10 Second Anime - Madan no Ou to Vanadis - Episode 1

Madan no Ou to Vanadis - Episode 1



Official Translation: Lord Marksman and Vanadis (literally: The Count of the Magic Bow Twang and the War Maiden) tells the story of a young count known for his amazing archery skills taken captive by one of the seven Vanadis, or War Maidens. War, Intrigue, and powerful, sexy young women are this show's major themes.

Heh.

Sticking Madan (魔弾) into a machine translator gives you "magic bullet," but you know that can't be right since we have an archer as the main character. The dan (弾) here doesn't mean the physical projectile, but the shooting of the projectile. It also means twang, flip, snap. Ma (魔) means "demon, witch, evil spirit," so it's more like the Duke, Earl, Count, whatever has a possessed bow twang. All this is pretty hard to translate the meaning into a title of a show.

In what looks like a main character eventually recruiting beautiful magical warriors into his harem, we start with the Best Girl in Eleonora. She captured him on the battlefield because she fell in love with his bow skills and his fighting spirit. But not him. Sure, we'll see about that. Eleonora's lieutenant, Limalisha, is already wary about how easily he's, ah, affected by Eleonora's womanly charms.

Hoh. Is Tigre a leg man?

Just talking in Eleonora's office turned into compelling television with these two young women in the room.

The world where all these battles are taking place reflects closely the feudal age and the rules of chivalry. The young Count Tigre may have been taken prisoner, but he's not in fear for his life. It's like he's the guest of another feudal lord as they work out whether his little fiefdom can pay his ransom or not. Eleonora made sure the asking price was way too high, because she wants to keep him as a retainer for her army. And he would stay too, because those are the rules, and Tigre would follow them to keep his honor.

Each of the Vanadis appear to have an affinity with some kind of ancient element. Eleonora's is the wind, which makes her very compatible with an archer who invokes the wind goddess Eris as he takes aim.

The humor and the characters are good-natured. Even the soldier who tried to play a prank on Tigre ends up shaving his head in penance and becoming his adjutant. Feudal times were kind of civilized, except for all the sudden death from arrows and swords.

Eleonora is awesome. She's got a pet dragon!



Geh.

The women are sexy. At least the ones we've been introduced to. Limalisha and Eleonora just keep your eyes glued to the screen.



She had quite the novel way of waking up a prisoner: stick a sword in his mouth. Tigre didn't seem too worried about it, though.

Eleonora knows how to keep Tigre's attention.

But let's not forget that she's a formidable War Maiden.



She likes riding. Horses, that is.

Hmm.

We've already been given hints about the intrigue surrounding the King of Tigre's domain and his seemingly harsh actions. Tigre's fief is far from the royal palace, so he doesn't know what's going on closer to the capital. The cliffhanger for the first episode is that his little fief of Alsace is going to be overrun by 3000 soldiers. Who is this Duke Thernardier and why is he invading? Tigre will have to pass through Eleonora first to find out.