The Case Study of Vanitas might be one of the anime season's best-looking anime, but there's action there too.
True to its shonen roots, the show, which is based on Jun Mochizuki's ongoing manga of the same name, features plenty of stylized battles that are fun and tense to watch. Featuring overpowered vampires, humans, and monsters. But who are the strongest characters in The Case Study of Vanitas?
1) Vanitas
As the human of the group, the titular Vanitas, who derives his name from an old vampire whose grimoire he now uses, isn't as physically strong as others in this list. While he introduces himself as "an average human being," however, he's revealed to be anything but. Equipped with a cursed grimoire, Vanitas is capable of curing vampires that would otherwise be beyond saving.
Vanitas prefers to avoid fights. Instead, he uses his intellect to face vampires whose true names have been corrupted, while others do the fighting around him, but many vampires would have to be eliminated if not for his use of the book of Vanitas. In a world of overpowered shonen protagonists, it's refreshing to see a character do their fighting with a book. And when he does have to fight, he's quite skilled with a dagger too!
2) Noé Archiviste
Noé isn't the most strong in the series, as he's beaten up or captured a few times over the course of the series, but he can be pretty awesome in battle. As a vampire, he's equipped with enhanced speed and strength. If possible, he will try to befriend his foes to avoid fighting them, but he will land some blows when he must.
As is the case with Vanitas, Noé's most interesting abilities are intellectual, however. Noé is a member of the Archiviste clan and endowed with the ability to access other people's memories by drinking their blood. This has been the source of interesting flashbacks and insights throughout the anime.
3) Jean Jacques Chastel
While not a very powerful vampire in himself, Jean-Jacques spread some terror as the Beast of Gédauvan in his attempt to protect his beloved Chloé D' Apchier. While bearing the malnomen of the Beast, his powers included shapeshifting and as well as speedier healing than most vampires can achieve.
At the end of the Beast arc, Jean-Jacques chooses to have his true name restored, and rely on his regular vampire strength to keep himself and Chloé safe.
4) Jeanne
Jeanne is also known as the Hellfire Witch, which already suggests she's not to be messed with! Like most vampires, she has enhanced speed, endurance, and strength, and she's strongest than most due to her combat training, leaving the two main characters impressed after their first encounter. Moreover, a pair of crimson gauntlets, known as Carpe Diem, allows her to deal increased damage.
5) Dominique de Sade
Dominque de Sade can be a menace in battle, being proficient in knife throwing and sword-fighting. She's very agile, which makes for impressive acrobatics, while she's also able to manipulate ice, which she shapes into ice waves or shards.
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6) Roland Fortis
Roland is a human, so he's not naturally endowed with superhuman speed or fast healing. As a Chasseur, he uses perfromance-enhancing drugs when battling against vampires, which can make him a difficult opponent. He can cause real damage with Durandal, his weapon of choice, which can be used as one entity or separate, to accommodate long-range and close-range combat both. Thankfully, like Noé, he can also be open to dialogue and make unlikely friends, which tones down the damage.
7) Astolfo Granatum
Astrolfo is only in his teens, but the anger he fosters against vampires, paired with his paladin training makes him one of the most difficult opponents in the anime. Like Roland, he has access to performance-enhancing tonics, but, unlike him, he tends to abuse them in order to keep fighting for longer, which occasionally causes him to pass out in battle. His weapon of choice, Louisette, is one of the most prominent and scary ones to fight against.
8) Lord Ruthven
So far, Ruthven hasn't been seen unleashing his rage very often, but when he does, things can get scary. Ruthven has shown himself capable of knocking out everyone in the room, including Jeanne and Noé, who aren't powerless themselves.
In the past, Ruthven was rather idealistic about human and vampire relationships, but this ended abruptly when his attempts to bring them together fail. In the narrative present, he has aligned himself with Charlatan, making him a particularly frightening foe.
Related: Why Does Noe Kill Vanitas in The Case Study of Vanitas?
9) Chloé d' Apchiers
Despite her youthful appearance, Chloé d' Apchiers is the oldest vampire in the anime, and she has definitely picked up some skills along the way. Her endless youth comes with enhanced strength that allows her to overpower vampires with adult bodies, including Noé and even Augustus Ruthven.
As is the case with other characters in the series, especially Vanitas, much of her power comes from her dedication to research. However, her desire to become a normal human eventually led her to a dark path, as she adopted the malnomen "Millie" which gave her the ability to manipulate gravity, create sealed spaces made of her memories, and create time loops that bend reality.
With her true name restored, Chloé loses many of these powers, as these were associated with her descent to a dark path, but her research and physical strength will hopefully still leave her well-equipped to face dangers yet to come.
10) Queen Faustina/Naenia
Queen Faustina, who has been corrupted into the malnomen Naenia, is the source of many of the problems characters encounter in Season 1 of The Case Study of Vanitas. Now a mysterious entity without physical form, Naenia is responsible for the corruption of many vampires, who would end up beyond saving if not for the book of Vanitas.
Naenia's strength lies in her manipulation of vampires' minds, as she uses their worst memories and regrets to coax them into giving up their true names, thus corrupting them.
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