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Valvrave the Liberator (TV).


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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 7:29 am Reply with quote

Valvrave the Liberator (TV)

plot Sumary
Quote:
Thanks to the development of the Dyson Sphere, The majority of the human populace lives in space. The Dorssia Military Federation, and the Atlantic Rim United States exist as major Military countries, while JOIR is a neutral principality, the story follows Haruto Tokishima as a normal boy going thru high school in T.C (True Calendar) year 71. This all changes when Haruto meets the humanoid weapon Valvrave.

Genres: action, drama, science fiction

EDIT: Season 2 discussion begins here.

Episode 1

When it initially started my thoughts were along the lines of "oh, another space sci-fi with mecha" based of artwork. But I was actually surprised that soon it looked like a pretty plane slice of life inside, we were probably going to learn what this space school is like from the POV of the transfers. But then the transfers spoiler[killed a guy in cold blood, yeah, so they aren't the good guys]. So we continue with the slice of life thing, Haruto looks to have a crush on Shoko, and we won't even have to wait episodes for him to confess as he is about to do it. Yay!

But then spoiler[hell happens, evil kids kill a bunch of people again, giant robots break into the place and start shooting up the joint. And then.... and then the supposed female lead looks to have gotten blown up]. Haruto in a spoiler[crazy panic] decides to try and spoiler[pilot the strange mecha that appeared from the swimming pool], just as anyone would. And then after taking a spoiler[beating because he could not get it to move (apparently he could not read the computer screen)], he remembers what his spoiler[former to be girlfriend] said, and what evil kid said.

So we finally get a cool mecha fight, even though it said something about not being human, probably some sort of bond DNA and having to be a soldier now. Yeah and he seems to have gotten famous, the various other characters are shown, and one boob grope scene, and we get ED/OP which seems pretty okay, lots of action and our hero. After that we cut back to our Haruto talking to evil kid, seems a bit soon for a confrontation, but that is okay. Then spoiler[he dies, a blade to heart, what the hell was up with what we just watched, at least we can be pretty sure he is not a vampire]. But then that last bit, despite the spoiler[stabbing and bullets he goes all Dracula on evil kid]. I suppose that is what the computer meant.

What will happen next?

[EDIT: Changed thread name to conform with accepted English title. - Key]
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Svidrigailov





PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 8:08 am Reply with quote
I thought the first episode started out interesting and then just accelerated downhill. People less lazy than I will probably point out the various reasons I felt like I was watching a fan-fic for a 0083/MSG/NGE mixer. There was the cliche spoiler[mecha-anime-protagonist-gets-ridiculously-overpowered-mech-and-wins-with-no-previous-experience] thing and then guess what? spoiler[He's totally a vampire now.] I don't see myself sticking around too long for this show.
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ookamigirl



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 2274
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 11:30 am Reply with quote
The art is really nice. I like it.
So this is basically spoiler[school life + survival + mecha].
First part was just like my class LOL
Always texting useless stuff to fend off boredom.
New "students" certainly brought some interesting elements into this anime.
spoiler[Haruto lost most precious to him, but got to be the hero.] Was it worth it?
Guess we'll see in the next episodes.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:18 pm Reply with quote
Oh wow, the end there surprised me a bit. Some people have been comparing this to Gundam Seed but so far, I'm liking the direction of this show is heading.

The main protagonist also seems to be a spoiler[vampire] now?! That's news to me. Oh and I feel sorry for Shouko ;.;, first episode and she's already spoiler[RIP].
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CrisisXVII



Joined: 25 Mar 2013
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:39 pm Reply with quote
Personally I was disappointed by what Valrave offered in it's first episode. As Svidrigailov already said it was full of cliche and tropes that are already old news in the mecha genre. First impressions, I just found it decent at best but I'll watch a few episodes and see if it becomes more interesting.

