Kakumeiki Valvrave (Valvrave the Liberator)

In the 71st year of the True Era, humans have successfully expanded into space and have started living in independent galactic colonies. The world itself is split between two major nations: the Atlantic Rim United States (ARUS) and the Dorssia Military Pact Federation (Dorssia)—superpowers that wage war against each other on Earth and far into outer space. In this war-torn era, a third faction comprised of Japan and Islands of the Oceanian Republic (JIOR), reside peacefully and prosper economically, maintaining neutrality between themselves and their militant neighbors.

Kakumeiki Valvrave commences in an outer space JIOR colony, where 17-year-old Haruto Tokishima's peaceful life is turned upside down as a sudden Dorssian fleet breaches the neutral colony. Their objective is to seize the Valvraves: powerful, but rumored mechanized weapons hidden deep within Haruto's school, Sakimori Academy. In the ensuing chaos, Haruto stumbles upon one of the targeted Valvraves. With his friends' lives in peril, Haruto enters the mecha and seals a contract for its power in exchange for his humanity. With the aid of L-elf—an enigmatic Dorssian agent and gifted strategist—Haruto and the Valvrave initiate a revolution to liberate the world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Kakumeiki Valvrave was the first Anime to receive a Simulcast in Germany.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Kakumeiki Valvrave, Kakumeiki Valvrave
Sequel:	Kakumeiki Valvrave 2nd Season
Summary:	Kakumeiki Valvrave Recaps

Miyano, Mamoru
Japanese

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Maeda, Toshihiro

Producer

Maruyama, Hiroo

Producer

Nakanishi, Go

Producer

Shimizu, Hiroyuki

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Preserved Roses" by T.M.Revolution x Nana Mizuki

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Ending Theme

	1: "Preserved Roses" by T.M.Revolution x Nana Mizuki (eps 1)
	2: "Boku ja nai (僕じゃない)" by angela (eps 2-6)
	3: "Soba ni Iru yo (そばにいるよ)" by ELISA (eps 7-12)

Reviews

Jun 27, 2013

Stark700

Recommended

They told me I could become anything so I became a vampiric mecha pilot.

Well, the idea of high school kids becoming pilots while getting their own personal mecha gadgets isn't new to the anime industry. Series such as Macross Frontier, Code Geass, and Aquarion Evol all have this theme. It involves normal students who attends a normal school like any normal day. Then, boom. Something abnormal happens and their lives are changed forever. The catch here for Valvrave the Liberator? It also deals with a supernatural twist...with some blood spilled to add to the mix.

That's right. It's not a bird, it's not a ...

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Feb 6, 2015

Smugdear

Mixed Feelings

Well, if you have seen Sunrise you must be familiar to mechas and robots.

Let us discuss the positive point, shall we? Valvrave the Liberator did well in bringing the individual elements of action and mecha, they did well in the enjoyment of the series.

And then the negative point, many mecha series that did a successful job to bring a well-oriented plot. While Valvrave the Liberator did a different thing, they put more action to the plot and abandoned the complexity of the plot which created a lousy storytelling. The other points we must know is a typical story opening that makes Valvrave lack ...

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Jun 27, 2013

NeverKnowsBest26

Not Recommended

I'm sure everyone has heard the term 'so bad, it's good'. There is something inexplicably enticing about the amusingly bad, as the cult success of cinematic embarrassments such as 'The Room" and "Troll 2" will substantiate. This applies just as much to anime as it does to movies, take this piece of space mecha action sci-fi junk, for example.Valvrave the Liberator is the latest from the once great studio Sunrise; an amalgam of the studio's worst tendencies and deteriorating quality. It's a show that is so wildly unfocused and possessing plot twists so ridiculous that it transcends being merely bad; it's entertainingly awful.

On the ... surface, Valvrave is blatantly generic. It has a well intentioned but soft-headed and somewhat wimpy boy as its protagonist, whom in a moment of desperation gets super-powers (this time vampire powers) and a giant robot, which gives him the power to defend himself and what he holds precious. He then finds himself in the middle of a galactic power struggle; at odds with a militaristic menace. Original, right!? Well, to layer on the cliches, the story involves a high school and revolution of the youth, things series composer Ichiro Okouchi can't seem to pull himself away from; having already used them in two of his major works, Code Geass and Guilty Crown. That's not the end of it, as the show is rife with overused tropes: the clueless love interest, the jealous secondary love interest who is a pop idol, the angst the hero has over his inhuman powers, and so on.

