

Valkyria Chronicles
戦場のヴァルキュリア
In its expansion west to gain resources, the Europan Imperial Alliance invades the neutral Principality of Gallia, seeking to take control of its vast Ragnite deposits. Their strategic advantage, technological superiority, and military might make opposition nonexistent, so they steamroll through the border of the sleepy principality with ease. As Imperial forces run through his quiet hometown, Welkin Gunther and his younger sister Isara jump into action, banding with the leader of the local militia to push the occupational forces out of the village. Quickly retreating to the Gallian capital, they are organized into a unit with the remnants of the militia, tasked with assisting in repelling the Imperial presence from the country. Though unfamiliar with war, the newly formed Squad Seven must defend their country from annexation. But as the battle rages on through the streets of Gallia, ancient secrets will bring the team closer than they'd ever anticipated. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
In its expansion west to gain resources, the Europan Imperial Alliance invades the neutral Principality of Gallia, seeking to take control of its vast Ragnite deposits. Their strategic advantage, technological superiority, and military might make opposition nonexistent, so they steamroll through the border of the sleepy principality with ease. As Imperial forces run through his quiet hometown, Welkin Gunther and his younger sister Isara jump into action, banding with the leader of the local militia to push the occupational forces out of the village. Quickly retreating to the Gallian capital, they are organized into a unit with the remnants of the militia, tasked with assisting in repelling the Imperial presence from the country. Though unfamiliar with war, the newly formed Squad Seven must defend their country from annexation. But as the battle rages on through the streets of Gallia, ancient secrets will bring the team closer than they'd ever anticipated. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Manganese
June 3, 2013
Valkyria Chronicles went down in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best strategy-rpg on the PS3 and, having played it, I can't disagree. So when I found this anime (finally) I was pretty revved up. I looked for this anime a while ago but I could never find it, either because it hadn't been released or I simply didn't look hard enough. The fact that it has been adapted from a game shouldn't bother the ones who have played the game because it's a pretty faithful adaptation. The emphasis has simply shifted slightly, from the more war-oriented action game to a more character-driven story. Story- 9 Yeah like I said the story and its basics are carried over from the game. If you know the game, you'll know how this ends up. If you haven't played the game, think of WWII, with the Imperials representing Germany (Does anybody else notice how disturbingly Aryan they all are? Gregor and Maximillian in particular), the Federation representing the Allies and France, the poor country representing Gallia, caught between the two. Unlike Hitler who seemed to start World War 2 just because he could, the Imperials decide to start a war over the mineral Ragnite, the lifeblood of that world. The story follows the exploits of Lieutenant Welkin Gunther and his Merry Men, Women and a Winged Pig, as they fight to protect the homeland from the Imperials. Expect plenty of action and drama, comedy and the the odd love triangle. Art - 10 Definitely can't decide if it's a step up or a step down from the game. However it's still quite beautiful to watch, because it almost literally is art. You can see where the pencil strokes have fallen. It won't be to everyone's tastes but I like it. Sound - 9 Both Intro and End themes are charming enough and the recycling of the game's soundtrack will be a pleasant addition for the gamers who watch this and even if you haven't played the game, you'll learn soon enough what each piece of music foretells. Characters - 8 The characters are plain awesome, from the romanticist Faldio, to Marina the Lone Wolf, to Selvaria the busty general of the Imps. Not all of them are prominent but they all feel unique, unlike your generic run-of-the-mill anime crowds. Why do I only give them an 8? I miss their English voicings. I know, I know but Welkin's "SQUAD 7! MOVE OUT!" and Largo's battle cry of "ARGH VEGETABLES!" became almost iconic to me and my friends, so it's disappointing I don't get to hear them in the anime. Enjoyment - 10 Oh yes! To see the epic war for Gallia's survival without having to suffer through annoyances such as ridiculously agile enemy soldiers and my Edelweiss exploding for no apparent reason satisfied me to no end. Overall - 10 This is the first 10 I've given to an anime. Maybe I'm slightly biased, I don't know (I probably am), but I genuinely can't ever remember enjoying a cross-media adaptation of something more. If you're a fan of the game WATCH THIS! It gives more insight into Squad 7 and it may or may not enhance your gaming experience. If you haven't played the game WATCH THIS! It's an enjoyable romp with a band of weirdo's and a tank that could probably do the donut.
