Valvrave the Liberator - Reviews

Spring 2013 Anime Review - Valvrave the Liberator
- Oh Sunrise, what has become of you…
- Basically just Geass x Gundam gone wrong
- The social networking stuff was a good idea
- L Elf is pretty sick, but his skills are too farfetched. After seeing Cain it's just even more wtf, but at least then you can see this series is not shooting for realistic at all
- How does Akira take a shit?
- Correction: Valvrave = Geass x Seed x g00 x Kojima's ZoE
- I severely underestimated this anime and have a stigma towards it for some reason. I think because it's actually a pretty good mecha but it's just so ridiculous, has weak character designs (in terms of appearance) and spits at the series it has borrowed from. It's like winning a competitive video game match by cheesing; attaining victory but with a guilty sense of dishonour and unworthiness.

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UPDATE: Anime-Planet has removed the Blog feature where this post was originally published on March 23, 2014. I pulled the scores from my ratings, although this is NOT a formal review. Think of it more as “thoughts on…<anime title>”. I wrote my thoughts out as I progressed through the series, so contradictions may occur as my opinion shifts. To shorten the post I took excerpts from the original. Sorry for any inconvenience and please leave your thoughts below! :)

2013 Spring Anime Reviews:

• Attack on Titan - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14071
• Gargantia - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14072
• The Flowers of Evil - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14073
• Arata the Legend - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14074
• Devil Survivor 2 - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14075
• HENNEKO - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14076/
• Karneval - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14077/
• Photo Kano - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14078
• RDG - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14079
• Crime Edge - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14080
• Valvrave S1 - http://www.anime-planet.com/users/triviper/reviews/14081

Having just reviewed the execrable Cross Ange, which seems to be Sunrise's follow-up to Valvrave, I thought I'd finally go back and record my thoughts on one of the most hilariously incompetent mecha series I've ever seen... and remember, I've seen Dragonaut: The Resonance.

There are some concepts that just can't be saved, no matter how hard the show tries. Valvrave is a spectacular example of this. Just a brief summary of this show is enough to get a laugh out of most people: "Angsty teenage body-swapping space vampire mecha pilots in space high school!" It's like they came up with it by throwing darts at a board.

Going back a few years, do you remember how Code Geass was initially a pretty good series, only to fly completely off the rails in the later episodes? Valvrave, by the same writer, is like that... except it doesn't wait to derail. By the end of the first episode, it's gone full-on bonkers.

So we've got a huge Dyson Sphere orbiting an artificial star somewhere out in the solar system. Back on Earth, there's three major superpowers: ARUS (henceforth called Space America), Dorssia (Space Germany), and Jior (Space Japan). Gentle anime viewer, if you guessed that, much like Code Geass, this would be yet another revisionist take on World War II with Japan or its expy as the poor, helpless, long-suffering victim nation... well, you get no prizes. Sorry.

I don't have the time or patience to go into Japan's stance on WWII or Ichiro Okouchi's thinly-veiled anti-Americanism, but it helps to keep both of those things in mind going forward. Anyway.

Vampirism. Body-swapping. A high school declaring itself an independent nation. Wacky humor alternating with blood-spattering violence. A vast, ancient conspiracy. Harem antics. Space Nazis. Fanservice. Characterization that changes at the drop of a hat. School bullying. Rape. Racism. Amnesia. Aliens. Politics. All these, plus the aforementioned clumsy WWII allegories and some particularly ludicrious "science" (even by anime standards!) can be found in Valvrave. If this is starting to sound to you like a very confused anime, dear reader, you don't know the half of it. Oh, it tries... it tries so hard. But it flip-flops back and forth between drama and comedy so many times that by the time the second season starts and the tone FINALLY becomes somewhat more consistent, absolutely no one buys the tonal shift.

That said... unlike Cross Ange, I can recommend Valvrave to almost anyone. It's a perfect example of So Bad It's Good, a series that positively begs to be MSTed. If you're the type that loves a good trainwreck, that can't resist the urge to shout advice and sarcastic comments at the dumbasses on screen... this is the anime for you. You'll bust a gut laughing. The second season succeeds in sucking quite a bit of the fun out of it in a hamhanded attempt at damage control, but the first season is gold.

A word of caution: there's a certain scene at the end of episode 10 that strikes a lot of people, myself included, as horrendously distasteful, and may be triggering to some. Said scene is an almost perfect example of a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, in that it comes up maybe three times afterward and is then never mentioned again. In other circumstances, this scene would be horrible... but what mitigates it, if only a little, is how it was so blatantly, obviously inserted to generate controversy (and thus ratings), with no thought to how it would affect the story or the characters. I suggest trying to ignore it... it's what the characters do, after all.

To tell you the truth kakumeiki valvrave one and two mad me cry all the way. The people who mad me cry the most because they died was marie, haruto, and kyuma. 

