During France’s Hundred Years’ War with England, Montmorency, the son of a noble, immerses himself in the study of magic and alchemy at a school for knights. However, after France’s defeat at Agincourt, the school is disbanded and Montmorency is forced to flee. While on the run he meets a miraculous village girl named Jeanne. – ANN
Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation
Episodes: 12
Source: Novels
Episode Summary: Montmorency, along with his friends Richemont, Charlotte, and Philip, attend a school for the children of nobles. The backdrop of their carefree school days is the Hundred Year War between France and England. Though they all realize that their friendship will likely come to an end as their families take their places within each faction of the conflict, right now they choose to cling to them as a last bastion of innocent joy. Montmorency has taken it upon himself to try to learn alchemy in order to protect the lives of his friends, but his “master,” a mysterious old alchemist named Nicholas Flamel, is unwilling to train him in this dark art.
Eventually Richemont is called away to join her family in fighting the English, while Philip returns to her father, who has allied with England. Montmorency, realizing that he cannot change things through his own physical power, chooses to enter into a pact with the devil. He summons a fairy named Astaroth, who instructs him in concocting the “Elixir.” Imbibing the elixir will allow him to join with the Philosopher’s Stone (a relic from his family) and gain immense power. He realizes, after what he believes is an unsuccessful attempt at distilling this concoction, that 7 years have now passed.
Impressions: Jeanne d’Arc has always been an interesting historical figure to me. For the longest time she was elevated as a prime example of women who made their mark in history – one of the very few in the traditional Western canon to have done so. Praised for her piety and dedication to protecting her own virginity, she was, as so many outspoken and powerful women were during those times, eventually burned as a heretic. Thinking about her now, I can see the very flawed nature of her continued afterlife as a token female historical figure. Her notability seems tied to her ability to thrive within a very masculine-coded mode of power – leading armies into war while upholding Western religious ideals. She also escapes the “typical” downfall of women by eschewing sexuality. If you’re not familiar with the virgin/whore dichotomy, it’s a mode of thinking about women that divides them into two mutually-exclusive categories – the “pure” madonna-like virgin, protector of society’s morality, and the sexually-available, morally-questionable whore archetype (prostitutes, unmarried sexually-active women, etc.). In her early death, Jeanne exists as forever untainted, unlike the majority of women who eventually had sexual intercourse, bore children, and generally lived their very average lives (which were likely not entirely focused around worshiping the Christian version of God). You know, things that constituted the maintenance of daily life and which were considered uninteresting to male historians constructing and maintaining the historical canon.
Having said all that, the titular Jeanne d’Arc actually plays no role in the introductory episode of this anime. Rather, the story seems more focused around a young man whose actions are motivated by a protective instinct toward the pseudo-harem of young women that surround him. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it seems like Montmorency (whose physical prowess is vastly outclassed by his interest in magic and alchemy) has his heart in the right place and genuinely cares about his female friends. His goal seems simply to maintain his (pre-pubescent, non-sexual) relationship with the young women in his class. The women are also female versions of real noblemen from our actual historical timeline – while gender-swapping characters or figures isn’t always done with the best of intentions, at least there’s an effort to create some different gender balance in the cast mix.
On the other hand, titling an anime with a woman’s name and then making it about a man’s adventures is the kind of bait-and-switch that really gets my goat. Obviously this is something that could change in subsequent episodes; once Jeanne arrives in episode 2 (promised in the preview at the end of this episode) the actual plot could have a completely different focus. But the first episode is very much about the women Montmorency interacts with, through his eyes and perception. When he believes Richemont has been killed in battle, it’s his man-pain that finally inspires him to break all taboos and attempt forbidden alchemy (rewarding him with a sexy female fairy friend in the process). It’s not difficult to see who the protagonist is meant to be, and it’s not the historical figure with whom we’re familiar.
If it weren’t apparent through character interactions what the intent of the series was, it’s pretty clear once we start talking about some of the visual elements. The costumes that the women (especially Richemont and Charlotte) wear are 1.) not historical (not a big deal, but worth pointing out) and 2.) not practical. Richemont in particular exists at the intersection of unrealistic (for men or women) physical strength and sexy fetish costuming that ultimately ends up damaging the perception of seriousness of her character’s situation. She wears bright pink armor into battle, drawing undue attention to herself as she rides her horse across the gray and gritty landscape. Her existence, as well as that of some of the other characters, just creates what feels like a conflict of intent, causing the final product to feel muddied.
For all the episode’s many problems, I did find some of the visual framing to be memorable. This isn’t a technically-pretty anime by any means; like many anime it seems to have not been given a high priority or enough resources to be crisp, clean, or consistent in the animation department. But there were a couple of stand-out images that surprised me as “better-than-basic.” There’s a scene where a messenger on horseback is racing toward a mansion up on a hill. As the camera pans upwards the many different layers of distant background elements seem to dance with one-another to convey a sense of 3 dimensions. It might not entirely be accurate to life, but it was pretty striking. The other scene I found memorable occurs when Montmorency reaches the battlefield where Richemont was either killed or taken hostage (based on the key art and actual historical context, I assume it’s the latter). He finds her sword shattered to pieces on the muddy ground, and his reflection in the blade conveys his shock. It’s absolutely not groundbreaking, but probably more inspired than I would have expected from a series that’s clearly dealing with various identity and purpose issues.
This first episode is mildly interesting for its different take on a fairly eventful time period in Europe’s history. I don’t, however, have any illusions that it’s up to the task of addressing some of the meatier ideas it might present just as a consequence of its setting and the gender arrangement of its characters. Anime, and media in general, doesn’t have a great track record of talking about women’s sexuality in a focused or meaningful way; even Maria the Virgin Witch, set in the same time-period and dealing with that subject matter directly, for as good as it is often feels uncomfortable in its own skin. Positioning Jeanne d’Arc, whose representation of this subject has a lot of baggage in the first place, as a focal point really just makes me feel wary about the whole product. Its setup as a low-key harem anime that, while not something that interests me in the first place, also divorces it further from any meaningful message it might have.
Ultimately, I don’t think I can recommend this simply because its potential to go off the rails is too great for its own good. I’m always willing to be proven wrong, but I think that’s something I’ll let others do through their writing rather than me through mine.
Pros: There’s some good visual framing in a few scenes, which adds some interest.
Cons: The titular character doesn’t appear in the first episode; the story seems more focused on a male protagonist. The historical figure in question comes with a lot of baggage. Women’s costuming is fetishy and out-of-place.
Grade: C-