Clockwise from right: Alto Goldfield, Vermeil, and Lilia Kudelfelt.
Vermeil in Gold - A Magician Pushes Through the Magical World With the Strongest Disaster (Kinsou no Vermeil ~Gakeppuchi Majutshi wa Saikyou no Yakusai to Mahou Sekai wo Tsukisusumu~) is a manga written by Kouta Amana and illustrated by Youko Umezu that began serialization in August 2018 in Monthly Shonen Gangan. English releases are available on the Manga Up app but only on certain phone brands.
At a Wizarding School called the Ortigia Royal Academy of Magic, Alto Goldfield must summon a Familiar or else be held back a grade (as Familiars are necessary for much of the work going forward). Having failed to summon even one, he finds an old grimoire and tries the summoning spell inside. He ends up summoning a powerful, seductive devil named Vermeil who agrees to become his Familiar. She decides to pretend to be human to not scare anybody, as she can conceal her horns and tail, but this causes them to come under scrutiny as humans have never been summoned as familiars before. The two must get through the school year amid several people picking fights and Alto's jealous childhood friend, Lilia Kudelfelt, while Alto seeks his dream of becoming a Platinum rank mage. Bigger, darker plots also soon are revealed to be taking place.
An anime adaptation began airing on July 5, 2022 and adapted the first 17 chapters of the manga.
This manga contains examples of:
- Absurdly Long Stairway: The arena where duels between students are fought is accessed via some impossible-looking lengths of stairs that presumably only even exist with the help of magic. Oddly, walking up them has so far not been treated as an issue despite how it looks like it should take a long time. In the manga the arena is close to the ground and surrounded by forest.
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The student council is made up of five of the most powerful students in the academy and Lilia says they have a great amount of influence in how the academy is run. It's rumored even the teachers ultimately have no authority over them. Somewhat Justified by the sheer level of power on the council, with five Gold rank mages (one of them being a potential Platinum rank). Plus Alto, who while not yet ranked when he joins, with Vermeil, he has Gold/Platinum potential. This makes the council stronger than most of the teachers.
- Adaptation Deviation: Presumably mostly for the sake of having a more decisive ending in the event there is no second season, the last few episodes deviate in some notable ways from the manga:
- Fatima arriving early to help Alto wake Vermeil means that the fight with Iolite concludes rather differently, with Alto and Vermeil destroying his empowered Knight in a huge display of power that motivates Iolite to get serious. However, Heliodol then arrives and tells him she can no longer keep people outside from interfering, basically forcing Iolite to retreat for the time being before more reinforcements can show up. In the manga he left of his own accord after figuring out something about Alto and defeating everyone there.
- Alto, Lilia, Marx and Sharol all get made Bronze Square mages thanks to getting the opportunity to finish the exam later. In the manga it is unknown if this has happened yet.
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime mostly follows the manga, cutting out only some minor scenes and details, but towards the end of the season it makes some notable additions to events:
- The student mage Iolite murders is given a couple scenes to show a bit of who they were, offering up a Bait-and-Switch as a possible rival from another school, whereas in the manga they were only shown as a mutilated corpse.
- A scene is added of Jessica and Elena discussing Alto and his love for Vermeil.
- Several scenes are added between the two parts of the Bronze exam, including Sharol referencing a mage who is said to have aced every part of every exam (eventually revealed to be Iolite), and a scene of Vermeil making out with Alto to replenish his mana reserves (giving a reason for him almost being late to the written exam in the manga).
- Iolite's partner, Heliodol, is shown using transference magic to keep everyone else from interfering in the battle between Iolite, Alto and Vermeil. In the manga she didn't appear at all and no explanation was given for why more reinforcements didn't try to intervene.
- The fight with Iolite goes on slightly longer than in the manga, with Alto staying conscious and getting saved by Fatema as opposed to Fatema not showing up to help awaken Vermeil until after the battle. This means some new dialog from Iolite acknowledging the strange events.
- Aerith and Bob: On the one hand, Jessica, Chris, and Elena; on the other hand, Vermeil, Iolite, and Lilia.
- And the Adventure Continues: The end of the anime. While Vermeil and Alto have become an Official Couple, Iolite and his allies are still out there and Alto is continuing to train up.
- The Archmage: Mages who attain the rank of Platinum Square are typically treated as this, being the supreme user of at least a magic they specialize in, to the point of doing things with it that no one else can do or was considered impossible before them. They are also the mages who tend to create entirely new sorts of magic, and some of them are considered god-like in ability.
