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Yeah, this series is still pretty whacked. But by Valvrave standards this ep was almost tame.
Rukino Saki made quite an impression on me last episode, but this week I think she exceeded my expectations – though not entirely a good way. It seems fitting that she chose to compare herself to a bat, because she’s pretty batty. Turns out what seemed like actions driven by fierce pride and self-righteous anger in last week’s episode were pretty much don’t-give-a-rat’s-ass crazy leaking out.
It seems only fitting that the series that’s most off its rocker should increasingly focus on a character who meets the same description, and Saki is stepping up to the plate big-time. She’s become something of a symbolic personification of Valvrave’s loopy approach to storytelling. One of the joys of watching original series is supposed to be that you don’t have to worry much about spoilers, but for whatever reason Sunrise once again seems to be filling the pages of Newtype and its own website with them, setting off a feeding frenzy among the viewers. I’m religiously avoiding them as much as I can, but I’d already been tipped off (not that it wasn’t pretty likely anyway) that she was going to choose the path of piloting a Valvrave.
As it turns out, that decision was just the start of a daisy-chain of reckless and self-indulgent behavior. Once she’d finished messing with Haruto’s head (sorry, Valvrave OS, but it looks like they didn’t have sex) she promptly hops into the cockpit of the second Valvrave and clicks “HAI!” enthusiastically when if she’d care to relinquish her humanity. Not satisfied with that, after taking her new mecha on a joy ride she promptly bites Haruto on the neck and in doing so, proves that one Valvampires are not immune from body-switching by other Valvampires. With Haruto’s body at her disposal she seems to go on quite the spree – making web videos promoting their relationship, posting as Haruto talking about how great Saki Rukino is, doing some insertion with Takahi, and who knows what else. Perhaps it’s better not to ask.
I’m not buying into Saki’s incredibly generic back-story about how her nasty parents and troubled childhood made her want to be famous at any cost, which is why she’s doing what she’s doing now. Why famous, exactly? I don’t quite get the route she took from Point A to Point B on that, and the flashback sequences don’t offer much help. But playing with the generic is a big part of what Valvrave is, and making sense isn’t – plus, I confess I find Saki’s sheer dangerous abandon somewhat appealing, as least as it relates to her role as a narrative device. The best part of the episode comes when she takes to the skies (in a Valvrave she’s named “Carmilla” for PR reasons) to do battle with an invading Dorssian fleet (which blasts Senator Moses Figaro into dust, apparently) and promptly realizes she’s in over her head, as Haruto rushes in to help. But a rousing round of cheers from Shouko brings her around, and she leaps back into the fray and takes the lead in pushing the Dorssians back. All the while L-Elf is unraveling the mysteries of the Valvraves, and A-Drei is landing on Module 77 either on a secret mission, or a rogue assassination attempt on his former colleague.
On the whole, this episode was less effective for me than last few have been. As crazy as Saki was, the ep itself seemed to have less of the gleeful bakayaroucity those episodes had – less a self-referential twist on Sunrise mecha anime than a kind of pastiche of all their tropes in one package. The mecha battles were quite good, but I was less entertained – I think I like Kakumeiki Valvrave best when it’s completely unhinged from start to finish, which frees it to some extent from playing too much like just another derivative Sunrise series. There were individual moments – like Takahi and her minions taking Saki-as-Harotu’s order to “cheer for me” so literally that they changed into skimpy cheerleader outfits when the Dorssians showed up – but not quite enough of them for my taste. As for the main trio I think I’m back in Shouko’s camp by a nose – but I’ve flipped on that a few times already, and probably will again…
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sonicsenryaku
May 17, 2013 at 3:14 pmI stated one to two weeks ago that Saki was primarily interested in Haruto for his uniqueness and her desire to be special herself. Looks like i was right; I wonder how many people will still love her as a character….im sure many people are still in her camp if not more.
squaresphere
May 17, 2013 at 3:55 pmYou must be some sort of saint cause I could not get myself to get through even 5 mins of this episode. I know there's a lot of buzz on the series now because of "da lulz", but I can't bring myself to watch sloppy storytelling with a side of "we don't care, buy our merchandise".
Just waiting to read about some imoto storyline coupled with an orgams powered Valvrave at this point.
Arabesque AS
May 17, 2013 at 7:43 pmMoses ;_;
The rivers will be filled with tears.
Also, it seems fitting that Saki turns out to be the Goddamn Batman, given the almost Frank Miller-esq origin story she was given.
'' for whatever reason Sunrise once again seems to be filling the pages of Newtype and its own website with them''
Having followed most major mecha Sunrise shows for year now, this is just par for the course. I tell you, you had no idea how many spoilers we would get for a Gundam show while it was airing, and Code Geass (R2 in particular) had every episode to 18-22 (and even some major spoilers for later events) leaked as far back the first half of the series. You will notice that once we come closer to the finale how tight lipped Sunrise gets about future revelations(or is it Bandai?). It's almost like they frontload the show with this much spoilers before making us thirst for them by the end.
''sorry, Valvrave OS, but it looks like they didn't have sex''
Hey man, you have no idea what Saki did with Haruto's body while he was out of it. And remember the Terms of Contract, in particular the bit about the VVV always watching …
Also, given how she can't tell the difference between a kiss and sex, I think she needs to consider a course in those matters. Seriously, do they not like have SexEd for extraterrestrial beings or something?
''I'm not buying into Saki's incredibly generic back-story about how her nasty parents and troubled childhood made her want to be famous at any cost, which is why she's doing what she's doing now.''
