Anime First Impressions: Valvrave the Liberator

Joseph Luster May 1, 2013

Valvrave the Liberator is a decent show that could be great. Sunrise’s production isn’t too shabby, it has a few cool mecha designs by folks like Makoto Ishiwata (Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Robotics;Notes), and, best of all, it has a twist at the end of the first episode that isn’t obviously telegraphed. In order to talk about the series, I’ll have to get into that, so if you still haven’t seen Valvrave, I’d say it’s worth at least watching the first couple of episodes. Dig in and see if the twist does it for you, because there’s not much else to see here other than a few neat robots and some pretty boys.

As I type this I still haven’t dropped Valvrave, so all hope is not lost. The plot has an admirable reach, for sure, but at this point it exceeds the show’s grasp. The story takes place during an era in which most of humanity has migrated to space. Though two superpowers—the Dorssia Military Pact Federation and the Atlantic Ring United States—remain at each other’s throats, a general air of peace can be found in the small neutral nation of Jior.

That’s where we meet our protagonist, Haruto Tokishima, a high school student who mostly gets by avoiding conflict. Hell, he can’t even really muster the courage to confess his feelings to his friend and crush, Shoko, so it’s no surprise that he’s a bit of a pushover. His relatively carefree school life is cut short, however, when Dorssian forces launch a sudden invasion. In the midst of the chaos, Haruto stumbles into the mysterious titular mech and, following a tragedy that finds Shoko in the line of fire, he fires it up and takes on the enemy full force.

This is all pretty standard motivation and stage setting here, but what happens at the end of the first episode is the real shocker. See, when Haruto hopped in Valvrave, it wouldn’t start until he accepted the order to reject his humanity. It’s probably the kind of thing that’s buried somewhere in most end user agreements, so Haruto eventually says yes, gets a quick neck injection, and flies into battle. Once Haruto’s rampage comes to an end, one of the Dorssian secret agents, L-elf, finally corners him… and kills him. Then repeatedly shoots the body until he’s sure there’s no life left in the smoldering husk. It seems like the curtain has closed on our hero, until he leaps up, fangs bared, and takes a snarling bite out of L-elf’s neck.

This is what most people would refer to as the hook. It’s a real page turner, and it works! Even if I hadn’t enjoyed myself at all during the first episode of Valvrave, I was certainly planning on tuning in for episode two. I did. And then I watched the third. And they were okay.

The problem with a turn like that is it opens so many possible doors, and introduces so much promise, that the odds are stacked against it ever living up to any of it. Most of those doors close pretty quickly, and so far we’ve been left with a fair to middlin’ show with dwindling potential. I don’t know what I was expecting when I saw the title of episode two, “Beyond 666,” because there isn’t much anime out there that could hope to meet those expectations. I wanted the Mercyful Fate album cover of mech shows, but I got Valvrave the Liberator.

So what is interesting about Valvrave? The Dorssian agents are easily the most intriguing characters, and they’ll surely be (or already are) the subject of plenty of erotic fan-fiction. The Valvrave mech itself still holds plenty of mystery, and those doors that are still left open are ones I wouldn’t mind taking a step through. The way the mech is powered, the symbolism behind its demonic capabilities, the… vampire aspect, to a certain extent; all that stuff will keep it in my queue for the time being, and I plan on watching episode four this week. The mech-slicing action isn’t bad by any means, but it’s also nothing spectacular or particularly inventive.

Valvrave isn’t going to be a long series, so I’m hoping director Kou Matsuo (Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Yozakura Quartet) and writer Ichiro Okouchi (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Planetes) have a few more tricks up their sleeves. After the opening sucker punch it’s hard to imagine they don’t, so I’m willing to give it a few more tries.

You can currently stream Valvrave the Liberator over at Crunchyroll.