- Beach Episode: Chapter 18 features the Student Council (plus Lilia) taking some time off to play around at a resort pool, giving an excuse to put everyone (including the six-pack-sporting men) into suitably attractive swimsuits (Vermeil of course getting a black bikini that just manages to fit her figure), except for Lilia who in another ill-conceived plan goes for her extreme "for Alto only" string bikini that the others think looks more ridiculous than sexy. Then it turns out there was a more serious reason for the trip, namely to meet up with a high ranking member of the military (Elena's brother) who is giving them a sensitive mission.
- Bedmate Reveal: Alto frequently finds Vermeil in his bed, sleeping naked. She's often holding him in bed as well. Notably he doesn't take much issue with her sharing his bed, even early on, it's the whole "always naked" part that he has some trouble with.
- The Bet: Lilia challenges Alto to a duel with their familiars. If she wins, Vermeil has to stay at the dorm unless she is needed, and if he wins, Lilia will have to get along with Vermeil. Alto and Vermeil win, and Lilia is very unhappy. It's explained such duels are the official means of settling conflicts between students when words fail, with the result being binding as a matter of honor.
- Blow You Away: Lilia's familiar is a Sylph with powerful wind magic.
- Break the Haughty: Chris Westlander, a top student, looks down on others because she considers herself superior and it being the natural thing to do. When Alto and Vermeil defeat her and her dragon, she is humbled and takes the same punishment (chores) that she would give her subordinates for losing.
- Call-Back: When Alto asks Vermeil if the only reason she's with him is because she wants his mana, she gives him a sweet kiss, and Alto pushes her away before realizing she wasn't draining his mana. When, after her rampage, Vermeil becomes distant because of her guilt over nearly killing Alto, Alto gives her an intense kiss and she pushes him away before realizing he wasn't draining her mana.
- Dark Horse Victory: Sharol ends up winning the competition to become Class Representative, even though she had withdrawn from the competition after getting Marx out of trouble and Alto and Lilia did all the work, just because the fairy flower happened to land near her.
- Did They or Didn't They?: Once Vermeil and Alto express their feelings for each other, their make out sessions become much more passionate, with the two clearly clinging to each other in bed in a way that makes it look like they are having sex or are about to. In the chapters after this it has thus far not been confirmed if they actually did, but neither has it been denied.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Downplayed. Rex, a fifth-year student, is in a club of Dragon Riders and possesses a powerful Tyrannosaur as his familiar, but a later chapter reveals that he begged his way into the group and that their leader, Chris, doesn't consider dinosaur familiars to be true dragons.
- Dragon Rider: Some of the most powerful students have dragons as familiars.
- Duels Decide Everything: The Wizarding School allows for Wizard Duel between students as the primary way to settle disputes between them when words are not enough.
- Ecchi: Very much so. While the series is actually more chaste than some other ecchi stories from a visual standpoint, making heavy use of Scenery Censor and Barbie Doll Anatomy to hide naughty bits, the humor is still incredibly raunchy. A good example of this is Lilia, who has endured two unexpected orgasms and twice has to strip to use her invisibility potions. And then there's Vermeil... In short, she is a proud Ms. Fanservice who routinely has a ton of skinship with Alto that ranges from comically erotic to intensely intimate (and erotic). Not to mention how frequently and intensely she kisses him.
- Elite School Means Elite Brain: In general, the students of Alto's school, Ortigia, are to begin with a cut above other mages their age in skill and ability thanks to the high standards the school demands. It's noted in most magic schools in their world only around 10% of students manage to pass even the Bronze level mage exam, but in Ortigia it is 50%. They're also the only school that makes passing the Bronze exam a requirement for becoming a senior. Thus, the best students there are correspondingly even more capable and powerful than most adult mages. As such there are even seven Gold Square mages among the students, and one who is close to being recognized as a Platinum (the highest rank of mage possible).
- Energy Donation: Vermeil regularly needs magical energy from Alto, which she usually gets from a kiss. In return, she can vastly amplify the energy and give it back to Alto with a touch to supercharge him.
- Failed a Spot Check: ZigZagged. Alto does notice when his finger brushes/presses against something hard (an invisible Lilia's nipple), but he fails to realize that said hard object is floating in midair where nothing should be.
- Another happens in episode 9 and 10, when it clearly shows Iolite still in his normal, imposing robes no less and not in any normal academy uniform, and in episode 10 it shows Iolite literally napping during the written portion of the bronze exam. Alto really is that slow not to pick up on any of these obvious signs of someone that shouldn't even be there in the first place.
