Vermeil In Gold
2 Discs Blu-ray (Distributor: MVM) Running time: 297 minutes approx. (Cert 15)
Release Date: March 16th
At the risk of sounding spurious, there appears to be an unwritten rule in manga/anime which says if you can’t create something original, sex it up. For example, the harem comedy wouldn’t still be a thing if the girls hadn’t become more lewd over the years. The same applies to the fantasy genre.
Young mage Alto Goldfield is a first year student at Ortigia Academy of Magic, with high marks in every subject except for summoning. On the verge of repeating the year, Alto is given one last chance to summon and connect with a familiar. Whilst practising in the school library, a book falls on him that just happens to be full of old spells, so Alto gives one a try and viola – a naked demon appears before him.
Named Vermeil, she kisses Alto, draining him of his magic then vows to serve as his familiar out of gratitude for freeing her from incarceration after two hundred years. Whilst happy to have finally summoned something, Alto rejects Vermeil’s sexual advances but finds they must still kiss in order for he to restore or boost his magic. Working together, Alto hopes to become the strongest mage in the Academy, whilst keeping Vermeil’s identity as a demon a secret.
Go on, admit it – I had you at “naked demon” and I’m sure you are not alone either. But is it enough to keep you watching for twelve episodes? That is for you alone to answer whereas I am obliged to do so for review purposes. Not that Vermeil is naked for the whole run, just quite a lot but nothing explicit either, which probably cuts interest by about 50%. The rest of the time she is either squeezed into a dress too small for her or with her cleavage on full display from being unable to button her blouse due to her mountainous mammaries.
That is the soft sell, here comes the hard sell. Vermeil In Gold is adapted from the manga by Kota Amana which begin in 2018 and still ongoing, explaining the flaccid ending to this series, made in 2022. I may have been flippant about relying on fan service to hide weaknesses in my opening paragraph but by the end of the first episode, I’m sure you’ll be agreeing with me. From the basic premise to the terminology of “mana”, “familiars”, “mage” etc. originality is at a premium here, which is as fair as I can be about it.
For example, Alto is a Milquetoast lead with an inexplicable female following at the school, led by his oldest friend Lilia Kudelfeyt, whose raison d’etre is to be jealous of Vermeil despite he early conceding of their relationship as master and familiar. Whilst I am on the subject of the familiar, they cease to be of any importance after the third episode with the exception of our main pairing, partly because Vermeil is the only familiar in human form and partly due to lazy writing.
Not much happens at first apart from Vermeil trying to seduce Alto and he turning heads in the tiny black dress that Alto gave her belonging to his sister that he happens to have in his room for reason not explored; suffice to say, it isn’t tiny on Altos sister. Their first feud comes in the form of the Dragonriders, so called as their familiars appear on TV looking to invest money in new businesses. Okay not really, but Vermeil sending a dragon flying with a simple flick to the nose leads to Alto fighting the squads leader Chris, in a high stakes duel.
During this we learn that Vermeil can share her mana with Alto via kissing to give him a boost and stand firm against any opposition; They can also combine their powers which somehow doesn’t involve full intercourse (but it would if Vermeil had her way). At least this sets us up for the remainder of the series, or it would if there was a focused direction for it. The next few episodes suddenly switch to the mysterious attacks on young girls that have been occurring for awhile but only now are discussed.
Except we know who the culprit is from the outset and it takes one more episode to defeat him. The conclusion does reveal to us Vermeil’s scary and powerful demon form (her boobs are bigger too), which feels like something that should have been saved for the final chapters, if only the scripting wasn’t so wilfully haphazard and unfocused. Then in episode seven, we meet the actual antagonists of the story, Iolite and Heliodor, a warlock and witch respectively, intent on destroying the world because reasons.
Seriously, they have no other outlined motive other than “because”. How are we supposed to have any feeling of fear of resentment towards them if we don’t know their agenda? They just show up, cause havoc then disappear during the final episode, hence the deflating ending. Maybe the manga offers a deeper look into these characters and their objectives, which is no good for the anime only audiences.
Really, the best part of the whole run is the penultimate episode which flashbacks to Vermeil’s childhood, and even then it is lacking in fresh material but at least it has heart and does more in one episode to endear Vermeil to us as a wrongly maligned demon than her lustful, top heavy adult self does in the other eleven. Whilst the visuals courtesy of Staple Entertainment are consistent throughout, this chapter feels the most engaging and emotionally atmospheric.
Vermeil In Gold is earnest, I’ll give it that but it can’t compensate for being almost egregiously derivative and soulless in throwing a lot of ideas together and hoping the ribald fan service will suffice in holding interest. The story is half finished here which won’t matter, as nothing makes us care enough to want to stick around for more. Come for the boobs, stay for the boobs.
Extras:
Japanese Language 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
English Subtitles
English Language 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
English HOH Subtitles
Disc 2:
Clean Opening Animation
Clean Closing Animation
Japanese TV Spots
Disc Credits
Rating – ** ½
Man In Black
