Valkyria Chronicles - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating [Archive]

Kairin

2009-10-05, 14:09

This thread is to be used for discussing the entire episodes of Valkyria Chronicles ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about the DVD only footage etc.

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:
General impression of the series.
Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
Thoughts about the animation quality.
Characters/Character Design
Voice Acting

Which kind of footage (DVD only) you feel you'd really like to see.
What the show meant to you.
What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Soundtrack: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Enjoyment: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun :)

serenade_beta

2009-10-05, 14:41

The OP and ED were all good. Though the 2nd OP does a wonderful job of spoiling future events...

For the actual anime, there were several unfortunate points, but it proved to be pretty entertaining.
The points of complaint would be:
1. Senjou no Valkyria... Yet there is so little focus on the "senjou"... A lot more romance-focused
2. The disappearance of the Elderweiss... They said Zaka would drive the thing. It never appeared again...
3. A lack of development for the side characters.

Though the most unfortunate thing was the attitude of the "fans". Getting a warning (that didn't have much effect past one episode thread). railing off to a stupid low-leveled argument on a different anime, *insert relentlessflame's post*
I heard the game was really good... But when I see how the "fans" of the game are, it makes me wonder if the game is actually not good and that the peo-... *cough* Nevermind. I'll keep that thought in my head...
Of course, this isn't a con of the anime, just the entire board for this anime was...

The story wasn't the best though. The characters were good enough. Kind of sad to see Welkin, the protagonist? turning into a wimp though.
Anyways, it was fun. The 2nd ED is in my MP3.
8/10

（＾ω＾） "Fans" attacking from the shadows... As expected.

Foreshadow

2009-10-05, 15:15

There are certainly better adaptations out there. Now I did enjoy the first 10 episodes. From there on, Not so much.

Animation Quality: 5
This area was definitely lacking, below average shots and animation quality.
Voice Actors: 7
Average, not much to say here.
Script: 3
Now this, is the part that totally and completely baffles me. Seriously. There is already a story laid out and very well accepted amongst the audience. The characters are already well developed etc. Why take that, and mess with it? The Love triangle was completely unnecessary to begin with. All it did was make Welkin a useless sack of crap and degrade his character. Both Alicia and Faldio already knew that Alicia wasn't interested in Faldio. All it did was waste a couple of episodes inbetween that could have been used for better purposes. Jeager's last stand, Isara's dream, Isara the child, and Maiden's Shield.

I'm all for romance, but only if it's done properly. They should have shown Alicia and Welkin's development over Faldio's. Maximilien was a commander who shouldn't have overreacted at every little thing. I don't understand the character changes. I also don't understand why there were only maybe 5 squad 7 members introduced. The others did make appearances but the viewer was basically expected to already know their names.
Soundtrack: 6
Again, Nothing special here. Nothing really struck me as "amazing".
Enjoyment: 3
Not that enjoyable. I had force my way through multiple episodes. I had this series dropped at a point. Only watched it through for the sake of seeing it.
Emotional Involvement: 3
None. I probably sympathized with Alicia alittle bit, but really nothing more then that.

Overall, 5/10

In comparison to source material, 2/10

KariOhki

2009-10-05, 16:04

Awesome, been waiting for this topic. But I won't be assigning numbers to the following things, just talking about them.

Animation Quality: It started out really strong! I loved the way they used that pencil filter in the shading, even if it took a bit getting used to because it was static. But as the series went on, especially in battles, there got to be a lot of QUALITY shots. 20-23 were the worst in this, especially after the well done 17-19.

Voice Actors: I enjoyed them, though I'm not good at rating/comparing a JP voice track compared to an English one.

Soundtrack: For anime-only tracks, it's okay. Only a few were really good. All of the awesome tracks were taken from the game. However, I do love Rosie's song from episode 15 and the first OP. 2nd OP is okay, same with both EDs.

Enjoyment: The "fun" I had with this series ranges between actually liking it and making fun of it. When I liked it, I really liked it. I'd be laughing, or anticipating the danger, or whatever. But when it was bad...hoo boy, I loved making fun of things. Male Tsundere being useless, GARdio saving the day, Welkin being a wuss, Squad 7 being useless...

Emotional Involvement: The characters were my favorite thing about the show, though I knew more about them from their game counterparts. Isara ;_;

Other notes...well, for an adaptation, it sure adapted and changed a lot. The ending is so different from what I've heard (haven't played the game yet)! The series needed a lot more action and less romance, though I really didn't mind the love triangle too much. Faldio DID get on my nerves though, being perfect and then not even getting mentioned in the ending. Zaka was also pretty useless once he joined up, since the BFT disappeared. That thing can deflect other tank shells but you don't even use it...riiiight. Also, Ellet disappeared, and that made me sad.

I think someone mentioned here, or it could've been somewhere else, that they wanted to see someone who was seen the anime first without knowledge of the game, and then played the game. It won't be until giftmas time, but I'll be asking my mom's opinion of the game compared to the anime. Yes, I watched this through with my mom XD And it'll be interesting to see what she says when she finishes it...

