The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.” gives us something that’s truly rare in the world of anime. In fact, not just anime, but in all of fiction in general. What is that rare something that’s so amazing that I feel the need to feature it in this review, you might ask? Well, when was the last time you ever saw any depiction of cute snakes in any media?

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.”: Details

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.” is the 5th episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, and Ep. 4 here) of this dark urban fantasy supernatural mystery anime series. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Kore Yamazaki (Frau Faust). Studio Kafka is still the animation studio behind season 2.

Kazuaki Terasawa remains the director behind The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 in general, with Naokado Fujiyama, Takeharu Sengoku, and Kyouhei Shinfuku producing. Terasawa is also the writer, with Junichi Matsumoto returning from season 1 to compose the music once more.

Speaking of music: JUNNA returns to sing “Dear” as the opening theme music. Meanwhile, “Mubansou” by edda is the ending theme music.

Voice Cast

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.” features the voices of Atsumi Tanezaki (Dani Chambers in English dub) as Chise Hatori, Ryōta Takeuchi (Brian Mathis in English dub) as Elias Ainsworth, and Koki Uchiyama (Austin Tindle in English dub) as Ruth. Other notable voices for this episode include Seiichiro Yamashita (Ricco Fajardo in English dub) as Rian Scrimgeour, Minami Tsuda (Sarah Roach in English dub) as Lucy Webster, Daiki Kobayashi as Zoe Ivy, and Maki Kawase as Philomela Sergeant.

Where to Watch

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.” premiered on May 4, 2023. You can watch this episode of this season of the anime and all previous season 2 episodes only on Crunchyroll.

Warning: spoilers for The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.” below. If you want to see the noodles for yourself, then stop here, and come back once you’ve petted the smooth and warm noodles for yourself.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.”: Plot Summary

'The Ancient Magus' Bride' Season 2 Ep. 5 "First Impressions Are The Most Lasting" thumbnail showing Chise being nommed by noodles.
Admit it: these are adorable noodles.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.” doesn’t actually quite pick up where we last left off in the previous episode. Instead, Chise enters her shared room with Lucy, only to find her in the middle of arguing with someone on the phone. Chise thus tries to be very quiet about entering the room, but that seems to annoy Lucy. Lucy isn’t being mean. She’s just really blunt about caring about people and insists to Chise just treat the room as hers too and ignore anything Lucy is doing/saying at the moment. Chise, as most people would, is unsure how to feel about those instructions.

Chise tries to find out more about Lucy from her classmate in an effort to get to know her better. That’s when she finds out about something called the “Webster Tragedy”, which few will talk about other than in the vaguest terms, and which Rian is determined to clamp down on for some reason. Unable to find anything more about Lucy, Chise then tries to befriend Zoe Ivy, and see why he seems to be giving her the cold shoulder. Zoe continues to be a cold shoulder to Chise, but Lucy reveals a kind but fierce heart by stealing his headphones in order to make Zoe talk to Chise.

Unfortunately, the headphones turn out to actually be earmuffs. It seems Zoe needed them to muffle his hypersensitive ears, and without them, he turns into a monstrous Gorgon form. Which he apparently didn’t want anyone to see, seeing how he races away from everyone. Chise and her classmates aren’t going to abandon him though, and thus, the chase is on.

Zoe the Friendly Gorgon?

'The Ancient Magus' Bride' Season 2 Ep. 5 "First Impressions Are The Most Lasting" screenshot depicting Zoe transformed into his Gorgon form.
Don’t judge people by their appearances. Or maybe do if they have noodles for hair.

Chise and her classmates, with help from Ruth’s powerful nose, pursue Zoe into a garden maze. There, they find him hiding in a random enclosure. After realizing that his snake hair is in fact made of cute and friendly noodles, they get him to reveal his backstory. As it turns out, he’s a half-Gorgon whose family sent him to the College to try and get him used to living among humans and to get him to make friends with said humans. Fortunately, Zoe now has friends in the form of Chise and their classmates, after he clarifies things with Chise and realizes that just because someone smells evil, it doesn’t mean that they are evil. Even Lucy apologizes for what she did, returns his earmuffs, and even makes friends with his noodles.

Unfortunately, Philomela semi-ruins the feels after Rian catches her eavesdropping on them. She states she has no desire to do anything with this info, but she also acknowledges that she literally can’t refuse if someone asks. Thus, Rian gets her and everyone else to sign a magical contract to not tell anyone about Zoe’s secret. Thus, all is well again…mostly. There’s a bit later where Rian scolds the Jasmine pair of twins for telling Chise about the Webster Tragedy, but Violet makes his twin sister feel better again afterward by insisting that they can just run away together if it gets too bad. Will they get to do it? Well, maybe we’ll find out in the next episode of The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.”: The Good

'The Ancient Magus' Bride' Season 2 Ep. 5 "First Impressions Are The Most Lasting" screenshot depicting Chise and Ruth booping noses.
Ruth is such a good boy.

Honestly, I’m loving this little mini-arc with Zoe Ivy in The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.”. Not only is it giving Zoe a rather compelling backstory, but it also expands on the worldbuilding of The Ancient Magus’ Bride. We finally get a glimpse into what the world outside Britain and Japan is like, and it seems that it’s just as much a dark urban fantasy story outside of those countries. Plus, it’s nice to see Gorgons make their appearance as a bit of a Greek mythology nerd.

Of course, how can I talk about what’s good about this episode without mentioning Zoe’s noodles? It’s so rare to see any depiction of cute snakes in any media. The only one I can recall at the moment is the manga/anime Black Butler by Yana Toboso. There might be more, but that’s the only one I can think of off the top of my head. Given that rarity, it’s so refreshing to see cute snakes affectionately chomping on Chise’s hair and nuzzling Lucy. It’s a very niche thing, I admit, but it’s good nonetheless.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.”: The Bad

'The Ancient Magus' Bride' Season 2 Ep. 5 "First Impressions Are The Most Lasting" screenshot depicting Philomela's terrified expression.
Man, Studio Kafka is really good at animating creepy facial expressions. Still with their trademark highly detailed eyes to boot.

Nothing I can criticize about The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 5 “First impressions are the most lasting.”. Even as a fan of the manga and anime, and thus heavily biased towards it, this is one of the most entertaining episodes of the anime so far. I’ve a strong feeling that it’s just going to keep getting better in the future. Don’t believe me? Then watch the previous episodes of this season, and find out for yourself.

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