Ulysses - Jeanne D’arc and the Alchemist Knight

Country of Origin-  Japan

Distributor - Funimation

Number of Discs - 2

Reviewed by - Scott MacDonald

Date- 11/19/2019

    One of my favorite dramatic performances in the history of cinema is Maria Falconnetti's central performance in The Passion of Joan of Arc. I saw this about 15 years ago, and followed it up with other Jeanne d'Arc materials. Some were decent, others terrible (looking at you Messenger).  I had no expectations set for Ulysses - Jeanne d'Arc and The Alchemist Knight when it hit my mailbox. Which is probably good, I knew just from a cursory glance over the packaging it wasn't going to be a full attempt at doing the Jeanne d'Arc story justice, but it might be a spin off fiction that could potentially offer a fun time.

    The series at least at first doesn't even follow Jeanne, it centers around Montmorency, a knight who aspires to be an alchemist.  His goal is to bring about the end of all war using the Philosopher's Stone. In the process of his journey the famed Battle of Agincourt occurs.  While trying to create Ulysses, a powerful alchemist, he ends up saving the life of Jeanne and giving her great powers, though they need to be recharged from time to time.  Montmorency than decides to try and make Jeanne an icon of power and rebellion for the French people.

    Ulysses - Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight was decent, but largely unremarkable.  The show had some fairly well down battle sequences.  Which leads me to say that the animation itself is one of the strong points of the Ulysses... experience.  Though there were segments early on, that felt let down by the all-over-the-place editing. The story itself was not terribly interesting, and the characters bland, but the show made a decent time-waster. The worst part was the depiction of Jeanne as a woman who had to make-out with Montmorency for her powers. I didn't expect a historic version, but that was a bridge too far.

    Ulysses - Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight is presented by Funimation in a solid 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the original presentation. The animation here looks quite solid, with fine line details, and colors that pop. Audio is handled by True HD tracks in Japanese and English. Both sound quite crisp and clear, and do the job effectively. Extras include a promo video, clean opening, clean closing in multiple versions.