ANYWAY my overall rating was 6/10. A decent show, mostly because I was attached to the characters.

kraken

2009-10-05, 18:47

Animation Quality: 6/10 Very Good Sometimes, Bad few times

Script: 4/10 so many incoherence to the logical sense, it remind me Code Geass R2. The ending was also rushed. there is also a lack of development for the side characters and a lack of war.

Music: 5/10 good but they are from the game, so...

Emotional Involvement:4/10 some good event (but below than the game however) but many very annoying episode with some very annoying character.

my overall rating is 5/10, average or decent if you are able to ignore the problem of the script.

my rating compared to the game is 3/10.

Valkyria Chronicles is one of the 7 only game I give 9/10 (with the Sakura taisen series , FFVII and 8, Xenosaga 1, Skies of Arcadia and Shadow Hearts)

I have also watched the anime with my mom (who is 60) she have liked some anime (Higurashi, Macross Zero, Death note, the Ghibli and Kanon) but, she found the anime really silly and bad (she give to it 3/10).

I have played to the game with her few time, she found the game decent even if the really dislike the war which is very present in the game.

She give 6/10 to the game.

Sassarai

2009-10-05, 20:13

I gave it a 5

First half of the series 5/5

Showed Welkin as a capable leader and main character.
Battles were interesting.
Characters were developing nicely.

Second half (begining of the love triangle) 0/5

Fabio took over.
Valkyrias fighting DBZ style.
Characters weren't developing anymore instead we got a ridiculously dragged out love triangle.
Cheesy dialogue.

Music - Love 2nd op Kanashimi Rensa

I bet if I played the game I would of hated this series but since I didn't, I'm probably the most non bias guy I know of.

JagdPanther

2009-10-05, 21:17

I gave a 4/10.

I looked forward to VC intensely since the moment we all first heard about it. I looked forward to the anime almost as much as I looked forward to the game. But then things started to go sour before the first episode aired. We began to hear that the story would focus more on the love story than the war story. We saw animation examples. I became wary.

The first few episodes weren't bad, but they showed that several of the characters had been changed in very dramatic ways that may not be offensive to normal viewers but I felt were travesties to those of us who played the game. Alicia's personality became more volatile, Welkin became... dumber... and Faldio became the Best Thing Since... Ever.

I didn't expect the story to be a 1-for-1 translation; that would be dumb. But what I did expect was that the anime would retell some parts of the game while filling in parts of the story we never got to see in the game. The episode specifically related to Selvaria's past (introducing her ADC, I believe) was exactly what I had hoped a lot of the series would focus on; expansions of the game.

Unfortunately, what we saw was a total rewriting of the game. It cannot be treated as anything more than that. While the basic premise might be the same, with how dramatically Welkin and Alicia were changed coupled with how Faldio became the main character (which I don't think many people can deny was the case for a large portion of the series), I felt like I had been cheated. This was not Valkyria Chronicles I just finished watching; this was something that merely masqueraded as a member of the VC family.

What few battles we saw were poorly thought out and given hardly any screen time. What few recruitable characters they bothered to add spoke maybe 50 lines combined throughout the entire series.

I can only hope that they don't make another VC for any succeeding games (or just for the hell of it); I cannot trust that they'll do any better next time around. Now my only hope is that Valkyria Chronicles 2 for PSP does not ruin the series even further by being placed on a system that negates many of the properties that made the original VC such an absolutely superlative game in every manner.

That is all. For now.

kanon78

2009-10-06, 05:43

So much potential but such a waste...
5/10

Manji Midou

2009-10-06, 05:59

? ???? "Fans" attacking from the shadows... As expected.

lt's ok S_B, l'm here for yah. l won't let those mean fans attack you!
want a hug? :)
as for my overall score, l'll do that once l 'm done with my doctors appointment.

MrTerrorist

2009-10-06, 07:14

When i first heard about them making a VC anime, I was full of high hopes & didn't mind the art style since i thought it was great. But once i began watching the show, i felt like a child who finally learns the cold, horrible hard truth that Santa doesn't exist.

Everything i love about the game was destroyed right in font of my eyes. My heroes became an non serious idiot & a dumb Tsundere, the magnificent storyline was bogged down into inconsistency, the tactics & Battles became a Bad Hollywood Action Flick, the Themes of "War is Hell", "The ugly side of Racism", "We're all good people no matter which side we fight with" and "You don't need power to beat a great power but friendship of your comrades to beat great power" were change for "My everyday life is more important than war", "Racism? What Racism?", "Gallia good, Empire Evil, that is all" and "Fight Power with Saiyan power!" (Facepalm!)

I think it's better to say that A-1 just destroy everything great about Valkyria Chronicles and made a loose adaptation with a love story that wasn't going anywhere with inconsistent plotholes, lack of characterization and without bothering to do research of what the weapons & uniforms Squad 7 uses or tactics they did.

The only thing A-1 did good was on what to do with the cinematics in VC2.

I recommend that anyone who has never played the game whether you have or haven't watch the anime and play it now(or watch in on youtube) and see what the anime did wrong.

Now excuse while i weep in misery in a corner.

Runty

2009-10-06, 09:42

Time for my overall review of the anime.

