The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I” finally gives Chise a grand day out with her school friends, with it being a grand day in too. Complete with indoor rock climbing, camping, and some bonding time with her new friends and classmates. It’s a nice relaxing slice-of-life episode overall, with only a hint of the drama and dark fantasy horror happening right at the end.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I”: Details

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I” is the latest episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, and Ep. 6 here) of season 2 of this dark urban fantasy supern1atural 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 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I” 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 Minami Tsuda (Sarah Roach in English dub) as Lucy Webster, Seiichiro Yamashita (Ricco Fajardo in English dub) as Rian Scrimgeour, Maki Kawase as Philomela Sergeant, Daiki Kobayashi as Zoe Ivy, and Mutsumi Tamura (Jennifer Green in English dub) as Alice Swayne.

Where to Watch

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I” premiered on May 18, 2023. You can watch this episode and all previous episodes of season 2 only on Crunchyroll for now. We at THS 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. 7 “Slow and sure. I” below. If you want to watch Chise’s grand day out for yourself, then stop here and come back once you too have recovered from falling off a climbing wall.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I”: Plot Summary

'The Ancient Magus' Bride' season 2 Ep. 7 "Slow and sure. I" screenshot depicting a happy Chise at an indoor rock-climbing class.
Some happy new school memories for Chise, as well as some great background comedy.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I” doesn’t quite pick up where we last left off. Instead, there’s a brief flashback to Rian’s childhood. That flashback also reveals that Rian is actually childhood friends with Philomela. Little Philomela was also a much happier person than in the present day. The contrast is all the more apparent during PE class, when Chise and her classmates are practicing indoor rock climbing. Philomela is very much noticeably more meek, depressed, and sleep-deprived in the present day.

It doesn’t help that Philomela’s…mistress(?) Veronica wants her to befriend Chise. Why? Unfortunately, we don’t know, and neither does Philomela, which causes her much anxiety and distress. Both only further increase when Philomela is very abruptly summoned back to her family home. There, it’s revealed that not only is her mother apparently using her to advance in rank, but her grandmother is horribly abusive towards her, basically beating her on a whim. It makes the mysterious job she gives Philomela all the more ominous. The only silver lining here is that her family’s familiar spirit Alcyone seems sympathetic to Philomela and even helps her try to figure out how Chise and Ruth detected her 2 episodes ago, but that’s it.

Chise and the Great Outdoors

'The Ancient Magus' Bride' season 2 Ep. 7 "Slow and sure. I" screenshot depicting Chise smiling at Lucy with a small blush as they're camping outdoors.
It looks like Chise likes the outdoors, and Lucy as well.

Alice even gets a bit of a spotlight here, showing how hard she’s training at the College’s range with a revolver. She’s actually getting a pretty good shot group. Unfortunately, all that practice means that she’s using up a lot of ammo. She very quickly uses up all her allotted ammo, in fact. Thankfully, the slime PE teacher is there to help, especially after seeing just how hard Alice is working.

Afterward, Chise and her classmates get a field trip to Scotland. The goal? Trying to get the kids to learn how to survive in the wilderness. Despite how serious it sounds, it’s basically a fun camping trip for Chise and Co.. That is, until a mysterious purple-eyed creature shows up right at the end, staring right at Chise and Lucy. Why? Well, hopefully, we’ll find out in the next episode of The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I”: The Good

'The Ancient Magus' Bride' season 2 Ep. 7 "Slow and sure. I" screenshot depicting young Philomela smiling at a young Rian in a flashback.
A happy little Philomela makes the world a better place.

The slice-of-life school aspects of The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I” is the best part of the episode. I know it may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it appeals to me greatly. It’s very relaxing to watch and provides a nice contrast to the parts of the episode starring Philomela.

Speaking of which: those parts clearly show that The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I” isn’t all fun and games. The dark fantasy definitely gets dark when we see Philomela’s grandmother literally beat her with a cane, actually drawing blood in the process. It’s definitely way darker than that weird monster at the end. No matter how you look at it, you can tell Philomela is in a really bad domestic situation there. All we can hope for now is that Philomela gets plenty of fluff later to counter that abuse and trauma.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I”: The Bad

'The Ancient Magus' Bride' season 2 Ep. 7 "Slow and sure. I" screenshot depicting Philomela's very evil and abusive grandmother.
You can already tell just from her appearance that this is one evil old hag.

My one complaint about The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 7 “Slow and sure. I” has absolutely nothing to do with the anime. Rather, it’s a complaint due to me being a gun nut. When Alice was ejecting the spent cartridges of her revolver, you can see that there was no hole in the center of the cartridges’ rear. That’s where the primer is, and the action of firing the bullets should result in a hole or dimple in the primer, which there clearly isn’t. It’s more an animation oversight than anything else though. Your mileage definitely varies here, and it’s certainly not making me think any less of the anime.

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