Did all the middling shows get together and decide to hold off until the seventh episode to get interesting? First Garo and now Mahoutsukai no Yome — finally, these stories are in full swing. Joseph, the creepy sorcerer kid, meets Elias face to face, and we might have a bit of a battle on our hands when the anime returns with its eight episode. The latter has been hyped up as this dangerous half-breed, but what exactly is he capable of? What sort of destruction can he wrought? Better yet, Chise goes down once again, so we can actually see Elias display a bit of emotion. He’s been a little too even-keeled up until now. A little too in control. The same goes with Joseph. He’s been sly and devious. He’s obviously evil. But what exactly can he do when he lets go? But believe it or not, the build-up to the impending battle is not the most interesting part of the episode for me.

I actually like a moment just a short while earlier. Alice wants the Black Dog to serve as an ingredient. Apparently, you need one in order to make a chimera, and Joseph is making Renfred gather the materials. The latter initially refused, but take an arm and all of a sudden, people seem to do whatever you want them to do. Jot that down. It’s a bit curious, though. If Joseph is so strong, why not just get the ingredients himself? Why rely on someone else to do it? But no matter. I should get back to the scene I supposedly like so much. Like I was saying, Alice wants the Black Dog, but Chise has a good soul. As such, she’s not going to just give up the Black Dog. She had been working on a potion to ward off nightmares, but she hasn’t quite perfected the formula. As a result, she ended up fashioning a sleeping potion instead. The accident still proves its usefulness, however, when Chise uses it to subdue Alice.

In the following scene, we see Alice sleeping soundly on the ground. Like I said, Chise has a good soul, so she wasn’t going to leave the girl lying in the middle of a potentially dangerous graveyard. No goody-two-shoes would do that. But when Alice wakes up, she finds that her hands have been bound. Chise might be idealistic, but she isn’t dumb. I like seeing my heroine with a bit of resourcefulness. I’m still not a big fan of her character, but I can warm up to her character if she continues to be strong and independent. We later find out that Elias has been with her the whole time. He likes to hide in her shadow, after all. It’s possible that he might have told Chise what to do, but I doubt it. The anime isn’t exactly subtle, so if he had commanded her every action, we probably would’ve seen it. So yeah, give me more moments with Chise working on her own. Unfortunately, she has a penchant for passing out, and she does so again by the end of this week’s episode.

Both our heroine and Ulysses sense danger coming — and perhaps Elias does too, but he doesn’t really care about Alice’s fate — but Chise is unsurprisingly the only person to act. She jumps in the way of an attack that would’ve killed Alice and appears to lose a lot of blood. Of course she’s not going to die, but hey, Elias paid a pretty penny for his Japanese guinea pig. What kind of man goes around and kills another man’s slave bride? I swear, England’s morals are decaying by the day. Speaking of destitute girls indebted to their masters, Alice apparently has the same relationship with Renfred as Chise does with Elias. They just come from a different school of magic. Seeing no value in herself, Renfred’s apprentice devotes herself entirely to the man who has taken her in. Love is in the air, but I can’t help but wonder if Alice was bought from an auction too. At least she doesn’t look like a child, I suppose. Still, it’s a bit disquieting to see that all of the romances so far have been kinda problematic.

There was the serial cat murderer who accidentally liquefied his own wife. I’ve already gone on and on about Chise and her master. Alice appears to just be a foil to our heroine. So far, the most healthy relationship appears to be the one between Oberon and Titania, the fairy king and queen. To tie up other loose ends, Chise needs a familiar who will be devoted to her and serve her needs. It’s going to be the Black Dog, isn’t it? And of course, the Black Dog can turn into a hot bishie. Elias is always going to be the canon pairing, but these romance anime/manga always need a B-option for the all aspiring fanfiction writers out there. All in all, this is probably the best Mahoutsukai no Yome episode yet. I still don’t particularly care about the show, but at least my interest has been piqued.