In terms of storyline, this anime took an original approach, which I feel is nice due to the warranted risk. However, some slowdown in the middle of the series, I will agree, did kinda dampen the experience. Thankfully, it kept in the most important parts (Isara's death, Cordelia's Darcsen heritage), while adding some new material that I thought was a nice touch (Ramal, Susie being Alicia's friend from Bruhl, Cordelia attending Naggiar, and Alicia's second duel with Selvaria). Nods to fanon were also a bonus (Edy/Homer pairing, Marina's love of cute animals), and Alicia's tsundere moments in the early episodes were hilarious. Surely not perfect, but definitely good.

Storyline - 8/10

The animation was hit-and-miss, with episode 24 clearly being the best. The fight between Alicia and Selvaria was beautiful. But the fact that they retained some of the pastel style clearly honored the anime's origins in the game. I've seen better animation (i.e. Code Geass, Full Metal Alchemist), but this definitely wasn't shoddy. I'd have liked to see more random soldiers get shot, but that would probably have had rating issues.

Animation - 8/10

Like in the game, simply gorgeous. You had minor remixes of original game music, while a few new tracks got to slide into the anime. I personally love a particular one that's played on a piano; I think it's first instance is in Episode 8, after Selvaria deflects Alicia's bullet and walks away. That one is a real treat for the ears. No flaws at all, IMO.

Soundtrack - 10/10

Though this might just be influenced by my love of the game, I liked this anime a lot. Maybe it's just me... I can't bring myself to hate it. Not that I have a reason to; it kept me entertained, 26 episodes strong. Then again, my standards probably aren't as high as some anime-nuts on this forum, so take my word with a grain of salt.

In comparison to some other animes I've watched (Vision of Escaflowne, Full Metal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell: SAC, etc), it might not rate at the top, but it's definitely one I'll remember as being entertaining. To me, that's what's important.

Enjoyment - 9/10

Overall - 8/10

-Sho-

2009-10-06, 14:03

6/10 .

Yeah , this anime was interesting , promising , enjoyable in the beginning .
But near the end , they screwed up this show . Too bad . It could be a good anime .

RWBladewing

2009-10-06, 18:36

Animation/VA/Soundtrack - Nothing bad, nothing mindblowing, not really anything to say about it except that it was good.

As far as story/scripting goes, I'm just kind of at a loss regarding certain decisions, like making Faldio a main character. Why do that? He's not interesting, and the way certain scenes played out with him being portrayed as perfect almost made it seem like they did it just to spite Welkin. And the fact that nobody was mad at him and he got off scott-free after a couple highly questionable actions made it even worse.

There's also the issue that the squad members were almost entirely irrelevant. Barely any lines or role in the plot at all. If I hadn't played the game I wouldn't even know any of their names aside from Susie who kind of played a role in the first episode.

I've criticized the love triangle as stupid in the past, but looking back it wouldn't feel entirely out of place to me if I hadn't played the game. I'd say I have no opinion either way about it, if not for Faldio being a terrible character.

Aside from that though it would be a pretty decent standalone series with a good amount of drama, action, and suspense. Unfortunately as an adaptation it fails really hard. I can understand and even support the including of things that weren't in the original work, expanding upon others, and skipping some moments that are relatively unimportant, but outright changing a large number of major plot points is going too far. At times, especially scenes featuring Faldio, it almost felt like more of a parody or a Take That than an adaptation. "Hey, remember that awesome thing that you did in the game as Welkin? Nah, Faldio did that."

That said, I was still relatively entertained by every episode, production values were pretty good, and, as previously mentioned, a lot of it was decent as an anime series despite being an extremely poor adaptation of a game, so I'm rating it a 6/10 overall.

JagdPanther

2009-10-06, 20:59

I've criticized the love triangle as stupid in the past, but looking back it wouldn't feel entirely out of place to me if I hadn't played the game. I'd say I have no opinion either way about it, if not for Faldio being a terrible character.
Had it been Juno, I don't think I would've complained at all.

We know in the game that she has a crush on Welkin but it's never fleshed out at all. That would've been the logical extension for the anime to make, I feel. It never did, obviously.

Tak

2009-10-06, 23:24

My view? Simple:

http://hbmortgageoracle.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/metrolink-train-wreck.jpg

- Tak

Zwei

2009-10-06, 23:48

I just have to say I feel sorry for the people who have yet to watch this if they are planning to. The only reason I could finish this is because I only watched an episode a week, I wouldn't bear watching it in a day or two.

Also, I never played the game. If I did, I may have had a different opinion about it.

DragoZERO

2009-10-07, 07:20

4/10.

It started out really great and had a lot of promise. But boy did it get bad.. so very bad. I only watched the last few episodes since I prefer to finish what I start - there was little motivation to see what happened to the characters.

Such disappointment.

Yu Ominae

2009-10-09, 18:09

http://www.valkyria-anime.com/special/charavote090821/index.html

Here's the overall vote on the characters of VC based on the show.

Keroko

2009-10-09, 18:30

Hmm, what to say, what to say? If I were to describe Valkyria Chronicles, I would say that it is an anime that missed its potential. It is tediously slow to begin, yet has a satisfying end. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really pick up until the last couple of episodes, which makes watching it… rather difficult. It is clear that Valkyria Chronicles could have been much more had proper attention been given to its script.