Story: To set the tone right off the bat, most of it is an orgy of pink bubblegum explosions and laser spams, and I mean a fuckton of lasers, bullets from chainguns (IN SPACE), a buttfuck fuckton of missiles because shit blowing up, you know? You know. Shit blows up. A lot. And mecha just tearing shit apart. Action in every single episode of this batshit insane, stupid ass series with twists up the wazoo. Wazoo? Think of it as ass because why not. It's chock full of 'em, irregardless of how illogical, stupid or silly they are.

But to start off coherently or sensibly, it's pure, action-packed fun. I mean, it starts with a man and a woman, two co-workers all la-de-da when they get shanked by a big ass blade that's made for shanking. In space. In the first minute people die! You know you're in for something and know what? It keeps it up by some world building throughout the episode and the climax which should not be spoiled for how random it is. And by random I mean "Naked guy wearing a tophat waltzing down the street and whipping a rubber chicken from his butt-crack and whipping your knee-caps with it" random. Or weird. Or simply the tits. But it builds on that twist concept with some badass mecha battles in the following episode. There's mecha action in every episode and aside from the first, these Valvrave mecha things fuck shit up (Along with badass and it's suffixes, I cannot say that enough). And I mean fucking shit's shit up. It escalates until it reaches an orgasmic peak of dumbfoundery and badassitude that it's just plain awesome. Sure it's stupid as all hell but there's no way you'd stick with it for that long if you were expecting something intelligent.

Fun, fun fun fun. Crazy fun. Non-mecha time is spent with the students, and it's pretty fine all on it's own. Pretty good even. Certainly nothing political intriguing or plotting plots, hatching schemes, vile villainy or some... incredibly convoluted non-teenager intelligent shit but I found it to be enough to not make me hate it or mildly dislike it for not being shit blowing up.

For the actual plot, ... it's simple enough. Survival and shit. But it's mainly between Space Germany, Space America and Space Japan. To be fair, it's more like Super Germarussia or the Galactic Holy Roman Empire (Think Teutonic here, or just think of a badass militaristic state of Germany and Russia combined), Space America (Built on diplomatic alliances and shit, but still America. In space) and Space Japan, which is Neutral and totally... not as superpower-ish. There's no other nation in the planet, or on Earth-2, which is where most people are because it's space. Some political shit goes down bada-boom, badda-bing, you got your Colony thrown into the fires of Space Germany and shit gets real. It doesn't get much farther than the two nations wanting the Valvrave and Space Germany fighting tooth and nail for it, because it's Space Germany. Super crack-squad of murder specialists are sent and shit just happens.

Really, you aren't here for the plot. And since there's a second season to explain what the fuck happened in the last episode because the fuck man, the fuck. But despite all the shit that went down there, it still retained it's badass flare and kickass fights because if there isn't at least one fight per episode, you're probably watching some pussy ass anime that isn't about shit blowing up in space and mecha face punching some bitch ass ships.

You heard me. Some guy in a mecha uses his fists to kick some ass instead of laser spams. Because if he used his massive balls, the show would be over once he appeared.

Animation: Now, I know this is strange and the animation probably doesn't deserve a 9 but it's because it just looks so... new-age to me. The character designs in particular, they look pretty spic and span, something recent stuff would look like. A bit more polished to the stuff I was used to prior to watching this and I liked it. Felt slick, you know. And the mecha designs, those I loved. From all the colours of the rainbow and the way they moved when they fought, the special abilities looked GORGEOUS and it was just so amazing and fun to look at! It was fast, it was energetic and baby I loved it!

And the pink bubblegum explosions. Now that's creativity.

Sound: Um... I... kinda skipped the OP/EP but I did enjoy the OP and the EP was snazzy, I guess. The VA I have no problem with and I can't remember the music from inbetween the OP/EP. BGM, if you will. Yeah.

Characters: Characters? Psh, who needs deep characters when you have shit blowing up and orgasmic battles of testicular exploding magnitude. Not this one, that's for sure. Main guy Takeru? He's cool. Gets cooler as it progresses so he's good. Elf, he's badass. Actually, if you're Space Gerussian, you're badass. It's a requirement for joining the Space Corps. Black Haired Gal, a friend of Shouko? A friend of brown-haired chick is pretty cool. She has backstory and depth. I like that. Sakura- Brown-haired chick, she's pretty cool. What she does later on is wicked.

... what would you expect? The characters are hardly deep and some are total jerks at times but it's a badass show about pink explosions and space fights. Some are badass, sure, but I can't be judging characters solely based on badassery as I'm biased enough as it is. You may care for some but for the majority, you could care far less. Hell, I can only remember three names and one of them is Colonel Fucking Cain.

Overall: Say what? A 9? The fuck Thrawn, lay off the milk. And let me assure you, I based the 9 on how much fun I had with it. It's not deep, logical, sensible, intellectual nor sophisticated and the story development is stupid- well, most of it is stupid. But what it is is unbriddled fun with some crazy twists, illogical and improbable situations, mecha on 20 ship action, pink explosions, stupid ass developments and overall, an action-packed space fare. I just had a blast with it and I didn't need to use my brain once.

