I do like my fantasy animes and don’t mind it when they mix it up with some history. Or use history as a basis to create a fantasy world. However, there are some that comes off more as a comedy than a fantasy/history one.

Since I haven’t done a first impression post, you can get the synopsis by following this link off site.

When I was first introduced to Montmorency, he came off as a wimp. Useless and just sticks his head in books all day, whilst ignoring the female characters around (also his harem) – who blatantly have romantic feelings for him. But he refuses to acknowledge or address their unrequited feelings, because plot sake. So fast forwarding to the final episode, do I think he’s still a wimp and useless?. I would say he has gone up a notch, but not by much. As he did get some development around the midway point of the series. However, even then I never really felt all that attached to him or anything, this could boil down to his personality being, well bland – despite he being loosely based off of one of Frances most well known child killers – Gilles de Rais. Ulysses does a weird thing of keeping his real name not being mentioned that often – hardly if anything. And I suspect because of this particular reason.

Montmorency & Joan d’Ark – Our two main leads

Joan d’Arc. The titular character of the series. Joan is a sweet, naïve, innocent girl (or loli), who almost dies but got saved by Montmorency, by having her swallow one half of the philosophers stone. This in turn gives her the powers of a Ulysses; super speed, strength agility etc. Fortunately, there is a 3 minute time limit in keeping Joan from being too overpowered. To activate this mode..requires a baiser – in English it means kiss. In being a Ulysses, Joan has another personality emerge. A confidant fighter, that leads the battlefield. With Joan, I didn’t feel anything towards her at all (a pattern might be emerging). A very typical bratty little girl. That’s all I got from her. She maybe got a little development at the start, but her super sweet & sugary personality, can be way too much – certainly is for me. She quickly became quite stagnant. Basically, whenever things about to go down, she bails the French people out. There is one little character though.

A cute fairy – Astaroth

Montmorency interactions with Astaroth is only what kept him mildly interesting. I really like Astaroth, she had this spunky attitude which kept Montmorency on his toes. However, she never really got any development or gave any real reasons as to why she was around. All she did is instruct Montmorency in the use of the stone. Not much else. Which is a shame, as there was the potential to flesh out more of her back story – there was a brief moment when we did get a brief glimpse. However, it just went nowhere. And she isn’t the only one to have this issue.

As mentioned above, Montmorency had a small harem around him. And to be honest, they also suffered the same thing as Astaroth. Little development and just eye candy. Out of the three girls; Richemont is the only one that is the most developed. Philip is a close second, her back story with her father is an interesting one – too bad the show does not delve in to this and leaves it hanging. Charlotte got the least development – that I’m not too upset with.

From L-R: Richemont, Charlotte, Philip

As for the story. Holy geebus, was it a train wreck. It takes important parts of the war, and instead of trying to make it interesting. They made it boring and forgettable. I can’t remember what they were doing. They just went from one place to the next, facing off the English and fending them off. For the most parts, I was actually laughing at just how bad it is. Then they add this nonsense about the origins of stone, which felt well out of place. To conclude.

Ulysses: Joan d’Ark and the alchemist knight has an interesting premise’s; take some of the most well known historical items or a particular point in history and put a spin on it. However, the real issue is story telling and characters. Each of the characters just didn’t do enough, they were just out right bland. Real development went in to giving some of the female characters oversized busts and not where it should matter. Yeah, that’s what the show is more focused on, which one will be the best girl/ waifu. Sadly neither of them were.

It’s enjoyable if you want a good laugh, however as a fantasy anime. I’d avoid it.

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