One of the main problem lies in that it tries both to be close to the game and different at the same time. This makes the script quite wobbly at times, and only the last episodes manage to get this pace right.

Now, on to a list of the bad and good sides of Valkyria Chronicles:

The bad.

Horrible pacing. There are times when entire fights are skipped, making you wonder what the hell happened, and yet there were times where the calm moments seemed to be dragging on forever. Now calm moments aren’t bad, if they give good character development. Sadly, lot of them ended up going nowhere, making much of the episodes more filler than content.

Casting. The anime also didn’t take advantage of the large cast, most of the squad 7 have tiny little side roles at best, and could easily be replaced with faceless mooks. Again, this does improve slightly in the later episodes, but they should have done this sooner.

Ramal. Poor, poor Ramal. Created for the anime, yet he served no real purpose whatsoever. His connection with Isara seemed to be going somewhere, then was flushed down the toilet. Had he been replaced with a known face from the game, I would think that the advantage of already having a background (albeit a meta one) would have made him seem far less out of place.

The good.

Good things? In this anime? Surely I must be jesting, right? Not quite, this anime does have some bright sides. If you care to look for them.

Valkyria action. One of the greatest disappointments of the game was just how little we actually got to see the Valkyria in action. The anime approaches this differently, and although it throws them in battle later than the game does, it gives us a lot more action with them.

Imperial background. Sure, it’s not much, but the anime touches upon things hardly touched upon, or sometimes even completely left untouched in the game, such as the Empire itself, Maximillian’s motivations are given more perspective, Selveria’s background is explored. All in all nice additions.

Changes. A topic many will disagree with me. Personally, I never saw the value in animating Valkyria Chronicles one on one. After all, the game already looks like an anime, what’s the point? It’d just be the game without gameplay. No, I was always looking forward to the changes, and although they were not always executed that well (or sometimes even horrible) they did help me from rolling my eyes and go “been there, done that.” One of the things they changed –or should I say add?- was making Alicia and Selveria know each other. Some may loathe this change, I myself rather like it. It gave their fight a bit more depth. Another was the small action of giving Cordelia a wig, which makes perfect sense, considering she’s a queen with a rather large secret to keep. Alicia as a Valkyria was also changed a lot, and too be honest, the way the anime does it makes a lot more sense than the way the game does it.

In short

Valkyria Chronicles is an anime with a lot of potential which, unfortunately, remains untapped for the greater part. While the ending was good, it does not make up for the drag the majority of the series was. As a rating, I cannot give this anime higher than a 6 out of 10.

JagdPanther

2009-10-09, 22:40

http://www.valkyria-anime.com/special/charavote090821/index.html

Here's the overall vote on the characters of VC based on the show.
Wow. Faldio was beat out by Welkin. That's a shock.

Death Header

2009-10-09, 23:14

The Good:
- Nice animation and artwork.
- Good OP and ED Themes.
- A surprisingly radical change compared to the video game in every way.

The Bad:
- Could have had more episodes to explain any missed out plots. The ending kinda felt rushed and I felt that the directors could have expanded some points in this series that could've been expanded. (26 episodes is too short for this imo).
- The Love Triangle could have been removed entirely altogether, especially for a series this short. If the directors wanted a love triangle, they should've made the series longer (which refers to my first point).
- Series could've used more groundbreaking action. Sure we had some good action here and there but for an anime like this we really could have used more.
- Lack of Edelweiss T_T
- Certain characters could've been developed way more. I felt that random characters were thrown there for absolutely no reason and the director neglected some of the more important characters in this series. Heck, even Ramal had good enough potential to be expanded until the directors got him killed for no reason.

I give this series a 5/10. Series had potential but as the series went on most things just fell flat on its face. (I'm not comparing this to the video game)

DragoZERO

2009-10-10, 08:37

http://www.valkyria-anime.com/special/charavote090821/index.html

Here's the overall vote on the characters of VC based on the show.
The pig got 10!? :heh:

Keroko

2009-10-10, 09:02

Hey hey, don't underestimate the winged pig. :3

I myself am more surprised at the complete absence of Rosie even though '5 lines in the anime' characters like Edy and Marina made it in the top 10.

KariOhki

2009-10-10, 10:23

I myself am more surprised at the complete absence of Rosie even though '5 lines in the anime' characters like Edy and Marina made it in the top 10.

Nah, Rosie's there at number 15.

Keroko

2009-10-10, 11:27

Ahh, sorry, I meant the complete absence of Rosie in the top 10.

SoggySoyBean

2009-10-10, 11:31

I think I'm choking on bacon. And is that Zaka at 11? :O He's out-ranking...

justinstrife

2009-10-10, 14:56

http://www.valkyria-anime.com/special/charavote090821/index.html

Here's the overall vote on the characters of VC based on the show.

So even though Fabio had 70% of the airtime, Welkin still beat him? :p

Keroko

2009-10-10, 15:10

He shot Alicia. That cost him points.

KariOhki

2009-10-11, 11:57

I mentioned in my other post in this topic how my mom was watching the anime with me without knowledge of the game. Well, she finished watching today and gave the anime a 9.5/10, points off for "too many characters to keep track of"

Can't wait to show her the game.

