Minor Spoiler Ahead (￣ ￣|||)

Note: TLDR at the very bottom.

Story - 6.5

Vermeil in Gold is a none Isekai Fantasy anime which in a sense reminds me of some of the classic magic fantasy ecchi-themed anime like Zero No Tsukaima but with a less intriguing or unique story.

Our protagonist Alto is a student at a magic academy who was not able to summon a familiar was about to have to repeat a year when he found an old grimoire and try to summon something as instructed by the grimoire. He successfully summoned Vermeil, a demon but not just any demon, a sexy, hot, milf demon with calamity-level power.

Vermeil in Gold is still in the end ecchi first and story second so let's talk about that first. The ecchi in this anime compare to some of the ecchi anime in the past like Highschool DxD or Rosario to Vampire is quite mild. You won’t be seeing pantsu or oppai. Oppais are mostly covered with something like hands, hair, object or using camera tricks. What you will get is a lot of kissing scenes and innuendos.

The story is okay. It is not unique and feels very formulated as if the author look at previous similar works and copied the whole structure but forget to give its own unique soul. For new weebs who have never watched fantasy ecchi anime before, this anime story would be pretty good but for veteran weebs, it is okay. Good enough to not make me bored.

The story move bit by bit and didn’t tell much in this season. Alto tries to hide the fact that Vermeil is a demon and tries to go about his daily life in the first few episodes but gets caught up in fights. They later got pulled into mysterious things happening around the campus like people and their familiar going berserk or an instructor going mad scientist mode without knowing who really is pulling the string until later on. The villains mostly move in the background until one of them openly shows up near the end of the anime.

Much like the villains’ motives, the student councils are also very sus and have some hidden motive which is still largely unknown at the point of end of the season and as always we don’t know if season 2 is going to happen.

I like the theme of the anime. It is very Harry Potter like but less dark and more ecchi. The world-building is pretty average. We got to know the basic info about the magic academy, the magic measuring system and so on but it doesn’t go much deeper.

Character - 6.5

Characters in Vermeil in Gold are quite likeable though they are very trope heavy. We have Vermeil a demon milf, Alto a good-hearted but cannot handle girls well protagonist, Lilia a tsundere who is in love with the protagonist and so on. A lot of screen time goes to Alto and Vermeil.

I don’t really like Alto at first. He has a very harem protagonist don’t know how to handle a girl type of personality but I like that he changes later as Vermeil keeps pushing on him and he manages to grow a pair and do what has to be done. Alto also feels somewhat like a typical good naive but bland protagonist but that also changes throughout the anime.

Alto also has a solid aim that he wants to achieve and the anime doesn’t make Alto targeted by a hoard of other side girls but only by Lilia who later pretty much back off and become a side character.

I like that the anime showcase Alto and Vermeil as the main couple and the fact that we can see some sort of progression in Alto such as being comfortable with Vermeil, his magic skill, coming to love Vermeil, becoming a selfless character and so on.

Vermeil is the best character in the anime who is not just a mommy milf but has a cocky and horny personality. She enables all the ecchi moments in the anime to happen while also being a strong character.

Vermeil has an air of mystery when Alto first summoned her and we know nothing about her or her motive but that change when the anime give a solid back story of her which add not only a really good character drama but also shows the less “ara ara onee-san” side and a more cute and vulnerable side of her.

Well, not a lot to say about Lilia though. She is a tsundere character who is in love with Alto and has some beef against Vermeil. She is a comedic relief character who was later pretty much got sidelined as the story moves along.

We also get to see some mildly interesting characters such as Chris who has a very powerful dragon familiar and Rex who has a dinosaur for his familiar. We also see characters from the student council but barely get to know about them. Let's just say a lot of side characters have a flat development or we barely know much about them.

We barely know much about the villains too apart from the fact that they are quite an eccentric bunch of people and they mostly work in the background. The guy who does show up near the end has a basic and typical goal of destroying the world.

Art & Animation - 6.5

Vermeil in Gold anime is done by Staple Entertainment studio which only has one project under their belt as of the writing of this review. I say the art and animation in general are surprisingly pretty solid for a studio without any reputation.

There are some really nice scenes which put some of the low-tier studios to shame and at the same time capture the vibe of the theme pretty well. Unfortunately, there is a huge drop in quality in the last few episodes.

The character designs are pretty solid and differentiate fairly well from other magic fantasy school-type anime. Using the virgin killer sweater on Vermeil may look like an odd choice initially but the design work and it is now stuck in my eyes.

The background arts are pretty solid with a textured filter. Places like the library and Alto’s room look decent with enough detail in the background.
General animation for movements and facial expressions is quite fine but The weakest part of the anime would be the combat animation. The camera angle feels weird in some scenes where both sides are throwing magic at east other. Spell animations could have been better too.

Sound - 6.5

The opening song sounds good albeit a bit on the generic side but the ending song is really nice and is well suited for the theme of the anime plot, especially for Vermil's character story which is about sadness, loneliness and torments.

Background music may not be memorable but it works well for the scenes they are played on. The background music is nice to listen to with its more instrumental wind, string and piano music.

The sound effects are pretty solid in general. The sound effects for the goofy moments are crisp and suitable for the scene. Sound effects in combat are good enough but won’t hurt to have a little bit more punching power and uniqueness.

The Voice acting is great. Almost all character voice match their character and their personality. Vermil voice might be a bit on the softer side and could have sounded more “Ara Ara” to match her looks.

TLDR:

Harry Potter and the calamity-level milf demon but horny with a more typical story. The story is fairly enjoyable for one time watch. Decent production value for a studio without any reputation under its belt.