Tag: 2023

The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess Review

The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess Review

The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess anime series cover art
The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess

Not the First Shut-In Vampire

The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess (Hikikomari Kyuuketsuki no Monmon / ひきこまり吸血姫の悶々) is a comedy series about the weakest vampire in the Mulnite Empire. This vampire, Terakomari Gandesblood, is also a hikikomori. And, this is where the pun in the Japanese title comes from.

“Hikikomari” is a portmanteau of Hikikomori (a shut-in) and Terakomari (the protagonist). This is an example of a Japanese title that simply doesn’t work in English. How are you supposed to translate Hikikomari into English and have the joke still work? You can’t — at least, not that I can think of.

Something else I want to mention is that this isn’t the first anime about a shut-in vampire. Specifically, it made me think of Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood. But, that doesn’t mean these two anime are similar in any other way. That series is a CGDCT slice of life anime.

Terakomari being wary of Karen from the anime series The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess
Terakomari being wary of Karen

With all of that out of the way, what’s Hikikomari actually about then? As I said, Terakomari is the weakest vampire in the Mulnite Empire. Unlike the other vampires, she can’t use magic and she finds drinking blood disgusting. This is despite her being from the powerful Gandesblood clan.

In this world, there are something like six major nations that are all in a constant state of war with each other. But, their wars are a bit different than what we know of as war. This is because, when you die, the dark core revives you after a few days.

Terakomari became a shut-in because of how weak she is and her fear of dying. But, in an attempt to get her to leave her room, her father gets her a job as one of the seven Crimson Lords. These are the commanders of the Mulnite military.

Terakomari of the Seven Crimson Lords

So, how does the weakest of the vampires become one of the Seven Crimson Lords? If you guessed that Terakomari isn’t actually weak, you’d be correct. In fact, she’s one of the strongest vampires, if not the strongest. She just doesn’t know it.

Terakomari believing she’s weak is a bit of a problem, though. In the Mulnite empire, the strong survive and the weak are killed (and then revived). There’s no way the soldiers under her would follow a weak leader. If they smell the faintest hint of weakness, they’ll overthrow her.

And so, this is where a lot of the comedy of the series comes in. Terakomari constantly has to act like she’s strong even though she doesn’t believe she is. She has to talk a big game and make excuses when it comes time to show off what she can do.

Villhaze and Terakomari from the anime series The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess
Villhaze and Terakomari

In some cases, Terakomari gets extremely lucky. For example, the first time she meets her men, one of them attacks her. Surprised by this sudden attack, she slams the door shut on the soldier, killing him. The other soldiers see this as intentional on her part and applaud her combat prowess.

Other times, it’s Terakomari’s maid, Villhaze, who makes Terakomari appear strong. Villhaze will work behind the scenes to ensure Terakomari wins any fight she happens to get into. Sometimes she does this by laying traps beforehand. And, other times, she’ll do things like assassinate Terakomari’s opponent.

This is the kind of content I was hoping would be the majority of this series. But, that turned out not to be the case. There was a lot of it, for sure. And there was a lot of comedy revolving around Villhaze’s love of Terakomari. But, Hikikomari tried to be serious, too.

Serious Plots in Comedy

It feels like the majority of comedy anime, at one point or another, get serious. I guess the thought process is that comedy alone can only take a series so far. Surely, the viewers (or readers) will get bored if there’s no meaningful conflict.

I disagree with this assessment of comedy series. Oftentimes, once the series becomes serious, that’s when I lose interest. And, that’s exactly what happened with Hikikomari. Introducing the antagonist organization that wants to destroy the dark core is fine. But, nothing about it was funny. That’s the issue.

If I want to watch an anime with serious plot points, I’ll watch something that isn’t a comedy. I’ll watch a drama anime. Why? Because if what I want is a serious plot, the drama anime is going to be better. And the opposite is true if I want to watch something funny.

Terakomari shocked by something Villhaze said from the anime series The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess
Terakomari shocked by something Villhaze said

After the first few episodes, the majority of the time I was watching this series, I was looking at my phone. It’s just not an interesting series when it’s not focused on the comedy. And, like many similar comedy series, it’s less and less about the comedy as it progresses.