literaturenerd
July 8, 2015
Overview: Valkyria Chronicles is not only one of my favorite games for PS3, but one of my favorite games of all time! So how does this anime live up to its video game inspiration? Well...it certainly isn't bad, but it also could have been a lot better. Give me just a few paragraphs and I will try to explain my thoughts. Background: As you are well aware, unless you have been living under a rock, there is a genre of fiction called “alternate history”. Alternate history is basically imagining a separate timeline if one or 2 major events went differently. It is widely used across all formsof media from novels to anime to video games. A common sub-genre of alternate history is fantasy alternate history in which magic and different laws of physics exist, so we have to imagine how that would impact the events of history and shape the world. Both Fullmetal Alchemist and Code Geass are within this sub-genre, with FMA taking place in an alternate Nazi Germany and Code Geass also taking place in an alternate WW2 with Japan fighting against the Britannian (American) invaders. Valkyria Chronicles at first just looks like yet another WW2 fantasy alternate history, but it actually does many things quite differently and still feels rather unique. Note: The next 3 paragraphs are talking about the game Valkyria Chronicles on which this anime was based. If you are already a fan of the game and only wish to read about the anime adaptation, you can just skip these paragraphs and start reading at the Story Section. Firstly, the alternate technology is powered by a fuel source called "ragnite", which has its own constraints and drawbacks. These realistic technological limitations prevent limitless asspulls, so it doesn't get as absolutely ridiculous as some other examples of alternate tech... like the original alternate WW2 story, "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K Dick. A novel where by 1950 the Nazis have completely terraformed and colonized Venus and by 1960 have colonized every planet in the Solar System! It is fortunate for us Americans and our national pride that the SS Sturmbannführer, Wernher von Braun never saw a copy of High Castle. He would have died laughing and we would have lost the moon race as a result! Thanks a lot Philip K Dick! Secondly, the writers of the game really did some history research and managed to fit a bunch of obscure and interesting WW2 facts into the game’s story. Here are just a few examples. Remember the absurdly giant tank during the last battle that used naval artillery and was like a battleship on treads? That was based on real blueprints for a German tank called the Landkreuzer P-1000 that ThyssenKrupp pitched to Hitler, who actually greenlit the project! The project was cancelled though in 1943 because the Nazi architect and weapons designer Albert Speer realized that it would be insanely vulnerable to aerial bombardment and suffer the same fate as other absurdly large “wunderwaffen” like the Schwerer Gustav Railway Cannon (which also appears in the game). In the world of Valkyria Chronicles, airpower doesn’t exist so the plan went ahead. The Valkyria in the game’s story are an extremely powerful, ancient race of warriors that came from a now sunken island in the farthest north. Their mystical powers are the result of a special energy that only their race can use, but it is believed they lost their abilities by intermixing with the physically weaker southern races. This backstory was actually taken from the insane beliefs of Nazi occultism espoused by Heinrich Himmler. On a less fun and far more tragic note, The genocidal campaign carried out by the Eastern Europan Empire to exterminate the “Darcsen” race actually follows sequence of the Holocaust fairly accurately with massive propaganda first, then forced labor camps and ghettos, then extermination squads that closely follow and collaborate with the invading Imperial Army to exterminate any Darcsen villages in newly conquered areas, and finally fully operational death camps. Interestingly, in America our experience learning about Nazi genocide consists of reading “Night”, “The Diary of Anne Frank”, “Number the Stars”, and maybe watching “Schindler’s List”. Our school history textbooks only focus on the Western Front, so most Americans believe that the Holocaust was the murder of 6 million Western European Jews who almost entirely died in extermination camps. In reality only 60% of the victims ever saw a camp, with 30% killed by death squads and ghettos making up the remaining 10% of deaths. However, these paramilitary “einsatzgruppen” only operated on the Eastern Front where 5.5 million of the 6 million Jewish deaths occurred, so they have been erased from America’s popular history and collective memory. If you actually visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC or talk to history scholars you will learn about them of course, but in American movies, Television, books, comics, games, you will almost never hear a word about them. Yet in this somewhat obscure JRPG they actually get this detail right! As I said earlier, these are just a few examples. Lastly, Valkyria Chronicles avoids 2 common mistakes that are often made by lesser quality historical fiction. Valkyria Chronicles always remembers to show war principally as suffering, death, and loss. Many civilians and at least 1 of your main characters will die no matter which actions you choose in the game, or how skilled you become at it. By portraying war as fundamentally inglorious by its very nature, it manages to avoid the jingoistic bullshit that convinces a new generation that war is about an awesome display of patriotism and manliness. War is not something to embrace and look forward to! Valkyria Chronicles also has a diverse cast of characters displaying the good and bad on all sides. Real war is never a simple