I was going to write more quick reviews for this week, but then something landed in my mailbox that took priority. I have been patiently waiting for this eighteenth volume of The Ancient Magus Bride and I was so stoked to finally get my hands on it. Let’s ignore the fact that it will now take until December before we get another volume, but instead let’s enjoy what we got. Because man oh man was it a great volume.
To quickly bring us all up to speed on where we ended the last volume, we found ourselves in front of Philomela. She was allowed to leave the University and Chise and friends decided to chase after her. The vice-chancellor was not a fan of this, but Elias made it clear that Chise does not have to play by their rules. She brought Zoe, Isaac and Lucy with her. On their way in, Chise gave a name to the god of war Morrigan, who helped her slaughter the Sargant guards and now they are confronting the broken and possessed Philomela.
Chise, Isaac and Lucy end up inside of Philomela’s mind, living through some of her worst memories. We learn a bit more about her upbringing here. Last volume we learned about her past with her parents, Adam and Iris, but in this volume we learn in more detail about what happened to her after that. Lizbeth Sargant took her in as a replacement for Adam, who’d quicker kill himself than go back. He had hoped Alcyone was enough to protect his daughter but he was wrong. Philomela is then used as a replacement for all her youth, being told she’s never good enough, until she finally gets the job of stealing the book. She is now possessed by the god that’s housed in that book and ready to go to the ritual. It’s also interesting that the other three see part of their past as well. Chise sees a classroom full of her peers calling her creepy, which we’ve seen earlier on in the series and Lucy sees her family’s gruesome death. Both of them have gotten over their trauma. Interestingly enough, Isaac does not seem to be past his at this point, I wonder when we’ll dive into that a bit more. Either way, the gang escapes the dream, mirage, inner world of Philomela.
As the ritual progresses, Philomela becomes aware of the fact that she’s been lied to the entire time. She probably realized somewhere deep down, but she is a sacrifice, and not someone who helps out and gets to see the end result. But Chise, Elias and the gang are there to save the day. As is tradition, Chise wants to run in recklessly with no regard for her own safety or pondering if her idea is actually helpful. Luckily Elias stops her and they quickly think of the magic required to intervene with the circle. Teamwork makes the dream work, after all. Philomela cries out for help and is subsequently save leading to the fantastic panel with Alcyone saying ah, she will be alright.
Meanwhile we learn more about Lizbeth Sargant’s past as well. There’s something to be said about her growing bitter because she couldn’t get a child, but that’s still her responsibility. It seems much more like she was always an obsessive person who just kept growing more and more cold as time went on, to the point where she saw everyone around her – even her own family – as tools to use. When Adam abandoned her, she didn’t even realize until he called in to say his goodbye. It’s unfortunate that she found him, because although Adam was from a compassionate guy, he was a much better person than his mother, probably mainly due to Iris’ influence. I love how complicated their entire family relationship is. Iris has never quite forgiven him and his family for what they did to him, but she respects that he also made up for some of his wrongs and changed his ways. He got her out of that hellish situation and even gave her a child to love. From where she was to where she ended up that was a pretty good improvement. But it’ll never excuse the initial target practice she was. Speaking of Adam’s pettiness, he had one more trick up his sleeve. In a heartbreaking moment where Alcyone gets killed and we see Elias wondering why he reached out his arm – she’s your friend dummy, you care for her – we get Adam’s final petty curse. He put a curse on Alcyone that if she ever were destroyed, an image of him would come out and protect Philomela.
So we end this volume in a whirlpool of vengeance. Lucy, the werewolf, Adam, Philomela and Morrigan all want to deal with Lizbeth herself. It seems that her life has finally caught up to her. Lizbeth has in the meantime fused with the Vain One, an old god probably as powerful or more powerful than Morrigan herself. It’s a good thing that there’s a lot of people here who are all on the same team. Otherwise I don’t think this would end well. But how it will actually end is something we’ll have to wait a few months for. That’s unfortunate, I would love to have access to more of this story right now, but I don’t like reading weekly/monthly chapters anymore.
One thing I should mention about reading volumes instead of chapters is that I really love the extra things we get. Almost every mangaka will write a little bit about themselves or their process throughout the volume. For example, the author of this particular manga, Kore Yamazaki, recently got a dog. It makes authors seem much more like people and not just invisible creatures that write fantastic story. Just someone down the street that’s excited about getting a new dog. Hiro Mashima talks a lot about his other hobbies and things, that’s always fun to read. But that’s all I have to say. It’s 33c outside when I’m writing this and I’m starting to get light headed from focusing for too long. I hope you enjoyed this little recap and as always, thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 