Campione

Campione! (カンピオーネ!? Kanpiōne!, lit., "Champion!") is a Japanese light novel series written by Jō Taketsuki and illustrated by Sikorski. It has been published by Shueisha in their Super Dash
Bunko imprint since September 2008. It has been adapted into a manga series published in Shueisha's Super Dash & Go!. A 13-episode anime television series, produced by Diomedéa aired in Japan on AT-X and Tokyo MX beginning in July 2012 and ended in September 2012. Sentai Filmworks released an English dub of the TV series in North America. The novel's story focuses on Godou Kusanagi, a retired baseball player, as he becomes a Campione after killing the god of war, Verethragna.

Plot

Godou Kusanagi, a retired baseball player, is asked by his grandfather to return a stone tablet to a friend in Sardinia named Lucrezia Zora. After meeting the demonically manipulative sword-mistress Erica Blandelli, he encounters the god of war, Verethragna. After killing the god, Godou becomes a Campione, or god slayer. His duty is to fight heretical gods who start changing things to suit themselves, usually at the expense of the people in the area. One of the problems associated with being a Campione, is that his status keeps attracting attention and difficult girls. Erica, who strongly professes her love for him, usually creates awkward and misunderstood situations for him in particular.

Characters
Main characters

Godou Kusanagi (草薙 護堂 Kusanagi Godō)
Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese); Blake Shepard (English)
Godou is the main protagonist of the series and is the 7th Campione. He is a retired middle school baseball player (wild pitch injured and weakened right shoulder), after his grandfather asked him to return a stone tablet in Sardinia to Lucrezia Zora. Upon his encounter with Erica Blandelli, he manages to slay the god Verethragna, a Persian god of Victory. After obtaining Verethragna's Golden Sword and becoming a Campione, Godou obtains the abilities of Verethragna's ten incarnations: Gale (wind), Bull (strength), White Stallion (sun), Camel (leg strength), Boar (trample), Youth (divine protection), Raptor (speed), Ram (resurrection), Goat (thunder) and Warrior (Golden Sword). The Golden Sword allows Godou to receive knowledge about the gods he slays, making it stronger as the knowledge increases. He receives the information via kissing one of the female protagonists, which is the only way to infuse the information into a Campione due to their incredible magic resistance. This and ingestion are the only ways someone can have their magic, benign or malign, bypass a majority of the resistance. He is a little afraid of women due to being completely dense to their feelings, numerous interrogations and punishments from his sister, along with Erica's pranks and occasional blackmail. He tends to take what people say at face value, missing their intentions.

Erica Blandelli (エリカ・ブランデッリ Erika Buranderri)
Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa (Japanese); Monica Rial(English)
Erica is an Italian girl who is member of the Copper Black Cross (赤銅黒十字? Shakudō Kuro Jūji), one of the European magic organizations that inherited secret rites from the Knights Templar and is based in Milan, Italy. Their battle tactics and colors (red and black) has likened them to that of red devils. Holding the rank of Great Knight and the title of Diavolo Rosso (Dark Red Devil), she is a magic swordsmen that through coincidence meets Godou and assists him while he was in Sardinia, Italy. She ends up falling in love with him. She uses her weapon Cuore di Leone (Heart of Lion), an enchanted sword that she can summon to her hand. She also has the ability to use the sword to summon a large silver lion which can attack in place of Erica in the anime. Her weapon can transform into a spear, lance or sword for offense, or simply a shield for defense. Its true form is that of a long, silvery, broadsword infused with the spell words of David which she must cast, giving it the ability to harm gods. She is able to multiply the Cuore di Leone, even after throwing it, or in its lion form. Whether there is a restriction on how many duplicates she can make, due to ability or power, is unknown but so far has made up to thirteen lions and seven spears. Her lions are infused with intelligence allowing them to act independently just like real lions, but under her control. Although she fares well against Liliana Kranjcar in martial arts as a knight, her magic expertise excels Liliana's and can be even be considered unrivaled in the areas of iron alchemy, fire, creation, transformation, destruction and reinforcement spells. Erica can use leap magic, able to boost jumping while in midair. She is an Italian girl who likes to keep herself in control of her own situation, thus she can be very forceful in her affection and jealousy. However, she knows her own limitations to be able to help and protect Godou, and she is willing to be open-minded enough to allow the other girls to become additional "wives", although she is to be recognized as his number one wife.