SoggySoyBean

2009-10-11, 23:46

Yu Ominae

2009-10-11, 23:56

At least two of my favorites girls are in the top 10 list. :D

KariOhki

2009-10-12, 10:36

Woah yoor mom watches anime? :O

Best of luck ;) Hope you too enjoy it as much as I did :D Christmas right?

VC was the first anime that she's seen all the way through. We're gonna watch Vandread together when I'm home again. And yup, getting a PS3 for Christmas so I can finally play my copy of VC :D

cloner4000

2009-10-12, 14:51

Probably the major complaint is the ending where it seems like they would go through the effort of developing characters but then did not go through and ends at a very sudden notes...

Of coarse though, at the same time it's nice to see other side characters making appearances.

While I agree that they changing the plot is good and show some difference..but I really really thought that some part they took out are too symbolic and touching that they shouldn't have taken it out.

But as a VC fanboy I definitely enjoyed it 100%

shaolinx

2009-10-20, 00:25

I really enjoyed the series, with each episode making me want to watch the next. The animation is really unique and fresh, specially how they shaded all the colors except for the face to show shadow.

The problem that I have with the series is that some characters gets pretty annoying. Especially Welkin... He got really painful to watch near the upper half of the series, but thankfully, he redeemed himself at the end.

Lastly, if the anime didn't have a game predecessor with a good ending, I would be sufficed with the anime's ending(it is alot better then many other series). BUT it does have a predecessor, thus the ending of the anime lacked in many details that made the game ending so wonderful.

Overall 9/10

kraken

2009-10-21, 18:38

It's me or the anime is rated as one of the worth show of the 3 last years with Shuffle Memories?

RWBladewing

2009-10-22, 14:25

It's me or the anime is rated as one of the worth show of the 3 last years with Shuffle Memories?

Not sure about the accuracy of that but it is interesting to note that this series has apparently not generated even a single 10-voting fanboy. I think this is the only subforum series on the site with that distinction. Granted, this thread hasn't been open that long, but compare this with Regios, which has fewer overall votes and was an absolute steaming pile (my rating of 5 was far too generous in hindsight), yet still has multiple 10 votes, and it doesn't really cast this series in a very positive light.

kraken

2009-10-22, 20:10

VC was the first anime that she's seen all the way through. We're gonna watch Vandread together when I'm home again. And yup, getting a PS3 for Christmas so I can finally play my copy of VC :D

For me, the next anime I am going to watch with my mother is Air (As I am doing a sequel to the anime, she need to show it before we watch it).

I am happy to see I am not the only one who watch anime with my mother (we watched the miyasaki anime, Death note, Higurashi, Macross Zero, Fate stay night, Valkyria and Kanon until now)

Forever

2009-10-26, 06:53

I gave it a 6.5/10 rounding it to a 7. Lots of potential, but wasted towards the end. Needs a Fabio spinoff though.

ViewtifulAlchemist

2010-02-11, 17:21

I finished the game a while ago and thought it would be nice to watch the anime adaption just to get more of the VC world. Random thoughts...

- OP/ED were very weak. The 1st OP just really screamed out "generic". 2nd OP was a bad case of trying too hard to be exciting and epic. I think it's a bad sign if an OPs can't even hook me in and I'm very lenient on OPs. ED1 was the only one I didn't mind watching a few times mainly just to see chibi versions of the characters (chibi Selvaria cooking = lulz).

- Some of the character models looked weird during the first half of the series, Isara's eyes were HUUUGE and spaced out funny in proportion to her face. A lot of scenes she was in look like those "QUALITY" pics you see on 2chan or something at times. I thought Selvaria looked much better in the game than in the anime.

- I don't know how the perspective of someone who hasn't played the game first and watching this anime would be but I think they would probably be confused at some of the extra side characters and some of their moments onscreen would seem pointless. Like me I personally got excited whenever Marina was onscreen and even more when she actually sniped something. Also watching Vyse getting killed off so quickly after being introduced was kind of funny in a cruel way.

- They downplayed or ruined a lot of great moments in the game in the anime imo

-- Isara's death. Also her "true dream" for Welkin was left out entirely, it really hurts her character effect in the series overall. Instead they opt to gimp her death and make Welkin become a douche until Alicia forced him to grieve for Isara properly.

-- Selvaria/Maximllion "relationship". I like the way the game handled it better than the anime though it was nice they tried to make more background info for how the two meet it just ended up being a waste of flashback time.

-- Rosie actually reflecting on her ideals of Darcasns and actually opening up her heart during the Darcasn resistance operation. Instead they focused more on hinting on the RosiexZaka pairing.

-- Gregor's death sucked bad, like he just gave up.

-- No Selvaria last stand battle. Also her death, felt more emotional in the game and not like it was just randomly pulled out the ass.

-- What happen to Jager in this anime? They include most of game's skirmishers except one of the more epic ones, his tank battle. He was also one of the more leveled headed people in the series, had a very "noble" air about him, and they ruined his character towards the end of the series. He didn't really do anything at all in the end.

-- Faldio was doing good until the Alicia love confession...who greenlighted that change? Then his character got worse towards the end and his "death" sucked since he wasn't even acknowledged in the epilogue.