By the end of the series, I was sitting through the episodes just so I could finish it. I didn’t care about the plot. And I definitely didn’t care about all the other characters introduced. There were quite a few new characters who appeared in the last four or five episodes.

If these new characters introduced anything new to the series, that would be one thing. But, overall, they didn’t. The only reason they were there was so each of the nations could have their own representative. Like, what did Zutazutasuk Prohelia (voiced by Aoi Yuuki) even do?

Final Thoughts

I’ll give The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess a 6/10. It was fine. It had its good moments. But, as I said, the series tried to become serious, and I don’t think that paid off. If there’s ever a second season of this show, I doubt I’ll watch it.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

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16bit Sensation: Another Layer Review

16bit Sensation: Another Layer Review

16bit Sensation: Another Layer anime series cover art
16bit Sensation: Another Layer

Konoha the Gal Game Enthusiast

16bit Sensation: Another Layer (16bitセンセーション ANOTHER LAYER) is an anime about bishoujo games. In case you don’t know what a bishoujo game is, think of a dating simulator. They’re visual novels in which the player develops relationships with cute girls.

The protagonist of this series is Konoha Akisato, a bishoujo game enthusiast. She’s obsessed with cute girls. And, we can see that by the game and anime product placements all over her room. From this, we know she’s a Fate/Grand Order fan. And, we know she likes Lycoris Recoil, among many other anime.

Konoha loves bishoujo games so much that she even works at a game company as an artist. But, unfortunately, she doesn’t get to work on the games she wants to make. And, rather than drawing cute girls, she often has to fill in backgrounds, instead.

Konoha Akisato being loud and annoying from the anime series 16bit Sensation: Another Layer
Konoha Akisato being loud and annoying

When this series first started airing, it got a lot of hype. People identified with Konoha’s obsession with cute anime girls. But, to me, it became apparent pretty quickly that Konoha is very annoying. She’s a complete otaku who can’t go a few sentences without bringing up games.

Her voice is also pretty grating. Though, I don’t want to blame Aoi Koga, the voice actor, for that. Aoi Koga is a very good voice actor. She even voices Kaguya Shinomiya in Kaguya-sama: Love is War. But, the issue with Konoha’s voice is that it’s the same as Kaguya’s “baby voice,” as I call it.

When Kaguya speaks normally, she’s great. But, when she goes into “baby mode,” I can’t stand her voice. That’s how Konoha sounds all the time. No matter what she says, there’s a whineyness to it that drives me insane. I don’t know why this was the voice direction for the protagonist.

Back to the Future

The twist of 16bit Sensation is that it’s actually a time travel anime. The present in this series is 2023. But, Konoha jumps back in time to various other years in the 80s and 90s throughout the series. You know, the golden age of bishoujo games.

So, how does Konoha do this? With magic copies of retro games, of course. Konoha purchased a bunch of old bishoujo games from a random shop. And, when she opened the case of one of these games, she got sent back in time.

Eventually, we learn how these magic games work. The release year of the game she opens is the year she gets sent to. So, if she opens a game that was released in 1988, she goes to 1988. But, she can only use each game once. After being opened, the game disappears.

Konoha Akisato opening an old game from the anime series 16bit Sensation: Another Layer
Konoha Akisato opening an old game

How does Konoha go back to 2023? A strong whack to the head. Every time we see her get sent back to the present, it’s after she gets hit by something. She’ll then wake up in 2023 wherever she was when she got sent back in time. So, is she really going back in time?

It kind of seems like her going back in time is all a dream. After all, if she opens a magic game in a coffee shop, she’ll reappear back in that coffee shop in the present. It doesn’t matter where she was in the past.

And, on top of that, she always wakes up in the present after falling over. So, it seems like she’s just dreaming of the past and then being jolted awake. But, that’s not what’s happening. And, we know that because the things Konoha does in the past have direct impacts on the present.

