Nah, I’m not going to start blogging this show full time. There’s just no Sword Art Online to mock this week, so I gotta have something to fill the void. Madan no Ou to Vanadis is definitely no SAO, but it’ll have to do in a pinch.
If you haven’t been following the story, our super awesome protagonist Tigre impressed mighty female warrior Elen so much that she wants him all to herself. Not romantically, of course. Well, not yet, of course. But you can already begin to see the wheels churning. Little by little, she’ll fall for him like the rest of them. It starts off with a blush here and a blush there, and pretty soon, she might not be so proud to stand naked before him anymore. It’s d-d-different this time! But oh no! Tigre’s homeland of Alsace is about to be destroyed by the dastardly son of House Thenardier! Will Elen allow Tigre to return home to save his people? Well, yeah, obviously she would. And we’re just about to find out how…
— Some kid’s going to get a dragon if he takes 3,000 troops with him to destroy Alsace. The kid just cackles with delight at the chance to murder some people. I don’t know, owning a dragon sounds cool. Killing people? Eh, I could do without that. Still, I like how mass murder never seems to bother fictional characters all too much. Even if they don’t care about these peasants, you’d think they’d want to at least get into heaven (I assume people are religious in this show since they have temples and shit). Being Hitler kinda makes that hard…
— So we return to our lovely couple at the center of the story, and our maiden says she’s changed into something more revealing so that Tigre can look directly at her. I’m not sure how that works, but okay. Plus, it doesn’t get any more direct that what we saw in the previous episode, but again, okay…
— But the ensuing conversation unfolds in just about the way you’d expect it to. Let me protect my people! But what can you do alone! I don’t know, but I gotta do something! You can’t do shit with that sort of thinking!
— She then challenges him to a duel, because dying here is, uh, no different than dying in Alsace. Actually, there is a difference. I don’t think it’s hard to imagine that a lot of people would rather die defending their country than watch it get run over by some evil bastard. This isn’t exactly a hard concept to grasp, but writers deliberately make these characters obtuse for no reason.
— Obviously, Elen wants Tigre to have a plan. She doesn’t want him to charge back into battle all by himself. He’d just die, and well, he’s too precious of a harem lead to waste like that. I just don’t know why she doesn’t say so right from the very start. Instead, Elen has to encourage him in such a painfully drawn-out fashion.
— Eventually, Tigre asks Elen to lend him her troops. She spends like a good fifteen or so seconds doubling over in laughter. Okay. It turns out later that she had made a bet with Limlisha on what Tigre would do. I just don’t really see why this is funny, but whatever. Eventually, she agrees to help on one condition: she gets to own Alsace when it’s all said and done. Hey, just one step closer to the harem lead’s heart, am I right?
— Maybe I should’ve included this show in Harem Hill from the very start, because look at these two girls now. They’re fussing over Tigre like some besotted haremttes. In fact, it pretty much seems like Elen beams with pride whenever the guy enters the room. As for Limlisha, she’s just shaping up to be a classic tsunderekko.
— Even though Elen is now riding towards battle, she can’t help but think of a compliment that Tigre had given her just earlier in the day. She thus blushes profusely on her horse. Yeeeeeeep. Let’s take these powerful female warriors, then make them turn super girly around the harem lead. All in all, she’s just another brick in the wall.
— Elsewhere, Duke Thenardier confirms that Alsace is not a very important location. So why bother invading the place? It turns out he just doesn’t want it to fall to his rival Ganelon, so he’ll burn Alsace to the ground instead. Hm, nice guy. I bet his son will die in the upcoming battle, though. Then I bet he’ll swear revenge on Tigre for life. How dare you kill my son who was only trying to rape and pillage your homeland! The nerve of some people!
— Man, is that maid’s name really Titta? I know we met her in last week’s episode, but I kind of just glossed over her existence at the time. By the way, she won’t evacuate the city, because she wants to be there to greet Tigre when he returns. Yeah, I definitely should include this show in Harem Hill… I’m not saying a servant can’t be devoted to his or her master, but you wouldn’t go this far unless you were in love. And c’mon, it’s a twintailed shoujo named Titta.
— So Zion’s troops pillage Alsace without much of a fight. It doesn’t stop them from thrusting their spears up into the air as if they’ve just won a tough battle, though. But elsewhere, Zion gets pissy when he learns that most of the residents have fled the town. Awwww, I wanted to kill people! With nothing better to do, he turns his attention to Tigre’s mansion instead. He proceeds to break into the place and knock shit over like some spoiled child. I know this guy’s an asshole, but is it really necessary to make him this pathetically immature too? Needless to say, he runs into Tigre’s beloved Titta.