- Familiar: Familiars play a major role in the use of magic in this setting. Students must summon a familiar to move on to second year as they are integral to the classes they will be taking from then on. The entire plot of the series kicks off when Alto fails to summon a familiar, leading him to unsealing Vermeil instead.
- Finger Poke of Doom: Vermeil knocks out a rampaging dragon with a flick of her finger.
- Forced Orgasm: Vermeil defeats Lilia in a Wizard Duel by magically forcing her to orgasm in public, which is Played for Laughs.
- Gemstone Assault: Alto's favored form of magic lets him summon and form crystals in creative ways. It's noted this "crystal synthesis" is fairly advanced magic.
- Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: Chris' dragon Familiar, Whirlwind, started out as a hatchling small enough to perch on her shoulder, and grew to medium aircraft size in just a few years.
- Graceful Loser:
- Although he obviously isn't happy, Rex admits defeat and apologizes for picking a fight after Alto and Vermeil take down his Familiar.
- Alto, Lilia, and Marx don't win the position of Class Representative for the second-year students (not that Marx was even a candidate), but they all take the loss in stride when Sharol ends up winning. Marx in particular is genuinely overjoyed for her, despite the fact he lost to his own assistant/maid.
- Chris Westlander, in spite of her astronomical arrogance, accepts her defeat at the hands of Alto and Vermeil without question, and actually seems to have Took a Level in Kindness because of it.
- Head-and-Hip Pose: Vermeil makes this pose when she puts on Alto's sister's clothes (which are very small for her).
- Hellhound: The test the headmaster puts Alto and Lilia through to become Class Representative has them defeating a huge three-headed Cerberus in order to get the fairy flower he's guarding.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The people of Vermeil’s hometown, first for trying to kill Vermeil, who at that time was a harmless, sweet child, then for lynching Vermeil's adopted family. They are even depicted as sinister shadowy figures with red eyes just before Vermeil unleashes her demonic powers in rage.
- The Immodest Orgasm: Lilia has one when Vermeil uses her magic to give her a Forced Orgasm, during a public duel no less.
- Invisible Streaker: To sneak past a Cerberus with a cold, meaning its sense of smell is dulled, to steal a special flower it is guarding, Lilia drinks an invisibility potion and strips. Even though Alto and Vermeil can't see her, she is incredibly embarrassed. The potion wears off just as she returns with the flower, giving them an eyeful and she has a Naked Freak-Out. During the sequence, Godiva Hair covers her breast while Scenery Censor covers her crotch. She does it again to spy on Alto and Vermeil - only for Alto to accidentally touch her, giving her The Modest Orgasm.
- Magic Contract Romance: Pretty much what kicks off the story. Alto summons Vermeil, makes her his familiar, and she happily accepts it.
- Magic Knight: Most mages in the setting seem to adopt this style of fighting, using their magic to augment their bodies and/or their weapons, or at least being fit enough to not be helpless in melee range. Even Alto, who relies mostly on projectile attacks, learns to fashion and use a sword of magic crystal after some training with the Student Council.
- The Magocracy: The country the characters inhabit is focused heavily around mages. Indeed, it is implied that mages are at least an important part of governments the world over, with the magic seals that have locked away ancient demons being treated as closely guarded state secrets governed by said mages. The army includes various masters of combat magic, and the airforce consists of mages with dragon familiars.
- Marshmallow Hell: Alto is frequently pressed against Vermeil's boobs. She often uses his head as a headrest for them too.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Alto is presumably 16 at the start of the series, while Vermeil is a demoness who is at least 550 years old (if one counts the three centuries she spent sealed away).
- The Modest Orgasm: Lilia has one of these when Alto unknowingly pokes his finger against her nipple (she was invisible at the time), and even though it's powerful enough to make her collapse in a pleasured heap, she manages to keep quiet enough for Alto and Vermeil to not hear her even though they're in the same, small room.
- More Experienced Chases the Innocent: While neither Vermeil nor Alto have been in love before, its made clear Vermeil is quite practiced in the arts of pleasure (whether she has had sex before or not admittedly being unknown) as she has zero hesitation french kissing Alto soon after meeting him, and exhibits plenty of other well-practiced techniques of seduction. Alto, who has zero experience, is understandably overwhelmed, while Vermeil finds his innocence endearing (not that she dislikes it when Alto starts demonstrating more confidence either).
- Mugging the Monster: What the lynch mob in her childhood hometown were doing when they killed her family, and tried to kill her. That city was destroyed completely.
- Multiple Head Case: The Cerberus (a species of monster in this setting) Alto and Lilia have to sneak by is a typical version with three heads. Interestingly, the heads can apparently get sick independent of each other despite sharing a body, as only two of the heads are sick while the third is fine.
