Valvrave the Liberator - General Anime Discussion

[kuudererules]

https://fever.s-pwfl.com/special/pfj/
https://twitter.com/valvrave

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

They seriously going to make a sequel for this trainwreck? Well, at least I'll get to see the Valvrave mechas again. They're cool. I hope Okouchi (if they retain him) is in the right mood when he writes for this show and probably do an even better job than his recent good gig, Devilman Crybaby.

OR, it's all just a pachinko project.......

[Endscape]

Honestly would not mind it, if it was a new anime. People are always dumping on this series, but I have fond memories of it. It has a charm to it.

[Kurohane]

Oh my gosh.... I actually gave up hope of a continuation. Looking back, the anime was a mess with season 2 going for full shock value instead of any coherency. Looking forward to how they plan to revive this.

[MK-95-]

This anime has a special place in my heart since it was the anime that caused me to create my AS account. No exaggeration, the bulk of my posts on AS were made in the VVV sub-forum. Now we can finally see what they were planning with regard to the 200 yr time skip. Also, this better be a 2-cour anime. I will not settle for a 1-cour.

I welcome this sequel project with open arms and I'm still holding out on L-Elf x Shoko being a thing. lol (I never gave up on em. )

[Wandering Soul]

I don't really think a sequel is necessary, but I do remember having fun times on this forum thanks to this series, so I'm cool with one. Season 1 was sort of a mess so hopefully this one will be better written.

Wonder if they'll top Senator Mose's infamous line.

[Twi]

A sequel, are you kidding me?

After how that ended, I expected it to burn in a fire from my unyielding rage at how it ended.

I mean, I'll watch it because I'm invested and want to see how it plays out, but... it broke my heart like Code Geass did so I'm a little skeptical about hope. More Saki is always good though.

[kiak666]

Originally Posted by Endscape

Honestly would not mind it, if it was a new anime. People are always dumping on this series, but I have fond memories of it. It has a charm to it.

Yeah, pretty much how I feel.

[KleenexGhost]

Is the Rave-Train coming back to the station?

As crazy as this series was, I have sweet memories of it. A lot of those memories due to the discussions on these forums.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Ending was stupid but who cares....Valvrave is about comedy. Bring it on I say if it'll make me laugh

[shadow1296]

it is surprising this is coming, back and it's not like there aren't stories to tell in that universe i mean that thousand year time skip shows there is, but man i didn't think people liked this series that much, well except maybe the models and mech designs, honestly those might be the reason it is getting another season it's going to bank on toy and model sales

[Diluc]

The story most likely will be brand new story following Valvrave event, like Sousei Aquarion and Evol but i don't much hope for this series.

[MK-95-]

So, I just finished re-watching the anime because well, hype and there are some things I'd like to be explored/wrapped up in a potential sequel: One, I hope this is a sequel season and not a movie/OVA series and two, as noted in my previous post, I also hope this is a 2-cour and not a 1-cour season.

Anyway, going back to some of the expectations I hold for a sequel:

1. I'd like it if they showed us the founding of the empire and not gloss it over with a "well, you know, the empire was founded 200 years ago etc, so we're just going to start the story from point x and anything before that doesn't need to be defined or will be explained via exposition/flashbacks..."

2. The ultimate fate of Soichi Tokishima and whether or not he made any contributions to the Empire's development, plus which members of the council of 101 that'll eventually side with the empire and what contributions they'd make to its development as well. (They could shine a lot of light on runes, rune manipulation and technology that makes use of runes.)

3. The Golden Seven better get some love (there are still 2 unknown pilots) and they've gotta at least show us the specific battle which earned them that title.

4. Who is truly the founder? L-Elf? Haruto? Both? I say this because when Saki mentions it in the anime, she kinda worded it a bit vaguely and we don't know who she's specifically referring to. You see, founder can refer to L-Elf in the sense that while the empire was both his and Haruto's ultimate dream/goal, it all boiled down to L-Elf himself having to establish and run the empire. Whereas with regard to Haruto, it can refer to him in the sense that he was the 'first' VVV pilot (Marie) and set in motion the events that would lead to the empire's founding.

