Madan no Ou to Vanadis

Ahhh... what a waste.

The show has a solid premise. A standard fantasy fare with a strong focus on powerful individuals and massive army warfare.

But execution? Terrible.

This anime feels like it omitted like 90% of its source material, because that's the only way it makes sense. Nothing is given enough time to develop on the screen. Characters are paper thin, lacking any real personality or motivations. Next to no backstory given on any of them. Each character is more meaningless than the other.

The story seems to revolve around a young count being drawn into a civil war as well as fighting off foreign invaders looking ... to take advantage, but we the viewers are given nothing to work with. No backstory, no explanations who all these different sides are and why they're fighting. Wars just happen, non-stop, no build-up, no planning, no warning, no nothing. It's war after war, battle after battle as if someone was playing Civilization on the smallest map size.

Characters are chilling one moment, and the next it's a full on fight between thousands of troops.

The world map barely gets any screen time to the point where you won't even know what country is being fought for and where the fights happen unless you pause and try to pay attention to the few seconds it occasionally flashes on the screen.

The warfare is extremely superficial as well. The show tries to put on big airs with higher quality CGI tactics and strategy screens, but it's all meaningless gibberish as none of the battle plans are actually explained properly, and battles that are described as taking days, are over in seconds of screen time. Wham bam, it's all over. Characters occasionally make a big deal about a battle being difficult and requiring crazy tactics to have a hope of victory, but they all play out the exact same way. They troops clash, they fight, then they randomly get reinforcements or one of the characters unleashes a new power and they save the day. It's nonsense.

This is an extremely frustrating anime to watch because the premise is solid, and it could have been a fun warfare focused fantasy show, but instead we get this watered down, rushed, content deprived slop that can't really please anyone.

There's even a harem of big breasted women all fawning over the protagonist, but even that isn't given any development time. It's literally just a bunch of boobs occasionally on the screen making doe eyes at the MC, and then it's back to a random fight scene with no real explanation.

This really doesn't even work as "fast food".

Avoid this anime unless you REALLY want to watch a completely mindless sequence of mediocre battle scenes and a few scantily clothed women doing some fancy magic moves.

Man I feel like I'm the only one annoyed with how overpowered the main character and that princess are. I don't care how bad of a person Zion was, it sucks when they write characters that are op and never lose. It's to the point where I don't like the main characters. With what i have watched the best shows are where the main characters lose fights. They struggle with personal loss that ends up making the viewer wonder "How can they possible come back from this?" This show doesn't have that with what i have seen so far. True the main character is now ... a slave but he is only one in title. He can still wander around free within the kingdom which is doesn't convey the feeling of loss as well as it should. Overall i think that the main characters and the "War Maidens" are to op which makes the shows story and character development suffer.

Before I start this review, I want to say that I haven''t read the light novel of Madan no Ou to Vanadis, so do not expect any comparison of the two in my review. This review is solely based on only the anime itself.

Vanadis (as I will be calling for the rest of the review) is set in Western Europe, during times of war. In a way, the fights and strategies are similar to what was used in real life, but in Vanadis, there are beings known as War Maidens, who are essentially the leader of their respective armies, and have extraordinary powers and abilites, ... allowing for them to make an immediate impact on any battle.

The plot is nothing too amazing. Tigrevurmud Vorn, is an archer fighting for his country, Brune. However, during a battle with a War Maiden, he gets captured and is taken hostage, until Eleonora, the War Maiden, sees his skill with the bow and what he is worth, eventually sparing his life in exchange for him to serve under her.

The first problem with Vanadis throughout the series is the pacing. It is very fast paced, to the point where the introductions of the war maidens were cut off, with most of them hardly getting involved with the main plot whatsoever. Also, while the story somewhat revolves around wars and battles, they in my opinion, lacked the tension they need for us to actually care about what's going on in the battlefield. Some battles and individual fights also seem to be cut short, with one gaining the win in an instant at times, building no tension to the battle. From episode 1 to 13, the pacing was just poorly done, and severely damaged the series overall. This issue probably would have been cleared up if the series was split up into two cours, but nope, instead we got what felt like an almost incomplete show with an anti-climatic ending.

One important factor I have to mention is that during the battles, the scenes are usually interrupted by something called chess wars, which is basically explaining tactics and showing the map of the battle, while replacing the soldiers with mini chess like pieces, all different depending on their own class or what weapon they have. The thing is that, the battles (not including individual fights) are mostly fought on this.. map, with figures... though it did show up less and less as we got to the final episode. I'm personally a bit so-so on this as they could still have shown what was going on without introducing those things. But thankfully, they were short and didn't show up as much in the later episodes.

