Review of Vermeil in Gold
Like many of the degenerates reading this review, I saw an Ecchi tag slapped onto the poster of a demon succubus lady and went straight in for the fun times. While I won’t lie to you and pretend this show is not filled with pointless fan service, let’s be real with ourselves, the fan service is the only thing stopping this show from getting dropped by every anime enjoyer. And although I didn’t feel the need to wipe my memory after finishing the season, let’s dive into how incredibly lazy writing makes this show completely forgettable. VERMEIL AND ALTO - Even while ignoring the creepy agegap, there’s still a lot wrong with these 2 characters.
It’s pretty clear that the meat on the bones of the show come from our 2 main characters, Vermeil the Demon and Alto Goldfield the Human. Vermeil begins this show with one purpose only, to provide lots of hot fan service for the average teenage boy. I’ve seen a lot of people describe her in different ways… some of them didn’t even bother with words as the tent pitched in their pants said enough. I don’t care much for reviewing Ecchi quality, so I’ll summarize her as a “big titty Ara Ara Onee-san” who pushes the show dangerously close to hentai territory. But the cool thing about Vermeil is that she does get some respectable character development in later episodes! A far cry from top-tier waifus like Rem, Zero-Two, Megumin, and others, but enough to keep me mildly interested.
Alto, on the other hand, wins the award for being the blandest MC this season. Love them or hate them, every other MC of Summer 2022 has at least some distinguishing traits that make them stick out. However, Alto Goldfield is the perfect example of the strong-willed young hero cliche. He always sticks to his principles, which conveniently, never really get challenged. His motivation to face obstacles consists entirely of wanting to be the best at magic (for god knows what reason). And, of course, his lack of self-confidence makes him completely oblivious to people’s feelings toward him. If that sentence didn’t give it away… yes, he has a childhood friend romantically interested in him and he has no fucking clue.
Having a boring protagonist is not always a problem, especially for Ecchi shows. But if you’re gonna make the main focus of the show be the relationship between the main characters, have some more complicated dynamics besides makeout scenes and steamy “mana sharing” that land Vermeil on the FBI watchlist.
THE WORLD OF MAGIC - Hey, author? You know you’re supposed to fill in the writing template… right?
Something that always bothers me in Fantasy shows is when the magic is never properly explained. I’m not asking for a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation, a 10-page essay, or 3 characters who provide narration over every fight. All I want is some fucking inkling of how magic in this world works. Because when I don’t understand how things work, I don’t understand just how hard it is for characters to make things work. If some elaborate fight scene against an OP villain happens, how am I supposed to know this person is OP besides “haha, funny colors go brrrrrrr”. If Alto and Vermeil pull off some revolutionary shit, its impact is never felt since the only indication I have are random background characters going “wow, that’s so cool” then never mentioning the event again.
Don’t even get me started on how little effort the show puts into the world itself. Its tier list of magic is basically ripped from “Mairimashita! Iruma-kun”, the other school and societies of magic are worthless to the story, and I’m under the strong impression that the Student Council has more power than some governments. Overall, the world our characters live in is so filled with holes that ignoring it is the better option than trying to understand it.
VILLAINS - It’s crazy how this show went 0/3 with its antagonists.
“Vermeil in Gold” has some terrible villains, and once again its lazy writing is to blame. Without spoiling anything, here is a quick summary of each antagonist Vermeil and Alto have directly taken on. Villain 1 has an inflated ego that doesn’t match their skill, resulting in them getting humbled pretty quickly. Villain 2 is supposed to be a surprise twist, but there are so many obvious signs that I was hoping it would be a “you thought they were a villain but they weren’t” moment. Sadly, I was disappointed. Villain 3 is the worst of the lot, with absolutely no reason for doing what they do besides being inexplicably mentally unstable and finding bad things fun.
FINAL VERDICT - Unless you came just for Ecchi, “Vermeil in Gold” won’t satisfy any of your anime cravings.
I would recommend trying out “Mairimashita! Iruma-kun” if you want a good show about a boy attending magic school, or watching “Muma no Machi Cornelica” if mommy succubus dominates little boy is the kick you get from “Vermeil in Gold”.