Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc to Renkin no Kishi is based off a light novel series that is basically a fanfiction—shipping Jeanne d’Arc and *Gilles de Rais together. An alternate retelling of the Hundred Years’ War with many busty, bishōjo characters. While that may sound wretched to some, the designs were very visually appealing—but the farthest from ‘historically accurate’ as you could possible imagine. The author of ‘Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight’ also published another HISTORICALLY ACCURATE tome called ‘Oda Nobuna no Yabō,’ which revolves around an average high school student finding himself in an isekai situation, during the Sengokū era. Naturally, Oda Nobunaga is a tsundere loli in the light novel.
*The anime refers to him by his surname, Montmorency.
This review contains spoilers! You have been warned!
The characters aren’t the focus of the story, as much as the magical incorporation in the plot. Though there are a few character moments that I thought were endearing, such as (when asked to find where she hid Excalibur), Astaroth pretty much says, ‘How am I supposed to know? That was thousands of years ago!’ *Arthur de Richmond was pretty likable as well, but didn’t get enough screentime. The characters with the largest amount of focus were Montmorency, Jeanne d’Arc, *Philippe of Burgundy, and Astaroth.
*Changed from men to pretty women, of course!
This series doesn’t try to hide that it’s an ecchi. It’s mobile game formula of having the majority of the cast be curvy women is evidence of this. The episodic previews even talk about breasts or have lessons on how to say lewd things in French, including one of the most repeated words in the series: baiser (kiss). As a long-time otaku, I’m used to seeing bikini armor and cleavage everywhere, so it doesn’t bother me at all.
The animation is probably the weakest part of the series, the direction got really weird, too, because there is no fluidity between the frames and the animation clips or ‘slides’ around a lot. It is incredibly jarring. It’s no wonder though, the director of Berserk (2016)—Shin Itagaki, was the director of this series as well. And that series is infamous for scenes where Guts ‘slides’ across the screen. Because of the poor animation, *a dramatic scene where fairies are getting slaughtered is, instead, laughable.
*Episode 2: The Girl Called Jeanne (ジャンヌという少女)
The OST was really good. During the fight scenes, there would be high-intensity violin music (reminiscent of Lindsey Stirling) that would instantly amplify the hype for certain battles. The composer behind this great OST is none other than Taku Iwasaki, the genius behind the Mahōka Kōkō no Rettōsei. The ED song, performed by a Japanese musician that goes by the name ‘riono,’ was somber and contemplative; usually used to accent a cliffhanger at the end of particularly dramatic episodes. The paintings in the ED looked similar to Yoshitaka Amano’s art from the earlier Final Fantasy games, and gives the ED an ambience of otherworldly appeal.
* Mahōka Kōkō no Rettōsei (The Irregular at Magic High School) had a bumping soundtrack that intensified the absurdity of Tatsuya Shiba’s character.
A Condensed Version of the Plot and A Comparison to the Real Historical Narrative:
Plot: Montmorency performs a ritual, by selling his soul to *Astaroth, so that he can learn how to extract elixir from the Philosopher’s Stone. Astaroth tells him that he must swallow the stone to become a *Ulysses. The process does not go as plan and Montmorency is transported seven years into the future. After this point, Montmorency becomes infatuated with a twelve-year-old girl he meets (Jeanne d'Arc). She is mortally wounded by an English infantry after witnessing her fairy friends get brutally murdered. Montmorency saves her life by inserting half of the Philosopher’s Stone into her body, and then uses the other half to produce an elixir (via ‘exchanging saliva with her’).
*In this interpretation of her character, Astaroth is a fairy—instead of a demon—but this doesn’t break the continuity of the story because Montmorency mentions that demons and fairies are the same. *A Ulysses in this story is pretty much like a spiritually possessed super solider, my best guess is that the term is meant to reference the Odyssean hero, Ulysses.
The Philosopher’s Stone causes Jeanne to develop a split personality that is a vicious fighter in battle. With her new powers being witnessed in public, Montmorency spreads rumors that Jeanne is a virgin chosen by God to keep her from being tried as a heretic. To plot gets more convoluted when the gender-bent Philippe of Burgundy steals some of Montmorency’s elixir by suddenly kissing him. Montmorency devious cousin, La Trémoille, then seeks an inquisition to discredit Jeanne’s holiness.
