Way to go Chise, you’ve grown stronger. How Evil is Mahoutsukai No Yome episode 17?

Mahoutsukai no Yome
Studio: Wit Studio
Genre: Drama, Romance, Magic

Elias didn’t do a lot this episode. He seemed to be mostly along for the ride. And what a ride it was. If you watched the last episode the last thing you saw was Ashen Eye finding a lone child in the woods. Well, we get the entire story of why that happened this episode. So, buckle up and for the love of anime watch the episode before reading this. This episode begins with Stella Barklem a ten-year-old girl looking for Ethan Barklem her now non-existent brother, at least that is what her parents say. We cut to the scene with Chise holding her teddy bear after the opening. Yeah, that’s still adorable.

But wait, why does it have crystal flowers growing out of it? If you’re reading this before watching this episode, the bear creates crystals out of Chise’s excess magic. And Ruth lets her know that fae creatures actually eat those. That sounds pretty useful, doesn’t it? Don’t worry they have a use later in the episode as well. Chise decides to go for a walk to see the priest but ends up bumping into Stella along the way. Elias and Chise agree to help her find her brother and the adventure begins. Elias tries to find Ethan using a spell but his magic is being blocked. Chise ask the neighbors for help by feeding them the flowers from her teddy bear. 

This method seems to work extremely well.  They end up getting help from a lot of different creatures along the way. There was even one that looked like some kind of fish, all of them were very weird and creative. When Chise ran out of flowers she paid a creature in a teacup of her own blood.  Apparently, Chise also having a brother makes her want to help Stella at any cost.

At the end of the trail, they find Ashen Eye. Old Ashy has Ethan as a hostage of sorts. He has taken the bond that Stella and Ethan had due to something horrible she had said to him before Ashy got him. Ashy seems impressed that they found him and decides to play a game with them. Ashy takes Elias and Ethan and hides them away, tasking their recovery to Chise and Stella. If they are found before sundown the girls win. Chise is not happy about this arrangement stating that Ashen won’t lose anything either way.

Ahsen does give Chise a clue that has something to do with a beast sense of smell before he warps away. If you can imagine both Chise and Stella are a little distraught about the new situation. Ruth manages to snap Chise out of it and she begins thinking up a plan. First, she asks if Ruth can smell them to which he replies he can’t really track them. Chise then gets an idea and heads off to get the fox pelt from before.

Meanwhile, in an undisclosed area, Elias awakens in an underwater holding area? Elias and Ethan talk about what it means to be part of a family. I kind of wonder if that was the reason Ashen Eye did this. This whole thing didn’t seem malicious in any way at all.
This would appear to be at least somewhat true. After Chise uses a new bear form to find Elias and Ethan Ashen eye just lets them go in exchange for a flower Chise gave Stella. Everything just resets to normal for them after that and Chise meets Stella and Ethan’s’ parents. It was a nice happyish ending. Chise didn’t look all that happy though.

This was a neat episode. We got to see Chise be a “hero” of sorts and it was great. She couldn’t even use her own magic this episode but somehow she managed to beat Ashen’s game. I would say this episode was about as Evil as a Super Villian (10). It’s nice when we get to see how strong a character has become in an episode all their own. If you like shows with cute romances like this one, check out our reviews for Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card. Its romance is a lot less subtle but it’s still adorable. Well, that’s all I have for you today. Thanks for letting me waste your time, people.

Keep It Classy,
Evil Bob