- Naked on Arrival: Vermeil appeared naked when she was summoned, freaking Alto out. Conveniently placed text, Scenery Censor or just Barbie Doll Anatomy are used to keep the scene from being explicit.
- "No Peeking!" Request: When Lilia drinks an invisibility potion, her clothes don't turn invisible with her, forcing her to strip. Despite being invisible, she still angrily tells Alto to look away as she takes her clothes off.
- Pacified Adaptation: Downplayed, but the anime does reduce some visual aspects of some violence somewhat compared to the manga.
- In the manga when Alto wins his duel with Chris the shard of crystal he wields is shown to be pressing into her neck enough to draw visible blood. In the anime the crystal is a bit more distant from her neck and not as sharp looking.
- When Vermeil's family is hung, their faces are constantly kept shadowed and their bodies mostly unblemished. In the manga they are shown to have been skewered multiple times either before or after death, and there is a shot of the nun's face complete with Dies Wide Open in play.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Vermeil can be this when fully unleashing her power. The first time she did it, she destroyed an entire city.
- Please Put Some Clothes On: Vermeil is a Shameless Fanservice Girl and is often naked in their shared living space, causing Alto to frequently implore her to get dressed. After some time living with her, he mostly gives up on even bothering with such requests, as it becomes clear it's pointless and he becomes more comfortable around her.
- Red Baron: Most Platinum Square mages appear to have these, special titles preceding their names that usually reference their most notable power or ability in some way: "Heaven's Command" (for the god-like ability to imbue objects with life), "Lake Prison" (for mastering water magic to the degree that they can condense and command a whole lake's worth of water inside their body), etc.
- Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: The second chapter features the aftermath of this in the opening, wherein Vermeil is revealed to have reflexively crushed Alto's alarm clock in her sleep while cuddling with him in bed.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The general belief among mages in the current era is that all demons were sealed away long ago beneath seals that are treated as state secrets and are many layers deep, making them effectively sealed away forever. As such, any demons found to somehow still exist in the human world are treated as enigmas as much as possible threats.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The people from Vermeil's hometown blamed her for a plague, and decided to kill her in the belief it would stop the deaths - only for their actions to cause Vermeil to awaken her demonic powers and obliterate the entire city. Fatema lampshades this, stating that Vermeil’s destructive powers are beyond anything a plague could do, destroying not just lives but the very earth around her.
- Shared Dream: Early in the series while sharing his bed with Vermeil, Alto somehow sees/experiences a painful memory Vermeil is dreaming about, featuring a young Vermeil weeping amidst a destroyed city. He awakes to see her silently crying in her sleep.
- Shout-Out:
- In the anime's opening, there is a shot of Vermeil surrounded by rose thorns very similar to that seen in the opening credits of The Rose of Versailles,
- The stairs they climb for the duel with Chris Westland in Episode 4 resembles the staircase from Revolutionary Girl Utena
- The references to Revolutionary Girl Utena continue in episode 5, with two shadows of girls on the wall discussing rumors.
- Shower of Awkward: Vermeil follows Alto around everywhere, and that includes the showers, much to his mortification as she makes no secret she's checking him out. He's apparently quite a bit more well-built than his small stature would indicate.
- Teacher/Student Romance: One of the teachers of the Wizarding School, Obsidian, has secret affairs with some of his female students, and he's presented as taking advantage of them. Although it turns out he was actually emotionally manipulating them so he could use them as test subjects for his experiments in demonic magic.
- Teeth Clenched Team Work: After beating Lilia in a Wizard Duel, Alto orders her and Vermeil to get along, forcing the two women to reluctantly tolerate the other.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: The nun who took Vermeil in as a child (whom Fatema describes as saintly), as well as the other orphans under her care. All of them had nothing against Vermeil for her demonic blood, and ended up murdered by the supersitious townsfolk for trying to protect her.
- Torches and Pitchforks: As a plague swept through Vermeil’s hometown, the townsfolk escalated their aggression towards Vermeil and her adopted family, carrying torches and pitchforks.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Alto is the guy, Vermeil is the girl. She's over one head taller than him.
- Wizarding School: The setting of the story is a magical academy where Alto and the other characters study to be magicians.
- World of Buxom: Most of the named female characters* are D or larger, with Vermeil biggest of all, and even unnamed background characters are usually well endowed.
- Would Hurt a Child: As retribution for them helping Vermeil escape the orphanage, the superstitious townsfolk killed not only the nun who took her in, but also all the children under her care.
