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 Having lived a life filled with despair, 15-year old Chise Hattori sells herself into slavery in the hopes of finding a home. But after a chance encounter with the mage Elias Ainsworth she finds much more than that, becoming both his apprentice and potential future-bride, and encounters myriad magical entities, both fantastic and dangerous. The manga has some really gorgeous artwork:     And the currently-airing anime, by Wit Studio (Attack on Titan, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress), looks to be doing a fantastic job of adapting that:     Main Cast  Chise Hattori (CV: Atsumi Tanezaki) The protagonist. As a "Slay Vega" she naturally attracts beings of fantastical origin and this has led her to suffer much in her young life. Fairly quiet but can be surprisingly forceful. Elias Ainsworth (CV: Ryouta Takeuchi) The...love interest? Purchases Chise at a slave auction and promises to make her his apprentice and future bride. Has an ominous appearance but can be quite childish at times. Silky (CV: Aya Endou) The caretaker of Elias' estate. A fae creature that does housework in exchange for gifts. The manga is officially localized by Seven Seas Entertainment and is available on Amazon as well as other retailers. The anime is currently airing and is available for streaming on Crunchyroll. (There are also three prequel OVAs available. They have some light context/character spoilers for later on but if you're feeling iffy in the show's premise they may bring you around.) Spoiler Policy Since the manga is still on-going please spoiler tag anything not yet shown in the anime. Genocyber fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Oct 15, 2017 |
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Oct 7, 2017 23:54
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 16:21 |
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One thing I should mention for people put off by the premise is that (very mild future spoiler) Elias is an ancient, alien, and rather naïve monster with virtually zero idea of how marriage or romance works, so him picking up a teenage girl as a bride is far less predatory than it sounds. Chose is basically living with a friendlier, better-dressed Cthulhu.
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Oct 8, 2017 00:35
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thanks for posting that spoiler because that was the one big issue i had aftear seeing this up on Crunchy and reading the premise
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Oct 8, 2017 00:38
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RottenK posted:thanks for posting that spoiler because that was the one big issue i had aftear seeing this up on Crunchy and reading the premise Yeah, his thought-process is basically as follows: 1. I want to be more human. 2. Humans fall in love and get married. 3. To be married, I need a human female as a bride. 4. I have purchased a human female. 5. Oh poo poo I have no idea what the next step is supposed to be. The rest of the story proceeds from there.
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Oct 8, 2017 00:49
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Oh yeah, I should have mentioned that in the OP. I can't stand that creepy exploitative stuff and thankfully this property has none of it.
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Oct 8, 2017 01:58
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I completely forgot some of the extremely weird things Elias says early on.
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Oct 8, 2017 03:27
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It's a quiet, melancholy yet hopeful story of magic and wonder that starts with some human trafficking.
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Oct 8, 2017 04:10
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I only really read a few chapters of this when it came out, but it's not really about some beauty and the beast romance thing as much as it is a silly narrative excuse to have the viewpoint protagonist get involved in the strange alien world of spirits and fairytales. The stuff I remember was pretty decent.
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Oct 8, 2017 19:03
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So crunchyroll has like 3 episodes named Part 1-3 listed before episode 1. Are those a prequel/required viewing or am I good just start the new stuff?
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Oct 8, 2017 19:51
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ZenMasterBullshit posted:So crunchyroll has like 3 episodes named Part 1-3 listed before episode 1. Are those a prequel/required viewing or am I good just start the new stuff? Those are prequel OVAs and you don't need to watch them to understand the series proper. They're meant to be watched with context from the main series.
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Oct 8, 2017 19:53
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Genocyber posted:Those are prequel OVAs and you don't need to watch them to understand the series proper. They're meant to be watched with context from the main series. That's a weird order to put thing out.
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Oct 8, 2017 20:05
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The OVAs are nice. Watch them if you don't mind getting briefly introduced to a few characters you're going to meet this season (who are already in the OP) before it delves into the prequel story stuff.
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Oct 8, 2017 20:10
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Just binged on the available chapters and loving it so far. Glad I saw this thread!
