The episode had gone pretty much the way I predicted it would and, not surprisingly, it ended on a happy note. Chise frees herself from the woman’s grasp, the woman named Alice. Chise doesn’t care whether or not they were lying or telling the truth because she finally has someone that sees her as family. She was always the unwanted child that caused a burden on everyone, so the fact that she finally found someone to consider her part of their family is a huge thing for her. And so, she doesn’t care, she’s on Elias’ side. However, Chise, isn’t what they said really concerning? Am I the only one that thought Chise’s answer to be a little strange?
Once Elias holds the other two back, Chise, King/Queen Kitty, and Ariel go forth to the corruption and suddenly find themselves in the memories of it.
It went exactly as I had thought. Matthew found out about cats having nine lives and went after the cats and killed them to make a medicine for Mina. The person that had told him about the cats was the traveling sorcerer Matthew had heard about. He found the kid in a tavern and confronted him about Mina’s condition and begged for some type of medicine. The kid asks Matthew if he could meet her in person and he agrees, sneaking an evil little grin. He examines Mina and then speaks with Matthew outside, admitting that she only has a few more years to live. Matthew understandably is upset and again begs for the kid to do something. It’s then he asks him whether Mina liked cats or not, and the rest is history. The scene in the shed was actually frightening with the corpses of the hanging cats, the other cats locked in cages, and of course all the blood and the crazed expression on Matthew’s face. It was even more unsettling when the kid sorcerer forced Mina’s mouth open so she could drink the medicine, only for her to turn into a puddle of blood. Apparently the kid was only using them as research for his studies on combining humans with beasts, and he showed no remorse or horror at the events that took place before him. Obviously this kid was up to no good. This kid looks like too much of an important character for this to be his last appearance, so I’m sure Chise is going to run into him later on.
After witnessing the memories, Mina’s spirit again asks Chise to erase them but Chise doesn’t want them to be erased. Thinking quickly before things went sour, Chise used her power, or Ariel, and made Mina imagine a field a flowers where she was able to meet with Matthew one more time before they both passed on peacefully into the afterlife. Because I think “erasing” and what happened here is different? And yes I guess it was Chise’s power because of the field of flowers thing she learned, and also in the preview for the next episode she’s in a deep sleep. Sleigh Beggies are strong but have fragile bodies is what we learned.
I suppose it wasn’t totally Matthew’s fault? Or maybe it was. I can’t tell whether or not the kid brainwashed him and controlled him or Matthew willfully went through with killing the cats so I’m not totally sure how I feel about the happy ending. At least the animation and the insert song was nice.
Next episode it looks like there will be conflict with Chise’s health, but looking at the scenes in the OP we know Chise will be fine and that there’ll be a cute moment between her and Elias. One thing I hate about an anime OP is when it tells you what’s going to happen in the show, so it kills the surprise factor and spoils things. Another anime with an OP like that was Log Horizon and it drove me crazy. Other anime sort of do the same but they make it a lot more subtle at least. 😐
Note: I’ve decided that I’m going to be dropping my coverage of Mahoutsukai no Yome. It’s not that I don’t like the show, because I’m enjoying it, but I’m finding it hard to blog about each week. The episodes move slow, and certain episodes like this were predictable that I struggle to find what to talk about. I think when it comes to this show, it’s more fun to watch than to write about. I’ve opened up this show to the team and someone may very well take it over for me so coverages might continue normally next week. However, if everyone is too busy to do that, then I’m totally open to doing an Overall Review in the end, or maybe a. Overall Review of the first half at the halfway point (episode 12/13).
I’m sorry if this is disappointing but I don’t want to make this show unenjoyable for me by forcing myself to write a lame review. I’ve forced myself to continue blogging certain shows and I had a lot less fun with it, and the last thing I want to do is put out half-assed reviews, and get annoyed with a show that I genuinely enjoy. Thanks for understanding, and if you follow my other shows I’ll see you there. 🙂
I’m sad that you’ll stop blogging this show but glad that you’re not dropping it because you dislike the story.
I think erasing Mina and Matthew meant exactly that, that their souls would be removed from existence. What Chise did was find a way to guide them back into the cycle of death and rebirth such that they may be reborn in the future, and using Aerial’s power meant Molly the cat king did not have to sacrifice her life to be the guide.