After the supernatural drama of the previous episode, The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.” feels like a nice break from that. Especially since Chise gets to invite a friend over for a nice relaxing sleepover. Complete with them discussing their mutual love woes.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.”: Details

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.” is the latest episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, and Ep. 5 here) of season 2 of this dark urban fantasy supernatural mystery horror 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 for The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2. Meanwhile, “Mubansou” by edda is the ending theme music for the same.

Voice Cast

'The Ancient Magus' Bride season 2' NA key visual.
Hint: the girl Chise invites to her sleepover isn’t one of these girls.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.” 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 Aya Endō (Rachel Glass in English dub) as Silky/Silver Lady, Mutsumi Tamura (Jennifer Green in English dub) as Alice Swayne, and Satoshi Hino (Jarrod Greene in English dub) as Mikhail Renfred.

Where to Watch

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.” premiered on May 11, 2023. You can watch this episode and all previous episodes of season 2 only on Crunchyroll for now. We’ll let you know when any other streaming service finally gets to stream this season of the anime.

Warning: spoilers for The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.” below. If you want to watch Chise having a sleepover with her first BFF, then stop here, and come back once you too get to hang out with Chise and co. and their sleepover.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.”: Plot Summary

'The Ancient Magus' Bride season 2' Ep. 6 "Better bend than break." screenshot depicting a chibi Alice enjoying dinner with chibi Chise and chibi Elias.
I live for the fun slice of life episodes just as much as I do for the dramatic ones. This is why.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.” doesn’t quite pick up where we last left off in the previous episode. It doesn’t continue the story of the St. Georges twins for one thing. Instead, Chise finally asks Elias the all-important question: why did he propose to her in the first place? Unfortunately, class starts before she can get an answer, and so she leaves it for another time.

Elias can’t stop thinking about her question though, especially since he has no idea how to answer. Thus, he goes to Renfred for help, assuming that he too wants to marry Alice. He vehemently denies this though, thinking of Alice as a daughter only. Unfortunately, it’s not the kind of answer Alice wanted to hear from him as she accidentally eavesdropped on him, and so she in turn goes to Chise for advice. Chise decides that the best thing they can do is to hang out. Thus, they agree to something neither had ever done before with friends: a sleepover. Specifically: at Chise’s house.

Chise and Her First Sleepover

'The Ancient Magus' Bride season 2' Ep. 6 "Better bend than break." screenshot depicting Silky enjoying watching Alice enjoy her cooking, with Elias looming next to her.
Even Silky is enjoying herself at this sleepover.

After finishing a lovely dinner Silky prepared, Chise and Alice get to the serious business of actually trying to sleep at their sleepover. Inevitably though, neither of them can sleep, for they have some serious chitchatting to do. They inevitably end up discussing their various love woes. Alice talks about how she’s disappointed in Renfred seeing her as her daughter, as well as discussing their first encounter with Joseph/Cartaphilus that resulted in her fateful meeting with Chise and Elias in the first place. The implication here seems to be that Alice wants Renfred to see her as a woman, with Alice also feeling guilty for not being able to protect Renfred and wanting to become stronger. After reassurances and discussions about what to do about that with Chise, Ruth, and Will-o-the-Wisp; Alice goes back to sleep more or less satisfied.

Chise still can’t sleep though, and so climbs onto the roof to have a chat with Elias. When asked for his answer to Chise’s earlier question, Elias admits that he wanted Chise as a spouse because he thought it would be more convenient than just having an apprentice. It’s exactly as Chise anticipated, but it somehow becomes heartwarming when Elias admits that it’s because he doesn’t want Chise to leave. Chise ends up being as touched by that as we are, and the 2 of them share a nice moonlit night together.

Later, back at the College, Alice has her own heart-to-heart with Renfred. The result is Renfred still believes that he needs to protect Alice, but he does show a desire to see Alice grow into the person she wants to be. Maybe she’ll even grow powerful enough to protect Renfred from whatever dark deeds are happening at the College. Perhaps we shall see it in the next episode of The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.”: The Good

'The Ancient Magus' Bride season 2' Ep. 6 "Better bend than break." screenshot depicting Chise smiling at Elias' awkward but heartwarming words.
A smiling Chise is always a good thing.

Personally, I’m just as big a fan of the cute and funny slice-of-life moments in this anime as I am of the dark fantasy horror and drama. That’s why I’m also a fan of The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.”. It’s these quiet episodes that allow for good character interactions and development. After all, a story with nothing but combat and drama all the time just gets boring really quickly.

It’s also great to see Alice get some character development for once. Instead of just being the tomboy all the time, we see a different side to her in this episode. It’s seeing her insecure side that makes her a lot more fleshed out as a character. That, and seeing her relationship with Renfred finally get some development too. It’s a bit hard to tell yet whether Alice loves Renfred in the romantic sense at the moment, but you can definitely see hints of it. All in all, it will be very interesting to see what comes of Alice and Renfred’s relationship in the future. Not to mention seeing just exactly how Alice will get stronger too.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.”: The Bad

'The Ancient Magus' Bride season 2' Ep. 6 "Better bend than break." screenshot depicting Alice's flashback to when Joseph/Cartaphilus showed up.
While it’s nice to see long-haired Alice again, the circumstances though…

If you just want action and drama all the time, then The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 6 “Better bend than break.” is probably not for you. If you like character development and slice-of-life moments though, then this is the episode for you. Best enjoy it while you can. The ending of this episode seems to imply that we’ll be getting some dark fantasy action very soon.

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