Mahoutsukai no Yome Season 2

Nowadays, only once in a blue moon we get to experience a fantasy predominantly relying on a plot, rich with wonder and exploration, garnished with a pinch of drama and an occasional dash of action. As most of what we get these days is essentially power fantasy, whether it is Kimetsu no Yaiba, or Jigokuraku or Mashle. So when something like Mahoutsukai no Yome comes along, it is either buried under all the hype from those typical power fantasies or is not much talked about. Let's try to ammend that.

When it first aired back in fall 2017, it was a breath of fresh ... air, and now that it is back, it is still a breath of fresh minty air. There is a change in studio, but there has not been any indication of that affecting the quality.

Plot: If you have the seen season 1, please do yourself a favour, watch the OVAs, Hoshi Matsu Hito and Nishi no Shounen. This will be important as many a times they will be refereed to. Having said that, the second season starts very strongly, and is already looking great. New characters have been introduced, new place of action has been introduced, and lots of new things are happening. As someone acquainted with the manga, let me assure you, it only gets better.

While the first season mostly focused on the mages, and their way of dealing with things, the second season will for sure expand on that. However, the primary focus will be on Sorcery this time around, as you can probably tell even from the first episode itself.

Characters: Mahoutsukai no Yome always had great characters, and this new season will only add to that. You met the Mages, the fairies, the strange beasts, the people of the village near Elias' home and the inhabitants of his house, and now you'll be acquainted with the sorcerers, and their side of society and beings.

Animation: It looks just as good if not better than the first season. The colour palette is really lush and vibrant, the scenes look smooth and crisp, there is a nice flow to it, as was the case with the OVA, the backgrounds are really detailed, and the frame rate is extremely consistent. The opening theme animation looks spectacular, and so does the minimalistic ending credit. So lot's of praise for Studio Kafka, for a job well done.

Music: Music was a strong suit of the first season, and again, it already seems like that, this season as well. The opening by Junna is extremely good, quite different from your standard J-pop themes, just like first opening. On the other hand, the ending theme is very soothing by Edda.

Voice Acting: The old cast is as good as ever, the new cast is slowly making their mark. The new voices fit the profile of their respective characters well, so many good things to be expected.

Enjoyment: You're only going to watch this if you've seen the first season, and if you liked the first one there is nothing that will stop you from enjoying this one. Probably even more compared to the first season. All in all, a great sequel.

I really, really wanted to like Mahoutsukai s2, but alas, Studio Kafka has not managed to replicate even a tiny bit of the magic that Wit did with season 1.

When it comes to adaptations of highly atmospheric fantasy manga filled with gorgeous panels like Mahoutsukai, the expectation is always that the studio will focus on capturing those elements, since that's where they can really shine. In a story about magic and beauty, sound and visual design are everything and without them, the work will simply not manage to stand on its own ground, since, in the source, sacrifices are being made in the storytelling to ... present as many opportunities as possible to bring forth a 'grand' scene with a focus on awing the reader.

Studio Wit, with season 1, did not mess around and made every other episode an absolute spectacle of sound and visuals. It's what made the show worth watching over just reading the manga. It was adding additional value by transcending the limits of the manga medium.

Season 2. at least so far, has none of that. It's ironic that the very opening scene of episode 1 is a sakuga-fest, however by now it seems clear that this was just bait to capture viewers to keep watching in anticipation of something great. However, we are 5 episodes in now and that has yet to manifest in any meaningful way, indicating that the first scene was just a party trick to capture engagement.

So far, season 2 has been a clear downgrade in music, sound design, visual design, and, to a lesser extent, scriptwriting. The colors are not even remotely as vibrant, the fantastical musical pieces are entirely absent the entire experience just feels like a slice of life drama.

I see hardly any reason to be watching this over simply reading the manga, which, in my eyes, makes this a failure of an adaptation.

However, to be fair to the studio, the story offers less opportunities to 'show off' as the earlier parts of s1 did, the OP is, again, fantastic, VA work has been solid and the animation 'as a whole' is perfectly serviceable. It's simply that for an adaptation of a source like Mahoutsukai 'serviceable' is not enough.

I understand that it's supposed to be slow and almost iyashikei-lite, but this little happening is unforgivable. 5 episodes in and we've covered one very slow episode worths of content. Atmosphere and a sense of quality and effort are still there, but it's just way too slow.

story: 1. nothing happened in 5 episodes

sound/visuals: 9. As well animated and sounded as nothing can possibly be. not a 10 because there are shows where nothing happening is the point aka iyashikei's and this show doesn't do nothing as well as those.

characters: 9. I suppose the one thing that has happened is that a few character have ... been introduced incredibly subtly and masterfully. I can see this season being worth it just for those characters. But nothing's happened so far so can't say.

idk nothing's happened, there's nothing to say. It's probably worth 20 minutes a week if you're into mahoutsukai typa shows.