Senjou no Valkyria

Well, well, well, look what we have here? Can anyone say "under-appreciated" and "under-watched"? Those words would probably describe Valkyria Chronicles very well.

At first glance, this anime probably doesn't look like anything special. Originally based on a tactical role-playing game of the same name for the PS3, this anime might look like a couple of things. At first glance, it might just look like a military anime that wants to chock itself full of violence and gunplay. However, this is a serious, serious misconception. Let's get to the review and see why, shall we?

Story: The story that encompasses ... Valkyria Chronicles is as follows. It takes place in the year 1935, in an alternate history where two opposing military factions, the Empire and the Federation, wage war against one another on the continent of Europa. It's an alternate WWII inspired-setting, and one of the things that surprised me the most about this anime was a lack of giant robots. Instead, their roles are taken by all manner of tanks, artillery pieces, and other standard military fare, all a-la-Advance Wars. This, I felt, made the anime stronger, as they got by without using a concept used in so many other animes. Continuing with the story, it kicks off in a small town called Bruhl in the neurtal territory of Gallia, where a young girl on town watch, Alicia Melchiott, happens to cross paths with the son of a Gallian General, whose name is Welken Gunther. After this fateful meeting, the two are cast into the military life, where they battle for their lives and lives of their comrades, all while trying to stay relatively sane. Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of romance in this anime, and it is some of the best I've seen. In general, the plot is pretty amazing in my opinion, and from what I can tell, it follow the game pretty well.

Art: I believe that the art was good, though it could have been done just a little better. I wasn't a big fan of the use of 3D effects in this anime, though I admit it was probably necessary for some parts. Nevertheless, the character designs are awesome, and remain very close to their game counterparts.

Music: A seriously amazing aspect of the series, in my opinion. Both the OP and ED of the first half were awesome, and the second half, while not as on par, was also good in terms of the musical content. All songs in the anime are definitely iPod worthy, and they easily fit the dramatic mood of the anime.

Characters: Definitely one of my favorite parts of the entire series. All the characters make up a pretty diverse cast. Welken and Alicia remain to be my favorites, mostly for their personalities and mannerisms when around one another. Even still, the other members of the cast didn't end up just being placeholders. I would warn all who watch this though. Being a dramatic anime, I would expect some important character death. Even still, it doesn't detract from the series at all, and instead strengthens it greatly.

Enjoyment: Seriously, I believe this anime was extremely enjoyable, to the degree where I couldn't stop watching for a day straight. It definitely, definitely deserves a spot on your DVD shelf, or on your hard drive.

There's not much else to say about Valkyria Chronicles. In short, I believe it to be one of the most under-appreciated anime around. In my book, I believe it deserves a perfect 10/10, as it was I believe to be a shining example of what SHOULD be done in an anime series. In all honesty, this anime is highly, highly recommended, and a definite example of a diamond in the rough that should be dug up just a little more often.

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.

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 forms ... of 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.

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 with ... but 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.

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 one ... of 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.

welll i was very exited when the anime gone out becouse i had played the game and it rocked so i thought the anime would too and it did hell yeah

firstly i have to say if u played the game just watch it if u didn't here's a lil bit of my opinions here it goes :

it includes : romance,action(well the theme of the anime is war so..),a lil bit ecchi not too much,comedy

so story is like this
there are two super powers in europe and they fight for the precious ragnite.the place called gallia is between of these super powers and it's a heaven ... of ragnite so guess what happens.. our guy became a commander and he command the Squad 7 ...

it's a really cool anime and u guys gotta watch it

If you have a PS3, you better buy the game! Wich is AWESOME! 30 to 40 hours of the best RPG so far in the PS3.. The anime, well lets just say that it's not what I expected; maybe because I played the game first.. So my review is for the ones who (like me) played the game before the anime...
Story, Hmmm.. It's not quite the same, but it's good...
Art, The anime tries to copy graphics of the game.. But It look weird.. Also Alicia gain a few extra pounds in the Anime.. hahaha..
Sound, sweet and beatiful as the game!
Charcter, They are the same, ... but sometimes Alicia its very annoying.. And Welkin kind of lame.. Also, Faldio has a lot more roll and i just hate him..
Enjoyment, I kept thinking the entire time "The game its better", so it didn't work up for me..
Overall 3.. Sorry.. If you don't have a PS3 nor the game. I think you will enjoy a lot more this Anime!!
I want to hear an opinion of someone who was seeing the Anime and then played the game!! Ciao..

