[Anime Review] Vermeil in Gold - Came For the Ecchi but Found a Beautifully Flawed Gem

I don’t know if I can fully be objective with this series. I watched this the first time several months back, yet found myself thinking about it every few days since that first viewing. Welcome to my review of Vermeil in Gold, an Anime that I have fallen in love with. Let’s jam!!!

Source - HiDIVE Official Promotional Art

The premise for this was another fairly simple and straightforward one: Alto Goldfield, a young mage at Ortigia Magic Academy, was desperate to finally obtain a familiar. If he didn’t have one of his own by the next day (from the beginning of the first episode), he would be required to repeat his grade; future classes and magical society were dependent on them. In a bout of pure coincidence, an ancient tome written in a lost language fell in his proverbial lap. Within it was a single summoning circle of questionable origins and, like any other impulsive teenager, he decided to use it. Much to his surprise, the big breasted, violet haired Devil of Calamity / Succubus, Vermeil, came forth to become his familiar.

Not to my own surprise, I was uncomfortable at first with how she and him formed their contract and shared each other’s powers: the age difference between both her and him aside (almost 600 years and counting), she would drain his mana by kissing him and sexually teasing him against his will. It was very much your standard fanservicey older woman loves performing Shouta (female pedophilia term) type affair that was often found in Ecchi’s of this particular ilk. Then, the first arc ended and a question was asked: “Can you love and accept someone born differently than you that you were raised to fear?” Most of this series directly explored that question through a Beauty and the Beast style romance that I found myself supporting by the end. I won’t spoil the specifics of where it went with that journey but will strongly urge you to stop reading this and go watch the 12 episode season before continuing if these two paragraphs sound up your alley.

These next few paragraphs, I will be discussing various aspects of the presentation that many of you will probably not agree with. Again, it’s going to be difficult to be fully objective about things because much of what I loved about this are considered poor quality or generic among the general fandom. This was not from a studio that had the resources or experience to make a polished, “modern” production that was the standard for 2022, the year this came out. The animation and visuals are where I’ll start my critique.

A brief bit of history about me: the Atari 2600 was still a somewhat relevant gaming console when I was born. I am in my 30s and my perspective is from a different era than most people that are going to watch this. I bring this up because the way this looked and felt was the best part of the experience for me. This series IS a Sony PlayStation 1 generation video game brought to life.

Taken from Episode 2

The reasons I called it that are as follows: 1) the backgrounds and foregrounds were mostly prerendered, rustic paintings with extensively detailed and sharply defined digital models overlaid on them; 2) lower resolution 3D objects and props were used in a multitude of scenes, but unlike in Scum’s Wish (another series with a somewhat similar visual sensibility), they were shaded and sculpted to be a mediator between both, allowing them to feel a part of the setting yet still distinct enough to notice how the animators created them; 3) facial expressions, body humor and transitions between scenes all were of the very Saturday morning 90s cartoon feel that many games from that generation partially emulated but worked around with various shortcuts due to the hardware limitations. What I’m attempting to say: the animators went for a timeless retro video game style for the visuals and they accomplished it proficiently. I think this series is gorgeous but know many of you will not enjoy it. It’s objectively old and no longer technologically reasonable to use when modern techniques could make everything look “better.”

This wasn’t the only area where there was this older feel: much of the musical score was classically inspired. There was a heavy usage of electronica infused Mozart style piano play and technofunk puckish, playful woodwind orchestrations typically found in its fairy tale contemporaries. During the Ecchi, kinky moments where Vermeil would “mount” Alto, a single raspy “Can you feel it” vocal accompanied water submerged bell added the spice. On their own, most of the soundtrack wouldn’t be anything special but as a complete package with all other elements, it added another layer to identity of this work that would be sorely missed by me if omitted.

I would be remiss to not move into “Abracada-boo” - Kaori Ishihara (the opening) and “Mortal with You” - Mili (exercise caution when viewing this ending), the two bookends to each episode. The former was an optimistic declaration of the themes of unconditional and unwavering pure romantic love while casually showing off the entire main cast to a 90s style dance number. The illustrations used in it were exactly what you could expect from your first time and, in my personal opinion, can be viewed safely by those that are afraid of being heavily spoiled. Without context, what was shown of the plot and characters wouldn’t make much sense. The latter was in service of the entire plot, character reveals and more mature themes on display; it was also completely in English with lyrics and visuals directly related to the final two episodes of this first season.