matter of good vs. evil with an army of noble elves vs. bloodthirsty orcs. In terms of nation, your side has plenty of bastards on it, and the East Europan Empire is given some sympathetic characters. In terms of ethnicity, the main villains are ethnic Germans, but so are many of the heroes including the main hero. Basically, it is a very good game and one I would highly recommend playing, even if you aren’t really into strategy RPGs. Story: Valkyria Chronicles takes place as previously mentioned in an alternate timeline during a period that roughly corresponds to our timeline’s World War 2.The main story of Valkyria Chronicles is that war has broken out between 2 massive factions over control of a vital mineral resource called “ragnite”. The East Europan Empire decides to invade the small, neutral country of Gallia for its resources and because they believe it wouldn’t really be able to fight back. However, Gallia is home to an extremely brilliant tactical commander named Welkin Gunther, whose father was a revered tank commander from the First Europan War. Welkin’s father was also close friends with a Darcsen engineer that built him a revolutionary new tank model called the Edelweiss. After the famous tank engineer was killed in a car accident, the Gunther family adopted his young daughter Isara, who clearly inherited her father’s brilliance for engineering and revolutionary designs. Welkin teams up with his adopted sister Isara along with a local town watch member in order to escape his hometown with the Edelweiss. Since he brought his own tank and was the son of a national hero, Welkin is given command of a small squadron that soon becomes the absolute bane of the Empire’s existence. The first half of the anime very closely followed the game’s story, but later a number of really head-scratching changes are made. Every time the anime changed a plot point from the game, they came up with something that wasn’t as good. Why bother changing something if you are just going to make it worse, especially when you have all the time and resources on your side?! The game was complete, so they weren’t forced to go their own route. Basically they changed some things for absolutely no reason and ended up making it worse. The anime also decided to censor itself and really tone down the brutality, which badly undercut important elements of the presentation and themes that the game had. The racial ideology of the Empire and their hatred for the “sub-human” Darcsen race is extremely downplayed in the anime. For example, the labor camp that squad 7 tries to liberate is in far more humane condition in the anime and the Empire only fires artillery at the camp when squad 7 refuses to halt an attack after several warnings. In the game, the Darcsen in the labor camp are herded into a building and set on fire regardless of Squad 7’s actions because the Empire absolutely refused to risk the possibility that Squad 7 succeeds in freeing the Darcsen prisoners. The mobile killing squads (einsatzgruppen) that in the game collaborated with the Imperial Army to exterminate Darcsen villages were completely left out of the anime. No explicit mention of genocide is ever even made in the anime! What is most puzzling of all is that the game was only rated T, so it wasn’t as if the anime needed to make changes to avoid a high rating and release to a wider audience. Basically, the anime self-censored in a way that damaged the product for reasons that don’t even make financial sense! Maybe the marketing team for the anime thought that Neo-Nazis would be the core demographic and they needed to avoid offending them?! Characters: The main character is Welkin Gunther, who is an extremely gifted battle strategist, but detests war and actually just wants to be a teacher. He continues to command only to protect the live’s of his squad. He is extremely quirky and socially awkward, but has a very high standard of morality and leadership. Basically just picture Yang Wenli from Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It’s the same damn character! There is also the shy and brilliant engineer Isara and the fiery love interest Alicia, who has many “tsundere” traits but isn’t constantly punching Welkin for perceived perversion and isn’t extremely obnoxious…unlike most tsundere characters. In the game, Squad 7 has 56 characters that are each given at least 3 paragraphs of backstory, a dozen unique lines of dialogue, and the game actually contains some interesting minor characters. The anime had 26 full episodes and a LOT more time to flesh out the characters, so that’s what they did right? WRONG! The anime actually scraps the vast majority of Squad 7 and decides to focus solely on the main few characters, however it doesn’t even do that well! It would have been at least acceptable if the main 7 characters were given more interesting development and better dialogue, but that doesn’t happen either. In most adaptations like Game of Thrones, there are characters that were more developed and better in the source material (Asha) and characters that were better in the adaptation (Rob Stark). In Valkyria Chronicles, I can’t think of a single character that was better in the anime, despite the massive advantage in time and resources that the anime had over the game. They really fucked up here! There is just no getting around that fact! Music: The music in the anime is almost entirely music from the game. Why is this a problem? If this was an adaptation of a Final Fantasy game with an amazing soundtrack, it would be perfectly acceptable to use symphonic adaptations of the game’s OST. However, Valkyria Chronicles was NOT a very high quality soundtrack. Although video game soundtracks have come a long way from a 30 second repeating loop being acceptable, an entirely different standard exists for TV shows and movies. What was at least an acceptable soundtrack