12. "I was stripped naked, scrubbed, and proposed to." To treat a young teenage Japanese girl in this manner might constitute a sex crime in the United Kingdom.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this annotated supplement to The Ancient Magus' Bride. Even though it was written to educate Japanese people on the British and Irish mythology and folklore that makes up the world of the manga, as well as cultural customs in the UK that would be foreign to the reader, I think Western audiences can gain just as much from the supplement. I really enjoyed reading about what the kanji translates to in Japanese, and I didn't actually know much about British and Irish mythology. This was just a really thorough and exhaustive deep dive into the inspirations behind The Ancient Magus Bride.
Some of the points expanded on felt a bit tedious and overdone - like the practice of crossing dates off on the calendar, and the end of the book is basically all about the climate of England - but these were few and far between.
This is basically a nerd's delight and I loved it.
This is probably a lot more useful in Japan as it explains a lot of Western/UK customs, but as a person living in the US who is familiar with most of these customs and holidays, the majority of the content in this volume is unnecessary. I had hoped it would focus more on the mythos behind the stories or the mythos that couldn't fit into the previous volumes, but what's explored is primarily background info that inspired the series rather than the series's folklore. While the discussion sections were interesting, the actual panel-by-panel information often felt pointless or seemed too straight-forward for an explanation.
this is beautiful and insightful and honestly, sometimes, incredibly random. I'm not sure how some of what is going on here has much to do with the story (in comparison to the volume of material included for certain topics), but that's okay. it works. I love all the details on the events and character development in each chapter, and would love to see something like this for other manga series that I love.
It was a pretty good book, I initially thought it would be more plot and storyline than just more details about the main plot line. And it was things I’d already thought to be the case. There was just a couple of things that I learnt, that I didn’t know before. So those bits were really good! Overall 4/5
This annotated guide to the first half of The Ancient Magus' Bride is very useful, especially for people not familiar with western mythology. While I can't personally say that I learned anything I didn't already know as I am a westerner, I still recognize the value this could serve.
This was an interesting book to read as a westerner who has some idea of the source material already. I bet this book is super interesting for people with no knowledge of the myths of England.
Also this book has the best explanation for the holiday of Passover I ever read.
I mean what a great book! It’s so nice to read this truly well-thought-out annotated work. I mean the amount of research that went into this is insane! I feel truly unworthy to be able to read this work
Overall great supplement to the first three volumes, very in-depth. Not five stars due to some errors including grammatical ones, in addition, there was no discussion on chapter 15.
Though I knew most of the information contained within this supplement, it was really fun to fangirl and go through this, and deep dive with my favorites! Worth the read.
Great insight into some of the intentions behind the manga. Some are basic story elements. Others are explanations of where the content is derived from.