Of course, it isn't this saturation of stock plot elements that makes this show memorably bad, if anything they would make it forgettable. No, it's all in the writing and execution. The show loves to be extravagant and dramatic though its material is often too thin or silly to give any weight, and sometimes just downright misleading. For example, when Haruto's (our milquetoast hero) crush Shoko seemingly dies in the first episode, the show ramps up the drama so much it almost seems certain that she's dead. But of course, all this drama is ultimately wasted because (and I'm sorry for spoiling anyone who hasn't watched past the first episode) she is in fact alive, with nary a scratch. That's right, the blast not 10 feet away from her that blew a crater into the earth didn't kill her, it just buried her and the car she was running to under some rubble. This is just the first of the many poorly conceived plot twists in Valvrave. Haruto comes close to confessing his feelings to Shoko, but stops midway because he is "no longer human", a contrivance clearly put there to make room for some love-triangle dramatics. One of the characters is apparently such a strong strategist that he can predict events as if he is clairvoyant; a rather laughable attempt to make him look like a genius. Not to mention the contrived rape scene late in the season, and the marriage proposal it leads to. The plot has almost no focus and barrages twist after twist, with little thought of how these twists flow together or if they even make sense. The show plays all these plot twists straight, making them inadvertently hilarious. It doesn't help that the actual comedic moments in the show are not particularly funny.

Valvrave has a humongous cast of named characters, and absolutely no idea how to use them. Most of the characters just wonder around living their normal high school lives, and occasionally converge to make a collective decision. Majority of these characters are stereotypes in terms of personality and contribute very little to the plot, and yet the show inexplicably follows them around and gives them a decent amount of screen time. The main cast is also lax in characterization and fit into retreaded archetypes. Haruto is the average male lead seen over and over again in anime. Shoko is the genki girl with a good heart, and Haruto's childhood friend/love-interest. Saki is the stuck-up and guarded pop idol, who also harbors feelings for Haruto. L-elf is the unbelievable military genius, who serves as Haruto's rival and/or ally. Pretty much all the characters can be summed up in a sentence or two. The major factions are barely defined outside of their initial descriptions: Dorssia are the militarists, ARUS are greedy capitalists, JOIR are neutralists. Despite the initial promise of some political play, there is virtually none. There is only silly high school drama pretending to be political. It's every bit the farce it sounds.

There is at least one thing Valvrave gets right, the eye-candy. In all respects, this is a very pretty show. The color schemes are vivid and colorful, as are the character designs and backgrounds. The character designs by D. Gray-man mangaka Katsura Hoshino are not exactly unconventional, but they are distinctive and attractive, especially their eyes. The mech designs are sleek yet fantastical, with striking features such as multicolored wings, wheel-blade weapons, and laser swords. They are some of the coolest mech designs anime has recently produced; even the bulky Dorssian mechs look pretty awesome. The space battles and various other action set-pieces are exciting and feature good cinematography; there is a lot going on, but it never gets cluttered to the point of being indecipherable. There are some short-cuts and quality drops, but they are taken in the right places. The soundtrack is also very good, though not outstanding or out of the norm for the genre. The action tracks are the high point of the music, but conversely there are a few obnoxious insert songs. In all honestly, it is well directed on purely technical merits; which makes the poor direction in all other aspects a little less noticeable.

In truth, Valvrave the Liberator can't really be put on the same level as things like "The Room" and "Trolls 2" because it actually succeeds on a technical level, which is more than can be said for those two movies. Plus, it has better voice acting than the acting in those movies as well. Not for lack of trying, though, because the writing in Vlavrave is bad enough to rival those atrocities. It's not just bad, it is comically bad. If not for the strong technical merits and voice acting, Valvrave could have very well reached that next level of badness. While the loose plot threads can be remedied by the upcoming squeal, the question arises: with this season being so bad, what chance does season 2 have? Well, chances are it will be just as much of a trainwreck. Am I wrong for kind of looking forward to it?

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Poll: Kakumeiki Valvrave Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 11, 2013	473 replies	by Archean-Return »» Feb 13, 7:02 AM
is it good? me_good - Mar 24, 2016	2 replies	by RudeRedis »» Jan 20, 9:37 AM
Poll: Kakumeiki Valvrave Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jun 27, 2013	432 replies	by neeJay »» Mar 17, 2023 7:27 AM
Poll: Kakumeiki Valvrave Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jun 13, 2013	677 replies	by Catalano »» Nov 13, 2021 12:09 PM
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