Yuri Mariya (万里谷 祐理 Mariya Yuri)
Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese); Hilary Haag (English)
Yuri is a dark-haired Hime-Miko (princess shrine maiden) under Musashino, an organization whose duty is to protect Kanto, handling the greatest tasks and responsibilities. She is subject to the authority of The Committee for the Compilation of True History, a Japanese government based magic organization, who aims to use Godou to protect Japan while minimizing his potential as a threat. She is quite harsh on Godou the majority of the time due to the misunderstanding that Godou is doing something lecherous, but is endured by Godou as he sees the self-sacrifice that lies behind it. Often called a Yamato nadeshiko, Yuri is clairvoyant and uses magic to heal and send knowledge to Godou. In terms of fighting level and physical stamina, she is the weakest, shown when playing sports, but excels at support and is unrivaled at information gathering. She is an excellent cook in both taste and visual appeal, and the head of the Tea Ceremony Club that Godōu's little sister Shizuka Kusanagi is a member of. Like Erica, she falls in love with Godou when she sees how willing he is to put his all to protect others. Yuri gets upset when she sees Godou with one of the other girls, which she misinterprets as flirting), or extremely serious she unknowingly smiles while giving off an extremely cold presence like a yaksha.

Liliana Kranjcar (リリアナ・クラニチャール Ririana Kuranicharu)
Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Japanese); Genevieve Simmons (English)
Liliana is the Croatian childhood friend of Erica and belongs to the organization Bronze Black Cross (青銅黒十字? Seidō Kuro Jūji) which is a mage/knight organization similar to, yet occasionally working but usually competing with, the Copper Black Cross. The organization serves the Campione Salvatore Doni, although her grandfather and some other members favor and support the Campione Sasha Dejanstahl Voban by preference. The Bronze Black Cross are referred to as blue berserkers. Liliana has been also been called the Sword Fairy and Blue Witch, although these seem to be more nicknames as she is rarely called either while Erica is called or calls herself Diavolo Rosso often. She possesses the sword Il Maestro, able to fight with great speed, excellent magic, and flying attacks similar to that of a falcon. When released, takes on its true appearance of a naginata, which releases spell melodies when swung that can disrupt the concentration of even the toughest of opponents, although since magic in nature it has limit, if any effect, on Campiones or gods. However, in naginata form the spell words of David are infused into it as well giving it the ability to harm gods. She is often compared to be on equal footing to Erica in both martial skills and combat, as well as known by people to be among the top of the current generation of Great Knights. However, due to her direct and upfront nature, she does not have the political acumen Erica possesses and is more gullible to Erica and Karen's pranks. She is also in love with Godou, but does her best to hide it from others. Usually covering up her desire to be in close proximity or help Godou with claims of merely serving her role as a knight or bodyguard. She is a silver-haired girl with a svelte body. Though she lacks the well-curved, voluptuous figure Erica possesses, her beauty is more along that of an ephemeral, delicate fairy. She is great at housework and cooking, is a descendant of witches, and has the hobby of writing embarrassing romantic novels. Her expertise over Erica is in flight magic, witchcraft, potions, communicating with plants and animals, and spells relating to water, earth, and sky. This allows her to make flying attacks similar to a sparrow, but with the ability to halt in midair, unaffected by gravity, before continuing her attack. This also gives her the ability to swim through water as easily as a fish, harvest herbs, cast hard spells and create difficult potions. She proved invaluable in not only opening a gate to the astral realm to rescue Godou and Erica, but the knowledge to create the potion required to be unaffected by the astral realm's environment. She can also summon and use the Bow of Jonathon, which is powerful enough to harm gods, such as Perseus. Although it appears she shoots four arrows at a time, only one is real, the others are illusions to increase the chances of the real arrow hitting.

Ena Seishuin (青洲院 恵那 Seishūin Ena)
Voiced by: Yuka Saitō (Japanese); Carli Mosier (English)
Ena is a girl with long, shiny, black hair with red eyes. She is a Hime Miko as well as a Yamato nadeshiko but with a figure similar to Erica's. She is the strongest of all Japan's Hime Miko, being specially trained by Susanoo. She is aggressive, impulsive, and has a tendency to ignore complicated things. Due to the harsh training she endured, Ena lacks a bit of common sense in everyday life, but this has made her an unpredictable fighter as she relies on instinct. She possesses the sword Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi and can draw power from it, becoming possessed in the process. However, she can only do this for short periods before her body starts taking damage. Also, if she takes in too much power, there's a chance of Susanoo's instincts or Ama no Murakumo taking control of her and running amok. When this happens she can fight on par with Campiones and gods alike. Erica considers her a threat to her position with Godou, due to Ena being another harem member with both a strong personality and a voluptuous, curvy figure; Liliana and Yuri are more submissive and easier for Erica to either manipulate or dominate. Erica believes that Ena can get close to Godou as a "guy" with her forthright nature before showing some feminine charm as a "girl". Due to isolation from society during her training, Ena is not very experienced with relationships in general. Although her mission was to seduce Godou, she knew that he was her soulmate the instant she saw him and has completely fallen for him to the point that she is willing to be his mistress as long as she can be with him. She misunderstands his wanting to develop their relationship slowly as well as his desire to become a man good enough for her as signs that she is not good enough to be his wife, which frustrates Godou as much as Erica's wild antics do.