VaniJeanne

"Huh? Love... so that really is what it is? This is the real kind...?"

- Vanitas about his feelings for Jeanne.

VaniJeanne is the het ship between Vanitas and Jeanne from The Case Study of Vanitas fandom.

Canon
Vanitas and Jeanne first met when Jeanne was travelling with Master Luca to find Vanitas and retrieve his book. Luca believed that The Book Of Vanitas was the source of corrupting vampires, and had planned to destroy it to save his brother. Luca tried to be civil at first, telling Vanitas to hand the book over to him with no complications, however Vanitas rejected the offer. Vanitas told Luca that he was a doctor and the book helped vampires rather than corrupting them, but Luca did not believe him. Jeanne acted quickly and attacked Vanitas, telling Luca to give her an order. When Vanitas denied his offer again, Luca then ordered Jeanne to get the book back from Vanitas without killing him.

As they fight, initially Vanitas is afraid of Jeanne due to her power as the Hellfire Witch, however this changes after she concedes the fight in order to protect Luca, something that Vanitas considers weak. Aside from her beauty, voluptuous figure, title, strength, and expressions, it was her determination to protect someone even if it meant staking her own life that made Jeanne a subject of Vanitas' fascination. Vanitas thinks about the way Jeanne makes his heart beat faster when he's around her and concludes it as "love". However, this was merely a way of distracting her during their fight. In the middle of the battle, Vanitas kisses Jeanne, which flusters her. A blushing Jeanne then gets away from Vanitas and swears that she will find him again and kill him, to which Vanitas smiles and says that he'll be happy that she's coming to see him again.

Later in the series, Vanitas and Jeanne have more encounters. At the Masked Ball, Vanitas baits Jeanne (who was suppressing the urge to suck blood) into drinking his blood and he uses that secret as a form of blackmail and makes Jeanne call him by his name instead of "human" and makes her swear to only drink his blood for as long as he lives. They also go on a fake date set up by Jeanne to get Vanitas to hate her (and that doesn’t go according to plan). When they encounter each other again, an example of their growing affections is Jeanne nursing Vanitas back to health after he takes a poisonous hit in her stead, which leads to Vanitas getting annoyed with Jeanne for helping him. Later on, a worried Jeanne hugs Vanitas and asks him if he's okay. Vanitas tells Jeanne that he won't die, because he promised that he would kill her if she were ever to not be herself anymore. Vanitas then tells Jeanne that he loves her and asks Jeanne for her wish. No matter how ugly or cursed it is, Vanitas would do it for her. Jeanne tells him to heal her friend Chloe so she would be free, and so he does without hesitation. To thank him, she drinks his blood and gives him a kiss. This throws him into an emotional crisis where he is confused by his feelings and soon discovers that he has actually, truly fallen in love with Jeanne.

In the AU written by Mochijun in some bonus chapters, Vanitas and Jeanne are shown interested in each other too.

Quotes
"At any rate, it means we have excellent physical chemistry! Go us!!"

- Vanitas to Jeanne

"Hey, I won't die! Not before you do, anyway. Remember? I told you I'd kill you. I promise... I'll kill you."

- Vanitas to Jeanne

"I love you. I'm the one who will make your wishes come true. It has to be me. So spit it out. Tell me what you really want. No matter how trivial it is. Whether it's an ugly emotion... Or even a curse. I'll accept it for you."

- Vanitas to Jeanne

"Huh? Love... so that really is what it is? This is the real kind...?"

- Vanitas

"I first became aware of the symptoms... After Jeanne drank my blood in Gevaudan. My face suddenly grew hot. My chest felt constricted, and it hurt. And the palpitations wouldn't stop! And as the crowning touch... No matter what I do, I CAN'T GET JEANNE'S FACE OUT OF MY HEAD!"

- Vanitas

Behind The Scenes
"Well I really like Jeanne so~ I'm glad. Like when there are a lot of THOSE scenes. She's cute! She's not just cute, Ummm... I think in episode 4? there's that scene where Jeanne sucks Vanitas' blood, right? You know that part? Like~ she was really trying to supress the urge to suck blood. That Jeanne <3 That was just a 100/100~ :D It was masterfully cute. But it was also sexy~"

- Natsuki Hanae.

"Jeanne is so cute. Jeanne was the best."

- Natsuki Hanae on Twitter.

Fanon
VaniJeanne is a rather popular ship in The Case Study of Vanitas fandom. The ship is well liked due to the teasing relationship between the two. Fans of this ship also tend to ship Noénique. VaniJeanne first began getting recognition when Vanitas kissed Jeanne in Chapter 4, but some fans have interpreted that kiss as assault so the opinions on the ship were initially very controversial. This ship received a significant increase in popularity when the two went on a "date" in Chapter 20 and Jeanne began to realize she might have genuine romantic feelings for Vanitas, followed by Vanitas who began to think that he himself might have genuine romantic feelings for Jeanne in Chapter 44. Some fans support VaniJeanne due to the slow burn relationship. It's main rival ship is Vanoé, Vanitas' most popular ship throughout the whole series. It's currently the third most written ship in the Vanitas no Cartes AO3 tag, as well the second most written ship for Vanitas after Vanoé, and the second most written one for Jeanne after Jeanninique.

While VaniJeanne is the second most popular ship in the fandom, it is often surrounded by controversy. Some fans of the show claim that the relationship between the two is "toxic" (the hate also stems from their first kiss) and don't want it to be canon. However, the relationship between Vanitas and Jeanne is often misinterpreted and a lot of fans point that out. It's a ship of two self-sacrificial individuals finding a common ground. The scene where Vanitas tells Jeanne that it has to be him who grants her wish was misinterpreted by some people as "abusive" and or "manipulative" whereas it was actually a scene that showed that it is only Vanitas who understands Jeanne the most. “He knows exactly what she feels. He knows her guilt of wanting and possibly hurting another person as it's consequence. He's the only one who can grant her wish. It has to be him.”

In the scene before Jeanne kisses Vanitas on the cheek, Vanitas says to himself “It's cold...” while he's in despair. Jeanne coming to him right after that is meant to be shown as his salvation. Jeanne saved him from despair and brought him warmth, and he realizes that he's truly fallen in love with her.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

Trivia

 * Natsuki Hanae is a VaniJeanne shipper.
 * The English VA's of Vanitas and Jeanne, Zeno Robinson and Molly Searcy are both VaniJeanne shippers.
 * Vanitas and Jeanne were second place on the Top 10 COUPLE-SHIPS in the Summer 2021 Anime Season list.