear of not being wanted. Kore Yamazaki juxtaposes her hero and antagonist by giving them the same human flaws. Trapped in a shitty life where (she thinks that) nobody loves her, Chise battles suicidal thoughts and depression before slowly beginning to reach out to others, even overcoming the thought of dying for them as a bonus. Joseph's life was equally shitty, but he used his own suffering as an excuse to inflict pain on others. Phyllis calls Marielle childish for thinking she's the only one feeling lonely, but the real question is if Joseph truly thinks he's the only one hurting.

There's a wonderful, almost involuntary little exchange of visual empathy going on between Chise and Joseph. After waking up from the memory Chise saw, Joseph has tears streaming down from his green eye, as if the part he took from Chise was crying for him. When he breaks down at not even remembering the crime Cartaphilus is still being punished for, Chise's grey eye cries for him as if, once freed from the physical suffering, Cartaphilus is able to cry for Joseph. If his wish is to die, the key to grant that wish will be found somewhere within this connection. It's a strange thought that this story about healing from depression and regaining a sense of the value for one's own life should end with our hero killing someone else, but I guess that's where we're headed.

Accompanying these events is a lot of distracting noise. Chise's human and fairy allies are quick to fly to her side – a comforting thought, but it's all a bit chaotic, with portals opening up for characters to pop in and out again minutes later. Apart from Joseph's chimeras, there are the restless souls of his victims to fight – or save, as Will-o'-the-Wisp's words suggest that Alice will have to put them to rest somehow. It's not that I'm uninterested in how that would work in this show's intriguing universe. It's just that we have only 24 minutes left to wrap up everything that desperately needs catharsis, and I'm not sure we should be opening up any new doors at this point unless they are relevant.

Rating: B-

The Ancient Magus' Bride is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Anne is a translator and fiction addict who writes about anime at Floating Words and on Twitter.