The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2 Release Date, Cast, Trailer, Possible Plotlines And More Details
"The Ancient Magus' Bride" is a dark fantasy anime series based on the manga of the same name by Kore Yamazaki. It focuses primarily on the story of high school student Chise Hatori, who sells herself into slavery after being shunned by her family and everybody in her life. At a slave auction in London, Chise is bought for five million pounds by the magus Elias Ainsworth, a mysterious supernatural being with a human body and an animal skull for a head. Elias takes Chise under his wing as his apprentice and tells her that he intends to one day make her his wife.
The show documents the surreal exploits of this unusual couple as Chise learns to master her unique magical abilities — she learns from Elias that she is a rare kind of magus known as a Sleigh Beggy, and therefore has a talent for attracting magical creatures in need. Elias takes her around on various magical adventures, learning more and more about human nature from his prolonged interactions with her.
Season 1 took viewers on an expansive journey across the world, with Elias and Chise encountering a wide range of magical environments and various foes. In 2023, the show returned for a second season, with the first 12 episodes airing between April and June. When does the highly-anticipated second part air, and what can fans expect from it? Here's everything you need to know about "The Ancient Magus' Bride" Season 2 Part 2.
When will The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2 be released?
Part 2 of "The Ancient Magus' Bride" Season 2 comes out in Japan on October 5, 2023. As reported by Anime News Network, the second cour will premiere on the channel Tokyo MX, airing weekly at 10pm local time. It will then be shown on the channels BS11, Sun TV, and KBS Kyoto. It's likely that more channels will be added to the list, because Season 2 Part 1 was also shown on AT-X, HBC, Gifu Broadcasting, RSK Sanyo Broadcasting Co. Ltd., and NCC Nagasaki Cultural Broadcasting.
People in Japan will also be able to stream Part 2 on Amazon Prime Video and Lemino, but what about Western viewers? Luckily, fans of "The Ancient Magus' Bride" in the United States will be able to watch Season 2 Part 2 almost immediately thanks to Crunchyroll, which is running a simulcast of the second cour. The anime streaming giant is making Season 2 Part 2 available to viewers outside of Asia on the same day it airs in Japan, so the first episode ought to be available from 9am EDT on October 5, 2023. You'll be able to watch it in English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, and Italian.
What is the plot of The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2?
The ending of "The Ancient Magus' Bride" Season 1 saw Chise confronting the fatal curse she inherited as a Sleigh Beggy, following a battle against Cartaphilus and the fae known as Ashen Eye. The battle ends with Chise inheriting Cartaphilus' immortal curse, and although this saves her from death, her shriveled black arm is a reminder that her own dragon curse will still claim her life one day. The final moments of the season see Chise and Elias renewing their commitment to one another as apprentice and master in a wedding-like ceremony, with Chise wearing a dress and the pair exchanging magical rings.
In the first part of Season 2, Chise accepts an invitation to study at the College, an institution for sorcerers. The higher-ups want to study her on account of her being a Sleigh Beggy, which leads Elias to take on a teaching position and watch over her. In the end she's almost abducted by a dangerous group of sorcerers named the Undergrounders. Her Cartaphilus fragment keeps her safe this time, but there's still plenty of threads left dangling at the conclusion of Episode 12.
So, what will happen in Part 2? Season 2 is based on the College Arc from the manga, so if you're a lover of the source material, you'll already know what to expect from the upcoming cour. The College has been officially sealed following the attacks, and, without giving too much away, Chise is in for a shock when she discovers who has the magic book that's been draining the life force of the students. The hunt for the book is at the heart of Part 2, but there are plenty of other twists and turns to come, with stolen magic, missing children, and bitter betrayals all on the horizon.
Who is starring in The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2?
Several prominent cast members returned for the second season of "The Ancient Magus' Bride," including the voice actors for both series leads: Atsumi Tanezaki and Ryōta Takeuchi, who voice Chise Hatori and Elias Ainsworth, respectively. Other returning voice actors include Koki Uchiyama, who plays a large dog known as Ruth functioning as Chise's familiar; Aya Endo, who voices a supernatural landlady named Silky who presides over Elias and Chise's home; and Satoshi Hino, who voices the alchemist Mikhail Renfred. Last but not least, there's Mutsumi Tamura, who plays Mikhail's apprentice Alice. The English language stars of the first season also reprised their roles, with Dani Chambers returning as Chise and Brian Mathis coming back as Elias.
It was great that plenty of favorites came back for the second outing, but the first part of Season 2 also introduced us to some new characters, and many of them will continue to play a big part in the second cour. There's the Half-Gorgon Zoey Ivey (Daiki Kobayashi/Lee George), for example, and fellow student Isaac Fowler (Koutaro Nishiyama/Derick Snow). The penultimate episode of Season 2 Part 1 introduced the sorcerer and secret Undergrounder Fabio Zaccheroni (Makoto Furukawa/Alejandro Saab), who lives in the Tower of Remnants at the College. And, of course, Part 1 also saw the debut of Lizbeth Sargant (played by veteran voice actor Sayuri Sadaoka in the Japanese version), the evil head of the Sargant family, as well as her granddaughter Philomela (Maki Kawase/Jill Harris).
Is there a trailer for The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2?
Several trailers for "The Ancient Magus' Bride" Season 2 Part 2 have been released, and one thing they get across is that Chise's classmate Philomela Sargant is going to feature in the main plot of the second cour. Philomela has a tragic backstory even by anime standards. Her father Adam died after a family feud that began when he fell in love with a slave purchased by his mother, Lizbeth Sargant, and started a new life. It was only after they had Philomela that Lizbeth took her revenge — she had always intended to kidnap the child and force Adam to re-join the family through blackmail. Unable to face an existence with his cruel family, Adam took his own life, leaving his daughter with his villainous mother.