In terms of the overall plot it was the standard factional colony war. They explained little of the colony war, even during the info dumping at the start. After this they spent far too little time establishing the characters. We get brief intros to various characters, the very few with most screen time are the only ones that are given the chance to leave a minimal impression and of course spoiler[Shoko dies, leaving her an undeveloped character, unless we get flashbacks or a surprise resurrection.] It only really started to get interesting in the second half when the mech battle occurs and rather than playing a trump card, it felt like it played every card it had with the battle: spoiler[the hero gaining complete control of the mecha easily, the explosive and one sided battle, the entire world tuning into watch a huge battle to let viewers know everyone knows the main character is now a badass. ]

There were a few things I liked: the battle was all right, the mecha designs were interesting and felt unique (to me at least) and the animation was definitely solid. All together, I just don't feel it did anything fresh, and it certainly didn't establish much of the story or the characters well.


Last edited by CrisisXVII on Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1293
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:33 pm Reply with quote
Man that was amazing. Albiet for all the wrong reasons, but wow I'm amazed something so stupid could exist and yet somehow be incredibly entertaining. Laughing

I mean seriously we had a generic evil bishonen squad,spoiler[ childhood friend getting blown to bits, and friggin vampires]! I'm convinced the show is secretly a parody because I don't think any writer could look at the scripting for this and not die laughing. I'll definently be watching more though. Laughing
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drdr48



Joined: 16 Mar 2009
Posts: 360
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:27 pm Reply with quote
Wow, so many cliches, and that ending was so stupid it made me laugh so hard! Smile
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yoshiyukiblade



Joined: 10 Nov 2012
Posts: 305
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:53 pm Reply with quote
I like the art, but the scripting/direction feels really bad lol. When spoiler[the girl that the MC liked "died" (idk if she did or not due to how undramatic it was),] it felt like they were trying to rush through the moment as soon as possible. Even one of the bystanders was basically saying spoiler["She's dead ok? Get over it!"] without actually confirming anything. That kind of scripting makes the characters feel completely artificial and kinda put me off. I'll keep watching to see where it goes though.
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rheiders



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 1137
Location: Colorful Colorado :)
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:55 pm Reply with quote
spoiler[SPACE VAMPIRES!!!]

Everything after MC screaming at the sky was hilarious. It gives me hope that this will become a so-bad-it's-good guilty pleasure kind of show. Unfortunately, the first half was bland as all hell. The only character I had any attachment to was Shoko, who seemed like a decently likeable female lead. It would have been cool if she could have gotten her own mecha. But alas, spoiler[she died to provide motivation for the male lead]. At least it was pretty...?

But still, spoiler[space vampires].
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Rahxephon91



Joined: 08 Jun 2003
Posts: 1859
Location: Park Forest IL.
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 7:33 pm Reply with quote
Wow that was terrible. I mean I never expected a good Giant robot show, but Jesus could they have not started with the most generic 1st episode. I mean we got ugly modern anime character designs, bland milk toast main character, pretty but evil teenage fangirl squad of death complete with not 1, but 2 silver haired pretty boys with attitude's to match, cute Ruri like character, ugly cg mechs, ect ect. I mean they were really trying to make sure they hit everything on the check list, so much so it's almost embarrassing. But hey at least they showed they were modern with their "we are aware of Facebook" stuff.


Yeah it was bad.

And then that ending. It was amazing. I'm hopping we have another so over the top and dumb anime to rivial Code Geass, but at least Geass had an actual ok protagonist for the most port.
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nightjuan



Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 1473
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 9:50 pm Reply with quote
I guess the best way to sum up my Valvrave impressions would be something like this:

The good:

-Production values, particularly the animation and music. It's not the best looking mecha series but it's far from the worst. The OP was nice too.
-Moments of sheer enjoyment from the over-the-top craziness and ridiculous elements that someone had to put there knowing they were silly.
-The Valvrave robot, especially once it actually launched. I liked how it fights more than I what saw in the promotional videos.

The bad:

-Character designs are bland all across the board. Not a major flaw in my opinion but still a flaw nonetheless.
-Craziness isn't enough for me if you don't make the show actually interesting in the process. If that doesn't change fast I will stop watching.
-The characters themselves have basically nothing going on so far. Don't care for the main character as he was portrayed. Will the twist improve him?
-The basic plot was too predictable until the twist happened. Yes, I guess that is sort of the point and we all expected this, but still a negative.
-The enemy robot designs don't look appealing. I'd call them forgettable.

