The Ancient Magus' Bride (2016)

[魔法使いの嫁]

Volume 6

Author/Artist: Kore Yamazaki
Publisher: Blade Comics

Synopsis:
Chise is invited to London by Alice to do some Christmas shopping.

Story/Characters:
With Christmas coming up, Chise and Alice have a girls' day out in the big city so the can shop for presents for the men in their life. Given how Renfred and Alice were introduced, it's nice to see things have settled down and we're now on friendly terms. Alice serves as a much-needed friend around Chise's age who can also relate to the world of magic. We learn about Alice's past, which better explains why she acted the way she did in the previous encounters. And though Elias wasn't happy about Chise sneaking out without telling him, everything gets smoothed over when the Christmas presents get exchanged.

On Christmas Day itself, Chise gets presents from several of the acquaintances she's picked up recently and decides to personally go thank Simon sooner rather than later, which leads us into the next event. Chise bumps into a girl looking for her missing brother. It turns out to be a new game courtesy of Ashen Eye, who takes the careless words of a typical children's spat quite seriously. Words have power, after all. The sister, Stella, ends up becoming a new friend for Chise, who ends up stirring up the ol' green-eyed monster in Elias. For an ordinary, well-adjusted human adult, this would be rather petty, but for a creature that struggles to process emotion, this is an interesting turn and will reverberate later in the story. Also, we have a certain individual returning for the stinger.

Art:
There are some nice visuals to accompany the missing child story, including several new critters. The cover of Chapter 30 is particularly striking. Jealous Elias' transformation also stands out.

Other:
We get a color illustration of Chise in a spooky forest and an afterword comic about Yamazaki's trip to Germany.

Conclusion:
As I said above, I liked the time Chise spent with Alice, but the real highlight was the Stella-Ethan story. We're also setting things up for the next big conflict on several levels, so that should get you geared up for what's to come. It's good stuff and well worth adding to your collection.

Rating:
Own It