If you take part in critical discussions of anime, you’ve likely heard praise for a show that “makes good use of silence.” Meaning not every show needs to be on all the time, sometimes it’s best to take away any distractions and let the themes and imagery speak for themselves. And when I say “Magus Bride makes awful use of silence,” I mean something completely different.
AMB makes ample use of two of the worst story telling techniques in anime. 1: silent conversations to keep the audience in the dark. And 2: silent conversations to imply scenes from the manga.
Examples of the first include Stella and Ethan’s silent conversation, which was revealed in the following episode. That is the right way to use this technique, but I wouldn’t call it good. The absolute wrong way to use it, is what they did in episode 21. There was no real gain to silencing Mariel’s message to Elias, only to reveal it moments later.
But the second kind of silence is of more concern to me. It’s a disservice fans who only watch the anime and shows that the industry still views adaptations mainly as commercials for the source material. So let me tell you what you missed.
Redcurrant (Sexy Vampire)
That’s her name, btw. Chise gave her that name in this muted conversation from an episode back. She’s doing well, a little cold though. Chise suggests she try wearing some clothes in the winter. Joel’s family is selling the house, but she’s going stay there and haunt the garden. She makes a symbolic attempt to heal Chise’s curse:
Torrey Innis
You might not have caught his name, but Torrey is the overly-eager sorcerer from the college. He has an obsession with mages and natural magic.
So the note that Mariel gave to Elias told him to seek out a book in the college’s possession: the Testament of Carnamagos. It’s from the Cthulhu mythos if you’re interested. It’s a dangerous tome, held in the restricted library. Elias wouldn’t normally have access to it.
But he hides in Torrey’s shadow to sneak in and read it. In exchange, he shows Torrey a magic trick. Yeah, that’s what it costs to bribe your way into a dangerous magical depository.
So Elias recites his incantation and slices up a sheet of paper. Torrey geeks out, prompting Elias to ask what’s so special about that. They talk about how beautiful magic looks to humans, and Torrey describes Elias’ spell as “like Sleeping Beauty, slumbering in her castle amidst the thorns.”
…and a little purple, though the artists apparently decided blue was a better look.
And that’s what you missed. It’s not enough to ruin the story, but some of the strongest character moments are cut from the anime as a result of this. It’s a real shame.
The first cour of the anime I might even recommend over the manga, as Lindel’s song and the Phoenix-Chise sequence are incredible additions. But so far in the second cour, nothing in the anime has come close to the manga. Of course, my preferred way to watch/read is with both!
I agree. The anime needs viewers to have read or be reading the manga for all the subtleties in the story telling. You miss a lot of context and little things that make the story seem, as in Elias’ trek to the college, more ominous or, in the scenes of Chise walking the town after waking up with the dragon’s curse, bittersweet.
Personally, I’ve gotten to where I can wait a few days before watching the latest episode just because of this. I still enjoy it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s fallen into that ‘the book is better’ situation. I hope it doesn’t go the route of other adaptations and diverge from the manga while the next issues are still being worked on because the anime has caught up.
Sure, I’ll still watch it because I’m a sucker for AMB, but I hope that fans can get everything watching the anime because reading mangas aren’t for everyone. I definitely know watching something play out can be more entertaining than reading, so let’s hope the oomph comes back to the anime.
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