See, this is where it got complicated as Saki talked at though the founder lived through it all and didn't die until after the empire was established. (Episode 12, Season 1.) Tho, it gets blurred there because she says "the first of 'us'" which may refer to the Magius/Kamitsuki or simply 'us' can refer to a human ally (L-11) of the empire since it was established as a place where Magius and humans could co-exist. It also lends some credit to him considering that the Prince is no doubt definitely his descendant, which brings me to my next point:

5. Who is the Prince? Is he a test tube baby consisting of Haruto and L-Elf's DNA? Is he a a child that was born naturally? If so, who are his parents? Shoko is somehow involved in his birth/creation because Akira is his godmother and who else, but Shoko (well Satomi, but he has nothing to do with the Prince's birth) would appoint her as godmother? (I'm a shipper, but I ain't a blind one, I know that L-Elf won't be his father because this is 200+ years later after all and we don't know if he achieved immortality or not at some point after the anime's run.)

6. Shipping!!! My soul will not rest until I find out whether L-Elf x Shoko happened or not. I'm not asking for the impossible here, I just want a simple yes or no. <.<

--------
ps. Watching it again, you really realize how much of a trainwreck this series was back then. I'm honestly really surprised that it did manage to get another project greenlit. However despite all of these flaws, I'm not lying when I say that I enjoyed every minute of it. It's just one of those shows that despite being an all-round mess, the pros still managed to outweigh all of those cons.

[LightDragonman]

Been a while since someone posted in this thread huh?

Anyways, I decided to rewatch the second season again. Good, gosh, I forgot just how much of a mess that was. From how it crapped all over Saki Rukino, how Haruto's whole development was stymied due to focusing on his relationships with Shouko and L-Elf, Shouko's stupid betrayal, the Rune Memory Retcon, and just in general, not living up to the potential that the first half showed.

If the rumors are true that they intended for it to go on more seasons and had to cut it short, then that explains a lot. But it still doesn't make for a very compelling watch.

I would love for them to return to this series, or even do it all over via recap movies or such, if only to give it another chance. And it is still somewhat popular in Japan, what with it getting a rather popular Pachinko machine and Blu-Ray box set a few years ago.

That said, should it get a continuation, I doubt it'll actually be good. They'll probably just end up pandering to the most vocal and active members of the Japanese fanbase. Which just so happens to be the fujoshis who ship L-Elf and Haruto, alongside the group that ships A-Drei and Saki. Seriously, that's pretty much all the new content the Japanese fans produce for it, and Sunrise is doing nothing but catering to them, especially the former.

Heck, even though they do still release merch for it, it mostly consists of stuff relating to Haruto, L-Elf, and A-Drei. That's it. None of the other characters aside from a brief mention, and in fact, the only character to get an official body pillow so far has been L-Elf.

...Okay, I admit, that is pretty funny.

But still, it makes me sad to think that the series never got to see its true potential, and any continuation will no doubt be filled with pandering as opposed to a true attempt to fix the series.

It has gotten my creative juices flowing though. I have been thinking about writing my own fic that, at least for me, fixes the second half of the second cour, which is where all the problems started getting unbearable. I've even started work on an outline for it.

Since the fanfic thread for this series is closed, want me to post what I have so far here?

[Twi]

Probably shouldn't since it technically not a fanfic thread. And outlines tend to die young. Better for you to refine it in private and then post it on a site like Fanfiction.net. The only good one I even read for this series was The Return and that died young too.

[LightDragonman]

I see. Though I also think The Founding Of An Empire was a really good one, even if it has a few grammatical errors due to the author not being a native English speaker.

At the very least, can I send you what I've written in a PM?

[Mad Pierrot]

I guess the closest to a proper ending is the novel for filling several gaps like ending the relationship of Haruto and Shoko on good terms in contrast to all the chaos season 2 had. Surprised Super Robot Wars never took this series.

[LightDragonman]

On the note of relationships, that also something I had a huge problem with in the show. To save time typing, I’ll just paste what I wrote in a different thread on another site.

A huge problem I felt that kept Haruto from growing as a character was his relationship with Shouko. To me, that ship was doomed the instant he became a Valvrave pilot, given his inhuman nature meaning that he'll inevitably see her wither and die. But fine, I'm all for seeing tragic romances. Unfortunately, all it really did was stifle any growth he could've had. His refusal to tell her the truth about him really felt like he was trying to hold onto whatever he could. Okay, I get it. But as it went on, this really started to get on my nerves, especially once Saki entered the fray.

