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All work and no play makes L-Elf a dull boy.
As we get closer to the end of this series one truth is certainly emerging – Valvrave is suffering. It doesn’t seem that any of the good guys are immune to it – dying, losing parents, being raped by friends in vampire mode, slowly getting your memories sucked dry by an alien Hoover until you expire, losing the love of your life who you’ve been chasing since childhood. Being a protagonist in this series isn’t a pretty job. I’ve opined before that this is the sort of show that could go full-on tragic for an its ending (writer Okouchi Ichiro certainly isn’t afraid of tragedy) and it seems more and more a realistic possibility with each passing week.
This was definitely a step-back episode in terms of action, but not in emotional gravity. L-Elf set the tone: rather than go off on a rage-induced spree of violence, he retreated literally and figuratively into a shell. He holed himself up inside a storage room and obsessively searched for where he’d gone wrong, what he could have done to save Lieselotte – and found nothing. It might seem out of character but generally speaking, Valvrave has been more thoughtful and restrained this season so I think it sort of fits. It certainly is the case that L-Elf’s motivation has almost entirely been driven by Lieselotte, and losing it has rendered him effectively useless to Sakimori Academy and its cause, for now anyway.
Again choosing the quiet and somber approach over bombast, Valvrave turned to politics as the battlefield this week. Shouko has been busy in the absence of the others, working behind the scenes to get Dorssia condemned internationally and try to force the world into helping take back JIOR. Politics is every bit the dangerous game warfare is, and even more treacherous – and it’s easy to see that this isn’t going to end well for Module 77’s plucky underdogs. Much of this is framed through the device of Barnet, a cynical journalist with the highest-rated new show on the net – thanks in no small part to his coverage of the Sakimori rebellion.
Barnet is an interesting character (and an excellent character design – as someone who grew up watching American TV news, I can say that Barnet really looks the part) – this series is very good at making characters without much screen-time interesting. Even as he exploits the students for his own career it’s clear he feels a certain sentimental attachment to them, though not at all clear that it’s enough to motivate him to do anything more than pity them. It’s his brief interview with Haruto that’s the most interesting – he asks if Haruto doesn’t see himself as Don Quixote, with Dorssia as one giant windmill to be tilted. If you’ve read Don Quixote (shame on you if you haven’t) you know how it ends, and judging from Haruto’s reaction he knows at least the gist of it. Then again, Barnet also says “All the successful revolutionaries I’ve known had one thing in common: they were naive.” Does he think Haruto is too naive, or not naive enough?
Things come to a head when Shouko manages to attract an international conference to Module 77 to address the JIOR problem. The first thing that struck me was that gathering all the free world’s leaders in one place was a very bad idea and I thought that’s where this was going, especially after we saw the Committee of 101 declare that they’d lost patience with those annoying kids and needed to silence them once and for all. This impression is further strengthened when Barnet tells his team (minus his young producer, who’s missing) to bug out because he’s gotten a tip that “this is going to get ugly”, and the rescued JIOR scientists mysteriously disappear.
But once again, Valvrave chooses quiet despair over spectacle – to a point. And the point is the blade that runs a shackled Saki clean through on the webcast that the Magius interrupts the conference with. This is an interesting approach – rather than attack head-on the Committee (via their Dorssian puppet Amadeus) strikes at the heart of public opinion by outing Saki as a Valvampire. It’s funny to hear one monster calling out another, but the point is made – and even the vast majority of Sakimori students (who weren’t in-the-know) are horrified. This would seem to undercut the JIOR cause politically to an almost total extent, but then there’s Saki herself – it seemed as if there was remarkably little concern over her when the others arrived back home (indeed, I never heard her name mentioned until she appeared on-screen), but she’s in a world of hurt. The only ray of light I see is A-Drei, who seems to have a certain sympathy for Saki – indeed, there are growing signs that the surviving members of Yama Arashi (minus the utterly vapid Q-Vier) are questioning their loyalties in light of H-Neun’s apparent murder and the clues he left behind. As the stirrings of revolution rumble through Dorssia, it may be that the hope to bring down the Magius comes not from the Quixotic outsiders, but from within.
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Helen
November 30, 2013 at 3:40 am"Does he think Haruto is too naive, or not naive enough?" I'd say not naive enough at this point, although the flashforwards seem to indicate that they survive to an extent. And one thing that left me confused in this episode, the blue Valvrave pilot (Inu?) said something about "we might die tomorrow [so go spend time with Shoko now]", I know that Saki and Akira know kamitsuki are immortal but did they forget to tell Inu/Thunder or was that just supposed to be a poetic line? Because if they didn't that's a hell of a way to find out….
leongsh
November 30, 2013 at 6:34 amImmortal? Short memory, huh? Marie and Lisselotte. They can die but only by a specific way, the exhaustion of runes.
Helen
November 30, 2013 at 9:20 pmAs you just put it yourself, only from the exhaustion of runes and, given the valvraves limited operating times (even if the upgrades from this episode mean they can run 2.5x as long) means they're unlikely to hit that. Well, short of Haruto but I'm pretty sure only L-Elf and the teacher know exactly how special he is there.
Drake Chandler
November 30, 2013 at 4:14 amYou might want to edit that last paragraph. Saki's the Valvampire, not Shouko.
Kamen Rider Kekkaishi
November 30, 2013 at 4:18 amAs entertaining as Valvrave has been, Q-Vier dying a painful death will give me so much satisfaction.
