Hello Game Industry readers, Michael here. Every Thursday I write a column on Light Novels, I call it Light Novel Thursday. Light Novels are an interesting type of book from Japan that contains some artwork interspersed with the actual novel, usually with a few color pages at the beginning and a few black and white pages interspersed within the text. While aimed at young adults they are often adapted into anime. The most famous example in recent memory is Sword Art Online, they even have an official English translation of the first two volumes of it.
This week’s Light Novel Thursday is covering a series that I really enjoy, and is getting an Anime adaptation that will air starting in October in Japan. It’s Madan no Ou to Vanadis by Tsukasa Kawaguchi.
Plot Synopsis: In times of war, set in Western Europe, Eleonora Viltaria, one of the seven Vanadis of Zhcted, leads the war into Brune. There are actually seven Vanadis, named like this because they each received a powerful weapon from the dragon, to reign over 7 territories, each possessing their own. The power of the Vanadis causes dread and fear toward their enemies. An Earl in the service of the country of Brune, a young archer called Tigre, is called upon to defend his country from the dreaded Vanadis.
Plot: The plot is pretty freaking amazing, and I really enjoy it. That being said I could be misunderstanding plenty of the plot, because the translation of this series wasn’t very good, but I still enjoyed it well enough.
Characters: Ellen and Tigre are amazing main characters, and the villains are despicable enough to make you want to bash their teeth in.
Art: The art is pretty good, again not as great as No Game No Life, but that’s to be expected. I’m particularly looking forward to this getting adapted into an anime.
Overall: If you like a great war series, with interesting characters and intrigues you will love this series.
For those who like: Medieval fiction, Action, Plenty of battles, Amazing characters, Great plot.
Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but can you hate any of that?