— Seriously? Yeah, super seriously. Of course the guy just happens to be a rapist too. I mean, why wouldn’t he be? I can just hear it now: rapes were common back then, so it just makes sense! Uh-huh. My point is, you can’t ever save an anime maiden unless she’s in danger of rape. Saving her in any other moment is just waste of heroic points. Seriously, nobody cares if a fiefdom’s prodigal son is returning home from battle to save his people! But if you throw in a near-rape scene, now you’re talking.
— Naturally, Tigre saves his Titta in just the nick of time. Elen also gets to show off the mighty wind power of her sword Arifar. Cool, I guess. For Elen, that is. I don’t care about Tigre and his doting Titta. But apparently, even Elen’s sword likes Tigre. Alright, alright, after this week’s post, this is going into Harem Hill. It got left out of the first entry, but I can just assume it would’ve finished in third place behind Grisaia no Kajitsu and Ushi-ugly Animation. I mean, I think we can all agree on that, right? Madan no Ou to Vanadis is no world-beater, but it’s better than those two dumpster fires we just watched earlier this week.
— A sobbing and shivering Titta continues to blush around her lord. Elen teases Tigre by wondering out loud if a diminutive, twintailed shoujo is really Tigre’s type. Probably not. Both Elen and Limlisha are well-endowed as fuck. As in, they’ll have chronic back pains for the rest of their lives. They’re thus the primary haremettes. Those like Titta are secondary haremettes. They’re still in love with the harem lead, of course, but they will never actually be viable candidates for his love.
— I googled Limlisha’s name just to make sure that was really her name. After all, I’m still getting used to these stories and their myriad characters. In any case, I came across this hilarious piece of spoilers that I just had to share with you guys:
Oh no, don’t get the wrong idea, people! They’re not having sex! Rather, she just got poisoned, so he’s desperately trying to save her by sucking the poison out of her Tittas.
— Someone tries to assassinate Titta — why her of all people? — so when Tigre fires an arrow back in retaliation, his bow breaks. As such, he has no choice but to take up the Black Bow! No wonder the girls love him. Who else rides into battle with such a mighty black bow? Also, once you go black, yadda yadda yadda…
— Anyway, that’s it for the second episode. I wasn’t sure what to think of the show after the first episode, but it’s pretty clear now where this adaptation is headed. Fans of the light novels might feel the need to defend the story, claiming that the adaptation has cut out a lot of the “cool stuff” like the military strategy and whatnot. But as far as I’m concerned, the anime adaptation feels like yet another shitty harem.
Moe Sucks 
Just drop the show and go read the novels. They’re translated.
Just like a comment from someone else:
“Its basically more of SpicenWolf/MaoyuuMaouYuusha and ecchi/harem hybrid.
A LOT of time is spent building up the world around them, various concepts, character interactions and discussing tactics for each fight(MC does not just stand in the middle of road shooting at people and there’s a lot of preparations involved for each fight). Vast parts of the novel describe the political setting, how it affects what is going on, etc.
The anime adaptation strips all of that off and ups the fanservice/harem elements. This episode alone could have been FOUR episode.”
Well, I don’t think the directory really wants to strip all that but he’s pressured to do it dense 6-7 freaking volumes in 13 episodes. Well, at least I think visually it looks very good unlike uhh… Ushi something.
As for the name Titta, it is a European name (Nordic if I remember correctly). Well, the whole story of Madan is based on some really old epic poem from a European country that no longer exists so that part is interesting.
Talking about SAO though, that’s kind of funny. It’s guilty pleasure or something. Bad but yet I keep watching it for whatever reason.
Nah, I’m not doing that.
Not another, “Read the light novel” shtick.
Forgive me if I come off a little brusque, but series like Vanadis tend to do this to me. The problem at its core is… “Its basically more of SpicenWolf/MaoyuuMaouYuusha and ecchi/harem hybrid.”
So…
“It’s basically two grounded, thoughtful series on in-depth aspects of life in medieval europe, but this one’s stitched awkwardly to ecchi/harem antics!”
Meaning…
“It’s basically half something you like, and half a load of pandering dreck!”