Rukino Saki. My favorite character in that show, and one who I still think is one of Sunrise's best heroines. Sure, she may have started out with less than stellar reasons for being a pilot, but she was unique in the cast in that she actually got character development and had more layers to her compared to the rest (L-Elf and Akira were the other ones that got that as well). Throughout the show, she showed that she was willing to always be there for Haruto. As controversial as the most infamous moment was, it still showed that she cared so much for him that she didn't hold it against him, saying it was the curse, not him.

Moreover, she was someone who shared his inhuman nature, and again I stress, never blamed him for anything she went through. And that even included how she was completely screwed over by the writers in the second half (abandonment, torture, public execution, all of which angered me to see). Heck, even though she loved him, she was willing to allow him to be with Shouko, despite her admitting that him losing his memories of Shouko meant that she may have had a chance.

I know some say that her asking him to feed on her and all that was a betrayal on her part to him, as this is just feeding into his self-loathing due to his nature, rather than him choosing L-Elf to feed on because he promises that he will stop him should he turn back. But honestly, that demonstrates a huge amount of self-loathing on Haruto's part.

It may not have been what he wanted, but Saki's acceptance of his Kamitsuki nature is more or less what he needed. Someone who won't stop him when his new uncontrolled urges occur, but rather, accepts him and all his flaws. And that is something that Saki can provide to him.

But no, Haruto doesn't see what's right in front of him, and instead still chooses Shouko. Saki doesn't even appear in many of the memory runes that are lost, even the one that featured the other pilots (a stupid Ass Pull in my opinion), with the majority still being that of Shouko. Shouko this, Shouko that.

The thing is though, the fact that he didn't want to share his true nature with Shouko for fear of how she would react (along with feeling that he didn't have the right to have feelings) just says to me that it wasn't going to work. Relationships have to be built on trust, and if you don't have enough faith that they'll still accept you, then how are you going to function as a couple?

It didn't even work on Shouko's end either. She has a responsibility to do what is best for the new citizens that she now governs as PM, and trying to hold onto a childhood crush that now has his own responsibilities as a Valvrave pilot, and unknown to her, is also not human anymore is just begging for trouble. They just simply clash too much, all of which culminates in the infamous betrayal once she learns the truth. And to be frank, I kind of see why she was so upset, at least in terms of him not trusting her with the truth. But getting upset that he forgot the childhood promise? Girl, you've got bigger things to worry about than that right now.

Again, it just shows how I feel that holding on to this relationship really prevented either character from maturing. Why they decided to make this the main one is beyond me, unless it was because of melodrama. All I could think was why in the world Haruto didn't get together with Saki, as I felt both characters grew thanks to it, which I much prefer seeing in a relationship.

TL;DR: Valvrave really is screwed up when it comes to which pairings to focus on.

Makes me sad that there isn’t more fan content feature Saki and Haruto together, at least in terms of fan art and the like. Most is just between him and L-Elf (understandable at least) and her with A-Drei (can’t stand this pairing).

[LightDragonman]

Didn’t realize this until later, but man does Haruto’s mindset tick me off.

I just read a blog saying that Saki’s decision in episode 13 to offer herself to him to ease the curse was the wrong decision, because it was a betrayal of his trust that she would stop him from ever doing that to someone. Concurrently, he instead decided to feed on L-Elf because he offers the solution he wants, which is to have someone who won’t hesitate to put him down should he ever go out of control again. Like, he doesn’t need or want kindness or sympathy, he needed someone who could do what needed to be done. As essentially, all her attempts at sharing his pain only makes him feel worse.

https://fabelyn.tumblr.com/post/6401...ckfired-in/amp

I’m sorry, but that is an incredibly stupid and honestly rather selfish mindset to have, if what this blog post is saying is true. I hope it’s all a misinterpretation or over-analysis, because otherwise it makes Haruto someone I really can’t sympathize with.

You are saying that, rather than accept someone else’s help because they genuinely want to shoulder your pain and accept your issues, you’d rather go to someone who you trust will punish or even kill you as you never want to be reminded of your guilt / accept that you can’t return to being human thanks to your urges? How much more incredibly short-sighted can you possibly be?

Punishment and death are not the solution. People are counting on you, and will be sad to see you gone. Heck, Saki herself was upset to see Haruto go through all those painful trials just to try to stamp out the parts of himself he hated and didn’t want to be reminded of. For him to see her offer as a “betrayal of trust” and the like is ungrateful and honestly the actions of a child rather than someone mature (yes I know his age but still).

Just another reason for me to be deeply frustrated by this show.

[Mad Pierrot]

Feels like 2013 all over again