Moving on to the art, it's good, but not great. The character designs other than Tigre or some of the war maidens are very lacking. Even Ludmilla, a major character in the story, looked a little bit off at times. (maybe it's just me though) Sometimes faces could look longer than normal, and eyes could even look uneven on minor characters. Thankfully, these issues mostly clear up as we head to the anti-climatic finale. The background itself is good and fitting, however, do not expect anything too outstanding.
The animation is definitely disappointing in my opinion. While some scenes are animated very well, others could be clunky and choppy. Even in some of the battles, the soldiers sometimes look like they are striking at nothing, but they are made to constantly do it over and over again in the background, which is not all that important, but nonetheless, a flaw.

A final word on the art. If you like fanservice, then Vanadis does not disappoint. The war maidens and a couple of other woman are very busty, some wear a lack of clothing, all their breasts jiggle, and some are even shown nude. So just a heads up for people who either like fanservice or dislike it.

The soundtracks for this anime is nothing too outstanding, but it still does its job at fitting well with the scenes shown. As for the opening theme, I personally loved it, really liked the choir at the back accompanying the lyrics. But as for the voice acting, it disappoints. It isn't bad, but like many have said before, there is always room for improvement. Some sound bland, and couldn't really capture the scene very well, while some were good, but again, nothing too outstanding.

And now for the characters... yes, this was the biggest disappointment for me. As I have said before, in Vanadis, there are a severe lack of character development. The only noticeable one is probably Vorn, but even then, it's not all that praiseworthy. Also to the people who eventually die, it is hard to actually care for them when they have been shown too little to bring out any personality. Furthermore, even the so called war maidens hardly get a development whatsoever.

The biggest problem of this series for me was that most of the War Maidens barely got any screen time, with the exception of two, Ludmilla, and Eleonora. Hell, some didn't even show up! This is a huge problem because the show is partly about those war maidens and what they are capable of during batles, but it was extremely disappointing to see them barely involved with the main plot whatsoever. The war maidens themselves mostly had bland personality, while a couple others barely had ANY time to show their personality and goals. Finally, out of the couple of war maidens that actually showed up, only 3 got involved in battle, which is a shame. (again, this probably would have been much better if this was split up into 2 cours...) And as for the other characters, it's not even worth mentioning them, but they are essentially same as the rest of the characters, with bland personality and no development.
All in all, the characters themselves are the weakest and the most disappointing part of this show.

This was disappointing. I've heard many good things about it from others who read the Light novel, and I was honestly expecting something that I was going to be entertained with. However, the series was way too fast paced in general, ignoring much needed developments. They tried to fit all of the war maidens in a such a fast paced show, and they failed miserably. Not only they failed to get developments, but we barely got to know most of them overall.

This could have been good, but turned into a massive disappointment. There were no outstanding aspects at all, with hardly anything to be called a redeeming factor. Overall, Madan no Ou to Vanadis was yet another anime that could have been good, but isn't, as it fails to solidly execute any aspects that make up an anime. A mediocre show at best, I close off this review with a sigh of disappointment.

Story 3: Really? he becomes a prisoner than for some reason convince all the war maidens to fight on his side? I get that he is a helpful guy, but come on...

Art 6: Art was nothing but good, no scenes were I was really excited about.

Sound 6: I thought the tracks were good, I do like the "Battle tracks" they had. I really did not like the dragon sound effects.

Character 4: The guy is just a badass from start to finish.. no real development up until the two war maidens worked together.

Enjoyment 4: Meh. It wasn't the worse I ... saw, some episodes were better than others.

Overall 5: I think its a fair score, since there wasn't much out of it.

Thank you for taking the time and reading this :)
Hope it helped if not feel free to msg me :D

Don't know if this is knew or not but let's have a review about it for those that have not encountered this disaster, and so, I may help and perhaps save lives by warning them this should be avoided.

Well, it's not really that bad. I'm just being dramatic.
If you are around, maybe, 1 - 10 ~ 12 years old, you may like this series, but I really doubt it
Though I'm not saying everybody has the same taste as me, but you know were I'm getting at.