We don’t need titillation rammed into our media to make it worth consuming, no matter the themes or genre. It’s not a requirement for our entertainment. Spice and Wolf didn’t need it, so why should Vanadis? Shoehorning it into a series about tactics and military strategy just takes something that might be interesting and dilutes it with a bunch of no-effort fanservice that torpedoes the tone, subject matter, and often suspension of disbelief.
This could be a solidly entertaining political drama with some interesting fantasy elements, but it simply doesn’t have the confidence to be that. It’s constantly mindful of how conventionally shitty it needs to be in order to rope in a specific audience.
It dresses its female characters in what has to be bright blue midriff-exposing, form-hugging latex and gives them ludicrous JRPG weapons whilst they stand next to legions of grubby peasant archers in half-helms and tabards. It leverages its villains to slice off their clothes. It spends ten seconds on the complexities of sacking a town and ten minutes awkwardly setting up an attempted rape so we can ogle a maid’s far-too-modern bra and underwear. It uses its downtime not to examine its heroine’s motivations or character, but to have Tigre stumble onto her nude. The main characters eats – I swear to god – some omurice in his medieval common room. The only thing missing was the little smiley face of ketchup Titta would inevitably spread on top.
Hmm… that’s odd. Was pretty sure I replied. Anyways,
“This could be a solidly entertaining political drama with some interesting fantasy elements, but it simply doesn’t have the confidence to be that. It’s constantly mindful of how conventionally shitty it needs to be in order to rope in a specific audience.”
Naw. The politics and battles are solid. Have you ever notice that Maoyuu and Spice & Wolf have fanservice here and there? Well, it’s the same here. Harem and fanservice takes the back seat and show up once in a while.
However, take what you will and believe what you will. This argument about this show is the same argument I had to make when talking about Maoyuu years ago when got upset about the fanservice interestingly enough.
Also omurice? No.
Maoyuu, yes. And it was the lesser for it. I made the same arguments then as I do for Vanadis now, just that the latter has gone even further in that direction. At the very least Maoyuu kept its wardrobe consistent for the setting.
Spice and Wolf only has nudity. It keeps a consistent tone, and never indulges in scenes specifically to pander (though obviously Horo’s nudity may still titillate, depending on the scene and the audience – it just exists for more reasons than than to titillate). Nudity is not necessarily fanservice, either, especially when it doesn’t drive the plot or screenplay. Spice and Wolf doesn’t feel the need to invent one-dimensional rapist villains who exist specifically to disrobe the pure young meido so we can see her underwear, or random snake bites to excuse Tigre suckling a woman’s massive balloon-teat.
And well, there’s no rice, but this looks pretty omu to me.
I see. You make fair points.
Either way you should be happy once that guy is dead. He’s pretty much the only cartoon villain which is funny because his father looks like a normal person who actually seems to have some semblance of a brain. Anyway, I hope you keep watching. I still think the adaptations can do a decent enough job because I have some faith in the director although I’m not very fond of the amount of extra service they added or the crucial details that are removed…
Anyway, it’s not really omu at all. It’s pretty much just a French omelet. Rather makes sense because Alsace is the name of a French region.
Oh, no worries there. I’ll keep watching for certain. The reason I’m so harsh on Vanadis is that I actually really enjoy medieval politics and the stories that arise from their settings’ social systems, so when it gets a perplexing number of these things right and then veers off so far into conventional anime-themed pander-land, it feels like the author (or director, as the case may be) had no faith in just telling that story. A story that doesn’t need to prop itself up with eye candy and anachronisms completely at odds with its themes and world, that gets all of the focus rather than splitting time and focus with the fluff.
Really, I just rant because I see things I like. Uncommon things for an anime series. The wasted time and potential in a premise I might actually really enjoy gets me in ways so many lost causes never will (hey there Grisaia, Tokyo ESP, etc). For the same reasons, I’ll see Vanadis through to the end… come hell or high skirt hems.
Anyway, thanks for being so unreasonably reasonable in responding. My mad ranting probably didn’t deserve the civility it got. I doff my french omelet to you, sir.
Yeah, we need a medieval harem anime in “harem hill” section and this one seems like the only one this season, Vandis seems to take it’s premise very seriously so it could have potential for mockery.
I’m wondering: what power could contain the ancient black bow? please anime, don’t turn Tigre into another maou king of some sort, I’m begging you.
What the hell is that picture from the LN…
I’m pretty sure getting poison sucked out of your goddamn breast must hurt like hell.
Not if the harem lead does it. His magical lips will numb anything they touch.
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