The Ancient Magus' Bride
Plot. Having been ostracized by both her relatives and partially by society, orphaned Japanese high school student Chise Hatori decides to sell herself at an auction in order for somebody else to take her in and have a new place to call home. At the auction in London, she is sold for five million pounds to Elias Ainsworth, a seven-foot-tall humanoid with an animal skull for a head. The magus, who seems closer to a demon than human, either brings her the light she desperately seeks or drowns her in ever deeper shadows in  her new country, Great Britain. The series deals with a romantic slice-of-life storyline in a surreal and supernatural light. Media. Manga. "The Ancient Magus' Bride" is written and illustrated by Kore Yamazaki. The series was first serialized in Mag Garden's "Monthly Comic Blade" from November 30, 2013, to September 1, 2014, when the magazine ceased publication. The series was moved to the new "Monthly Comic Garden" magazine, while also continuing to be released on the "Monthly Comic Blade" website. Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the series for publication in North America in October 2014. A drama CD was  bundled with the limited edition of the fifth volume, released in March 2016. Some copies of the English volume 8 were printed with black and white covers instead of color. The series has been collected into fifteen "tankōbon" volumes, with fourteen being published in English as of April 27, 2021. Anime. A three-part prequel anime was announced in the fifth volume of the manga. The series is titled . It is directed by Norihiro Naganuma and written by Kore Yamazaki, with scripts by Aya Takaha. Wit Studio produced the animation and Production I.G is credited with planning and production. Hirotaka  Katō designed the characters and Bamboo is in charge of the background art. The series' music is composed by Junichi Matsumoto and produced by Flying Dog. The episodes were bundled with the sixth, seventh and eighth volumes of the manga, between September 10, 2016, March 10, 2017, and September 9, 2017. The first episode was shown in theaters for two weeks, starting on August 13, 2016; the second episode premiered in theaters on February 4, 2017; and the third episode premiered on August 19, 2017. Crunchyroll began streaming the first episode on September 10, 2016. An anime television series adaptation  was announced on March 10, 2017, and aired from October 7, 2017, to March 24, 2018, on MBS, Tokyo MX, BS11 and other Japanese channels. JUNNA performed the opening theme "Here", and Hana Itoki performed the ending theme . The second opening theme is "You" by May'n, and the ending theme is by AIKI & AKINO from bless4. Funimation streamed an English dub. The anime won the best drama award at the 2017 Crunchyroll anime awards. Manga Entertainment will distribute the series on home video in the United Kingdom and Ireland. An original three-part OVA series titled "The Ancient Magus' Bride : The Boy From the West and the Knight of the Mountain Haze" was announced in March 2021, with the episodes being bundled with the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth volumes of the manga, released on September 10, 2021, March 10, 2022, and September 10, 2022. The OVA series is animated by Studio Kafka and directed by Kazuaki Terasawa, with scripts by Aya Takaha and Yoko Yonaiyama. Hirotaka Katō returns to design the characters, and Junichi Matsumoto returns to compose the series' music. Reception. Volume 2 reached the 9th place on the weekly Oricon manga chart and, as of September 21, 2014 , had sold 104,518 copies. The series had sold half a million copies as of June 2015, 2.5 million copies as of March 2016, and over three million as of September 2016. By December 2017, the series had five million copies in print. The series was number two on the 2015 "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!" Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey. It was number 36 on the 15th annual "Book of the Year" list by the "Da Vinci" magazine in 2014. "Da Vinci" readers also ranked it at number two in a poll to determine the series most likely to  make their big break in 2015. The series ranked number one on a poll of 2,360 bookstore employees to determine 2015's top 15 manga series of under five volumes. It was one of fourteen titles nominated for the eighth Manga Taishō awards in 2015. Volume two appeared on "The New York Times" manga bestsellers list for four weeks, rising to third place for two. Volume three debuted on the list at second place, volume four debuted at first place, and volume five debuted at fourth place. Reviewing the first volume for "Anime News Network", Nick Creamer gave it a  grade of A−. He praised the series' art, noting that it "does great work in impressing upon the audience the same sense of wonder Chise experiences throughout. The character designs are expressive and backgrounds ornate". Commenting on the relationship between Chise and Elias, he wrote that "having this story go in a legitimately romantic direction would likely raise thorny issues of power dynamics and consent", but remarked that, as it was, the story "does a commendable job of making both Chise and Elias understandable and likable characters". He concluded his review by writing: "What conflict all these lovely details might  be leading towards is a mystery so far, but the execution is so strong that I'm ready to follow wherever it leads." In his review of the second volume, he admitted to coming to an appreciation of the main characters' relationship, writing that "the ambiguities of their relationship actually seem like one more fitting piece of a world where "every" relationship is ambiguous". He called the series' magic "classic but still refreshing". He also commented that the series' art "remains gorgeous and well-suited to the story all throughout this volume ... the backgrounds are lush and faces expressive, and  the whole style has an ornate looseness to it that works perfectly for this kind of fantasy storytelling". He concluded by saying "If you have any appreciation for this style of classic fantasy storytelling, "Ancient Magus' Bride" is a can't-miss production".