The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2

Episode 24

Despite its modern equation with Christmas in pop culture, Yule is not quite the same as that particular holiday. While both take place around the Winter Solstice, Yule traditionally celebrates death just as much as it is life. It is a holiday about both the death and rebirth of nature, to acknowledge and mourn the year and life that has passed before welcoming the gradual return of the sun after the northern hemisphere's longest night. In that respect, ending this season on Yule – and even airing the episode on the same day in the US – is just about the perfect choice. Our characters have lost quite a lot to the darkness, but they've finally reached a turning point. Slowly, the night and the cold will recede into the far-off distance, and new life can spring forth in their place.

That moral is most obviously applied to Philomela, who now stands at an unprecedented crossroads for herself. After severing ties to Lizbeth with her own hands (and god damn was that a satisfyingly electric way to do it), she suddenly has the entire world open to her and is characteristically paralyzed by choice. Yet even that, in a way, is something to celebrate. She may be wholly unequipped to live by her own desires, but at least now she's allowing herself to have desires at all. It will take time, support, and probably a few screw-ups along the way, but Philomela is finally free. Seeing her fritter over fabric for her long-awaited potpourri date with Chise is adorable and a wonderful image to close this whole story.

Not all rebirths are as clean, however. Chise may have rescued her friend and made it out of this adventure relatively unscathed, but she wound up taking lives to do it, if indirectly. A quirk of fate and the blood lust of a goddess spared her having to take people down by her own (dragon-)hand, but next time (because there's always a next time), that won't be an option. It doesn't help that she's getting some serious mixed signals from her closest sources of guidance. Elias is happy she didn't lay her own life on the line this time, and Joseph congratulates her for learning to "put [herself] first." For someone who was once way too eager to throw her life on the scales in a dangerous world of magic, there's perhaps some truth to those sentiments. Yet, no amount of rationalization or justification can make hurting others sit right with her. Chise's new day comes with a sky painted blood red, and she'll have to find some way to live under it until the next time danger comes her way.

Of course, this isn't the end of the overall story, and this finale leaves quite a few threads still dangling with tantalizing new hooks on their ends. There's that weird being that came tangled along within the Eye-God's vines to stare Chise down for a moment, which nobody's sure what to make of. Veronica's theft of the magic book for her own unknown ends raises more questions and promises that The College cast will hang around moving forward. There's even an unexpected post-credits hook for the next story, ominously called "Fiendbane" – a story even manga readers aren't privy to yet, as the series has only just returned from hiatus at the time of writing this review. Just as this Yule marks the end and beginning for the characters, new horizons can be seen at the end of this lengthy season.

Count me excited for it. This season has been some of the most exciting, captivating, and rewarding anime viewing of the year – and I include Vinland Saga's excellent sequel season in that statement. It has deftly painted compelling, lovable, layered characters who reflect and repel off of the world that raised them. It's given our already fantastic protagonist new depths to explore alongside some profoundly satisfying moments of triumph. Despite some production shortcomings, this story's scope and intimacy easily stand alongside its predecessor. Whatever is next for The Ancient Magus' Bride is unknown and may take a very long time to arrive as animation, but I am plenty happy to hunker down for the long haul. After this season, I can rest assured that it'll be worth the wait.

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The Ancient Magus' Bride is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.