Kaname
November 30, 2013 at 4:33 amSo the truth is out huh? Now that it is, Jior can reveal to the world the existant of the Magius. At least if we’re all going down let’s go down together!
TQ
Nic
November 30, 2013 at 6:00 amNevertheless, I can't help but think that the Magius made a terrible mistake revealing knowledge, any knowledge, about Magius powers. All it will take is L-Elf to break out of it (and his naivety), and use a bit of judo to reveal the powers that control both ARUS and Dorssia.
John Hunt
November 30, 2013 at 8:34 amA little correction, the academy is known as Sakimori Academy. Sashinami is Shoko's surname.
admin
November 30, 2013 at 8:42 amThanks, yeah, I knew that once but the memory isn't what it was…
Ragefat
November 30, 2013 at 3:04 pmStop Piloting the Valvrave man, that'll be the end of you. XD
Nayrael
November 30, 2013 at 10:02 amWell, Haruto did mention Saki. Others didn't, but neither did the show go into much detail (even Marie's funeral was short), likely due to save time.
Anyway, is this the point where New Jior finally becomes the Third Galactic Reich?
thedarktower
November 30, 2013 at 10:44 amI didn't think saki would get caught.
it's true A-drei exposed her. but she can let him shot at her and escape or even change bodies with him..maybe that's what happened, therefore A-drei is concerned about what's going on?
but if Saki is indeed inside her body, the Magius can now possess her body.
after all, those flash-forwards where we've seen Saki 200 years later, doesn't necessary means it's truly her..right?
VVV is quite a mess LOL
MgMaster
November 30, 2013 at 5:39 pmNah,no way Saki would've been able to take on A-Drei.Just because she's immortal doesn't mean she can fight as he can + she can still feel the pain and thus be temporary disabled.
thedarktower
November 30, 2013 at 6:29 pmbut it worked to Haruto on L-elf back there in episode 1 or 2 of s1.
besides, then why A-drei seems to have "certain sympathy for Saki"? if saki is truly inside his body, that may explain these things.
but yeah, of course it seems less likely..yet, I won't remove that suggestion off the table so quickly
MgMaster
November 30, 2013 at 8:14 pmWell yea it could work as it did for Haruto against L-Elf but remember that's a one-time trick only because L-Elf didn't expect some highschool kids to be much of a threat not to mention that he only saw Haruto as a minor nuisance and his attention was elsewhere.It's not actually the same case here because even if A-Drei didn't know about the Valvamps he wouldn't take one of the Valvrare pilots so lightly and his attention would be directed at Saki the whole time with little chance of leaving any openings for her to snatch his body.
Although since she was gonna get captured by Dorssia anyway she probably should've taken that chance.I don't blame her for not doing it though…she's not a trained soldier so I assume she just panicked & didn't know what to do.
Would be nice to see more of what A-Drei's thinking though.He seemed pretty conflicted on what to do with the way he looked at Saki and at H-Neun's earring.Although by Valvrare's standards,I might've just asked for his death sentence right now…
Altritter
November 30, 2013 at 9:15 pmSaki can't be inside his body, because it's not swapping; it's jacking. If Saki bit him, she'd be in his body, but her body would be unconscious and unable to move/say anything/etc.
Helen
November 30, 2013 at 9:22 pmI think they were saying "could the Magius bodyjack Saki's body?" to which I'll say maybe but in those flashforwards we can still see the triangle-thingee tattoo on her leg so I think it's safe to say that the Saki in the future isn't a magius.
IreneSharda
November 30, 2013 at 9:25 pmHaruto took L-elf totally by surprise. A-drei was already on his guard when he saw her go back to her own body. She wouldn't have been able to take him unawares and she can't take him physically.
And A-drei feels sorry for Saki because he has formed a small attachment to her. He knows now that she was the one in that boy's body the whole time, and he feels sorry for her predicament. Remember that even if Saki jacked A-drei, he would still be in his body, just unconscious. He wouldn't be in Saki's body, and he definitely wouldn't have woken up. Saki's been in that kid's body for days and her own body never woke up.
thedarktower
November 30, 2013 at 9:56 pmwell, the "unconscious" problem is indeed a problem that counters the whole thing. I though that after some time they regain conscious, but that doesn't seem to be true.
there is somehow a possibility to go around this, but it would be too much probabilities that approaches zero..
and I do think it's more likely that Saki is inside her own body. the look in her face, it looks like Saki.
yet, the thing with A-drei, that's something that doesn't quite fit IMHO
why would A-drei form attachment toward Saki?it's because the way she was with him as that little boy? or because she is such cute?
now let's be serious. his interaction with her was so little, that it makes no sense.
besides, we are talking about a soldier here, who trained like L-elf and rest to be merciless and stony-hearted. so with so little interaction he actually feels something? it also happening to the other guys in the group, after the death of the so called "traitor".
it looks like VVV is trying to escape a little bit too easily out of its problems.
Roger
December 2, 2013 at 2:19 amstill i have only one question. so, why isn't saki the main character? she has a more interesting storyline running for her than any of the other characters 9yes, even that of l-elf).
Alan Heung
December 6, 2013 at 6:40 amRukino Saki has been drawing the short end of the stick since the very start of this show in season 1. She was overshadowed by Shoko despite being the one who was actually by Haruto's side. She was about the only one who died as many times as Haruto did and was sent in with the most dangerous mission out of the pilots.
PS: One thing I extremely dislike about Haruto is how he acts like a mute when people accuse him of things. It's like without Rukino or L-Elf, the guy's fucking useless.