Look like the current odds are definitely against this from my point of view, but even if I may drop the series I'll probably keep up with the discussions.
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Lynx Amali





PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:00 pm Reply with quote
Rahxephon91 wrote:
bland milk toast main character, cute Ruri like character, ugly cg mechs


1) Really? Haruto...bland? To be honest, he's a breath of fresh air. It's rare that you get a character that wants to take up arms for revenge. Would you rather have another Kira Yamato?

2) Who would the Ruri character be? I sure as hell didn't see one, unless you mean the computer geek who I wouldn't even consider a Ruri-type character.

3) I wouldn't say the mechs were ugly but the CG wasn't as good as, say, Majestic Prince (which is done by a profesional CG studio so that's explainable.) but it was way better than Gargantia.

The ships, however, I will agree. That's one of the very few times that I prefer the still artwork.

Quote:

And then that ending. It was amazing. I'm hopping we have another so over the top and dumb anime to rivial Code Geass, but at least Geass had an actual ok protagonist for the most port.


We already have a second Code Geass: It's called Guilty Crown.
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Rahxephon91



Joined: 08 Jun 2003
Posts: 1859
Location: Park Forest IL.
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:54 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
1) Really? Haruto...bland? To be honest, he's a breath of fresh air. It's rare that you get a character that wants to take up arms for revenge. Would you rather have another Kira Yamato?
Oh come on man. He only had that reaction because someone died. Someone died and he.........well reacted like every other anime character. I'm jumping the gun yes, but I'm sure he will return to his usual anime main character self complete with talks about wanting to protect people and what not. He's about as bland as can be.

But maybe you're right. Outside of Linebarrels I can't think of a recent mech protag who's motivation for getting into the mech is'nt "protect". But lets see where that goes, because outside of that the school life scenes don't give much hope.


Quote:
2) Who would the Ruri character be? I sure as hell didn't see one, unless you mean the computer geek who I wouldn't even consider a Ruri-type character.
I'm talking about the one who snatched his phone to give to his love interests. She's another character made to check off the "Ruri-like" character check list. It's not even subtle.

Quote:
3) I wouldn't say the mechs were ugly but the CG wasn't as good as, say, Majestic Prince (which is done by a profesional CG studio so that's explainable.) but it was way better than Gargantia.
Eh I just don't think they look good and since the mech is rather bulky the movements look even worse. The 2d animation was fine.

But I mean outside of that you just had stuff that I'm tired of seeing in anime. Just boring cliches.

We had all this action take place at a high school, complete with them actually having the weapon underneath the high school. Why? Because anime!

We had boring silver haired villain who's cold and detached. And he comes complete with a pretty boy gang. And you can guess their attitudes from their character design. Kid character is happy one. The one with glasses is the uptight one. The one that I think has a streak of yellow in his hair is the more aggressive one. Then other purple/silver haired boy who I guess is up in the air. Either way, you got a favorite archetype we got you covered fangirls!

It's just kind of boring. And while I shouldn't come in expecting great anime. It's still kind of disappointing.

Quote:
We already have a second Code Geass: It's called Guilty Crown.
Oh yes I forgot that show.


Last edited by Rahxephon91 on Sat Apr 13, 2013 3:45 am; edited 1 time in total
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nightjuan



Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 1473
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 11:00 pm Reply with quote
Lynx Amali wrote:

1) Really? Haruto...bland? To be honest, he's a breath of fresh air. It's rare that you get a character that wants to take up arms for revenge. Would you rather have another Kira Yamato?


I would say that both of them aren't very appealing types of characters in my opinion and Kira didn't exactly have a good introduction either. He wasn't weak but still rather boring to watch during the first few episodes and never became a character I got too interested in.

Quote:

We already have a second Code Geass: It's called Guilty Crown.


Unfortunately, Guilty Crown lacked most of the few things Code Geass did right and instead makes everything look shiny and pretty while being worse in several key areas. I dropped that show and never looked back, but if you just want to see craziness then I guess that doesn't matter. Valvrave has me barely interested as things stand but I'd prefer if it ended up merely losing me out of boredom rather than annoyance.
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Beltane70



Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 3868
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 11:04 pm Reply with quote
So, wait, I'm I just about the only person that actually liked Valvrave?
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