The Ancient Magus' Bride

The Ancient Magus' Bride is an action, adventure, supernatural, fantasy, mystery, romance, comedy, drama, tragedy anime series. It was based on a manga written by Kore Yamazaki and published by Mag Garden for the magazine Monthly Comic Blade from November 2013 to July 1 2014 and then Monthly Comic Garden from September 2014 to present. It's been ongoing from November 2013 to the present day and has 9 volumes in total so far. The anime adaptation began with a 3 episode OVA, titled The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star. The first, which aired in theaters, was released on August 13, 2016. The second was released on September 10, 2016. And the third, on DVD, was released on September 9, 2017. After that came the anime series. It aired from October 7, 2017 to March 24, 2018, with 24 episodes in total. The anime adaptation was directed by Norihiro Naganuma, written by Kore Yamazaki and Aya Takaha, musically composed by Jun'ichi Matsumoto, and produced by Hiroutsugu Ose, Toshio Iizuka, Masaou Ito, George Wada, and Wit Studio.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Beautiful animation in almost every single scene.
 * 2) Unique art style and character designs.  They find a perfect blend between creative designs and more realistic designs.
 * 3) Excellent soundtrack.
 * 4) Good voice acting in both sub and dub.
 * 5) Solid pacing which isn't too slow nor too fast.
 * 6) Amazing cast of characters.  All of them are complex, interesting, or at the very least entertaining.
 * 7) Chise is one of the best female characters that anime has produced in a long time.  She starts out really weak, both literally and figeratively, but has a massive character arc that spans the entire show and is unbelievably engaging.
 * 8) Elias is the perfect compliment to Chise's hcaracter, interesting, complex, and also has an engaging character arc.
 * 9) The main villain of the series, Joseph, is also interesting and tragic, almost as much as Chise herself.
 * 10) Lots of the side characters are also well written and interesting and/or important.  Many of the stand outs includes Silky, Ruth, Alice, Angelica Barley, and Jade Ariel.
 * 11) The conclusion of the show was very good.  While not every single string is completely tied up, and the original manga series does go on further, the ending of the anime does have a sense of conclusiveness.  If the story ended after that, most viewers probably wouldn't be that disappointed.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The only bad thing about the ending is something that was confusing with Joseph.  After his and Chise’s fight ends, he somehow fuses with her soul.  The outcome of that was good.  We learned earlier on in the series that Chise is going to die soon, but Joseph, grateful for what she did for him, is able to subdue this imminent death for awhile.  That’s nice.  However, towards the end of the final episode his body is shown in Chise’s basement.  She goes down there real quick to cover him up, and then leaves.  This part was confusing, because he was supposed to exist inside of her now.