Didn't she say that was a lie? In any case, I think that her flashbacks show that there were few hints of truth in what she told Haruto, but she wasn't completely honest at the time either. In any case, she does seem to have some form of very traumatic past that made her lose faith in humanity and be this prideful and self serving. We shall see if the part about her parents end up being true though.
''a rousing round of cheers from Shouko brings her around''
Was I the only person who couldn't help but think that she shifted her focus from Haruto to Shoko after that? I mean, her VVV is named ''Carmilla'' after all, and being a vampire and all …
Nayrael
May 17, 2013 at 7:58 pmNope, it was definitely true: everything she mentions and more actually appears in the flashbacks. The only lie was her claiming it was a lie.
The middle-aged man who punched her is most likely her father and the lady who attacked her with scissors might even be her mother.
Also thought she shifted her focus, but more from a joker's perspective. I think she may just have started considering Shouko a friend which would be quite a step forward for her as, other than Haruto, she doesn't have friends.
Arabesque AS
May 17, 2013 at 8:46 pmWhen something is definitive, it leaves no room for words such as ''likely'' and ''might''. I'm unsure if what Saki said to Haruto was true or otherwise (I think it was a mixture) but the only definitive thing I managed to get out of her flashback was that she is bitter about getting her contract terminated and having experienced a lot of scorn and bullying as a child.
Like I said, well see if it is indeed her parents or others.
I think that the Carmilla name might have coloured my impressions, but yeah it could be that she now considers Shoko her friend including Haruto (though after the scene in fron of the temple, I think she doesn't see Haruto as anything more than a tool to further her goals). Still, I can't help but think that there might more to that camera shift (and using Haruto's body to seduce the female population of the school)
Nayrael
May 17, 2013 at 9:13 pmI don't think she was too honest when she said she doesn't care about Haruto (or more exactly, I think she is too used on believing she lacks friends). We saw in past episodes that she does seem to care about him and in this episode she seemed to be preparing to tell him something important about herself but was interrupted by Shouko's arrival.
More or less, she just needs to realize that she does have friends and that fame-hunting is not something she really needs to be happy. But I am sure the authors will stretch that development as much as they can.
admin
May 18, 2013 at 12:11 amWell, if they did have sex they didn't do it when OS was watching – so no dice. Also, when I say "buying into" Saki's story I don't mean "buying" – most of it may very well be true, I just don't really care. As this point a development like that in anime is pretty much a yawn.
Kunagisa
May 17, 2013 at 8:09 pmThey might've screwed up this episode with the Narrator. Shoko's father became the president instead of just a cabinet/minster as mentioned by Hocchan's character (Nanami?) back episode 4; unless her father's the president and mother's a cabinet member, this would be a script error.
Also interestingly enough Ono-D's character (Cain was it?) probably gave out the biggest central plot hint this episode. He didn't mention there are 2 VVVs, he distinctively said there are two people
The way he phrased the speech is too unnatural (and it's pretty clear he doesn't mean VVVI and VVVIV when voicing his thoughts) that even Nana's character (I need to stop memorizing characters by their VAs) found it weird. Cain probably knows more than the rest of the cast and counted the OS as a real person. This along with Elf's curriculum comment invited a whole ton of EVA-esque speculations (including Unit-02 is probably the Module's engine, which would explain why Hito is able to push the Module all by itself).
Nayrael
May 17, 2013 at 8:17 pmI don't think that President/PM issue is necessarily an error: we don't know how exactly JIOR is structured and it might be possible that in JIOR one person holds both offices (different titles being a consequence of the fact that JIOR is a union of nations and in such cases the leader may use more than one title)
Arabesque AS
May 17, 2013 at 8:39 pm(Hey, it's been a while)
Which is more likely, that the newbie student teacher was confused about Shoko's father position, or that the omni-present narrator got his facts wrong?
In any case, unless it turns out that JIOR has both a President and Prime Minster, the main point here is that Shoko's father is the leader of the nation. Whatever the correct title of his position is irrelevant.
The one thing that confused me is how did Cain manage to know that there were two people (if OS-tan counts as a person) using the VVV?
Kunagisa
May 17, 2013 at 9:55 pm@Nayrael
Thanks for pointing out that its PM not just Minister. For some reason I only remember it being 大臣 instead of 総理大臣, which is actually a pretty significant mistake on my part.
@Arabesque
(/waves)
2ch says it's more likely (if one side did indeed get it wrong) that the student teacher is the one at fault given how unreliable she appears to be so far.
As for Cain's comment, Kriemhild was confused too in regard to what he meant exactly, so it's more likely that the viewers are supposed to be confused about that. There are more speculations that I can make base on some known minor spoilers, but I respect GE's stance against such things so I will not be discussing that. Though common logic suggests that the higher-ups that sit in the back always know significantly more than the foot soldiers.
Zeta Zero
May 19, 2013 at 2:17 pmSo Saki is this series' version of Flay Allster? (On second thought that's being too hard on Flay Allster).
8fcad392-c0a4-11e2-82b7-000bcdcb5194
May 19, 2013 at 4:53 pmYes cause being a biggot who continuously manipulates the main character and then helps bigger racists with their genocidal goals is now more desirable than taking a mecha that's there for you to, going on a joyride and defending the colony from certain doom albeit because someone wants attention and fame cause life has led their belief system to take it as the only way towards happiness. Try harder bro…like really.