Bryce's Blog

I hope everyone is doing well, regardless of if you need to deal with
the daily grind or have other pressing matters.

Aside from a brief
moment of stress, things have been going fairly well here, as I can
still do what I like.

Somewhat recently, I
have been looking around at the titles I follow and have managed to
secure a few of them, one of which has arrived recently, which means
it is time to to get off my butt.

Today, I will be
reviewing the title I got, which is called The
Ancient Magus’ Bride Volume 17 by Kore Yamazaki.

As I have given a
series synopsis in an earlier
post, I will not go over it again.

With the cause of
the students’ affliction being revealed and a student having gone
rogue, things have taken a turn for the worse, as the staff of the
college prepare to end a student’s life to save everyone else.

However, Chisé and
the others are determined to save their friend, even though the
adults have a point, and must now take many gambles to see if they
can achieve their goal.

While the previous
volume was enjoyable, that does not mean that things will
continue to be as good as they have been, which means I need to keep
on my toes.

And after reading
this, I must say that I liked it.

From the moment I
opened up this book and started reading the first few pages, I found
myself engrossed enough that I did not want to stop for any reason.

While there are many
ways to create this good of a hook, depending on the kind of work and
the medium used present it, this series, like many other manga, is
published in a serial publication, which means that things need to
pick up in a way that makes sense, based upon what happened in the
last installment.

In the previous
volume, Chisé said she was able to detect the tome that was being
sought and they rushed to find it, with the final panels revealing
that the attacker was Philomela, who asked the vice chancellor for
permission to leave.

In this volume,
while there is a bit of a moment that does not make too much sense,
it eventually gets back to Chisé pursuit and the vice chancellor
meeting with the corrupted Philomela, which finally rang some bells
in my head of what had happened last time.

Even though I kind
of wish this volume had started off with the pursuit and the
confrontation, due to the release schedule for thesee. volumes, it
still managed to accomplish what a beginning should accomplish, as
its purpose is to draw the audience into the world, thereby giving
them the temporary escape that they desire, by creating some basic
questions to create the intrigue.

If things had
started off in a worse manner, I would have been extremely
disappointed, as this series has so far only had one
volume with a beginning that I could truly complain about, and it
would have really shown that this series has taken a turn for the
worst.

Fortunately, Kore
Yamazaki and everyone else helping her put out the best possible work
decided to start things off in a decent way, which makes me feel like
giving Kore Yamazaki and Mag Garden, or whoever compiled this volume
for them, a passing grade.

Hopefully, future
volumes will be able to start off just as well as this one did,
though I really hope to see improvement here, as that will help
maintain the current readership and possibly gain new readers to, but
seeing as this is a product created by humans, I would not be
surprised if things became worse.

I also liked how we
learned more about Philomela’s parents and the person that is
likely the enemy of this arc.

For much of this
arc, Philomela has shown a low sense of self worth, even though
everyone has been trying to be friendly to her, saying that she does
not deserve happiness, likely from being told by Elizabeth that she
is useless.

Later on, Philomela
shows up saying she wants to bring her parents back from the dead,
before questioning why she wants to revive them.

While this volume
does not explicitly answer that question, since it is highly possible
that Elizabeth is the one that wants to bring them back, it does
reveal that Philomela is actually the woman’s granddaughter and
that her parents ran from Elizabeth to become free from the family
tradition, even though Philomela’s father was Elizabeth’s only
child.

Seeing what
Philomela’s father had to go through and his determination to fight
against his mother and how Philomela’s mother also put her life on
the line to get Philomela out safely, I have no doubt that Elizabeth
had been mistreating her granddaughter and was also responsible for
Lucy’s dark moment of history.

With all these
revelations in this volume that set up a confrontation with
Elizabeth, it makes me anxious to find out exactly how things will
play out in the next volume, which is supposed to come out in July,
according to the product
page on Amazon.

If these things had
not been revealed in this volume, I think I would have been fine with
it, since it was already obvious that Elizabeth had treating
Philomela poorly and we have seen her order werewolves to kill off a
family, while holding leverage over the werewolves, but I don’t
think I would be as excited to see her eventual downfall as I am.

Thankfully, these
moments were included in this volume, which makes me feel like giving
Kore Yamazaki and Mag Garden, or whoever they had put this volume
together, a good round of applause for creating a character to really
hate.

Hopefully, there
will be more moments like this as the series progresses, as readers
want to be excited for the conclusion of each arc, but considering
that there are other factors that come into play in making a great
build up to the final moment and that there are flaws in things
people create, I would not be surprised if an arc comes in which I do
not feel that invested.

Another thing that I
really liked was how the vice chancellor chastised Chisé for her
recklessness.

For much of the
series, Chisé has been jumping into things without thinking and had
somehow pulled through, but she was not always lucky enough to come
out unscathed, like the vice chancellor points out, while explaining
why the chancellor was attempting to attack to kill, and says that
she will not be able to salvage the situation by jumping into danger
recklessly.

Even though there
are times in which reckless behavior is the best course of action,
real life is not the same as a video game, where you get multiple
chances to do something without any real consequences, so if you
fail, you typically die in the kind of situations Chisé has been in.

While Chisé does
admit that the vice chancellor is right, which shows that she is
learning from her mistakes, I still think she needs to hear it
because, like many other manga and anime protagonists, is still way
too rash, when she is supposed to have some ability to think,
considering that she did know to run and to engage with an entity
earlier in the series.

