The Ancient Magus’ Bride – S2 20 – Remember Today

The first years of Philomela Sargeant’s life were happy, fun, and full of love in the care of her parents Adam and Iris. Those years were also relatively normal by this show’s standards—but for the presence of the artificial fairy Alcyone, whom Adam created.

While her primary function is to protect Philomela at all costs, she turns out not to be like most artificial fairies, in that she has the capacity to grow and learn through failure and success like humans. That’s approrpriate, as Adam tells her he fled an inhuman place.

Iris was the daughter of a wealthy family brought low that sold her to the Sageants. Lizbeth had her presented to her son Adam so he could basically practice and experiment on her. When ordered to do so, Adam obeyed with the same blank look and defeated tone as the Philomela we know.

Iris wishes they could take photos of a family life she feels is passing by far too fast, which turns out to be quite prescient. But they can’t, as they’re on the run from the Sargeants. Iris also confides in Alcyone that as the child of someone who sold their own kid, she doesn’t know if she’ll prioritize Philomela if (i.e. when) something happens.

Alcyone puts her hand tenderly on Iris’ head, having sensed that that is what she needed. In this way Alcyone truly proved she’s more than the sum of her artificial parts.

As we know, this idyllic family situation was never going to end well, and now we know just how it ended. Agents sent by Lizbeth confront Adam while he’s out and open fire at Iris. Adam realizes the only reason his mother left them alone was to wait for Philomela to grow old enough to be used as a hostage.

Thanks to a hex they both took when Iris was still Adam’s captive, any attack on them has the same effect on the attacker. Adam, who under no circumstances is going back to the Sargeant Mansion, takes his own life. Iris is riddled with bullets, but manages to buy time for Alcyone to flee with Philomela.

With her parents killed, suddenly Alcyone is Philomela’s only guardian who actually cares about her. But she too is taken down by Lizbeth’s henchmen. Alcyone is either reprogrammed or simply brought to heel by Lizbeth, and we all know what happens to Philomela from here.

That brings us to the present, with a crumbling Alcyone cradling an even more badly-crumbling Philomela in her arms, wishing she could have done something to protect her. It really is a cruel tragedy.

Lizbeth is a curse that claimed Philomela’s parents, is now on the cusp of claiming her own life, and Lizbeth doesn’t even care about her. If there’s justice in the world of this show, she’ll pay for that at some point.

As Philomela and Alcyone deteriorate, Chise finds herself face to face with the Winter Goddess, saying she’s there to claim the “golden branch”, or “fruit of the maiden” promised to him by Elias when they crossed paths with her daughter (whom I mistook as Titania’s daughter back in episode 18—oopsie!).

Elias is deferent and apologetic to the goddess, telling her to give him a little more time as Chise is still young and providing “the sacrifice” to her there and now would be “difficult.” But when Lizbeth’s henchmen surround them, the goddess agrees to help as long she gets the golden branch. Chise serves as a medium to summon the goddess, whose name is Morrigan, who seems eager for a fight with whomever.

Morrigan covers Chise and Elias’ retreat, and once they’re safe in the woods Elias ejects the others from within him. Isaac makes sure everyone understands their priorities as they rush towards the mansion. He and Chise will rescue Philomela (with Elias supervising). Lucy is determined to get answers from the people who killed her family; Zoe wants to protect Lucy …and everyone else. Fabio … will hopefully prove useful at some point.

When they run into the werewolf (whose goofy character design is doing it no favors in the intimidation department) in the woods, Zoe stays behind and goes into Medusa Mode to deal with her while the others continue on. The lore and mythology may be dense, but the stakes and objectives are clear. Let’s save Philomela, ya’ll!

The Dangers in My Heart – 07 – All I See Is You

I have no doubt that if Ichikawa took Yamada aside and asked her out, she’d accept on the spot. Unfortunately, Ichikawa doesn’t know this, so he looks her up on Google instead, and learns she’s on a TV show every Tuesday evening. He just misses the week’s broadcast, but will surely try to catch the next one.