Montmorency and Charlotte (a gender-bent version of Charles VII) refuse to let La Trémoille give Jeanne a *virginity test. As La Trémoille moves in with his forces to capture Jeanne, she transforms into her alternate personality in front of the crowd and this thwarts La Trémoille’s plans, convincing the town that Jeanne is actually a blessed savior. Meanwhile, Philippe puts on an ancient helmet. Using Montmorency’s elixir, she becomes a Dark Ulysses.
*A 15th century virginity test would be Jeanne getting raped.
During a battle in Orléans, Jeanne fights Philippe but Philippe pierces her heart with the *Lance of Longinus, created out of the elixir, and nearly kills Jeanne. Astaroth then tells Montmorency that the only way to save Jeanne would be to acquire Excalibur, another weapon forged from the Philosopher’s Stone. To receive Excalibur, he must ask his grandfather for troops to find the sword. His grandfather, Jean de Craon, agrees if Montmorency will marry his cousin, Catherine de Thouars—uniting two of the largest families in Brittany. Montmorency refuses because of his dedication to Jeanne, so Catherine de Thouars lies on his behalf—telling Jean de Craon that the two of them had spent a night together. Nicholas Flamel then warns Jean de Craon that Montmorency may become evil.
*Mentioned in the Gospel of John (19:31–37) as the lance that crucified Jesus Christ.
Astaroth leads them to Excalibur’s scabbard, where she reveals that she was also The Lady of the Lake that presented Excalibur to King Arthur. Montmorency then uses the scabbard and his elixir to heal Jeanne. Jeanne and Philippe face off again, shortly after her recovery. Philippe blindsides Jeanne by telling her that Montmorency had slept with Catherine de Thouars, and upon Jeanne’s second defeat— Montmorency swallows the rest of the Philosopher’s Stone, becoming a Ulysses himself. After swallowing the stone whole, Montmorency sees the future of *Jeanne’s tragic fate in Rouen.
*In history, Jeanne d’Arc was burned to death at the Vieux-Marché in Rouen.
Montmorency’s body is then possessed by the Sumerian god, Enlil, and everyone (including Philippe of Burgundy) bands together to banish the evil Enlil from bringing calamity upon the Earth. They end of up banishing Enlil in a dimensional prison. Philippe then begs to be killed, so that she isn’t subjected to the helmet’s bloodlust again. A knight forcefully removes the relic from her head, but is unable to destroy it. The anime adaptation ends with Charlotte (Charles VII) being crowned as Queen (King) of France, and Montmorency, along with Jeanne, are promoted to generals of the French army.
Comparison to History: The differences in history are vast, I’m not going to include the mystical elements. The characters are aged differently to fit within Montmorency’s age range. When the story begins, it is seven years after the Battle of Agincourt (1422), and historically Jeanne would have been ten year old but in Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc to Renkin no Kishi—she’s twelve. All of the other girls were altered to be considerably younger than their counterparts would have been (Arthur de Richemont, Phillip of Burgundy, and La Hire) with the exception of Charlotte (Charles VII).
Obviously the characters attire are not historically accurate either. I mean, who would believe Montmorency, during his announcement of Jeanne’s sainthood, when he’s dressed like a wizard? Ulysses pulls a *Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika and makes historical figures recipients of the Philosopher’s Stone, including: King Solomon, Clovis I, Otto the Great and Jesus. Also, according to the lore of Ulysses, the Knight’s Templar didn’t want to reclaim Jerusalem, but instead, their goal was to find the Philosopher’s Stone that had been hidden there.
*It is reveled at the end of Madoka Magika that Cleopatra, Queen Himiko, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc), and Anne Frank were all magical girls.
And, in real life, Montmorency (Gilles de Rais) dabbled in the occult, but there is no account of him being an alchemist. Not to mention that every anime with Jeanne d'Arc, including Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc to Renkin no Kishi, portrays her as having blonde hair—when in reality, Jeanne d'Arc was said to have had darker hair. In history, Catherine de Thouars doesn’t have lineage linking her to Gilles de Rais. Nor does Gilles de Rais have any connection to the Craon family.
In conclusion, I don’t understand why ‘Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight’ gets so much hate. It does the EXACT same thing that Type-Moon did with the Fate series. Fate/stay night characters exchange mana through sex, whereas in the less explicit Ulysses, it’s just saliva. Sure, the animation sucks. So what? There was obviously a lot of passion put into this project. And, yes, it’s not historically accurate, but what fun would a FICTIONAL story be if it had to conform to what actually happened in 15th century wars. Screw the normies, Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc to Renkin no Kishi gets a 7/10 from me!
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