The Ancient Magus' Bride is an increasingly popular tale of a romance that's both strange and incredibly magical. Featuring a lonely girl and her skull-headed fiance, the series has become a sleeper hit thanks to its supernatural slice-of-life story. Since its start in 2013, Kore Yamazaki's original manga has been adapted to both light novels and anime, with the former still going strong and the latter expanding more than ever.
The series will soon be getting more original stories in the form of a new anime project beginning in the next few months. That's alongside several new manga volumes collecting the latest chapters, with the original manga showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. With The Ancient Magus' Bride franchise getting bigger than ever, here's where fans can purchase, read and watch all of its forms so far.
How to Read The Ancient Magus' Bride
The franchise began with the 2013 debut of The Ancient Magus' Bride manga, written and drawn by Kore Yamazaki. The story involves a young woman named Chise Hatori, an orphan who has always been shunned by society and her peers. Hoping to be accepted by literally anyone, she auctions herself off in London, with the highest bidder being Elias Ainsworth. Elias is an incredibly tall humanoid creature with an animal skull for a head. This seemingly mystical man helps drop Chise into a whole new life, one which inevitably sees the two engaged.
The manga so far consists of 15 completed volumes, all of which are readily available for English-speaking fans. They can be bought in physical form through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million, with Barnes and Noble and Amazon also offering digital options through Kindle and Nook. Comixology also has the series' volumes for digital purchase, while the brick-and-mortar stores also carry the series' two light novels, The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Golden Yarn and The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Silver Yarn. Other manga include the two spinoffs, The Ancient Magus' Bride: Wizard's Blue and Jack Flash and the Faerie Case Files, which can also be found through some of the aforementioned retailers.
How to Watch The Ancient Magus' Bride
The anime adaptation of The Ancient Magus' Bride began in 2017 with the release of part one of the three-part OVA special, The Ancient Magus' Bride: Those Awaiting a Star. Though seen as a prequel at first, the OVA actually takes place throughout the middle of the anime series' first season. The animation for both the anime and the OVA was handled by the famed Wit Studio, with the first season lasting 24 episodes. The upcoming OVA, The Boy From the West and the Knight of the Mountain Haze, will sort of act as a Season 2 for the anime series, and it's being handled by a studio formed specifically to create the series, Studio Kafka. It will be packaged with upcoming manga volumes, but this is only confirmed for Japan, at the moment.
The anime's first season, as well as Those Awaiting a Star can be streamed on Crunchyroll. The physical releases for the series can be found through Amazon, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other retailers where DVDs and Blu-Rays are sold. The Limited Edition also contains Those Awaiting a Star and the first volume of the manga.