There be dragons. Yes, Yes.
And really, It annoys me that they incorporate such magnificent fictional beast , in the hopes ... that an added species could save this wreck of a series.
(btw, mind the exaggerations)

So I continue,
There be swords, archery, castles, and kings, of course,
And territory issues, wars,
But nope, this is no Game of thrones
heh, comparing any media to G.O.T. is no justice of course.

And like any other,
one dude, many gals
one gal worth mentioning, very powerful, strong.
The dude, is weak, and that gal, strong.
Strong and weak.
But eventually, things starts happening, that'd change the favor of the dude.
And that gal, I don't know about her.
She's like unbelievable.
Unreal.
It just isn't possible.
She is a leader see, of soldiers, that cares about reputation, and strategical
But acts like a cheerleader
Right? right?
She's like a schezo....
And the duded mentioned, is like a rock. heh.
There no redeeming character about him.
So ordinary, plain.
And soooooo sssssTTTTUpid.
You know, someone that goes charging.
An archer that'd expose his position when attacks the enemies. arrgh!

And one thing I noticed, is that this is slow.
Not the events, but the moving of the story.
There are a lot of fights, winds, clashes.
And so due to that, the story became slower. and it'd take loads of episodes for you to notice it's moving.
You probably know what i mean.

But I like the part when they'd show us the past events, when a character is thinking about it,
related to the current situation, of course.
It'd be good, if only they haven't done it so many times.
One after another, they'd show a character's memory, so there is a greater chance you'd get disoriented, as I am.

In summary, it's just too childish. The lady leader may say things resembling to a strategical conversation, but I tell you, as a whole, it just doesn't make sense, since from the start it's what it is, and so no matter how much they show their intelligence, the story just isn't.

Story:
The story won't be anything new; it's your typical powerful main character surrounded by other women that fight alongside him. Unfortunately, it also doesn't have a new thing that stands out that would cause one to desire to watch the series, unless you're into that certain trope. The story was predictable if you've seen anime similar to this. The ending of the anime was a bit sudden as well and it didn't give the audience much time to realize that it ended. The "final boss" of the series was also kinda lackluster, in my opinion.

Art:
The art was very nice. The color palette ... for the characters were quite nice on the eyes and if CGI was used, it was hardly noticeable. I especially like the character designs.

Character:
The characters were alright; they follow many of the trope that are already present and aren't too memorable. The main character mainly remained flat in terms of character development throughout the series until near the end. Near the end, he did undergo a slight bit of development, but aside from that, the characters of the series hardly change. But despite that, they weren't bad characters you couldn't stand. Nor were they outstanding, though.

Enjoyment:
I personally did not enjoy it, because the concept has been done many times before. If you like anime similar to this, you'll probably like it and get a kick out of it. But I personally did not like it.

Overall:
The concept has been done before and nothing too new can be seen in this series. The series had nice art, character designs, and production overall. But in terms of plot, character development, originality and such, this series is passable and forgettable.

Madan no Ou to Vanadis is an anime that had all the pieces to create an excellent anime but clearly failed due to lack of budget and and a rushed adaptation. On top of that, the "narrator" that the anime makes use of to explain strategy and battle situations in every episode was extremely annoying and detached you from the fantasy the anime created. The only reason the narrator was remotely necessary was because of just how rushed the anime was as the anime did't have time to "show" the strategy or what took place between episodes and had to resort to "telling" instead.

{Story} - ... The idea behind Vanadis is probably one of its strongest areas and it could have been developed into something great. Unfortunately being only a one cour anime, everything was extremely rushed and the story felt disjointed and very shallow. There were many references to characters in the story that never appear due to time constraints or are given extremely limited (literally one scene) appearances. Ultimately while the story had promise it failed to deliver a show that had you craving for the next episode due to its rushed pace.

{Art} - The art in Vanadis was pretty mediocre. With the quality of anime coming out these days, the bar is set pretty high and Vanadis didn't meet that expectation. There are a lot of clipped scenes, poor animation, and repeated scenes. The show only gave each war maiden one or two abilities and seeing those abilities repeated over and over every episode really draws away from the visual effect.

{Sound} - As with the art, the sound and music in the anime were pretty mediocre. Nothing stood out as a wow moment and the things that first caught your ear on their first use became very repetitive as the show made use of the same abilities and tactics time after time.

