Valvrave the Liberator
Recent talk about some anime series sent me looking for something that felt worth watching to me. While other suggestions were made, they all felt "meh" in one way or another. I finally settled on Valvrave the Liberator, viewable online in subtitled form in various places.
This is what you get when you take the core elements of a Gundam series (international war and mecha piloted by high school kids), add in some elements of realism not usually addressed along with a dose of quasi-supernatural, mix in some of the slow-burn mystery elements that have come into TV series in recent years (like BSG, Heroes, or Lost), and yet you manage to tie things together pretty well by the end. I've seen a lot of mecha-based anime put in a little mystery of where the super-mecha come from, then end up going off the rails to existential BS crazy-town at the end, while most of the TV series I mentioned as examples also reached a point of feeling like they were aimlessly adding mystery for its own sake. With Valvrave, there's a story being told, and those who made it really seemed to know where they were going with it, even to the extent of giving glimpses of the far future along the way. The reveals are rationed out, and probably 75% of the episodes actually managed a moment that ranged from mildly to surprising to "Holy - did that just happen?," but the course is there from start to end. I respect the hell out of that.
That isn't to say it's perfect, exactly. While the mysteries are pretty well covered, there are some details that linger unanswered in my head. So the ending isn't quite as tied up as it could be (though still far better than most). We get depth on several of the main characters, and yet there are a number that still feel sort of one-dimensional in retrospect. And while I was skeptical until the last few episodes, the comments I read about the body count getting pretty high do end up being accurate. But then, I would say sacrifice is one of the big themes.
Overall, I think this is one of the best anime series I've seen.
Sacrifice indeed. Young mecha pilot characters often have to deal with the rigors of battle and isolation, but the Valvrave system turns them into "space vampires." That's pretty heavy. Though over the course of the series, it looks like only Unit 1 pushes its pilot to consume information/memory-based "runes" while Units 3-6 receive power from that. So, arguably, most of the pilots "just" become immortals capable of body-jacking others.
Still, that puts a heavy burden on the pilot of Unit 1, and it seems a little strange that anyone would take that on, much less manage to live that way for 200+ years. That whole setup makes me wonder if Haruto would have lived if he had been more willing to "feed" on others - was the lack of feeding what caused him to use his own runes, or would that have happened anyway? Heavy stuff, and the struggle with it is depicted pretty well in my mind.
There are little details that aren't thoroughly explained that do bug me:
- L-elf's strategic genius really seems more-than-human in itself, especially in the early episodes, but it's never given any explanation beyond his military training at a young age, which his peers all have too.
- JIOR building the Valvraves still seems like a pretty big stretch. Even the later copies border on unbelievable to me. I expected more than just "powered by" aliens.
- There's implication that the... Valvrave core entities are different from the Magius, and yet some indication they might be the same too - that's never really made clear.
- There are some pretty big gaps between the present and the future. It seems a little odd to me that Shoko and Satomi would become pilots, or really that anyone who lived through all that would embrace the cost.
- I would have liked some indication of the "prince's" heritage. He looks a lot like a young L-elf (who seems unlikely to marry), though the royal blood and hair color could indicate relation to A-drei instead.
This is what you get when you take the core elements of a Gundam series (international war and mecha piloted by high school kids), add in some elements of realism not usually addressed along with a dose of quasi-supernatural, mix in some of the slow-burn mystery elements that have come into TV series in recent years (like BSG, Heroes, or Lost), and yet you manage to tie things together pretty well by the end. I've seen a lot of mecha-based anime put in a little mystery of where the super-mecha come from, then end up going off the rails to existential BS crazy-town at the end, while most of the TV series I mentioned as examples also reached a point of feeling like they were aimlessly adding mystery for its own sake. With Valvrave, there's a story being told, and those who made it really seemed to know where they were going with it, even to the extent of giving glimpses of the far future along the way. The reveals are rationed out, and probably 75% of the episodes actually managed a moment that ranged from mildly to surprising to "Holy - did that just happen?," but the course is there from start to end. I respect the hell out of that.
That isn't to say it's perfect, exactly. While the mysteries are pretty well covered, there are some details that linger unanswered in my head. So the ending isn't quite as tied up as it could be (though still far better than most). We get depth on several of the main characters, and yet there are a number that still feel sort of one-dimensional in retrospect. And while I was skeptical until the last few episodes, the comments I read about the body count getting pretty high do end up being accurate. But then, I would say sacrifice is one of the big themes.
Overall, I think this is one of the best anime series I've seen.
Sacrifice indeed. Young mecha pilot characters often have to deal with the rigors of battle and isolation, but the Valvrave system turns them into "space vampires." That's pretty heavy. Though over the course of the series, it looks like only Unit 1 pushes its pilot to consume information/memory-based "runes" while Units 3-6 receive power from that. So, arguably, most of the pilots "just" become immortals capable of body-jacking others.
Still, that puts a heavy burden on the pilot of Unit 1, and it seems a little strange that anyone would take that on, much less manage to live that way for 200+ years. That whole setup makes me wonder if Haruto would have lived if he had been more willing to "feed" on others - was the lack of feeding what caused him to use his own runes, or would that have happened anyway? Heavy stuff, and the struggle with it is depicted pretty well in my mind.
There are little details that aren't thoroughly explained that do bug me:
- L-elf's strategic genius really seems more-than-human in itself, especially in the early episodes, but it's never given any explanation beyond his military training at a young age, which his peers all have too.
- JIOR building the Valvraves still seems like a pretty big stretch. Even the later copies border on unbelievable to me. I expected more than just "powered by" aliens.
- There's implication that the... Valvrave core entities are different from the Magius, and yet some indication they might be the same too - that's never really made clear.
- There are some pretty big gaps between the present and the future. It seems a little odd to me that Shoko and Satomi would become pilots, or really that anyone who lived through all that would embrace the cost.
- I would have liked some indication of the "prince's" heritage. He looks a lot like a young L-elf (who seems unlikely to marry), though the royal blood and hair color could indicate relation to A-drei instead.
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