Madan no Ou to Vanadis

[Ryllharu]

Madan no Ou to Vanadis
Lord Marksman and Vanadis

Description: Set in a Fantasy counterpart of Western Europe, Tigrevurmud Vorn, Count of Alsace in the service of the country of Brune, got a taste of the power of one of the seven War Maidens known as Vanadis, those granted the power of the dragons. After he was defeated on the battlefield by Eleonora Viltaria, she decided to spare his life after seeing his skills, and declared that she now owns him.

AniDB | ANN

[HorribleSubs] Madan no Ou to Vanadis - 01



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Now this is a proper fantasy series.

Or at the very least a promising one.

Putting the fanservice aside, it really does have that nice balance between Record of the Lodoss War and Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari, without being super dry like Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu. It has the right amount of atmosphere. Not too silly or absurd, and doesn't try to take itself too serious when it has no right to do so.

The characters are equally balanced. Eleonora gives excessively harsh punishments out, but relents on them just as easily. She's meant to be a warrior, and as such doesn't shriek in terror when someone sees her naked or react violently. Her attitude is fitting for someone who has enough power to do whatever the hell they want.

Limalisha, her second, is stern and very cold as Eleonora is flighty.

Tigre is thankfully neither weak, nor cocky. He's a just lord who cares for his people, and has loyalty. He wasn't willing to throw in with Eleonora because she's strong and asked him to. He was willing to wait for the ransom to be paid so he could return to his own lands. He isn't some sort of Übermensch either, capable of taking down divinely blessed war maidens with his skill. He specializes in one area, and shows that skill accordingly. He's considered trash by his peers for it, but thinks big picture.

The animation was good, the cast is good, and while the character design is a little...top heavy, it's not that overt or too much of a focus.

[Kraco]

I'm a little worried for the power scale here. Realistically speaking Tigre's archery is unnatural, but since it's his only skill (not counting charming the female enemy commander) and thus leaves him highly vulnerable, it's cool. However, what about these Vanadis? Do they have anything at all that could threaten them?

A very entertaining first episode. I liked the relaxed atmosphere many of the characters carried around. Although Eleonora gave me quite a childish impression, which doesn't clash with Ryll's impression of being so powerful she can do whatever she wants. Childish or romanticist, seeking some kind of beauty even in the bloody battle and being disappointed when the enemy didn't perform well enough to fulfill her image of what war should be like.

I wonder if Tigre's home land's ruler is performing some kind of ethic cleansing and unification with centralization of power. Maybe the army was meant to be defeated and was composed mainly of folks the king wanted to get rid of. The fact he's marching to Tigre's county supports that. With the feudal vassal now absent, the ruler might be thinking of claiming the land. That's how nations got stronger when feudalism became obsolete and was replaced by absolute monarchies.

[David75]

It's hard to judge based on that ep alone, but that felt good for a relatively average ep.We got lots of stereotypes and anime tropes. The kind of first ep that tries everything to get an audience.
I can't help but think Tigre's archer involves either forcing some future events to happen or predicting them.


Because hitting the foot in that setting is impossible. Even knowing the height and speed of the guy.
I even wondered if, since the arrow comes from high and behind, he should have had it in the shoulder instead.
But this is fantasy anime.

[shinta|hikari]

...ethic cleansing...

This made my day.

[NeoCybercoin]

I've been reading the manga for a while now so I was quite pleased when I found out this would be an anime for this season.

Eleonora reminds a lot of Medaka with her behavior.

[shinta|hikari]

This was a fantastic adaptation. The light novel was not delivered as well. Tigre's VA was really good at making him more human and likable. Ellen was also adorable. I'm so glad they used a different art style from the LN, though I would have wanted less top heavy designs.

The fan service was a bit distracting, but it is necessary for sales so I'm all for it if I get to see this story animated.

[David75]

Oh, I forgot a little gripe:
I wish they had time/money to have their foreign language lines checked before using them.
Not the first time it happens in anime and dorama, regardless of budget...
I really can't understand the French they used on that little line in the intro that will probably be there every ep...

[KrayZ33]

Oh, I forgot a little gripe:
I wish they had time/money to have their foreign language lines checked before using them.
Not the first time it happens in anime and dorama, regardless of budget...
I really can't understand the French they used on that little line in the intro that will probably be there every ep...

Stuff like that is really annoying. If you can't speak a foreign language in the slightest, you shouldn't use it.
It's embarassing. That being said, it seems that pretty much noone in Japan is able to speak anything but japanese, so they might as well sing the theme song of Civ5 and the audience wouldn't even notice it.

Lim is the best girl already
A side ponytail..I can't get enough of them. Too bad she won't win, because of this this stupid "first girl wins"-thing in anime, but if by any chance this ends up being a harem show, I doubt anything serious will happen.

Ellen was also adorable. I'm so glad they used a different art style from the LN

I count on you to tell us / or me if the rest doesn't want to hear it whenever the anime is going into a different direction than the LN/Manga.
By the looks of it, using google, the Illustrations/pictures (especially the character design... the eyes, oh god) are too awkward for me.