My first watch was with the English Dub selected. This rewatch, the original Japanese. I love both and would recommend either to anyone interested. They approached the material and characters in different but equally valid ways. Sentai’s dub had a sexy, Harry Potter film without the European accents feel to it. The original Japanese went for a pornographic, soap opera mahou shoujo vibe. I was shocked at how close Alto’s and Vermeil’s casting were in both in terms of who brought their lines to life.

Taken from Episode 5

I preferred Alto’s very thirsty and overtly somewhat psychotic childhood friend, Lilia, in the Japanese for how wild her antics were. See the study session (Episode 5) scene shown above for an example of such. She and Marx, the obviously gay rival stereotype, were the sources of much laughter for me, although, he was mostly better in the dub. The Japanese VA played him dry and straight, clashing with the gags he was a part of while the dub went full ham with it (by using a somewhat higher pitched, nasally voice reminiscent of Mamaru Miyano’s red frizzly haired Berg Katze in Gachaman Crowd’s Japanese release).

That transitions nicely into how I felt about the characters as a whole: outside of Vermeil and Alto’s budding romance, there wasn’t much character progression for the rest of the cast. It wasn’t necessary; most of them were well realized, complete people with established interpersonal relationships by their official introductions. Cheryl and Marx were a precious pair; despite being his family maid, their Darma and Greg shpeal was a treat, predominantly when both were the mutually exclusive butt monkeys of background jokes (which I would highly recommend having the English subtitles on to receive the biggest impacts of). Restraint is often my downfall and there’s around 2000 more words waiting to come forth.

An early specific example of the style of visual characterization on display every where (from Episode 3 or 4): Rex, after being defeated and hospitalized, was shown building dinosaur models and reading books on Paleontology, representing his familiar and interests. None of these were particularly deep or nuanced but taking the time to show mundane details like such was miles more than most Anime do, so I’ll gladly take them. Don’t get me started on the library books and shelves in Alto’s room.

Source (lots of spoilers here)

Now comes everyone’s favorite part of these: the dumpster fire that didn’t affect my experience but will most likely make this less enjoyable for you. For starters, the magic system and how the society worked in this setting both were extremely generic and done substantially better in other properties. This was initially a paint by numbers power fantasy with many of the trappings of the typical seasonal schlock. Anyone that dropped this afterthe first three episodes barely missed out on what really defined this.

Fights between students were numerous, with many reused animations, skills and tactics, making them some of the least interesting elements of the episodes they appeared in. I’d personally argue that by doing such and quickly finishing with the most powerful win conditions, they never got in the way of what I really was engaged by: the character dynamics, social commentary on various different real world topics, and the core romance, but I digress. I could also see the villains leaving much to be desired (they barely had any screen time and could easily become grating for certain audiences). If you come away from Episode 5 not enjoying the Minion, the Big Bad that made his move in Episode 10 won’t change your mind on their inclusion. There was also a reveal in the latter half that came out of nowhere that could be viewed as horribly contrived and nonsensical if a future Season 2 doesn’t embellish on the meaning of it well enough. I found it to be hilarious, especially on this second watch, but “comedy is subjective” and black comedy (this reveal) ruins entire civilizations, ya know.

My Closing Thoughts

Whenever Season 2 gets announced, I will anxiously be waiting for this to come back on air. Have you seen this? What were your thoughts? If you enjoyed this, feel free to vote, reblog and reply below. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful night.

Important Information

• Based on a manga series written by Kōta Amana and illustrated by Yōko Umezu
• Studio: Staple Entertainment
• Genres: Power Fantasy, Romance, Comedy, Ecchi, Magic High School, Drama
• Seasons / Episodes: Summer 2022 (12 Episodes)
• Streaming on: HiDIVE
• Similar Recommended Content: Elfen Lied (for likened yet more extreme themes and “artistic” presentation); The Familiar of Zero (for being a pure, classic Ecchi Isekai Comedy earlier prototype of this premise)