for an early, sleeper hit PS3 game is a very lackluster soundtrack for a fairly large budget anime. This anime had the money, so why not get better music? You changed the plot and characters for no reason and made them worse, so why bother keeping the 1 thing that could have easily been improved??! Anime director - “Nope, we must keep completely faithful to the original game soundtrack! People love that soundtrack so much that they would never forgive us if we changed it!” Art: The art is good. If I had to say 1 nice thing about this anime and figure out what the hell happened to all the budget, the answer is the art and animation. Overall: Is Valkyria Chronicles ultimately a bad anime? No. It still has plenty of positive elements and although it is a very watered down adaptation it still manages to be average or slightly better than average compared with the quality of other anime of its year. What frustrates me so much about this anime is that it was a large budget adaptation of an absolutely phenomenal game and SHOULD have been amazing! Instead it was just…meh. So does it fail as an adaptation relative to expectations and budget? You bet your ass it does! I was divided on whether to give it a 6 or a 5 out of 10, but I ultimately went with a very generous 6.
bokenhiebing
February 28, 2010
Valkyria Chronicles What would make you go to war? Everyone has some line that can't be crossed. Weather it is your home being taken away, your family and friends are in danger, or your lover is also going to war. In “Valkyria Chronicles” a small country is pushed into a war that they most likely will not win. Now the people of that country need to ask themselves that very question. When the show starts out the thing is a mess. The story was slowly paced and had filler episode thrown in so it took forever to tell anything. Slow pacing I could have dealt withbut it felt like it didn't even know what it wanted to do. The story felt disconnected and it jumped from trying to push focus on the story to the characters and back again. Trying to develop characters and a story is great but the way it was done the whole thing felt unnatural and forced. On top of that I couldn't tell what kind of mood the show was trying for. Sometimes it felt easy-going and comical well other times it felt dark and dramatic. Maybe the show was trying to blend the two or it was purposely going back and forth. Whatever the case, it didn't work. Despite all these problem somewhere along the way the show managed to pull itself together. First the show decided it wanted to be a drama. A joke will pop-up now and then, but the show firmly places itself on the dramatic side of the line. The balance between characters and story development is also solved. Storyline elements help develop characters now and the show no longer has to forcibly insert some small story element just to get a little character development for someone. This also made the story feel much stronger and flow more nicely. By the time the show ends almost every problem I had at the beginning is fixed. The story takes an interesting mix a fantasy and WWII-ish fighting. Never relying too much on one over the other. The weapons of war are along the lines of rifles and tanks, but at the same time almost everything in the world is power by a material called “Ragnite”. This material also ties in with the legend of the Valkyrian, and I bet you can guess that the Valkyrian ends up making an appearance by the end. Changing the setting from the usual futuristic or sword and sorcery gives the show a different feel them many others. The show manages to create and develop a terrific cast on both sides of the war. Each person has his/her reasons for entering the war and a great back story that goes along with that reason. In some cases these reasons lead to strong social issues that are not easy to overcome for the character even when they know they are in the wrong. “Valkyria Chronicles” really strives to make you care about these characters and by the end it really pays off. The show pulls off some truly emotional moments between these characters; weather it be between characters on the same or apposing side, friends or lovers. Beyond the main cast there is a bunch of soldiers under the various commanders. Really they are all just there to fill the void of the squad. However everyone of these characters is pulled from the video game. Like the video game each has their own distinct name and personality. This is good because it gives the squad more personality then just a bunch of nameless faceless soldiers. This is not so good because they are all just glorified extras. By giving them a personality it kind of feels like the show is going to do something with them. They don't really get any development and the only part they play in the story is that you can't win a battle with one person you need a whole squad. The show also through in a few inside jokes between the squad members that only people who have played the game will get. These are never important enough that someone who hasn't play the game will not get the full experience but it is a nice little extra for those who have. All and all I think this is preferable to a bunch of nameless soldier just don't expect too much from them. The art style has something of a pencil drawn look to it (for lack of any better way of explaining it). This is an attempt to try to copy the art style of the video game. Personally I think it fails in this respect but none the less I like it. It manages to keep a traditional anime look and at the same time can stand out in a crowd. I have a lot of bad things to say about the beginning and a lot of good things to say about the end. If you can make it through the not so good beginning, you will have a great story and cast waiting for you. However part of me cannot forgive the show for taking so long to get there.