So I'll start with the anime to burn its design into my head before I (if it is any good) start reading the LN.
The setting is really appealing so far and the story is interesting enough - I'll follow this for sure

[Kraco]

Episode 2 - HS




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A nice carbon fiber bow there, dude. Of course it wouldn't do for Tigre to have some cheap run-of-the-mill bow while Eleonora sports the magical sword.

Anybody who didn't foresee the scumbag son of a lord getting an arrow through his hand when he was about to test Titta's maidenly qualities hasn't watched enough of anything. Tigre isn't an ordinary human, for sure, to catch the arrow from the air, even if it did hurt his hand. Otherwise what happened in his episode wasn't so extraordinary. Nobles switching sides happened all the time in the history. More of a norm than an exception.

[shinta|hikari]

Tigre caught the arrow, nocked it, and then shot the shooter in a split second.

Badassery.

[David75]

Tigre caught the arrow, nocked it, and then shot the shooter in a split second.

Badassery.

I wonder if it's a tribute to a similar scene in Hokuto no Ken. A guy shoots a crossbow arrow, Ken catches it mid-air with two fingers and at the same time throws it back head-shoting the guy (like Tigre).

[Xelbair]

his black bow would be kinda in bad shape after it was kept stringed for few years. on the display.

[NeoCybercoin]

That scene was pretty badass but as an enemy archer. That guy failed. I mean the commander of the opposing force is right there as well. Why not aim at her head instead of a civilian?

[Kraco]

his black bow would be kinda in bad shape after it was kept stringed for few years. on the display.

Possibly it's such an uber bow, passed down from the father to the son for generations (which already speaks of its magical quality), that if it was ruined like a normal bow, they wouldn't keep it stringed all the time. Or are you expecting to see early in the next episode a scene where the dude tries to let the first arrow fly, only to have the bow snap broken? He would then lament that, perhaps, after all, they shouldn't have kept it stringed for 100 years?

[KrayZ33]

The web special for this show mentioned a special bow, not sure if its considered a spoiler if I'd say any more? Only watched episode 00 of it though

I wonder how they managed to enter the town..especially with troops. The palisade surrounding it didn't look very large.. the enemy camp was set on a highground surveying the town. You'd think some of the 3.000 men would notice something. If that guy was a somewhat able commander, he'd have scouts everywhere too.

The only way I can think of would be the forest where some of the villagers hid.

[Kraco]

I wonder how they managed to enter the town

Like Tigre said, he knows his own land. He must have known a secret route in.

[Ryllharu]

[HorribleSubs] Madan no Ou to Vanadis - 03



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I'm a little disappointed that Tigre went for somehow goading Zion into putting his shield in the same spot instead of going for the moving target bombardment (clout style) that we saw in the first episode. Just hit him directly in the skull since the dumbass wasn't wearing a helmet. Tigre is fast enough on the draw to shoot him in the throat if he raises his shield up.

I also appreciate that Vanadis understands how boobie armors should look to be functional. Limalisha's armor generally deflects blows away from the center of her chest, rather than perfectly encapsulating her boobs individually the way we usually see.

[Kraco]

I'm a little disappointed that Tigre went for somehow goading Zion into putting his shield in the same spot instead of going for the moving target bombardment (clout style) that we saw in the first episode. Just hit him directly in the skull since the dumbass wasn't wearing a helmet. Tigre is fast enough on the draw to shoot him in the throat if he raises his shield up.

I'm not disappointed. He had two reasons to do it like this: To show the douche that he could create enough force with his bow and skills to actually crush the enemy defenses, just like one might properly with a lance. Though naturally one might put the lance through a head without a helmet just as easily, but this way he was making quite a point. On the other hand, he was surely trying to impress Eleonora by choosing the most challenging way to pull it off. And one might say he succeeded beyond expectations since he impressed not only the War Maiden but her sword as well!

Looks like carbon fiber conducts not only electricity but also magic! Good to know.

I have to say the dragons were a severe letdown. I hope these were from the bottom of the barrel.

[Ryllharu]

Zion didn't even fight with one, he only fled on it. Surely a huge waste. The flying ones are apparently very valuable in battle...just not against a war maiden.

Elen eviscerated the first one, using an attack so powerful that she refuses to use it on people.

I wouldn't say they were a letdown so much as there is a good reason Zhcted is only attacked when they are outnumbered 5 to 1...and even then, only Eleonora was present.

I wonder if the person/entity speaking through the bow is the goddess Tigre prayed to before he decided to try killing Elen.

[shinta|hikari]

Actually, Vanadis aren't that all powerful. They are pretty vulnerable to assassination, for one.

This isn't a spoiler because it already happened in the first episode, but the details were cut out. I will tag it anyway and keep it in white text.

Not really a spoiler:

Tigre actually almost killed Elen in their first encounter. The only reason she was able to block his arrows was because he aimed straight at her forehead, twice. Elen deduced where he would aim there because that was where he shot the horses. If Tigre had aimed at her horse or her body, she would have been killed.