Late-Stage Capitalism: The Anime

I think my favorite part of 16bit Sensation might have been what became of 2023. After Konoha messed around in the past too much, she caused some serious damage to the present. She changed the course of bishoujo game history — and thus the history of gaming in Japan.

Thanks to a game Konoha helped make in the past, the future of bishoujo games wasn’t centered in Japan. Instead, it became centered in the United States. All major bishoujo game releases came from the US. And, the term “moe” was even replaced by “kyu,” which is short for cute.

Konoha herself even earned herself the title “Original Kyu.” This is in reference to her being the one behind this bishoujo game revolution. But, because she went back to 2023, the whereabouts of “Original Kyu” were unknown for decades.

16-bit Konoha Akisato from the OP of the anime series 16bit Sensation: Another Layer
16-bit Konoha Akisato from the OP

What’s funny about the Original Kyu timeline is how familiar yet different everything is. And, the biggest example of this is Fate. Fate/Grand Order no longer exists as we know it. Instead, there’s Fate/Gears of Order, made by an American company. It’s like the FGO we know, but the art style is edgier and Artoria fights with her fists instead of Excalibur.

Obviously, the name Fate/Gears of Order is also playing off the Gears of War franchise. That’s the state of moe, or should I say kyu, in this timeline. The bishounen games Konoha knows and loves are either gone or almost unrecognizable.

But, it gets worse. Because the US holds a monopoly on the gaming industry, we get to see late-stage capitalism at work. Games are no longer “created” by creatives. Instead, creatives are put in large tanks and their brains are used to pump out content 24/7.

Final Thoughts

16bit Sensation: Another Layer is a 6/10. It’s just not as interesting as you might think. If you want to watch an anime about a girl who wants to make games, I recommend watching New Game! instead. It’s better, has more cute girls, and has two seasons.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

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Burn the Witch #0.8 Review

Burn the Witch #0.8 Review

Ninny and Noel Are Back!

Burn the Witch #0.8 is a special episode prequel to the Burn the Witch “movie” (it’s three episodes). I watched Burn the Witch back in the beginning of 2022. But, we just did a group watch of it in the DoubleSama Discord server in December.

As luck would have it, the day we watched Burn the Witch was also the day Burn the Witch #0.8 released. So, after completing the movie, we decided to watch the prequel. Should we have watched the prequel first? It doesn’t matter what order you watch it in.

Anyway, I liked Burn the Witch and wanted more from the series. So, of course, I was glad to see Ninny and Noel back in action in #0.8. And, I’ll go on the record to say that this special did a lot for both of their characters.

Ninny Spangcole from the anime special Burn the Witch #0.8
Ninny Spangcole

Of course, adding a fourth episode (33% more content) to any series is probably going to be an improvement. Adding one more episode onto a series like One Piece isn’t going to do much. But, adding one more episode onto something with only three episodes is huge. That’s a lot of character-building and development.

In this special, Ninny and Noel bounce off each other a lot more. For the majority of the movie, they’re in work mode. They’re fighting dragons and stuff, so they’re a bit more serious. But, that’s not the case here. They have a lot more downtime, which lets them show off their personalities more.

For example, at the start of the episode, we see that Noel really wants Ninny to call her by her first name. And we learn that Noel is the kouhai. This is a cuter side of Noel that we didn’t get to see in the movie.

The Origin of Balgo Parks

Ninny and Noel aren’t the only ones who get character development in #0.8. We can’t forget about everyone’s favorite boy, Balgo Parks. In the movie, we didn’t really know much about Balgo. So, as with Ninny and Noel, this special did a lot for his character.

Alright, so we already knew Balgo was a dragonborn or whatever it’s called. He attracts dragons due to having come into contact with one. And, of course, the one he came into contact with is none other than Osushi-chan, his dog.

There are two new pieces of information we got. We now know why Osushi-chan is a dragon. And, we now know that Osushi wasn’t the only dragon Balgo had close contact with. Though, I don’t remember if we know which of the two dragons he came into contact with first. I think it’s the other one, not Osushi-chan.