Dangime
November 18, 2014
Valkyria Chronicles ends up being a bland, predictable anime, full of tired cliches and one dimensional characters. While it's epic setting and relative industry quality art make it seem like it has potential, it ends up becoming more disappointing as it fails to live up to those standards in any other area. Valkyria uses a fictional historical setting roughly mirroring a World War 2 style conflict, then ends up spoiling the humanity of the story by adding in fantastical ancient powers just waiting to be awoken that trump the actions of any hero, general, or army. It's cast of characters might as well come from oneof those doll templates from the 90s, click, click, click, new hairstyle, different color eyes, one personality trait (tough guy, mean girl, gay guy, shy girl, you get the picture) and you have Squad 7, a cast of characters I can't even get worked up about if any or all of them were to catch a bullet. The male lead is a bad clone of Yang Wenli (see Legend of the Galactic Heroes if you're interested in a real war anime), and the female lead is just every “good girl” you've seen in every anime ever. The main villian is one of the most stupid I have ever seen in an anime and is a real letdown in terms of being a threat in any manner other than a frontal assault. More is promised in terms of court intrigues on both sides, but this too ends up being a real letdown. Don't get me wrong “warrior spirit” has it's place in anime...it just isn't in an anime in this setting based on a tactical RPG. There's a few tactical tricks near the start of the series, but after that tactics and strategy take a backseat to the tired “who has the most to protect” style emotional combat. The soundtrack is nothing special and desperately wants to be Final Fantasy Tactics. All that said, I couldn't bring myself to hate Valkyria, I was just bored and more than a little disappointed by it. If you are younger and haven't watched much anime I can see some people really getting into this. If you have watched any great anime that you can compare it to, the shallowness of the story and the wasted potential should be obvious. There are worse animes out there, but this one doesn't deviate from the standard formula at all, and isn't even a great example of that standard formula either. I guess if you lower your expectations going in, you'll be able to get through this, but if you let you hopes get up (like I seem to have) over the setting and the potential within it you'll just end up disappointed like me. There's literally nothing new here, and no characters I ended up caring about.
DarthNobilus
February 27, 2015
Intro: I must confess, I was quite disappointed with this anime adaptation. I first heard of it when I was playing the game (which, by contrast, is amazing) and a friend happened to look over my shoulder and said that he recognized it. I asked if he played, but he said that only knew it because he had watched the anime. As a big fan of the game, I was immediately interested and enthusiastically searched for a way to watch "Senjou no Valkyria". You mean, there's MORE of the awesomeness and adorableness that is Valkyria Chronicles?! HELL YEAH!However, what I watched did not meet my expectations, nor did it rise to meet them. Granted, I will be the first to admit that I expected the anime to follow the game, even build upon its preexisting greatness; however, to my immense chagrin, the anime went in different direction, and not a good one. Here's why beginning from least to greatest: Sound (6/10): In the game, I thought that the sound/music was its weakest point, as there was not much of variety of osts, nor did they differ much in tone. However, I thought the sound effects were decent and the voice-acting was good. Conversely, this was, in my opinion, the least problematic part of the anime. It used the soundtrack from the game, and did not add much to it. It certainly did not significantly contribute to my condemnation of this anime, nor was it sufficient to increase my opinion of it either. Never underestimate the effect of a well-placed, powerful ost...or a sniper round... Art (6/10): Second, I would like to discuss the artwork. While it irked me at times during the game thanks to its minimalist direction, really only showing facial expression and dialogue during majority of the game's cut-scenes, I can appreciate their ability to stick to their guns (pun intended). The game remained true to the story-book motif, and while it would have been nice to have seen more of the characters' interactions, I can respect the reasons why they chose that idea and how it made the player pay more attention to what the characters were saying and how they felt. Additionally, the cell-shaded water-color graphics were really quite beautiful. Certainly, I can understand why the director chose to retain the art style from the game (which was really the only thing the two have in common), since the anime does