Is this the season of bait and switch? Suisei no Gargantia, Hataraku Maou-sama!!, and now Valverave.
Anyways, watching this episode reminded me a lot of Code Geass's first episode, where they start with your standard Gundam plot but then start throwing things out the window. It even has the random school comedy + fanservice scenes that CG had which contrasted with the much darker war/mech setting and plot. Although I think execution wise the direction isn't quite up to part with CG's first episode, but it's still very promising.
Also regarding best girl: