Introduction
Where do I even begin with this show? I had never heard of this show until I found the opening on YouTube, which is an absolute banger, I highly recommend you listen to it. But after watching both seasons it makes sense why this is never talked about. This has to be one of the craziest anime ever conceived.
Let's start with some background, Valvrave the Liberator is a 2013 space mecha anime animated by Sunrise and written by the writer of Code Geass and Gundam the Witch from Mercury. And has designs by Koshino Hatsura known for drawing the excellent D Gray Man. An original Mecha anime by Sunrise the People behind Gundam, what could be wrong with this show? A lot unfortunately but, that's what I love about it.
Reasons why this show is an insane must-watch.
- Vampire Mechas
- A Kid nation being declared and having serious war and political implications.
- An Important character becoming a J pop Idol overnight because the plot demands it
- A vampire Cult
- An AI who wants to fuck the MC
- And I don't think I can even list the last two things because I may get banned but let's just say this show thought it was being smarter by adding the edgiest shit imaginable.
Now I will hint at my thoughts on this show is very similar to Code Geass (I bring this up because it's the same studio and writer). And that it's such a poorly written incoherently catastrophic failure of a storyline and characters that it's entertaining. But the nice production value and nice mecha fights (even with the CGI it looks good) keep it bearable to watch. The fact the show looks nice and has good fights is something I can appreciate about most Sunrise shows so I must commend it for that. It's not Sunrise's best but, it's still pretty good. But that's where my actual positives of the show end. Let's begin with the plot.
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Plot__
The plot is very similar to Gundam or hell even Galactic Heroes. Where most of the human population lives in space now. There are Two huge nations Dorissa (Russia/Monarchy) and the Atlantic Rim United States (USA/Democracy) and there is a tiny nation of Jior or Japan. Now why the big nations never invaded Jior/Japan but invaded much bigger nations and just let them be free I have no fucking idea it makes no sense. But our Protagonists reside in a school in Jior that in the first episode gets invaded by Dorissa. But our Main character just by chance stumbles upon the attack and stumbles into Jior's secret weapon that was being built under the school. He lets the robot bite him and now he can fly it. He defends Jior causing the Dorissa army to invade but he captures Leif a Dorissa spy (who's pivotal to the story). And let's just say the girl he has a crush on is the Prime Minster of Jior's Daughter and the adults are captured I guess causing her to declare a new nation run by the kids of Jior. And the rest of the series is just pretty much him and his friends fighting a war between Dorissa and unraveling a secret organization that runs the world. Now I would give away more on why it's bad, but I would be spoiling the fun of the wacky turns this story takes. Half the events make no logical sense and are just so laughable for such a serious story it's trying to tell. There will be entire episodes about the protagonist's school friends fucking around in the city or a girl becoming an idol. And the next a school shooting where everyone dies. It's like code geass where there will be a giant pizza party in one episode and then Lelouch invades the entire world. The tone is all over the place with this show and nonsense is everywhere. It truly has to be seen to be believed. It's just Terrible for the type of story it's telling, and the characters are just as bad.
Characters:
The characters in this show are TERRIBLE, they are all one note and make the dumbest decisions possible at every moment. If you have seen Kira from Gundam seed, you have seen Haruto just even worse. He's as bland in a personality as you can get and even more idiotic than Patrick from Spongebob. He's so bad and has zero development throughout the entire series. The rest of the side characters are pretty much the same Saki is just an idol girl who wants to be famous and fuck the mc and that's it, Shoko just wants to be a leader and that's it. Red head guy um he's just kuwabara with no heart. Leif has a little bit to him with his backstory so he's decent but, his friends suck. The Ai girl just gets excited over everything, and the Antagonist lmfao he's just dio but not good literally he's a vampire and has the same voice actor. He's evil just because of the cult. Also, there is a girl who's just futaba from persona since the writers needed an e-girl for the male viewers to like, I guess. Just watching this you would be hard-pressed to find any of these characters likable or even interesting that's where I will leave it at.
Conclusion
This show is a poorly written disaster but, man is it an entertaining watch that I don't regret watching. If you understand what you are getting into and want a dumb show to laugh at and see cool fights/OST then you will probably enjoy it. I thought it was funnier than most comedy anime, but if you are expecting actual quality writing and character-wise. Stay away from this and watch Gundam The Origin if you want a good solid all-around mecha.
Entertainment Rating 9/10
Actual rating 3/10