Short Synopsis: Alicia tries to use the tank to bring everyone to safety.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
I must admit that blogging this show is going to be a huge gamble. At this point, I myself am not yet convinced of this show, but first: about the series I’m not going to blog:
– Slap Up Party, granted, is an interesting collaboration between Japan and Korea to produce an anime. Some of the jokes worked, but others however just fell flat. Not to mention that the drama sucks and is full of cliches.
– Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood. Why? Because everyone and his DOG is already going to blog it.
I like the new FMA, don’t get me wrong, but I’d much rather devote my attention to a show that actually needs the popularity. Seriously, what is it really that I can add to the already sixty other bloggers? I’ll continue to follow it obviously, and judging from the first episode, it is very likely that it’s going to surpass the original series.
As for Valkyria Chronicles: I see potential for potential, but this really is a series that’s decided to use its first 13 episodes for building up. That really can go anywhere, from incredibly bad to incredibly good. I’m intrigued, though: this is one of those series that didn’t start off ~showing all of its trumps in the beginning. While that didn’t make for the most exciting first episode, I do admit that it’s paying attention to fleshing out the characters very slowly. This attention to detail might prove to be interesting in the future.
But yeah, the show does need to get rid of the overall stupidity of some of the side-characters. People mistaking others for spies, or taking out a tank that isn’t fully charged. I guess that it meant to serve to show that mistakes in such a time of war can have grave consequences, but the creators shouldn’t end up building the plot around this stupidity.
Having said that, though: I admit that this is the first time that I’ve seen an anime focusing on tank combat. It surprises me, because in nearly every other show, tanks merely serve for cannon fodder for whatever giant robot or monster gets in their way, so it’s good to see an actual series that shows how handy these machines can be in warfare.
I’m also interested in the staff behind this series. A-1 Pictures is an interesting production-company and every single of their shows is trying to do something interesting with its animation (most notably Birdy the Mighty, of course ^^;), and you can see that here in the shading. Overall the colours in Valkyria Chronicles look very nice and they match really well with each other, while at the same time keeping a down-to-earth feeling.
The director is a new guy, it seems. He was the episode director of Ookiku Furikabutte (which as I heard was really good), and also directed a bunch of episodes for xxxHolic Kei, most notably the one with the ghost woman (which was very well executed and built up). The series composition is done by someone with lots of experience on all kinds of different series, including Princess Tutu, Strange Dawn, xxxHolic and Hare Nochi Guu (but unfortunately also Kujibiki Unbalance and Nabari no Ou), and with a bit of luck she’ll make sure that the series stays on track.
In this episode, Alicia ends up joining some sort of military academy or institution, it seems, and Welchim also seems to live there. I’m not sure what’s going to happen from here on, but I’m willing to give it the benefit of doubt.
This anime sucks! Just saw the first episode and dropped it. The stupdit of this show goes to the extreme level. After they entered the building, the couple just forgot they were being chased and started talking as if nothing were happening. And the guys after them took to many time to enter the damned house! I can see it will take the same path as “Tales of the Abys”, where situations were just ridiculous.
Actually, Valkyria Chronicles the anime is a rendition on the semi-popular PS3 Strategy-RPG game of the same name. The shading method in the anime is an attempt to duplicate that game’s unique Canvas shader engine.
Drat, Meultima beat me to it. (: Yeah, this is an RPG anime. The game is supposedly THE best thing on the PS3 right now, and has achieved a bit of cult classic status, so it’s not too surprising it made the transition to anime. It should be interesting to see your take on it, though, since you’ve (most likely) never played the game. I’m sure, as with shows like PopoloCrois and the various Tales anime, that this is one specifically meant for fans of the game, so whether or not it holds up on its own is entirely dependent on the quality of its writing and presentation.
-Tom
Agree that this episode was kind of dumb. The militia suck (expected I suppose), but god it is that hard to hit people standing out in the open while you are behind cover? Leave it to super-tank to save the day… jeez.
Well I’m glad you’re blogging this series. The game was really great so I already know a good portion of the plot twists, but I want to know what the anime does with them. The plot won’t be getting really interesting though for a while. Still, in a few episodes you’ll probably start getting to understand the world of Valkyria Chronicles and the underlying problems with it.
“He was the episode director of Ookiku Furikabutte (which as I heard was really good)”
You haven’t seen it yet? Well, you can add me to the list of people who thinks it was a great show that you should really check out if you have the time.
“the anime is a rendition on the semi-popular PS3 Strategy-RPG game”
It’s more like not very popular but extremely well-received among everyone that’s played it. It’s a great game but very few people seem interested.
“The game is supposedly THE best thing on the PS3 right now”
eh, not the best, but among the best. Disgaea 3 and VC are my favourite RPGs on the console, MGS4 and Uncharted are the best action games and Street Fighter IV is the best beat ’em up.
VC is definitely among the better titles on the PS3, although there aren’t that many Tactical RPGs on the PS3 to start with. The great Japanese voice cast will not be appreciated much by Western players, but the English voice cast is quite good also. What really stands out though is the innovative combat engine, which manages to convey a sense of real-time and urgency while actually being turn-based.
By the way, the guy’s name is Welkin, not Welchim 🙂 Without having seen the episode, the “military academy or institution” he and Alicia join is most likely the Gallian militia.
I am sorry to hear you are not blogging FMA because I really wanted to hear your thoughts on it. But it might not be such a bad idea I guess as FMA would probably end up being a very long series to blog. I guess I will look forward to your thoughts in your monthly posts instead.
The anime is following the game pretty closely, the first episode covered the game’s Prologue and chapter 1 (a chance meeting with some scouts, and a short fight where you just have to run away), and episode 2 covered chapter 2: where welkin’s tank saves the town watch so if can finish evacuating.
It doesn’t match the individual events in the game, but the overall plot marches. It looks like from the episode 3 preview that it will cover chapter 3 of the game pretty well, where we meet the rest of the platoon, and Welkin proves to be a tactical genius.
If this ends up a 26 episode series, it should cover the whole game including everyone’s side plot
psgels, I admit I’m very diappointed because you won’t blog FMA. I understand your reasons but your blog is the only INTERESTING one in the whole internet. I don’t want to read summarys or ohter boring opinions about fma like I did on almost 7 other blogs. Is there any chance that you will start blogging it later on when the series will go in an other direction than the first anime? I hope you’re not mad at me because of this comment and I apologize for my bad english 😉
psgels, I even read your reviews of series I don’t really like and I don’t watch. But reading your blog is just so entertaining 🙂
I read your blog since you blogged Toward The Terra, an amazing show in my opnion. We like your reviews, please… can’t you waste a little space and time for popular shows?… you blogged Gundam 00, why not FMA? 😛
Blogging some popular shows may attract more readers and of course they will know about master pieces, but not so popular, like Toward The Terra.
Please, don’t destroy me… 😛 please please… oh god… i’m not very well… :P(again)
I played and beat the game…..Its extremely well done and brings soemthing original to the PS3. The issue I am having now is that i am judging the anime by the game. There are ofcoarse differences so far (One being that the side characters are much more important in the anime, and most of them are “pants on head retarded”) but I am not sure whether this will add or take away from the story.
Anime + tank combat? Should have worked better!
i saw this game has been availible on http://www.pandamimi.com/games/valkyria-chronicles-playstation3-us-version-g-463.html already ,is it true that we can own one now???? i am expecting ………………