-- Kind of weak how they forced the final battle into being only Welkin/Alica vs. Maximllion while everyone else gets shot up just to forced a cheesy "Omg Alicia I can finally confess my love to you" moment when it's all said and done. I mean it was chessy in the game too but at least it was in a better place of the story! Final battle in the game was epic because everyone was fighting and they were playing that theme music from when Alicia and Selvaria first fought (why was that music only used in that fight anyways?).

-The few changes I did like (or almost liked)

-- Ramal, I was really starting to like him and thought he would fulfill the void of Isara's true dream since the game's engineers were missing but once she died he seem to have no purpose anymore. Which was sad because Ramal and Isara relationship was cute in it's own way.
-- More insight on Maximllion background. In the game all you got was the brief flashback of the train exploding...which was enough for the most part but the anime really fleshed out the fact that the higher ups really hated Maximilion. When Max killed his own assassains before Selvaria arrived, that added some more cool factor to him.

For the most it seems if the anime just stucked with the game's plot it would be fine which is odd because Gungrave (another Sega game first turned anime) was a good series mainly because the anime counterpart changed quite a few things from the original game's plot.

Decent start, bad finish. 7/10.
--

Boduar

2010-03-06, 05:32

Things that seemed to ruin it for me were

A. Love triangle that made me facepalm over both faldio and welkin for the entire second half of the show. Went from liking them to hating them.

B. Maximillian ... you know I really thought there would be something that would evoke something out of me from this guy. Instead he just comes off an a nutter who dies an insignificant death. I mean the fact he did not care for ANY of his comrades just makes him ridiculously 1-sided generic bad guy where in the first half of the show you saw some of the nice sides to the "bad guys". Was hoping for an ending where I actually felt kind of sorry that they end up losing because of X or Y or Z instead of being like well its nice they died because he seems like a giant douche.

germanturkey

2010-04-01, 23:55

so i finished it. it took some liberties from the game, but the run of episodes like 18-23 were quite emotionally charged. props for doing it so well.

Headgamer

2010-04-09, 22:56

I watched this anime because I was board and I happen to run it to it somewhere (can't even remember where). I was going to stop watching part of the way though, but ended up continuing just for the sake of it. After all, it wasn't half bad and the game looks nice.

A few points I want to through out:

- I thought the 2nd OP was a good one, but it completely spoiled the "surprise" part way though to the point that when it finally happened I was thinking "about time!" instead of being shocked along with the caricatures. It would have been better had they only used that OP after the secret was revealed.

- I think the entire concept of the reason a person fights giving them the power to win is majorly over used. Though it didn't hurt the anime all that much, it definitely didn't help it much.

- I was accurately disappointing they involved magic at all. As nice as it is in other anime, I didn't really think it fit in with that world much. Granted, it might have gone better with the game.

- A lot of the caricature seem to have lost their use and were ignored part of the way though.

- One positive I'd like to point out is most everything involving Isara. The whole Darcsen discrimination bit was a good touch if you ask me, as well her untimely exit which caught me a bit off guard. (Why must the good die young :-( )

All in all: not bad, but I'm not suggesting it to a friend. It had it's moments both good and bad. Still, the game looks better.

7/10

Akka

2010-05-22, 10:23

First, I'd like to say : I didn't play the game. Not that I don't want to (I really itches to try it, in fact), but I don't have a console. But it means I don't have any idea about what was changed or the like, so I judged the serie on its merits and flaws alone, without any comparison to anything else.

Unlike many people, I actually disliked the start. The naïveté and childishness of the setting was extremely grating, especially with the dichotomia between the "war is hell !!!" that was supposed to be the case, and the Disney-like soldier life that illustrated it.
It got much better when the tone became darker later.

The biggest problem of the serie was how goofy, ridiculous and flat-out dumb beyond belief and irrealistic beyond suspension of disbelief, was the whole war shown. It was just so completely bogus and idiotic that I stopped watching several times. Even saying it's Hollywood War with Hollywood Tactics is a understatement. It's closer to War for Kids and Retards, and it's probably insulting toward the kids that have some grasp on reality.
When the whole background theme is war, having the war being ridiculous isn't the best start.

Partially linked to this problem, the whole Valkyria arc was seriously weird and not really interesting, full of plot holes, inconsistencies and absurdities. I don't know if Valkyrians were so ridiculously overpowered in the game, but it detracted from (destroyed ?) the whole background and felt just inane.
Despite the title and the fact that the story is based on it, it would have been better to get rid of it altogether, which says a lot about how bogus it felt. As the poste above said : all this magic really felt out of place.

Now, a very bad serie so ?
Not completely. Despite the silliness and absurdity of most of the background and story, there were saving graces in it. Mainly the characters and the involvement.

The characters were rather nice and sympathetic. In fact, I continued watching despite being put off by the idiotic presentation of war, because of them. They all had their own personnalities (regardless how derailed they are supposed to be from the game, again I didn't play it, but in-show their were consistents) and there was chemistery.
In fact, contrary to the opinion of some, I'm actually glad that the relationships between characters was prominent and overshadowed the armed conflict and the main storyline, because frankly it was much more interesting.
Also, the kick in the gutt that happens mid-season was very effectively done. The best part of the serie without a doubt, making me care and suffer with the characters.
Some moments were also nicely done (the Empire deserter for example) and helped to save the main story (though not being sufficient by a long shot).

