The Ancient Magus` Bride
- + Has truly beautiful scenes
- + Wonderful magic and spirits
- + Great opposition and play with light and dark (visuals, emotions, situations)
- - Sporadic continuity issues
- - Some well established mood, seriousness, significance get broken by short low-poly joke scenes
- - Few scenes are too dark (brightness so low you can barely, or depending on your viewing environment, not make anything out at all) (they are few and short enough, and audible enough, to not be deal breakers)
Ambivalence between great or exceptional world and characters and their representations and interactions, and small issues breaking them.
It could have been exceptional, and in many scenes it still is. Really unfortunate/frustrating that fails to go the extra step with continuity and consistency.
Overall I really enjoyed it a lot.
Rewatch-approved. It remains one of my favorite series.
Season 2 (2 part) keeps up the qualiy and style. I am so glad they executed it so well. Fantastic continuation.
The occasional low-visual-detail iterwoven scene parts continue to remain my biggest criticism. They are stylized, and rarely add, but often are detrimental to the set atmosphere and mood.
Another small criticisms I have: In the second half and towards the end of season 2, one characters conclusion drags on - feels like forced continuation and limbus to be able to tell and conclude the story as it is done. Overall it’s not very bad though, thanks to the otherwise fantastic execution.
Having watched season 2, I continue to wholeheartedly recommend this fantastic fantasy anime with exceptional visuals, world-embedded and consistent magic, striking a great balance between positive and dark themes.