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Oct 8, 2017 21:34
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I really don't like the occasional chibification of Elias's awesome skull, it kind of undercuts the whole deadpan, doesn't-know-he's-being-strange effect of those moments and clashes with the beauty of everything else on screen.Genocyber posted:(There are also three prequel OVAs available that I recommend holding off on until the anime finishes airing.) Oops. I guess it did somewhat ruin the tension of the first half of the episode, but hopefully it won't spoil any big moments or anything for me going forward. The high quality of the OVAs did convince me to watch the anime at least, over any ickiness I might have felt at a naive interpretation of the apparent slave-wife premise.
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Oct 9, 2017 00:44
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She sells herself into slavery? That's incredibly dumb. The anime looks beautiful and I like magical things, but I can't get past the somewhat creepy premise and stupid character choices.
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Oct 9, 2017 02:18
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I thought the source of this was a shoujo, so all of that I just shrugged off like meh w/e. It does feel like more will be explained later, and would have been too much for 1 intro episode.
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Oct 9, 2017 02:28
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Having read the manga up to the current chapter, nothing creepy happens. Your fears are unfounded. And I don't see anything wrong with that origin story? I don't remember how early they explain it but she has an in-character reasoning.
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Oct 9, 2017 02:42
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AnacondaHL posted:I thought the source of this was a shoujo, so all of that I just shrugged off like meh w/e. I believe the manga runs in a shounen magazine so the target demographic is boys/young men. But it does feel more shoujo-ey.
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Oct 9, 2017 03:18
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Mangaka is a woman so that could explain some of the personality of the work.
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Oct 9, 2017 03:21
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Hargrimm posted:I really don't like the occasional chibification of Elias's awesome skull, it kind of undercuts the whole deadpan, doesn't-know-he's-being-strange effect of those moments and clashes with the beauty of everything else on screen. I like it because he looks like Snoopy when it happens This show is pretty neat so far. It's got that sorta warm leisurely feel that a lot of good slice of life stuff does while also having a creeping bit of darkness at the margins that keeps things taught enough to stop it from being a total snooze like said slice of life shows. Also it's very pretty.
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Oct 9, 2017 04:15
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HellCopter posted:Having read the manga up to the current chapter, nothing creepy happens. Your fears are unfounded. TBF his giving her a tracking device without telling her was kind of creepy. Though she evidently needed it. WTF girl, "Oh, I'll just follow the fairies into the woods", have you never read a goddamn book?
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Oct 9, 2017 07:35
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Ccs posted:She sells herself into slavery? That's incredibly dumb. The_White_Crane posted:TBF his giving her a tracking device without telling her was kind of creepy. Most of her decisions are consistent with someone who's not quite actively suicidal, but is self-destructing pretty deliberately. Apparently, being a fairy magnet hasn't worked out too well for her. Also, voluntarily entering into indentured servitude was an actual, historical thing. Still kind of is in regulation-light markets.
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Oct 9, 2017 09:32
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As one Pavlov falls, another must rise to take his place. Therefore it falls to me to denounce the show as gross and exploitative. actually it is cool and good, but wow that first half would be a hard sell to someone unfamiliar with the manga and disinclined to wait it out
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Oct 9, 2017 15:51
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Darth Walrus posted:Yeah, his thought-process is basically as follows: This reminds me of the old profit meme except that he has no idea what he was accomplishing or if he even did it. Hargrimm posted:I really don't like the occasional chibification of Elias's awesome skull, it kind of undercuts the whole deadpan, doesn't-know-he's-being-strange effect of those moments and clashes with the beauty of everything else on screen. I'm usually that guy but in this case I actually liked its inclusion. It's a good reminder that this is supposed to be a fairly lighthearted story. In a more meta sense, I think it's a good way to get people to calm down about the premise.
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Oct 10, 2017 04:39
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Elias also has a deer skull for a head, and bare skulls aren't much known for expressions beyond grinning. The goofy face helps the artist more easily convey other moods.
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Oct 10, 2017 05:12
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Elias is secretly a moe character
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Oct 10, 2017 08:33
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AnacondaHL posted:I thought the source of this was a shoujo, so all of that I just shrugged off like meh w/e.
