3 out of 5

Directed by: Kazuaki Terasawa

Thematically well-intentioned and with fantastic music and solid acting, this OVA from Studio Kafka and director Kazuaki Terasawa is their first foray into Ancient Magus Bride, prior to season 2, and proves to be pretty solid and in-line with the series, perhaps even better balancing the tone between precious and funny and contemplative over season 1. However, besides the general mingling of myth and reality, there’s not much to this 3-part OVA that feels especially intermingled with the show’s world or its characters; it is a story in which Elias and Chise appear, but are not especially necessary, but also take up too much space for secondary character Gabriel to really have an impactful storyline. 

From the top down, though, this is intriguing: the folkloreish Wild Hunt has found its way to Ancient Magus Bride territory, but happenstance makes its outset go afoul, leaving one of its riders and its steed separated, an event which causes the Hunt to have deleterious effects on the surrounding forest. The horse finds its way to Chise and Elias; a young boy named Gabriel finds the amnesiac knight, also visually a young boy, who he nicknames Evan. 

Chise’s side of things is mostly harmless situational comedy, filling space before we can switch over to Gabriel. Gabriel’s family moved out to the countryside due to the boy’s asthma; he’s upbeat, but frustrated by how protective his parents can be, and the realization that he’s now pretty isolated from his friends back in the city. The discovery of a new ‘playmate’ – even while intelligently piecing together that he has to help “Evan” reunite with his own ‘family’ – is surely appealing to Gabriel, and the thematic tie-in to Magus’ various season 1 threads of inevitability and fighting fate is well-intentioned; watching Gabriel get stuck between pursuing this reunification quest and accepting his current lot is balanced and effected and acted well. It’s just too bad that couldn’t be a standalone story / movie. 

Because: the end of the second episode includes the turn that attempts to justify setting this tale more specifically in this world, and while it’s logical, it also derails Gabriel’s storyline for the sake of providing some third-episode action, and giving Chise / Elias more of a reason to he here than iust bringing a horse around. All of it makes sense overall, but the scribbly line between story and character makes both sides somewhat flimsy, meaning Gabe’s story could’ve better been told over more episodes, or Chise’s half better interwoven during the same, or this becomes its own movie, with no need to include Magus mythology. 

Studio Kafka does a great job of adopting the general style of the show. While I’d say scenes and models feel a bit less “dense” over Wit, Terasawa and the animators capture the vibe well, and design some gorgeous framings. And the score, again by Junichi Matsumoto, underlines the intended weight of the story, though not so discrepantly as to be distracting – it’s a good counterbalance, and also provides quite stunning tunes on its own terms. 

The Boy from the West and the Knight of the Blue Storm is an acceptable, entertaining effort. While it’s not a “necessary” story by any means, and rather undermined by linking itself to Ancient Magus Bride’s characters, it also proves the new studio can handle the dormant-for-awhile series, and might settle into its own, more defined approach as we go along.