Noel Niihashi from the anime special Burn the Witch #0.8
Noel Niihashi

Let’s start with Osushi-chan. He’s actually a corpse that a dragon’s spirit took over — or something like that. I don’t believe we know exactly when Osushi-chan became a dragon. But, in #0.8, we see the first time Balgo finds out that this is the case.

The other dragon Balgo had close contact with is far more interesting. Like Osushi-chan, it was a dragon residing within a corpse. But, unlike Osushi-chan, it was residing within a human corpse. When Balgo was younger, his best friend died. And, when he did, a dragon took over his body.

Since then, for a decade or more, this dragon lived as a human. It was living as Balgo’s best friend and was there through all of Balgo’s major life events. Again, Balgo had no idea. And, he only found out when the dragon tried to use Balgo to lure in and eat Noel.

Do We Still Need More Burn the Witch?

After watching the Burn the Witch movie, I wanted more of the series. And, Burn the Witch #0.8 gave me that. But, I don’t think #0.8 was as good as the movie.

As I’ve already mentioned, it was nice that it gave us more content of the three main characters. However, the fact that it was a single-episode prequel limited it. It didn’t further the main plot or anything like that. So, it didn’t provide everything that I was looking to get out of an addition to the series.

With that in mind, yes, we still need more Burn the Witch. At the end of the movie, Ninny and Noel help defeat one of the seven legendary dragons. What about the other six? There’s theoretically still plenty of content there. And, it doesn’t even need to be that long — one or two cours could cover it all.

Noel and Ninny riding a bus from the anime special Burn the Witch #0.8
Noel and Ninny riding a bus

There is one little problem with more Burn the Witch anime, though. As far as I know, there’s not any more manga content to adapt. The manga consists of five chapters in one volume released over a single month in 2020.

Still, I think this prequel shows that the Burn the Witch world is worth exploring more. Yes, I know it’s the same world as Bleach. But, I have no interest in that series, from what I’ve seen of it. I want more cute witches hunting dragons.

We already knew there were different kinds of dragons from the movie. But, this special showcased even more variety. My favorite was the giant, camel-like dragon with trees growing in its nose. That was awesome. That’s the kind of stuff I want to see more of. Will we ever get more, though? It doesn’t look good.

Final Thoughts

I ended up giving Burn the Witch #0.8 a 6/10, which is one point less than I gave the movie. With that said, if you liked the movie, the special is worth watching. And if you’re interested in Burn the Witch, you might as well start with this since it’s the prequel.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

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Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Review

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Review

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 anime series cover art
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2

Prequel to the Prequel

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 (Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season / 呪術廻戦 懐玉・玉折/渋谷事変) is a bit of a mess when it comes to chronology. It covers three story arcs, though, two of them are connected. These story arcs are Hidden Inventory, Premature Death, and Shibuya Incident.

Alright, so why is this season a mess? Remember how Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was the prequel to Season 1? Well, Hidden Inventory and Premature Death are prequels to Jujutsu Kaisen 0. They’re prequels to the prequel. And then, Shibuya Incident is the sequel to Season 1. So, in this season, we get both the earliest and latest arcs to date.

This also means that it’s more important than ever to watch Jujutsu Kaisen 0. If you skipped this movie, you should go back and watch it. Hidden Inventory and Premature Death lead into that movie. And, a certain character from 0 shows up at the end of the Shibuya Incident.

Satoru Gojou and Surugu Getou from the anime series Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
Satoru Gojou and Surugu Getou

Now, let’s talk about Hidden Inventory and Premature Death. These arcs are the origin stories of Satoru Gojou and Surugu Getou. Back in their high school days, they were friends. And, they were considered some of the strongest sorcerers alive.

But, their paths diverged pretty drastically. As we know, Gojou became the strongest sorcerer in the jujutsu world. And Getou became a villain whose goal was to eradicate all non-sorcerers. However, the Getou we know in the present timeline isn’t the same Getou. That’s explained in Jujutsu Kaisen 0.

What I found most interesting about this prequel is how their roles were almost reversed. Getou almost became the hero due to wanting to eliminate curses from the world. But, he chose the wrong way of doing it. And Gojou almost snapped and became Sukuna II due to what happened to Riko.

