REVIEW: ‘The Ancient Magus Bride’ Season 2 Episode 2 — “Birds of a Feather Flock Together”

The Ancient Magus Bride Season 2 kicked off last week with an episode that directly threw audiences into a new setting: The Mage’s College. Without taking too much time to recap the last season, despite five years away, The Ancient Magus Bride Episode 2, “Birds of a Feather Flock Together,” continues to dive deeper into Chise’s world and the people around her as sorcery takes center stage.

In Ancient Magus Bride Season 2, audiences meet a changed Chise. She accepts Elias and herself, even if her circumstances are less than ideal. But After Cartaphilus fell back into a slumber that would not last forever, Chise has a choice: return to her normal life or join the English Mage College. Of course, she chooses the latter. Fearful of what the mages will do when she enrolls, Elias joins her. Now in this episode, we get to see Elias teaching classes in his human form, Chise reunites with Alice, and a couple of new characters immediately peak narrative interest. Still, it’s Philomena whose mystery and immediate collection with Chise is sure to play a huge role this season.

Centered primarily around Chise’s training and Elias’s teaching, The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 2 showcases just how gorgeous the magical world of the series is but, more importantly, how connected people are to the sorcery they do. While Chise is at a different level than the others in her class, she still carries self-doubt that grounds her as a protagonist. She’s inimidated but capable and that allows her to be dynamic when she could easily be “too talented.”

But Chise isn’t the only character we get to see in this episode; we also see Alice. Now rocking an androgynous look with a cropped haircut, Alice is still a friendly face in an uncertain space for Chise and for viewers too. Between Alice’s masculine-presenting appearance and Elias’s choosing to be in a woman’s form while human, the series is filled with queer subtext that is deserving of its own piece and not just one line in a review. This is even more fantastic given that being in a magic school, learning sorcery, and exploring a wide world of magical history is a good alternative for those looking to divest from the Harry Potter franchise (like myself).

Additionally, this episode continues to build out a beautiful world of magic, and Wit Studio‘s clever use of a combination of 2D and 3D animation is how they do it. By blending the two together in one seamless animation, Wit manages to make something as simple as a classroom have a grand scale when Chise walks into it. It’s intimidating, large, and something that holds its own mythic quality. By taking something simple like a training classroom and giving it a scale fit for sorcery, Wit Studios continues to capture the beautiful fantasy of The Ancient Magus’ Bride. 

Ultimately, The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 2 is a simple episode that sets the groundwork for the season by exploring the Mage’s college and Chise’s place in it. Additionally, some mysteries begin to come to the forefront, if only slightly. While I don’t feel there is too much currently happening in The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2, there is a lot of foundation being set, and that’s something that I can’t knock a series that has been absent for five years.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 2 is available now on Crunchyroll, with new episodes every Thursday.