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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | You might call me a monster because I do what I want regardless of what that does to others. | „ |
| ~ Joseph to Elias. |
| “ | You're the same as me. Your curse is as powerful as mine. I'm cursed to live on forever. You're cursed to die. | „ |
| ~ Joseph to Chise |
Joseph (ジョセフ, Josefu), sometimes referred to as Cartaphilus (カルタフィルス Karutafiruzu), is the main antagonist of The Ancient Magus' Bride manga series and the main antagonist in season 1 and a minor supporting character in season 2. He is considered to be an evil mirror counterpart of Chise Hatori.
He is a sadistic sorcerer that became immortal after merging with Cartaphilus. As a result, Joseph would go through constant pain, to the point where it drove his sanity away. He would then go out of his way to commit many crimes in order to release the curse placed on him for the sake of finally dying.
He is voiced by Ayumu Murase in Japanese and Jessie James Grelle in English.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- While he did genuinely care for the original Cartaphilus as he tried to help the latter in getting better and eased the pain, he ended up subverting this redeeming trait after he merged with Cartaphilus and lost his sanity and past memories.
- He has a history of committing heinous acts, such as dismantling bodies of humans, animals, and dragons alike, as well as creating chimeras.
- Murdered many people for their body parts, including a woman who showed kindness to him in the flashback.
- Despite being necessary due to his immortal body constantly rotting, he showed no remorse for killing them.
- He manipulated his client Matthew by informing him that there is no hope in curing his wife, he took advantage of his client's desperation and makes a deal with him that if he kills hundreds of cats, he could help cure his wife Mina.
- In addition, he didn’t do this out of good of his heart, he only did it so he could use Mina as a test subject.
- Forced Mina into drinking the elixir, which caused her to explode.
- Although he did not intend on killing her, he showed no remorse for her death and leaves Matthew being driven into madness, making him directly responsible for Matthew and Mina's souls trapped in a island full of corruption and hatred for centuries.
- Sliced and stole Renfred’s left arm, along with the knowledge of making a teleportation device.
- Blackmails Renfred and Alice into working for him to collect materials from the Ulthar incident for him.
- He threatened Renfred to have his apprentice Alice killed if they failed him again.
- Have one of his chimeras murder a woman in the cemetery.
- Attempts to use Ruth as his test subject.
- Attempted to kill Alice for snitching too much about him, but ended up stabbing Chise instead.
- He sadistically taunted at enraged Elias Ainsworth as the former sees Chise as a replaceable insect for Elias to experiment with.
- He also revealed to have mutilated Isabelle's corpse, Ruth's previous owner, and turn her into a chimera. This caused Ruth to be traumatized.
- With Ashen Eye smuggling about Chise being a Sleigh Beggy and her friendship with Stella, he decided to possess Stella so he could get close to Chise.
- Murdered the group of doctors and use their medical house as his own.
- Murdered the bunch of dragon poachers (although they somewhat deserved it) when they were capturing the Dragon Whelps.
- Kidnapped two Dragon Whelps and mutilated both of them in a painful experiment. What makes this even worse is that one of them had to witness his friend getting mutilated with his own eyes.
- After mutilating one of them, he sadistically stared down at the other one still captive in the cage and enjoys watching him suffer.
- Sold one of them to the auction house, who would be so traumatized and eventually transformed into a giant chimera.
- Blackmailed Chise into trading her curse for his, or he will kill her best friend Stella. He would then kidnapped them and brought them into his medical house.
- While he did kept his word that he would spare Stella when Chise accepted the deal, he may have only done it out of pragmatism rather than genuine honor since killing Stella would not benefit him anything.
- Takes Chise's left eye and swap his own eye into hers.
- Attempts to break Chise's spirit by forcing her to see her tragic past.
- After remembering his tragic upbringing because of Chise, he became enraged and attempts to take Chise’s cursed arm by force.
- When being cornered, he summons the horde of chimeras to attack Chise and her allies while he escapes.
- Attempts to kill Chise one final time by impaling her.
- Although Chise did somewhat redeem him, he stated that he will remain dormant for about a century, which heavily implied that he will commit more atrocities later on.
- Even after his "supposed" redemption, he showed no remorse for his past actions. Plus, he tried to manipulate Chise that the voice that was telling her to kill in the back of her head was actually her, attempted to corrupt her. In addition, he took a sadistic pleasure in doing so.
- While Lizbeth Sargant has more personal villainy towards her granddaughter, Philomela, and the werewolves, as well as done more onscreen heinous acts, Joseph still stands out due to have lived far longer due to his immortality, meaning he likely has a larger kill count.
- While he did have two comedic moments (the first is when he teased Matthew for his devotion to his wife in a mischievous manner, and another is when he got tripped over by Silky's vine), both of them were not only very brief, but too place either before his true colors were revealed or during his cooling-off period, so they do not detract from his villainy at all.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He has a genuinely tragic past. He was once a caring gravekeeper who wanted to help Cartaphilus to end his suffering, but ended up failing each time. He also suffered from both psychological and physical abuse from people in his village despite wanting to help them as well. After merging with Cartaphilus, he physically suffered due to Cartaphilus’ immortality, experiencing the same constant agony Cartaphilus was suffering, which eventually drove him insane with hatred.
- His defeat is played for sympathy, as Chise casted a sleeping lullaby into him without having to suffer from eternal pain, even though it was likely temporary.
- He has a minor Pet the Dog moment with Chise where he comforts her when she is feeling despair after she caused the death of several Lizbeth's guards when saving Philomela.
Trivia[]
- He is the only The Ancient Magus' Bride villain, so far, to be Near Pure Evil.
- Ironically, his English voice actor, Jessie James Grelle, also voiced Fumikage Tokoyami from My Hero Academia, who is considered Near Pure Good, the opposite morality-wise of Joseph.
External Links[]
- Joseph on the Villains Wiki
- Joseph on the Ancient Magus' Bride Wiki