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Oct 10, 2017 08:47
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I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for the OVA's was a "Trust us we know where we are going with this premise" for those who find the mentor/student relationship exploitative (for very good reasons) and/or overused (It is a romance, not just shoujo, staple).
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Oct 10, 2017 09:32
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Yeah, unfortunately the quick description of the series paired with anime's penchant for unsettling and uncomfortable situations like that do this series a huge disservice. Once you get to learn about Elias more you can 100% see how this situation ended up happening.
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Oct 10, 2017 14:50
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Captain Invictus posted:I mean, Yona of the dawn is a shojo. You shouldn't write off good series just because of the genre they publish in. You misread me, I'm not shrugging off the series because it's a shoujo, I'm shrugged off the portions of the premise that I personally found questionable because I thought this was a shoujo and thus I thought I was not part of the intended/target demographic.
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Oct 10, 2017 16:12
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AnacondaHL posted:You misread me, I'm not shrugging off the series because it's a shoujo, I'm shrugged off the portions of the premise that I personally found questionable because I thought this was a shoujo and thus I thought I was not part of the intended/target demographic. Anyways, I recommend reading the manga if you can. The artwork is often quite beautiful, even if the human characters can be a bit samefaced at times(the scientists are the worst offenders of this). The two-page spreads are really something, as shown.
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Oct 10, 2017 18:25
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Tarezax posted:Elias is secretly a moe character
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Oct 10, 2017 19:04
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Tarezax posted:Elias is secretly a moe character To be clear, this is not a joke. This is an actual statement of fact. Superhero moe is out, skeleton moe is in.
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Oct 10, 2017 19:09
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Didn't realize I wasn't supposed to watch the OVA before the series, ideally, so I did both yesterday. The whole ho hum I guess I'll just sell myself into slavery thing felt a little too out of the blue to take seriously but I'll roll with it because the OVA was interesting enough to keep me watching.
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Oct 11, 2017 14:49
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Martytoof posted:Didn't realize I wasn't supposed to watch the OVA before the series, ideally, so I did both yesterday. The whole ho hum I guess I'll just sell myself into slavery thing felt a little too out of the blue to take seriously but I'll roll with it because the OVA was interesting enough to keep me watching. definitely portrayed in a good "irrational thinking of a mentally disturbed and suicidal person" way
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Oct 11, 2017 17:13
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The OVA is a story about Chise's childhood and how incredibly lovely it was. It basically exists to show exactly how deep her depression went. Nothing good ever lasted long for young Chise.
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Oct 11, 2017 17:22
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Everyone should watch the OVA, it's really well done and helps contextualize Chise's mindset at the beginning of the show.
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Oct 11, 2017 17:33
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Captain Invictus posted:
The OVA doesn't address the opening scene in episode one at all but it does help set the back story. The first episode doesn't do a good job of making her seem suicidal or anything at all (at least it didn't on first watch), it just kind of jumps into random girl selling herself into slavery with no context which I would find very confusing if I hadn't watched the OVA. AVeryLargeRadish posted:Everyone should watch the OVA, it's really well done and helps contextualize Chise's mindset at the beginning of the show. Yeah, this is what I kind of wanted to articulate.
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Oct 11, 2017 18:46
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that I don't know how much to spoiler
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tbh I never felt like I needed more explanation for Chise's history. Her surprise at being cared for and respected and the dark circles and bags under eyes quickly painted someone with a history of depression and trauma who is just at the end of her loving rope that she sells herself to slavery cause at least she'll be useful and hopefully fed regularly and I felt satisfied with that. I'll probably check out the OVAs down the road, but yeah I personally didn't feel I needed any more context
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Oct 11, 2017 19:32
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Captain Invictus posted:I've not watched the OVA, how do they treat it? Because the manga made it out to be more "I am suicidal and want to die, maybe if I sell myself into slavery someone can find a use for me or maybe someone will care about me at all" lol, that's about why i joined the military
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Oct 11, 2017 19:47
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