Well it is a mecha anime and to be honest, it is pretty standard with a few rare exceptions here and there.  For the most part, it is nearly the same carbon copy of at least two other major anime mecha series such as Aldnoah (though the relationship between two of the main characters are slightly different.).  Therefore nothing really stands out as all that exceptional. Drama wise it does a pretty good job of building a sense of hate and antagonism bordering on a fight to the death blood fued between Jior and Diossa with obvious favoritism leaning toward the innocent children who were forcibly brought into a war from a neutral nation standpoint.  Dossia meanwhile keeps acting more and more like a mindless beligerent superbully and coming up with new and more horrible ways to prove that it's nation is not run by humans and deserves no sympathy whatsoever.  Dorssia constantly proves it cares not for any Geneva like accords by it's growing more disgusting warcrime behavior.  Among the misfits operating our of Dorssia are at least one complete psychopath who loves to kill for the sake of killing, and a heartless monster of a tyrant who will go to the most ridiculous extremes of inhumane behavior to see his selfish agenda reached.  No you can not convince me this creep is doing anything for his nation.  There are limits to how far you can go and still justify yourself or call yourself anything approaching a national status symbol.  

The heroes are made up of students and students who become immortal or so they say yet I am wondering if that is really true as at times it feels like the show contradicts itself.  I will give it half a point above average for story because of the feel good, drama, tensity, and how well they make the Dorssians look like aweful monsters.  Aside from the questionable vampire like alteration to the immortal students, this show is far from unique or different in anyway.  I could count near volumes of other shows that have similar mech units or styles or purposes or back stories or wars or general stories (the way the story flows other than how the pilots transform) or so on.  It is all pretty standard fair and pretty cliched at that.  Mecha has become too standardized to function well as a genre anymore so it sadly feels like it is even a curse to make mecha anymore as if all the ideas possible about mecha centered stories have already been created and the rest are just recycled versions of those.  Well this show fails to disprove that.  As usual, there is a rivalry for the affections of the lead male character (big surprise there).  The lead hero constantly takes the central stage in putting his life in danger (isn't he supposed to be immortal and able to heal from injury?) but since he is supposed to be immortal, it just does not quite have the same significance as other shows.  Once again, the story and war centers around underaged children who have not had actual combat training or at least not all of them and most still wear school uniforms (big surprise there).  I feel a little bored doing this review since so much is so recycled parts I have seen countless times in mecha anime and anime in general.  Frankly, why the shift to sexual assaults from biting is not made clear and neither so far has the reason to bite at all or why they get frenzied beyond control.  Oh wait, so far it is only him that happens to. so did he get a bad batch?  I sense a few plot holes or if not at least the delays to explain certain elements are put off too long for the story to work as well as it should.

Other times the drama and point of climatic drama drags on too long like the drill scene.  How long will that take and how many times are they gonna pan to all the characters for reaction shots?  It is like an unnecessarily long super slow mo scene.  Shoko is a decent enough character friendly and upbeat when she isn't so depressed that she might make the Pope cry.  I like Rukino the best.  She is nice enough, often at the point of action or activity, seems to be a part of every major arc of the story and is connected to virtually all the student and teacher characters.  It almost seems as if she is the actual main character when you consider she is also the narator from another time frame (not a spoiler, cause you see that quite often and from fairly early on in the series).  She has alot of baggage to bring ot her drama table and create a connection to the viewers from.  The other characters really don't have enough revealed to feel that for or at least no where near like she does.  Something is different about Haruto.  It is just taking to long to offer anything about it.  There are a few light forshadowing bits about that he and his valvrave are somewhat unique but this far into the series and nothing more is a bit much.  Yamada is a bit of an abrasive bully type but gets pumped up to take on the world when a few classmates fall victim to the Dorssian hate storm.  I frequently find my self wishing for the moment when all of the Dorssians get crushed or at least realize how pointless and brutal their behavior is and that it creates new powerful enemies with a blood lust to see them wiped out.  It is almost funny that they come off so stupid and never seem to realize the impact their selfish ways has on others.

Animation is about slightly above average for post 2000 or so.  It does not have any especially detailed attention to shadow, or depth like some of the other recent reviews.  There are no efforts to make it stand out that much artistically speaking.  I'd say it is probably about equal to  Hundred's level of artwork and animation quality.  Sound is not realistic because being in space, you probably would not hear things like explosions though nothing stood out as a mismatch voice wise and nothing seemed off kilter effects or anything else significant.

It is interesting to watch and has a few fun inticing characters, just don't expect anything mindblowingly original or nothing but typical expectations among virutally all mecha anime.  Given some of the graphic nature and dramatically disturbing scenes, at least 12 and up are a good bet to watch.