{Character} - As with the story, the characters in Vanadis had a lot of promise but they were severely hampered by the rushed pace and short anime length. Some characters that were introduced were given zero time to show any character progression and others were introduced but the never followed up on. The anime supposedly has seven different war maidens but we're only introduced to six and only three are given any meangingful screen time. Even within those three, only two are really fleshed out as characters while the other one's reason for helping the main character's group is rather vague. Unfortunately what could have been a great story with great characters fell flat due to the extremely rushed pace.

{Enjoyment} - The anime left a lot to be desired. Unlike many great anime that I have watched, I didn't feel the need to watch the next episode right away. I even forgot I was watching the anime for a few days before seeing a picture of the main character online. Again, the anime had a lot of potential but ultimately fell flat and the enjoyment level really suffered from this. I still did enjoy it while I was watching it but it never left me wanting more.

{Overall} - Overall I gave this anime a 5/10 - one of the lowest scores I've given out on my animelist and in a review. The pacing and rushed feeling in Vanadis was such a huge detractor from the anime that I could never really enjoy it. There were a few bright spots in the anime but even those were rushed and pushed aside to hurry to the next plot point of the anime.

Recently I found myself thinking back to shows I have seen in the past that took place in times of war. That left me wanting to see something similar again and I have to say Madan no Ou to Vanadis most certainly caught me a little off guard. Admittedly that is more than likely because I didn't bother to look at the genre tags. All I did was look at some of the pictures and glanced the synopsis

Given how it starts off I was expecting it to be exactly what I was looking for and while we do get that for sure, there is certainly ... some "Ecchi" and a whole lot more "Harem" throughout the short show.

I don't think that completely kills the show. It does still have some niceties about it, particularly in some of the characters themselves. Tigre himself might not seem like much at first glance but when the tough get going hes right there with them and I liked that. I was surprised the first few times when things happened as well. (Trying not to spoil here) He might have taken some heavy hits here and there but his brain as well as his precision with his weapon definitely don't make him one of those "ghostly" mains if you know what I mean

Similarly for Elen, I like that she was able to hold her own in her own way as well. The way it was done made it seem like they both contributed. I was very glad because I personally hate when a female lead who is portrayed as one who can contribute but is consistently shifted into the "damsel in distress" and starts screaming for her savior after her first attack. Some of the supporting cast made their own real impacts as well which is always a nice thing

I also won't hide the fact that this show actually made me do one of those "oh my that was unexpected" on a couple occasions that made me all hyped. Never thought I'd be saying that about this one.

Although Madan no Ou to Vanadis probably wont be one of those that really make you want to go watch it again and again over the years I do think its a good few hours away from reality that will keep you decently entertained. Ecchi and Harem aspects are just a bonus if you like those sort of things.

I actually enjoying this anime anime a lot. It is not exactly special, and it ends a bit inconclusively (it is almost as if there was supposed to be a second season), but somehow it reminded me of Spice And Wolf (although Spice and Wolf was better), and I found it to be a bit calm and relaxing. However, due to fairly high body count in battles, blood and occasional dismemberment, I'm not sure if that's what creators were trying to do.

Detailed breakdown below.

Story (6/10):
It is a one long storyline, speaking about a small kingdom and its ruler who is an archer of godly skill. ... One things go after another, and story follows the kingdom and characters go through series of battles and conflicts. Those battles and conflicts are portrayed indifferently, and the narrative often takes step back to describe battle details, or to explain some bits of the lore. IN a sense, it is a bit similar to what Youjo Senki were trying to do with its strategic maps, however, in Youjo Senki political and strategic episodes felt forced, boring and out of place, and here they're interesting to watch. Overall, it almost looks like a medieval slice of life road trip kind of story, even similar to spice of wolf (although spice and wolf was more dramagic and spent more time discussing economics). Which is - if you think about it - a bit weird, because there are battles and quite a lot of unnamed warriors die in the background. Still I found the story interesting, aside from that one place where it suddenly pulled 5 deus ex machinas in the row.

Art (5/10):
Average or slightly above it. Colorful backgrounds and characters, drawn in modern anime style (triangular faces and stuff). Level of detail is a bit low, but not as bad as in, say.... "Taimadou Gakuen 35" or Mahouka.There's quite a lot of CG being used - for battles, armies, etc, mostly it does not stand out too much, but there was that one scene where I seriously wondered what the heck is that CG soldier doing in background. So, art works for the anime, and it isn't horrible. Characters are visually/cutish side as well.

Sound(5/10):
It is good overall, and there's medieval tune that plays at the end of every episode during preview... which I liked a lot. However, on occasion the anime started played some soundtrack that felt seriously out of place, mostly during battles. That one was annoying.