All in all, it COULD have been a very good serie. The potential was here. The character part was successful and engaging. But the story was just full of holes and weird, and the background completely ridiculous.
I had a rather good time, but I certainly not can say it was without flaws. "average" is a good definition.

6/10

Lockgar

2010-08-01, 01:48

Since I do not think many people will read this :p .

I loved the game, and had such high hopes for this series. So I admit, that will reflect my views greatly. So that should be a question to ask about this series. Who was this series made for? Was it made for the fans of the game? Was it made for people who didn't play the game? Was it made as a promotion for the game? It is clear, that it certainly wasn't the former. So it should be unavoidable that someone would have to compare the source material.

First, the art design, its Gorgeous. I loved how beautiful some of the scenes where. The characters where very expressive just all around fun to look at. When the the series actually showed us action scenes, many of them where greatly executed. The sounds, the music, everything fit so well. However, the actual script and plot is where everything falls apart. Which isn't so strange when you take into account that this was written by Michiko Yokote. I don't know if that's a man or a woman. Most of the series are about kids in high school age. However, this person also worked on Patlabor and Cowboy Bebop. It is a very strange mixed bag here.

I will look at the series in thirds here.

The first third of the series does a good job at setting the tone of the series. As well as having some pretty nice action scenes. The characters however, where extremely annoying and just out right dumb. As appose to the game, they where well adjusted adults. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/819-Valkyria-Chronicles I believe I can show that link, as the site that hosts has it shown off as "advertisement". Please mind the Mystery Science Theater 3000 voices.

Basically the character quirks became character exaggeration. I remember in the earlier episodes I did a scene to scene comparisons a few times and that the video game did a much better job at making the characters likable and believable. Alicia for example, actually had a neutral to positive and friendly attitude towards Welkin, *GASP*, she also was far more sensible. One of the worse rewriting had to be episode 10.

In the game, we have Welkin and Alicia huddling together for warmth in an abandon cabin, after Welkin and her stealth by an Imperial attachment. Something the Anime cut out, which makes them simply appear in the cabin. "Personally I assassinated everyone in the mission, but moving on." So we don't even know why they are there, they just got "separated" When all of a sudden, an imperial trooper stumbles in. This soldier, barely 18 they state, has been gravely shoot, he is delusional, he is at death door, he is afraid, he doesn't want to die, and is crying out for his mother to hold him. Alicia, in a act of sympathy, pretends to be the soldier's mother, to comforts him as he slowly and painfully dies. Illustrating that, not only are the enemies soldier actually just people like them, but that war is hell. It also does this in about 5 minutes.

How does the anime do it? Well we get the same, if not abrupt set up. However, instead of a unluckly soldier boy, we get a Buddy Cole monologue from a pissed off farmer for about 20 minutes. He also dies, from a gunshot wound, in the back. Although in its own right, it was fine, as it does the same effect, but it seems to lose some of its power when you where pretty much holding a grenade and asking people to agree with you. He was also shot in the back, if you know what that means. Again however, not a bad scene.

The second third.

At this point I notice another character was changed greatly was the head General. Who was simply arrogant and ineffective. In this series however, they made into a treasonous, cowardly, sexiest, arrogant, ineffective, idiotic, general, who should have never been given that post. Perhaps this was for the better, but this just seemed so forced.

FILLER!!!!

The love triangle, I don't think I have to go into that, it was poorly done, and seemed very forced. Was completely unnecessary, and the series came to a screechy halt here, until Episode 17.

The final third.

This to me seemed to be the best part of the anime. Its as if they actually remembered what they base this series off of. Defiantly had the best moments. Isara, probably the most sympathetic and likable character, especially in the anime has one of the most touching scenes. "We never see her dream though" The action gets ramped up, and we get to see what is under the princess' head before he just out right snaps. "Not to sound smug or anything, but with the exception of the double Valkyria fight was all done better in the game." I suppose they had to rush it along, but why did they have so much filler if they where going to end up just rushing out the the climax.

Overall, I would have hated this series if it was not for the final third. the second third was just painful. If you never played the game, and you should. I would say this series gets a 7/10. It ends up as coming off really generic, but the setting and art style greatly makes up for that. If you had played the game... Much lower, but at least you get to see some of your favorite characters again. Also, they killed Vyse.... They killed the Sky Pirate Captain like a red shirt.....

roriconfan

2010-09-05, 03:33

This anime is the adaptation of the homonymous PS3 Strategy/jrpg game. Yes, it’s a game adaptation; negative bias from the first second I heard about it. I haven’t played the game, as I don’t own a PS3 and the way things are going with my savings, I probably never will. Anyways, I read lots of info about the game, watched some trailers and found a text about stuff that are different between game and anime. So I’m not completely ignorant with what is going on with the source material. Ugh, I said “source”, here I go again with my negative bias towards something that is derivative.

Anyways, Valkyria Chronicles (henceforth VC) is in a nutshell taking World War 2 and making a silly fairy tale out of it. Because although the premise is quite familiar, the presentation lacks any sort of realism to how that or any war takes place.