One trailer that clocked in at almost two minutes put the spotlight firmly on Philomela, giving us glimpses at her childhood and her anguish over how her life panned out. It's clear that Chise is going to go all out to help her classmate: In the final moments of the trailer, she says, "Lots of people told me I'm free. How do I help her like they helped me?" In another trailer for Season 2 Part 2 shared by Crunchyroll just a few weeks before the show's planned return, Philomela can he seen in considerable distress as her grandmother towers over her looking more than evil than ever. This trailer also sets the scene for the cour as a whole, confirming that the College is sealed and that Fabio is being utilized as a teacher.
Is there a new opening for The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2?
In August 2023, the website of "The Ancient Magus' Bride" confirmed that there would be a new opening for Season 2 Part 2 by previewing it in a new trailer. The song is called "Nemurasareta Lineage (A Quieted Lineage)," and it's performed by JUNNA. That's a name that will no doubt be familiar to fans of "The Ancient Magus' Bride," because she also did the opening song "Dear" from Season 2 Part 1 as well as "Here" from the first season. "It was a challenging song for me because I had to change my singing approach," JUNNA said of "Here" during an interview with JRock News. "I tried to be the main character, Chise, and channel the feelings of loneliness she experienced at the beginning of the show, without family or anyone around her."
JUNNA was just 15 years old when she was cast as Mikumo Guynemer, the singer of the fictional band Walküre in "Macross Delta." Prior to landing this door-opening role, she wasn't an anime fan. "I didn't watch anime," she admitted to JRock News. "If it weren't for the opportunity to audition for the role of Mikumo, maybe, I would never have known about anime. So it was quite a blessing." She's become a force in the anime music industry in the years since, and she remains popular with fans of "The Ancient Magus' Bride," as the comments section under the preview trailer prove beyond doubt. "I'm super looking forward to the return and the opening looks like it will be wonderful JUNNA never misses," wrote YouTuber @riquelmetavares1874.
The ending song for Season 2 Part 2, a ballad called "fam," was previewed in a later trailer. It's by an up-and-coming artist called Yuyu, a newbie to anime theme songs. She's described herself as a "low-temperature singer," according to Anime News Network.
Who is directing The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2?
Both parts of "The Ancient Magus' Bride" Season 2 are directed by Kazuaki Terasawa, who previously helmed "The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Boy from the West and the Knight of the Blue Storm." Prior to taking the lead on this project, Terasawa was best known for his work on the "Overlord" anime, directing five episodes across the second and third seasons of the show. Speaking to Anime Herald just after the Season 2 premiere, he revealed that he set out to make the second season of "The Ancient Magus' Bride" an experience that would appeal largely to adults by using a "color grading similar to foreign dramas."
"The colors don't pop out with large variations," Terasawa, who was speaking as part of a panel at Anime Expo 2023, added. "Instead, we use a subtler palette that creates the same kind of ambiance we see in foreign dramas. For 'The Ancient Magus' Bride' I went for that kind of palette that is more likely to be comfortable for adults than young kids." We've already seen this in practice during the first part of Season 2, and, from what we know about the College Arc (which ran between 2018 and 2023, when the manga went on hiatus), there's a lot of drama still to come in Part 2.
Which studio is making The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2?
"The Ancient Magus' Bride" Season 2 Part 2 comes from the studio that made Season 2 Part 1: Studio Kafka. This independent studio (which took over from the far larger and more successful Wit Studio) is run by Season 2 director Kazuaki Terasawa alongside producer Koichi Naruse and Takahiko Abiru, an award-winning animator who has plied his trade on some of the best anime movies ever made, including Satoshi Kon's "Paprika" and Mamoru Hosoda's "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time."
Kafka was founded for the sole purpose of tackling the second season of "The Ancient Magus' Bride," as Naruse explained during an interview with Crunchyroll. "I wanted to create a studio that was dedicated to it," the producer said. "I've always wanted to have my own production company, so the timing was perfect. When I first started working in this field, I had such a great time working on a project with Mr. Abiru and Mr. Terasawa. I had always wanted to create something with them again, so I asked them if they would join me."
The three of them got to work on the project, bringing new people in along the way. However, creating high quality anime when you're a relatively small fish is never easy. "There's been an increase in the number of talented people at Studio Kafka, but it's not enough," Kazuaki Terasawa told Anime Herald. "It's never enough." The director went on to reveal how pleased he was that they managed to get Kohei Tokuoka ("Sword Art Online") on board as chief animation director and character designer for "The Ancient Magus' Bride" Season 2, calling him "super talented."
Where to watch The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 1
If you want to watch the first part of "The Ancient Magus' Bride" Season 2 before the second cour hits Crunchyroll, that's exactly where you should head. The anime streamer has the first 12 episodes of Season 2, as well as the first season in full and the three-part OVAs "The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Boy from the West and the Knight of the Blue Storm" and "The Ancient Magus' Bride: Those Awaiting a Star." If you want to watch the first part of Season 2 (which is available with dubs in English, French, Italian, German, Russian, and Hindi, as well as Latin American Spanish and Portuguese), you'll need one of the premium memberships.
Crunchyroll's premium packages are split into three tiers: Fan, Mega Fan, and Ultimate Fan. They cost $7.99, $9.99, and $14.99 a month, respectively. All three offer an ad-free experience, but the additional perks get better the more you pay: The Mega Fan tier lets you stream on up to four devices while Ultimate Fan allows six, for example. The top tier also comes with "an annual Ultimate Fan member swag bag, member-only access to the purchase of exclusive merch, and a special benefit for the Crunchyroll Store that provides $25 off a purchase of $100 every three months," the website states.