not use the story-book motif, the cell-shade art style, though pretty, seemed out of place. Additionally, since the anime was not bound by that motif, I felt that they could have done more with it than they elected to do. Furthermore, (I'm not a pervert, I swear) why did they make noticeable alterations in the proportions of the female characters for the anime? The women warriors of the game were already beautiful; was that really necessary? Story (3/10): The above categories were simply slight irritations; now we are getting to crux of my complaints against this anime and I shall endeavor to be a spoiler-free as possible (although this anime is already quite spoiled in my opinion). Yes, whenever any form of media is adapted to another, there will ALWAYS be at least minor discrepancies. I knew to expect at least some differences, but in my view, the story veered too far from what Valkyria Chronicles is (to me at least) supposed to be. The game, as well as the anime, spend a large portion of time on the character interactions rather than the battles. While the action sequences in the anime were decent, even I (who places a stronger emphasis on story over action) felt that the battles scenes were too brief. In my view of the anime, they would spend about 90% of the episodes on nonsensical character interactions (more on that later) and only include maybe a 1 - minute battle scene. As an anime based (loosely) off a strategy game, I can understand why they would chose to axe the tactical discussion and planning portion of "Senjou no Valkyria" first to avoid boring a casual fan of the anime and to make room for more important components, though I felt that each of the quite short battle sequences just happened randomly without much forethought. The tactics and strategy of Valkyria Chronicles is an integral part of its essence and what made it so good; the anime might have been better if they included a little more of that essential essence. To a degree that I didn't expect, they changed so many plot details and occurrences that the anime only vaguely follows the progression of the game. While the plot of the game was not its strongest point either (evil empire attacks and underdog wins), it did not behoove the anime to stray too far from what was established, because it worked. Furthermore, the anime's light-hearted, campy tone differed from the game, which was mostly serious broken by sweet and/or funny moments. At the same time, the majority of the anime's story focuses on overly-dramatized character interactions, whereas, the game keeps the interactions simple, yet profound. No unnecessary fluff. Perhaps my main knock against the anime storyline was its lack of cute Welkin x Alicia moments (c'mon, that was hardly a spoiler). Part of what made the game so charming and memorable was the relationship-building moments during the bite-sized cut-scenes. I had (wrongly) hoped that that adorable moments I was denied in the game due to the minimalist art direction would at least show up in full-picture during the anime; to my great disappointment, most did not cross over into the anime. Since Valkyria Chronicles is, at heart, a love story; those small, but vital moments being absent from the anime really soured the series for me. I will admit though, that the anime did two things better than the game: Zaka's appearance and Character X's death. In the game, Zaka kind of just shows up after Fouzen and is like, "Well, looks like I'm joining your squad now as a support tank!" Wait...what? At least in the anime, his transition make more sense and is smoother. Additionally, in the game, when Character X dies, there's about two scenes that deal with their death and then everyone is like, "Well, this is sad, but we still have a war to fight. Let's go." ...ouch...cold... The anime storyline does improve later in the series, but it is too little, too late. i could point out many example of divergences between the game and the anime, but that would take even longer and I don't believe it's that worth it. Character (2/10): Okay, so this is my biggest and fiercest grievance against "Senjou no Valkyria": they screwed up the characters, completely! I usually care more about the overall plot than the characters whenever I engage in any sort of media, but Valkyria Chronicles the game is a rare exception. While certainly a classic, the underdog-beats-big-bad-empire plot line is hardly novel, but its the characters and their interactions are what make Valkyria Chronicles spectacular. I'm very critical of main characters, because it's very easy to make them generic, but I really liked game Welkin. He's a decisive, and brilliant military officer, and as a fellow 22-year-old ecologist, I thought he was extremely relateable guy. Though a LITTLE spacey and awkward, especially when entering eco-geek mode, (game) Welkin is an honest, calm, and caring man more-than-deserving of Alicia. I really respected him as the game's protagonist