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The Sealing of Satoru Gojou

A lot of crazy stuff happened in this season — both in the first arc(s) and the second. But, the craziest thing of all was probably the sealing of Satoru Gojou. This was one of the major goals of the Shibuya Incident.

Considering everything that comes later in the arc, this might not seem like that big of a deal. But, it’s Gojou’s sealing that allows a lot of what follows to happen. And, in the final episode, we’re explicitly told how Gojou’s absence changes things. It’s kind of a big deal.

Something that surprised me about Gojou’s sealing was how little he accomplished beforehand. Sure, he was fighting three special-grade curses and a jujutsu sorcerer. And sure, he was in a crowded train station and didn’t want to kill any civilians. But, he only managed to take down one special-grade curse.

Satoru Gojou fighting in Shibuya from the anime series Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
Satoru Gojou fighting in Shibuya

Hanami got obliterated by Gojou. But, Jougo, Mahito, and Chousou all survived the encounter. Though, in Chousou’s case, he likely wasn’t seen as much of a threat. The special-grade curses were more important for Gojou to take down. And, I guess he could have taken down more of them if Getou hadn’t shown up to seal him.

Anyway, as I said, Gojou’s sealing is what allowed everything else that followed to happen. If he wasn’t sealed, the special-grade curses wouldn’t have been able to run wild. In particular, Mahito and Jougo wouldn’t have been able to do everything they did.

And, if that were the case, then there would be quite a few characters still alive. Spoilers here, but Nanami and Nobara are two, in particular, who may have survived the incident. But, there are still plenty of others who would have died this season anyway — like Mechamaru.

Shibuya Incident

The second half of the Shibuya Incident arc is just one crazy fight after another. There are so many that I’m probably going to forget some. But, let’s go through the highlights starting with Itadori vs. Chousou.

Itadori vs. Chousou was a cool fight because it involved a lot more martial arts than some of the later fights. They were both using their jujutsu techniques. But, it was nothing like the fights that came after.

Speaking of crazy fights that came after, there was Sukuna vs. Mahoraga. Mahoraga is some sort of deity that Fushiguro summoned with his technique. This was the first crazy fight of the arc. Anytime Sukuna starts fighting, you know it’s going to be wild.

After that, we got Sukuna vs. Jougo, which may have been the best fight. In it, we got to see Jougo use his full strength. And, we got to see Sukuna reveal his true technique.

Sukuna fighting in Shibuya from the anime series Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
Sukuna fighting in Shibuya

Then, we got Itadori and Todou vs. Mahito. Itadori and Mahito aren’t as exciting as Sukuna, Mahoraga, and Jougo. But, when you add Todou into the mix, it makes the fight great. It’s no stretch to say that Todou was the star of this fight.

So, who did we lose throughout this season?

Well, Riko died in Premature Death. But, the Shibuya Incident saw the deaths of a lot of characters. There are the special-grade curses Hanami, Dagon, Jougo, and Mahito. Then, there are the sorcerers Mechamaru, Nobara, and Nanami.

Maki and Naobito Zenin might be dead. The last we saw of them, they got fried by Jougo. Oh, and both Todou and Inumaki suffered serious injuries. I don’t remember how this happened, but Inumaki lost both of his arms. Todou lost one of his hands to Mahito. Did I miss anyone?

Final Thoughts

Overall, I gave Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 an 8/10. It was pretty close to earning a 9. But, there were a few things holding it back. One of the big ones was Nobara’s death episode. No matter what happened in that episode, I was not going to care one bit.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

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The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Part 2 Review

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Part 2 Review

The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2 anime series cover art
The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Part 2

Improvement Over the First Cour

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Part 2 (Mahoutsukai no Yome Season 2 Part 2 / 魔法使いの嫁 SEASON2 第2クール) continues the college arc. But, it’s better than the portion of the college arc that was in the first part of Season 2.

In the first half of the season, there was a lot of time spent introducing new characters and building them up. That’s necessary, but not very exciting. In this half, we get to experience a story built upon the groundwork laid down by the first half.

