Madan no Ou to Vanadis

There are genres that most people don’t talk openly about; these may as well be guilty pleasures or preferences they feel would damage their reputation. Even so, we all have them, and Anime creators know this fact well. So every season, we get a title or two catering to them all.

Ecchi and Harem genres generally fit the bill, and many enjoy watching them, regardless of gender, age, and the like. Some people believe that Ecchi anime simply deliver good fanservice and have nothing else satisfactory to offer. This is a common misconception as plenty of these titles come with decent to good stories, characters, video, and audio.

Madan no Ou to Vanadis Anime Review - Pinnedupink.com

“Madan no Ou to Vanadis,” also known as “Lord Marksman and Vanadis” and “The King of the Magic Bullet and Vanadis,” is a prime example of a good Ecchi Harem series, with the ratings as proof. This is a 13 episode TV anime series that began airing on the 4th of October and went up until the 27th of December as a Fall 2014 title.

It was produced by Media Factory and Movic, licensed by Funimation, and brought to life by Studio Satelight. The central staff behind it is Satou Tatsuo as Director, on Series Composition, Screenplay, Itou Tatsufumi as Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation, and Assistant Animation Ishikawa Shunsuke as Episode Director and Storyboard and Nishimoto Yukio as Episode Director. In addition to Ecchi and Harem, it boasted the genres of Adventure, Fantasy, and Romance, receiving a rating of R - 17+ for its violence and profanity, being most suitable for adults.

Madan no Ou to Vanadis is adapted from the Light Novel of the same title. It spanned 18 volumes which ran from the 25th of April 2011 until the 25th of November 2017. It is the work of Author Kawaguchi Tsukasa and Artists Yoshi☆wo and Katagiri Hinata, featuring Adventure, Ecchi, Fantasy, Historical, Romance, and Harem.

A 13 episode ONA series was also released with the title “Madan no Ou to Vanadis: Tigre-kun to Vanadi-chu,” which were 2-minute short Flash Specials streamed alongside the main series by Studio PuYUKAI for pure comedy purposes. Additionally, a single ONA episode titled “Madan no Ou to Vanadis: Tigre-kun to Vanadi-chu Episode 0” was released as Episode number 0 of the ONA series in the form of a parody. The main Anime series adapts the first five novels of Tsukasa Kawaguchi's light novel series.

The story is set in a fantasy version of Europe, where a massive war between enemy countries is brewing. One of the warring countries is Zhcted, composed of seven regions, each ruled by a respective War Maiden, known as the Vanadis. Eleonora "Elen" Viltaria is one of these Vanadis, who is armed with powerful dragon-carved weapons.

She launches an invasion against their neighboring rival country of Brune. During the bitter battle that ensues afterward, a young archer and an earl for Brune's region of Alsace named Tigrevurmud "Tigre" Vorn faces devastating defeat as his entire army ends up decimated at Elen's hands. But in a fateful twist of events, Elen spares Tigre’s life for some reason and instead gives him a peculiar order, one-worded as simply as "Become mine!".

Whatever deeper meaning this order held is unclear to Tigre at first, but what could possibly lie behind this fateful new alliance? Thus Madan no Ou to Vanadis follows the epic adventure of the unlikely duo, filled to the brim with complex war tactics and beautiful women alike. The two find themselves trapped in an international conflict and get swept up in a brutal war full of dark secrets, crude conspiracies, and blatant corruption at every turn.

Overall, Madan no Ou to Vanadis is an entertaining watch. It can flow decently if you don’t fuss about the details much and just go with the plot.

The main focus is how the two main characters struggle through the war, fighting different battles that ultimately contribute to their end goals. It deconstructs a large war into subparts and showcases how each part is crucial in the bigger picture. However, the weakness lies in the execution and pacing.

The execution is inconsistent, sometimes being decent and at times being awful. Scene transitions are abrupt and confusing. This ruins the interesting premise of this anime and the underlying lore-filled world of Vanadis. Viewers do not get enough explanations and thus cannot fully comprehend the complete picture.

The pacing is just as bad, as viewers don’t get the chance to absorb the story. Especially at the start, events seem to rush by way too fast, disconnecting viewers from the plot. Regardless, it does a great job of showing the prospects of war and the vast amount of strategy and thinking that goes into it. Thus it has a great story concept, but the underlying world is never adequately revealed, which is shameful.

The characters aren’t the most original out there, but they are decent. Tigre is a typical anime hero; brave, honest, dedicated to the people, and good-looking. He firmly believes that he must protect his homeland left to him by his late father no matter what. He is shown to be a talented Archer who earned a name for himself, in addition to being an innocent, respectful, tactful, calm, resourceful, and insightful person.

Unlike most Shounen heroes, though, he knows when to back off. On the other hand, Elen is powerful, beautiful, cunning, carefree, confident, talkative, diplomatic, and unsurprisingly in love with Tigre. She is probably the best strategist, and viewers can see her tactics roll out like butter throughout the series. The overall cast is extensive, which does not work in favor of a short anime series.

Thus the supporting characters feel neglected and are merely plot devices. They are not memorable, and the War Maidens are not adequately utilized despite being a big part of the story.

The Art and Animation of Vanadis are pretty good. The art has its own style, is eye-catching, and is vibrantly colorful. The detailing was there, and the backgrounds are done well too, the color palette is definitely praiseworthy as they made so many shades work well together.

The CG is bad and needs some getting used to, but thankfully it is not a common sight in the series. The character designs and weaponry are all well-drawn. The general animation is neither bad nor exceptional, so nothing much to be said there.

The Sounds and Music of Vanadis are decent. The Opening theme is "Ginsen no Kaze" by Konomi Suzuki, which goes well with the anime’s themes and gets more likable over time. The Ending themes are "Schwarzer Bogen" by Hitomi Harada and "Ryuusei Chinkonka" by Konomi Suzuki, both of which are quite nice too. All the OSTs suited the atmospheres and events well, serving to build up hype. But overall, everything under this segment is easily forgettable with nothing exceptional.

Overall, Madan no Ou to Vanadis is an entertaining watch. It can flow decently if you don’t fuss about the details much and just go with the plot. The fight scenes were enjoyable, except for the bad CG, and the art is commendable, all coupled with an insight into war tactics. It is recommendable to all fans of its genres, people who like fast plots, and those who just want a neat Harem to watch. It has its flaws but past them is a decent anime that can make for a chill watching experience.