Ichikawa accepts that he likes Yamada, but doesn’t believe it can or should go any further than that. He thinks things are the same, and need to stay the same between them, even though they aren’t, they don’t. Yamada not only finds another gear so she can run beside him, but makes a big show of reversing her backwards t-shirt, flashing both midriff and cleavage to him.

When this sight slows his pace, he’s still running hard out of a man’s pride, and ends up revealing his right eye to her for the first time, something she gets a kick out of. When the running time is over, she still reaches out for his hand so he can pull her up, and makes it a point to playfully slam into him.

Sure, it’s all circumstantial evidence, and she could be simply teasing him. But we know Yamada isn’t that kind of girl. She likes him, plain and simple. We know it, and now Hara seems to know it too, judging from the little look they share. If he doubts it, all he needs to do is ask.

Somewhere along the way, Ichikawa and Yamada accidentally swapped gym shirts bearing their names. Ichikawa goes to the board for Adachi and answers a math question incorrectly just so that Adachi won’t see his name on Yamada’s chest. When he gestures at his chest to Yamada, she simply stares lovingly back at him.

After lunch Yamada beckons him to join her in the nurse’s office where they switch back, but not before she smells his shirt. Not only do we not know when she realized she had his shirt, we’re not even sure she didn’t take it on purpose! She uses their time alone to measure their height; for the record, she’s 5’7″, while he’s … shorter! He also catches a glimpse of her weight, but makes it clear he doesn’t care either way.

The next morning Ichikawa enters a classroom all atwitter about the news Yamada is going to be in a movie—and not just some indie art film, either; a wide-release picture with a lead and director Ichikawa knows. But while everyone around her is excited, he notes that she looks forlorn, assuming that she feels bad for all the plebs she’s leaving in the dust as she ascends to stardom.

When their teacher enters and announces that everyone will be moving desks based on random drawings, Ichikawa prays with all his might that he be seated beside Yamada. He comes close: Yamada is just one row ahead of him in the colemn to the right of him. But this presents a problem: her massive frame blocks most of the blackboard from his view.

Adachi is next to Yamada, and when he pretends to not have his textbook so Yamada will share with him, Ichikawa shuts it down by pulling Adachi’s book out of his desk. But when Ichikawa’s desk neighbor Hara sees that he can’t see the board, she pushes her desk beside his so she can share her notes with him. This pisses Yamada off.

Even during a break she doesn’t join her friends, instead staying put and pouting, talking about all of Hara’s positive qualities. In response, Ichikawa tells Yamada, simply, “You know, during class, all I see is you.” It’s an incredibly romantic line, delivered without any romantic intent, but it doesn’t matter. The line is an arrow straight through Yamada’s heart, and just like that she’s not upset about him getting along with Hara anymore.

Yamada ends up back with Hara while Ichikawa end up at the front with Adachi, which isn’t ideal but could have been worse. While hanging out with her in the library, Ichikawa finally broaches the subject of the movie she’s going to be in, and she suddenly brightens up and tells him all about it. She’s playing the daughter of a cop and only has one line: “You’re such a creep.”

This line is obviously triggering for him, as it’s very similar to what Yamada and her friends say behind his back in his head. For Yamada, he’ll let her say it as many times to him as she needs in order to practice. That said, her calling him a creep repeatedly while he compliments her delivery attracts unwanted attention, so they relocate.

The place they relocate to is almost absurdly intimate, as there’s so little space that Yamada has to sit on a desk with her legs spread on either side of a standing Ichikawa. He asks when the film is coming out, and she estimates in about two years. This gets him thinking about where they’ll be in two years, worrying about a future before he even gets his present in order.

She asks if he’ll go see it, and at first he demurs, but then promises he’ll see it if he can see it. This makes Yamada so happy, she ends the rehearsal session right then and there. She can’t continue anyway, because she can’t call the boy she likes a creep anymore. Will all of these adorable reactions of hers help Ichikawa creep closer to accepting that she likes him as much if not more than he likes her? Maybe not immediately, but progress is definitely being made.

Next Tuesday night he learns she doesn’t even have a speaking line on the TV show she’s in. He’s relieved because it means she’s not so famous as to be completely out of reach. But he also feels bad for feeling relieved, until he finds out she’s content just to have screen time. She’s not out of reach at all.