The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I” reveals that Chise and her school friends have some nice slice of life fun at the College. They rather need it after all the dark fantasy action of the previous episode. It’s also to prepare them for the dark fantasy storm that lies just ahead.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I”: Details

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I” is the latest episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, and Ep. 10 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, and said season 2 is so far their only anime.

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. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. 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, Koki Uchiyama (Austin Tindle in English dub) as Ruth, Minami Tsuda (Sarah Roach in English dub) as Lucy Webster, and Maki Kawase as Philomela Sergeant. Other notable voices for this episode include Aya Endō (Rachel Glass in English dub) as Silky/Silver Lady, Seiichiro Yamashita (Ricco Fajardo in English dub) as Rian Scrimgeour, Daiki Kobayashi as Zoe Ivy, and Maaya Sakamoto (Jamie Marchi in English dub) as Mariel.

Where to Watch

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I” premiered on June 15, 2023. You can watch this episode and all previous episodes of season 2 (as well as season 1) only on Crunchyroll for now.

Warning: spoilers for The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I” below. If you want to watch Chise and co. stumble into a greater conspiracy, then stop here and come back once you’ve watched the events unfold like a slowly opening corpse flower, filling the air with a horrific stench.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I”: Plot Summary

The Ancient Magus' Bride season 2 Ep. 11 "A small leak will sink a great ship. I" screenshot depicting Mariel attempting to see where Lucy's magic is going.
Why do I get the feeling Lucy falling into comas is going to be a recurring event?

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I” picks up right where we left off from the previous episode. Lucy has collapsed once more due to that stolen magic book continuing to drain her magic. Mariel and Elias cannot track where her magic is going, so the only option is to try to catch the perpetrator red-handed. Needless to say, that will be a tall order entirely dependent on things outside everyone’s control.

In the meantime, Chise carries on with her daily life at the College. She grows closer to Philomela through fragrant, calming potpourri (which Philomela looks like she badly needs), and even gets to take a class about Nordic runes and how they can be used for magic. Chise is especially fascinated by the Thurisaz rune because it reminded her of Elias. Chekhov’s smoking gun here, perhaps?

During that rune class, Zoe asks Chise about Lucy’s condition. This results in Zoe paying a hospital visit to Lucy, who is a bit prickly about it but appreciates it nonetheless. She even asks to pet Zoe’s head snakes, not realizing or possibly not caring that it’s a very intimate act for Gorgons. Mayhaps this is a budding romance between them? We’ll just have to see.

More Slice of Life Fun…Until It’s Not

The Ancient Magus' Bride season 2 Ep. 11 "A small leak will sink a great ship. I" screenshot depicting Philomela looking very surprised.
Don’t worry. She’s just shocked at the kindess Chise is showing her.

After Chise briefly returned home to inform Silky that she will be living at the College for a while to take care of Lucy (to Silky’s shock and horror that she won’t be seeing Chise for a while), Chise then works together with the centaur to fulfill her bargain with the Not-Hounds of Tindalos. He manages to procure the promised sheep carcasses for her to deliver to them, but then admonishes her for making such a risky deal in the first place and warns her against doing that again in the future. You know, because making deals with eldritch abominations may be a bad idea?

When Chise returns to the College, it turns out to be right in time for Halloween. Unfortunately, Chise ends up spending Halloween working with Zoe to keep Lucy from making her condition worse by trying to go to the work Lucy promised to do at the Waste Tower. This results in Chise and Zoe volunteering to go to that job in Lucy’s place, with Rian and Isaac tagging along to help out. When they arrive at the Waste Tower, they encounter Philomela with the teacher (Fabio), who’s supposed to be their guide. Philomela though warns Chise not to trust Fabio, and as it turns out, it’s for good reason.

Fabio is not actually the teacher. The real teacher is actually talking with Lucy and is surprised to learn that Chise and her friends have headed to the Waste Tower without her. Even worse, in the principal’s office, President Liza is surprised to learn that Philomela’s grandmother is withdrawing Philomela from the College. What does this all mean? Well, that’s what we’ll find out in the next episode of The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I”: The Good

The Ancient Magus' Bride season 2 Ep. 11 "A small leak will sink a great ship. I" screenshot depicting Silky giving Chise some final headpats before Chise goes to live at the College for a while.
The headpats before the storm.

I’m personally loving the balance between the main genres in The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I”. On one hand, you have a cute slice of life and school antics once more. They’re a rather welcome relief from the tension of the previous episode. Dark fantasy action is nice, but we do need a breather from that on a regular basis, or else it becomes too much.

That said, the dark fantasy action looks like it’s about to make a return. We’re already getting dark fantasy drama in the form of the fake teacher and his machinations. The preview for the next episode makes it even more clear that said next episode is going to be just as action-packed as the last. Really, it’s this balance between the genres that’s great about this anime. Like how dark chocolate is best with the right amount of sugar in it.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I”: The Bad

The Ancient Magus' Bride season 2 Ep. 11 "A small leak will sink a great ship. I" screenshot depicting Elias standing against a black background with wisps of red smoke in front of him.
It’s amazing that Elias can ever look silly when you remember that he has a skull for a head.

Not much I can criticize about The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 2 Ep. 11 “A small leak will sink a great ship. I”. It’s the perfect blend of slice-of-life fun and dark fantasy drama, with promises of dark fantasy action right in the next episode. If you don’t like any of that, this is probably not the anime for you.

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