and consider him one of my favorites. In contrast, anime Welkin has to be one of my most hated protagonists. They greatly exaggerated the spacey and oblivious aspects of his personality, made him incredibly indecisive (which is a huge no-no for a supposed military commander/war hero), and dense. Episode 11: "Oh...I didn't notice that Alicia was cute. I just saw her as a subordinate (insert head-knock and tee-hee here)." YOU IDIOT!! In the game, we've established that you think Alicia is cute by the beginning of chapter 3 (and vice versa)! That was perhaps the most painful and inaccurate thing to watch in the anime. Ah, yes, speak of the devil (angel?): Alicia. I was greatly saddened by how they chose to portray her in the anime. As a video game character, Sgt. Alicia Melchiott is probably one of my favorites, she's a beautiful, bad-ass warrior woman who still has cute, thoughtful, and sweet aspects to her persona; when I heard that I could get more of her in anime form, I was like "YES!" But what did I (and perhaps many other fans) get instead? A generic tsundere. Okay, I confess, that the tsundere is my favorite anime girl archetype (it's n-not like I l-like it or anything, baka! SO CUTE! YES!), but Alicia is NOT one of them (or isn't supposed to be). Alicia is only hostile towards Welkin during the Prologue of the game because of the CIRCUMSTANCES; she arrests him because she thinks he's an Imperial spy. After she's convinced he's not, Alicia is nothing but warm, friendly, supportive, and sweet towards him (except when he says she's "beetle-tastic" or makes hold hold the goat excrement) because that's her personality is like. One cannot be a tsundere of circumstance; it's either part of a character's preexisting personality (perhaps influenced by circumstances) or not, and Alicia has too sweet a natural overall personality to be a tsundere. The decision to portray her in the series as a tsundere Finally, good things, (and bad things) come in three, let's get the finale of this unholy trinity: Faldio. He seemed like a fairly okay and chill sort of fellow in the game, but aside from plot-related stuff, he didn't factor into the story much. In the anime, though, he plays a much more prominent role, and not in a good way. Once again, they took a minor aspect of his personality, which is only mentioned in his personal file, and blew it out of proportion. Yes, the game says he a flirt with the ladies, but he NEVER hits on Alicia, EVER. Hell, that is not even implied at any point during the story; Alicia is Welkin's girl from day one and Faldio is enough of a bro to respect that boundary (of course, game Welkin isn't a blithering baka either). Instead, in the anime, they focus the majority of the story on this tired love-triangle trope and push this weird Alicia x Faldio development and the rivalry that ensues between him and Welkin because of it, effectively reducing one of the best video game romances (and possibly one of the best fantasy romances) to nothing more than cheap, generic, angsty drama! NO, THAT IS NOT OKAY!! Everyone else I don't even care enough to comment on. Oscar was kind of cool though. Enjoyment (2/10): I know that when watching an anime is feels like chore, I'm not enjoying it. I trusted the words of the friend who recommended it to me and kept hoping it would get better, but that hope was in vain. If I haven't already made it clear why I think "Senjou no Valkyria" was not enjoyable, then I think you, dear reader, have missed the point of everything I have said up until now. Overall (4/10): Most disappointing, and a waste of my time. You know an anime is bad when its best aspects are its art and music. Yes, I knew the anime was going to be at least somewhat different from the game, but I was unprepared for discrepancies of this magnitude. Even as I tried (I really did) to not compare it to the game, "Senjou no Valkyria", as a stand-alone anime series is, at best, mediocre. If you are a fan of the game, I would strongly urge to not watch this anime, as you may be as disappointed as I was. Sega and Sony are surely not lacking in monetary resources, so they had every means at their disposal to make "Senjou no Valkyria" something truly amazing as an anime, perhaps even better than the game. Instead, as a fan of Valkyria Chronicles, the result greatly pained me. That is why, dear reader, I spent two hours longer of my life on this sad excuse for anime adaptation of a fantastic game so that you, dear reader, can avoid falling into the same trap that I did. I can only pray that my words do not fall upon deaf ears (eyes?)...and that you even bothered to read this far (which if you, you are to be commended, thanks :D). If you truly want to experience the splendor, and awl, and absolute adorableness that IS Valkyria Chronicles, don't subject yourself to this anime. Instead, play the game, because you, dear reader, deserve better than this.
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