In particular, Part 2 focuses a lot on Philomela’s character. By the end of Part 1, we have a pretty good understanding of who she is as a person. However, in Part 2, she gets a lot of character development and we dive more into her backstory.

Chise and Elias from the anime series The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2
Chise and Elias

It’s not only the characters who are built upon in this half, though. Plot points that were set up in Part 1 become more important in Part 2. Remember the Testament of Carnamagos? We knew it went missing in Part 1 and was probably going to cause some issues. Well, those issues are the major conflict of this part.

It’s finally time to locate the Testament and put a stop to whoever’s using it. Though, even by the end of the season, I felt like there were some gaps in our information about the Testament. I like to assume the manga did a better job with that. But, I don’t know.

Anyway, in general, Season 2 Part 2 is an improvement over Season 2 Part 1. It builds upon Part 1 and ties up the loose ends from Part 1. But, that should all be expected. After all, these are two halves of the same season. I would have been disappointed otherwise.

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Fewer Monsters, More Drama

One of the things I have to give the first part of this season credit for is worldbuilding via monsters. That half of the season introduced a lot of pretty scary monsters. I certainly wouldn’t want to run into them in a back alley.

Unfortunately, Part 2 doesn’t do that as much. I’m actually not sure if Part 2 introduced any new monsters. I can’t think of any off the top of my head. But, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t include other horrors, like Morrígan. Or, you know, the foreign god summoned by the Testament.

However, this part makes up for that by cranking up the drama. We get a bit more to do with Lucy and the Webster Tragedy. But, the big drama comes from Philomela. In a lot of ways, she’s the most important character of the season. She takes the spotlight away from even Chise.

Philomela Sargant from the anime series The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2
Philomela Sargant

At the start of the season, I wasn’t sure that Philomela was going to be all that interesting. She was just a depressed, shy girl who we knew was from an abusive, assassin family. Sure, there’s kind of a lot going on there. But, I wasn’t convinced it would make her a good character.

Well, I can now say that my worries were all for naught. I don’t know if “fun” is the right word. But, it was at least interesting to see how Philomela became the person we know her as.

To explore who Philomela is, the series had to dive into her relationship with Lizbeth. But, it didn’t stop there. It also went into Philomela’s relationship with Alcyone. And, it even went into Lizbeth’s relationship with Adam. The events that led to the Philomela we know began decades ago, long before she was even born.

Are We Done with the College Arc?

As many readers will know, I hate magic school arcs. And, that’s exactly what Season 2 has been. The majority of the season has taken place at a magic college. But, will this arc continue into the next season of the series?

Now, you could argue that the “college arc” was actually Season 2 Part 1. And, if you do, you’d say that Season 2 Part 2’s “Testament of Carnamagos arc” is separate. But, I’m going to argue that’s not the case. Instead, the Testament arc is a sub-arc within the broader college arc.

And, what I’m worried about is that the college arc is going to continue beyond Season 2. At the end of Part 2, Chise and the other students are home for Christmas break. The implication here is that they’ll be returning to the college once the break is over.

Chise vs. Zaccheroni from the anime series The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2
Chise vs. Zaccheroni

However, I feel like I could make an argument for both returning to the college and not. The argument for returning to the college is somewhat easier to make. Would we abandon all these supporting characters we spent the last two cours getting to know? It wouldn’t make too much sense for Chise to leave Philomela, Lucy, Rian, etc. at this point.

At the same time, what more is there for Chise (and Elias) to gain by staying at the college? When they left the college to save Philomela, they did so knowing that they were breaking the rules.

The college is primarily for aspiring sorcerers. But, Chise and Elias are mages. They play by their own rules and aren’t bound to the college. So, if they’ve accomplished everything they needed to at the college, why stay? This feels like a good time to move on to something else.

Final Thoughts

I ended up giving The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Part 2 a 6/10. That’s the same rating I gave to both the first part of Season 2 and Season 1. Though, I think Season 2 Part 2 is better than Part 1 and maybe a bit worse than Season 1.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

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