Characters(5/10):
Because the anime appears to be trying to display events from a bit of distant perspective, they're not very well portrayed, and do not have much opportunity to display their individual traits. Villains were a bit too far into "cliche villain" territory and were annoying. Protagonist and his companions are portrayed a bit better, but they're somehow displayed in almost neutral fashion, barely getting any chance to display their personalities. I mean they show their quirk or two from time to time, but you don't get attached to characters, and don't feel very compelled to sympathize with them. You jsut sorta watch the story unfold on a big scale. The only thing of note is that Main Heroine's character is very similar to that of Medaka from Medaka's Box. And that's about it. Characters aren't horrible, but it feels like they could use more effort.

Enjoyement (6/10):
I liked it due to the a bit calm of atmosphere which reminded me of Spice and Wolf. However, given amount of battles, this may not be what the anime was supposed to be, so your mileage may wary.

Bottom Line:

I'd say it is worth checking out if you have the time, or want some sort of medieval world which is not heavily magical and which is not another "we're now a computer game" kind of story. Basically - a more serious kind of settings than, say the one in KonoSuba. If you pick it up you'll see battles, kingdoms, occasional maps discussing some strategic moves, and few light jokes. Occasionally aniem tried to get tragic and serious, but didn't succeed much at it (although results weren't cringe-worthy either).

You decide if this is what you want or not. Although this title is no masterpiece, I enjoyed it.

The main character, Lord Tvrunefureuyrwouewourdhflpuiodsfyuoduf or something, is essentially Legolas but with red hair, including the ability to rapid fire and multi-shot perfectly aimed arrows at essentially any distance. Despite that, his side immediatley loses the battle they're in and he is captured by the enemy cosplay fetish porn star, errr...war maiden. She immediately falls in love with Lord Taurtysiaufhtisudhtuish at first sight, only slightly complicated by him being her prisoner, but not really since the hentai cosplayer treats him as an honored guest with complete freedom to do whatever he wants.

The show then immediately provides a plot device to conveniently erase any ... resentment between their two forces from the prior battle, which is completely forgotten and forgiven, because plot.

Having now become instantaneous allies against all reason, and with Lord Tuutreoutioeouiuytiouyt somehow in charge of their alliance despite still technically being either the magical porn girl's prisoner and/or vassal and/or property (they're kind of inconsistent here), they face off against the ridiculous and over the top irrationally evil villian characters who are really just evil because they're evil. No explanation given or needed, apparently. Later, there is an unnecessary twist in ep 11 that makes no sense, but I guess they lost track of how to actually end the story.

Despite insurmountable odds, they surmount them using large doses of extremely convenient lucky breaks, enemy idiocy, and massive plot armor. Powerful enemies are shamefully used merely as plot devices to showcase how strong the heroes are, but actually just show how stupid the enemies are for throwing away their best forces.

Also, there is boobs. Lots of them. Lots of huge boobs are standard in any military drama, I think.

For a b-tier harem anime, the art is quite good and the animating is of surprisingly high quality. The plot has moments of brilliance, but mostly it's just enough to piss you off that the rest is so disappointing.

It's hard to write a review from this one because there is not much to comment, is not a flawless show but a good show in general, not incredibly original but I quite enjoyed i.

Nice characters good sound a quite a good art for 2014, It's not a show that I'll put personally on must watch list but... if you have nothing to do give it a try. I have read that there is maybe a season 2 in 2021 since it was a promo for a product, and a lot of people liked the show in general.

One of this shows that even if I ... don't have any complains, is hard to praise... an enjoyable one nontheless.

Get ready for the most milk-toast, cliche harem anime you have ever seen. If you have seen 1 harem, you have seen this one. This anime is incredibly generic and predictable that it is painful. I'm only giving it 6's because objectively that is what it is. These characters are so bland and predictable that you will probably be able to guess what each character is going to say before they even say it. If you're in the mood to be bored, then watch this anime. If I were you, I'd just re-watch the York-New arc of Hunter x Hunter, because that is just Soooo ... much better. This anime isn't bad, though. If you are in the mood for that boring ecchi harem, then by all means this is a perfect choice. But I don't see why you would be in the mood for that, and there are way more entertaining ecchi harems out there. Wait, I have one more burn and then I am done with my review. If each anime had a color, this one's would beige. Alright, goodnight everyone