The story is about two nations at war, with a third stuck in the middle and trying to survive the clash. This is where the interesting part ends because everything else I will write hereafter is negative; you have been warned.
In our story the Evil Empire TM invades our peaceful Generic Nation of Complete Goodness TM, which is fighting back with the aid of a bunch of happy-go-lucky schoolkids, who so happen to pilot a super prototype tank that can beat entire armies alone. Between the fights, our brave heroes TM indulge in a Generic Love Triangle TM, just for the heck of it. Somewhere in there, they throw in powers from an Ancient Civilization TM. And that is pretty much it.
The main difference with the game in terms of story is that said romance, which was absent in the game, yet seems to matter more and more as the anime progresses. It was pretty average to begin with and slowly shifting genres from war adventure with some romantic overtones to romance with some war in the background was not exactly an improvement. Not only that, but the way the war was unfolding was pretty silly to begin with. Cheery teens with colorful uniforms, beating Armies of Evil TM with a single tank; ok, realism went for a walk, even without the magic. And although being realistic is not everything, having everything unfolding in a superficial way eventually makes the already simple story to be dull and forgettable. Not only that, but it also ends in an open way. Ok, now are you supposed to wait for a sequel or pay 500 bucks for the console and the game in order to find out what happens next?
Whatever, bottom line: It is simple, it lacks any sort of excitement for being so superficial, it is bogged by lots of average romance, and ends openly. It gets a 3 for a somewhat interesting beginning.

The cast is made up of all sorts of personalities, most of which are archetypes you can find in pretty much any romance and definitely not in a war drama. Plus, none of them are sticking out for any given reason. Well, besides their distinctive archetypes that is. The main lead is spaced out most of the time and that is his most important characteristic. I’m sorry dude; Yang Wenli did it far better than you. So this guy is surrounded by a big team of Anime Archetypes TM, from the Not Blood Related Sister, to the Tsundere In Secret Love, the Male Antagonist, and the Evil Empire. All of whom are dressed in game fashion with ribbons, short skirts with high socks and boots for girls and Nazi wannabe uniforms for the bad guys. Yes, very corny indeed. They get a 4 for not only being average but also for being completely unable to relate with and have incomplete development because of the also incomplete story.

The animation is generally good, with a high amount of detail and colors given to backgrounds the character figures don’t deform because the animators were bored. The explosions are also done in a nice way. At the same time there are lots of stills in this and the use of 3D models used for vehicles and various buildings may feel a bit off in their interaction with the 2D characters. Besides this obvious matter, the action scenes (and the war in general) lack realism which cancels out any attempt at portraying battles. Riffle men are unable to hit targets a few meters away from them, a singe tank can defeat a hundred enemy tanks without much tactics, and the military uniforms are totally off, with girls having pigtails, ribbons and short skirts in the middle of a war field, while the bad guys all have detestable looks. It gets a 7 for being decent, yet loosing points for too many stills and unrealistic aesthetics, not fit for a war field.

The sound is nice in all sections. No annoying songs, no silly sound effects, no over the top ridiculous voices. At the same time, none of those are great either. No songs worth hearing over and over, no major voice acting and no amazing sound effects. It gets a 7 for not being great or bad in any way.

In all, VC is an average work, plagued by too many stereotypes and unrealistic situations that simply don’t give you a reason to care about it. Value and Enjoyment get a 4 for an average work that was left incomplete.

Average score is around 5.

Owlette

2010-11-25, 22:56

Hello fans. I watched a whole of VC anime from first episode to 26th episode two years ago, September '09. I thought it is okay. I've not watch it again until a few days ago, for some reasons, I tried to find some episodes about someone's relative member. I know one episode about someone, but I still can't find any more episodes, so I don't remember which it is. Now I don't feel like I want to search each of them; all of them are 30 minutes long. Do anybody know where they are? Please send me a via PM or VM for details. Thanks~ =)

Anyway, here's my thought on that anime...

Storyline: I feel there are some holes in it. Less realistic... I don't know why Welkin told his squad to stay alive. Huh? On an another hand, a lot of magic is a poor choice, which it shouldn't have. But I do like a few episodes about Imperial and Gallia soldiers were worked together to save two women, the finale episode, and one more epd I forget. A few final epds are very good because it is more interesting. So I think it is 6 out of 10.

Animation: I think they did great job on background and details. I enjoy to view various landscapes and cities. In 4th or 5th epds (I think?), I like how they drew exactly Imperial flag like in the game. It is so beautiful! In episode, about re-taking Bhul, I thought it is fantastic to see Bhul is still same from the game. So I will say it is 8.5/10.

Soundtrack: I really don't care about the voices and sounds so I only reply on reading subtitles. So I put it zero of 10.

Enjoyment: Yes, I do enjoy the show but not so much. I just feel like I miss out about something because I still want to know what happen to some characters like Max's brother and etc etc. I still feel kinda of mad that Jaeger and Oswald were killed... Just so sudden. I wish they keep them alive like they did to Jaeger in the game. Oh, well... So it is 7 out of 10.

Overall, the average is 5.5, so I thought it is ok-ok.