While The Ancient Magus' Bride is more than a romance anime, everyone who walks into it is bound to wonder if Chise and Elias get married.
The idea has been controversial, to say the least, and it understandably makes viewers uncomfortable. Thankfully, the situation is a bit more complicated.
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Do Chise and Elias Get Married?
Yes and no. Although Chise is considered to be Elias' bride and many scenes in The Ancient Magus' Bride are coded accordingly, there's no actual romance between them, at least not in its traditional sense.
There's no official marriage either, although there's a scene that comes close.
Elias and Chise's Relationship Explained
Elias is an ancient nonhuman being with no clear understanding of human emotions or practices.
To him, a bride is just someone to live with and spend a lot of time with. He never gives an indication of believing marriage to have a romantic or erotic element.
Because of that, he did not understand the problem with his apprentice and his bride being the same person, as he didn't comprehend the different levels of connection expected in each case.
This, along with his overall cluelessness about humans -- and his and Chise's mutual emotional, nonromantic growth -- makes the situation less creepy than it might otherwise have been.
Of course, the age difference and other characters' implications do feel uncomfortable, despite the show's good elements.
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Was There a Wedding at the End of The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 1?
At the end of The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 1, Chise meets Elias wearing a white dress and veil. She also gives him a ring, keeping an identical one for herself. Both are magically enhanced to alert them when the other is in danger. The fact that this scene is coded as a marriage cannot be ignored.
However, the scene does not indicate that from that point, the characters' relationship will have an erotic element, and this doesn't turn out to be the case.
Instead, it suggests greater trust and commitment to mutual growth from that point forward.
Conversely, this anime scene (and the entire Episode 24) outran the manga, as the equivalent chapter wasn't out yet at the time.
When the chapter did release, it recreated the scene but had Chise wear a black, gothic-style dress, rather than a white one, downplaying the marriage symbolism (at least in its traditional Western understanding).
So, Will Chise and Elias Actually Get Married?
As the manga and anime are still ongoing, we don't know if Chise and Elias' relationship would come to resemble an actual marriage should Chise manage to permanently extend her lifespan.
Even if Chise grows significantly older, the age difference and wife husbandry elements would make the proposition uncomfortable.
Neither Elias nor Chise is human and the fantasy setting they inhabit sometimes accepts romances with an age gap due to different beings' lifespans.
For instance, Angelica is a 105-year-old mage who looks like a much younger woman.
Angelica is happily married to David, a human in his 40s, and they try to have as much time together as possible, although they know he'll eventually grow old and she will outlive him.
Ultimately, we can't predict how Elias and Chise's relationship will play out and if the show will end up being more of a supernatural romance anime, so we'll have to wait for more manga chapters and episodes.
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