If Chisé had not be
chastised like this, I would be a little disappointed, as adults are
supposed to be a little more rational than teenagers, though they are
not really that different, and are supposed to impart their knowledge
and wisdom to the youth, but not chastising Chisé would have likely
kept her from growing and learning, to be able to determine when it
is right to act rash and when you need to remain cautious.

Fortunately, Kore
Yamazaki remembered that the staff at the college were adults and had
them legitimately chastised Chisé, which helps keep things feeling a
little more realistic and makes me want to give Kore Yamazaki another
passing grade.

Hopefully, this will
lead Chisé to be more considerate of her actions, as readers do like
to see the protagonist grow on their journey, but seeing as Chisé is
still a teenager, I would not be surprised if she takes longer to
actually learn from mistakes and not just acknowledge them.

The think that I
liked was how things ended.

As I have said
countless times before, aside from the beginning, another important
part in a work of fiction is how things end because the ending is
supposed either leave the audience feeling satisfied, if it is a
standalone work or the final installment in a series, or craving
more, if it another installment in a series.

While I am not
completely satisfied with the ending, seeing as it was a rather
predictable turn of events, with everything Philomela went through
and the only surprise being that Elizabeth, who has been mistreating
her, is her grandmother, it did its job well that it made me wonder
if Ainsworth is going to rescue Chisé enough that I wish I could
preorder the next volume right now, even though I need to wait
awhile, since the next volume is only available for preorder in
print.

If things had not
ended like this, there is a chance that things could have ended
better, but it is also likely that things could have been much worse,
seeing as it can be difficult to determine which chapter should
conclude a volume with serial publications, which would end up losing
more readership.

Thankfully, things
ended on a good note, even if it was predictable, which makes me feel
like giving Kore Yamazaki another passing grade.

Hopefully, future
volumes will be able to end just as well as this one did, though I am
actually wishing for endings to be improved, because a good
predictable ending is vastly better than a terrible ending and will
help keep people coming back for more.

Outside of those
things, I cannot think of anything else that I particularly liked, at
least that could either stand out as much as what has been mentioned
or could not be shoe horned in.

Because the
beginning did a decent enough job, there was a bit of a surprising
revelation among the details concerning Philomela’s parents and
Elizabeth, Chisé was chastised for her recklessness, and the ending,
while predictable, did its job well enough, this was an okay read.

Although there were
things that I liked, there are some issues.

However, aside from
things that are too minor to talk about, such as typos and one
incident that would have broken character if it did not happen, only
thing really bothered me, which is the continued readability issue
with these releases.

Now, some of you
guys might be sighing, thinking that I had completely given up on
talking about this problem, since I have so far only linked back to
the last time I made a big deal of it, but I cannot really ignore
here this time.

While most pages are
practically readable, Seven Seas has so far not even touched on
making sure that people who buy their titles digitally are able to
read everything, so that people like me, who have limited space, can
enjoy their manga just as much as those that prefer to buy the print
edition.

Yes, most of the
time these issues are found in pages that are mostly inconsequential,
outside of relationship dynamics and such, but here, there is a bit
of action going on, in which Chisé gets help from a goddess to take
care of some people that stand in the way and I cannot really enjoy
that small amount of action because I cannot read any of the bubbles
on the page that is clearly a double page spread.

Seriously, Seven
Seas. I have complained about making a double page spread a single
image before and you have yet to fix it? This is not the sign of a
quality product and you guys should ashamed.

A double page spread
should be as large as possible if it is a single image, otherwise it
is best to make them separate images, because double page spread are
typically big moments that need more space than a single can fit,
such as action scenes like the one found in this volume and we, as
the audience should be able to read through them.

Back in my review of
the 14^th
volume, I had said that it had been happening for three volumes
in a row, but it still has not been fixed.

At this point, I am
considering dropping this series because Seven Seas cannot put out a
decent digital release for the life of them, even though I really
want to keep following Chisé’s adventures and see if she will
eventually become both strong and wise.

The content may be
important, but a reader cannot enjoy the content if they cannot read
it and Seven Seas only seems to be doing a great job in this
department with A Certain Scientific Railgun and
its spin offs.

If Seven Seas can
finally produce a quality digital release for this series, then I
would be able to continue supporting more of their work, but, as it
stands right now, I get the feeling that they do not care about
anything but the print releases.

Thankfully, this was
the only thing that really bugged me, which means that I can let Kore
Yamazaki and Mag Garden, or whoever they had put this volume
together, go with the knowledge that they were able to put out a good
enough work.

While there was only
one thing to complain about, the fact that it has been so consistent
and even hurt a moment that was supposed to be exciting and helped to
make Chisé’s feelings towards the scene feel believable ends up
doing quite a bit of damage.

Despite the fact
that an issue that has been repeatedly present in the digital
releases has done more damage than it typically has, this volume was
worth reading.

I mainly recommend
this to fans of The Ancient Magus’ Bride, as they will like
this the most, though I would strongly urge people to get the print
release.

As for everyone
else, this might be worth giving a try if you can find it in print,
but because I expect the current arc to conclude soon, it might be
better to read the earlier volumes first.

If you liked this
review and would like to see more, please considering supporting me
on either Patreon
or SubscribeStar,
or if you would like to check out the reviewed title, buy
a copy of The Ancient Magus’ Bride Volume 17 from Book
Depository, who offers free shipping to many countries around the
world, so that I can find more worth while reads for you guys to
check out, even if I do decide to ditch this series.