After 26/26 episodes seen....

Har ~ Har!! I watched it full at last!! Nyarhahaha!!! Well, I was happy I wasn't disappointed. But sure, one thing, I realized..the serious tone doesn't get fine along with the anime, its plot holes are easily seen..Bwahahaha!! But don't care anymore, Romantic + Comedic = Uber SATISFACTION!!

Bwahahaha!!

Well, what can I say without any spoilers??? Hmmmm....It ended with a happy ending...You'll already know it!! Although very averag-y and cheesy, I still can't get enough of happily ever after. I got what I want, although I might say I was, of course, been surprised about some unpredictable turn of events. But nevertheless, it ... added to the sweetness of the story.

Welkin - sama deserves my highest respect!! I truly love him, that's why I would want to see more of his weird expressions and statements. He truly belongs in a unique category of heroes!! Wushu!!

Well, anywayz.... I could say that Valkyria Chronicles isn't perfect. You'll easily spot its weak points. The good thing is, when enjoyment factor would be on discussion, it will surely deliver.

So to all my fellow Otakus --- I would want to share with you the cute moments I felt during my sojourn in the world of Gallia and Empire. I hope you could feel its special aura!! Hehehehe...

Gambatte!!

From someone-who-want-to-meet-Welkin-in-the-real-world,
Me


^_^



********************14/26 episodes seen***************************

I don't care how many plot holes this anime has!! and with cliche~ish moments every now and then...no need to bother them as I am already satisfied...because VALKYRIA CHRONICLES --- oozes with COOLNESS FACTOR to the bones!! Bwahaha!! Because of this one, I felt faith again!! There are still hope in the Anime Community. Bwahahaha!!!

Ahermmm...Sumimasen...

Anyways, back to the topic. I accidentally fell over with this one. I saw its title from somewhere then immediately rushed to myanimelist to check. I was surprised that it received good reviews, because I believe this hasn't received much talkings (or am I Wrong?) Well, anyways..I was actually hesitant at first because I thought it might be a very lousy war title and I just might be put into a suicidal chair. But, GOOD THING...I wasn't blessed with a perfect intuition! Bwahahaha!!!

I easily fell in love with it! It wasn't as heavy as what I thought at first. It actually has nice balance of themes which a good anime could offer: Has a light approach, but with a serious tone; Not bloody, could totally be enjoyed by everyone even children; funny yet touching (kinda reminds you of the holocaust); and of course, the most important ingredient..hihihihi....the ROMANTIC BLINGY that has been circulating my hypothalamus ever since.

Bwahahaha!! Yeah, I'm writing this one because of my undying emotion towards the love pyramid that the main characters have.!! I am not even half the series, yet I already feel this unstoppable urge to say something about my new found love duo!! Wushu! I always find my new dream love team, they are already so many, now I can't even remember them. Don't mind me, I'm talking to myself..hehe ^_^

Anyhowzz..I could say that Valkyria is quite similir with Code Geass, well yeah, of course, since they are of both war type. But good thing, my comparison would be in favor with this one..hehehe.. I enjoyed Geass, but not like this smiling - wholeheartedly enjoyment for Valkyria. => Unlike Code Geass, Valkyria has a soft nature which could give you a relaxing feeling. Although, it's in the middle of a war, you still can't help but be ...happy! Tee hee! I don't know..Happiness is the name of the game. Well, I don't blame Geass, because of course, it is written that way, the plot is very serious and dark. But what I am pointing is that...well,,,hehehe...just to make Valkyria shine...whatever...don't mind me...hehehe...

Where am I? Okay. May I tell you something about the characters? I'm still on episode 14, so I do not know what's still gonna happen next, but from my initial observation, I could say that...WELKIN GUNTHER is totally KAKKOI!! **nosebleed** He's totally a weirdo, but of course, a genius in disguise. Who wouldn't like him? A very naive guy, but is totally an incredible man. He fights with a very sure-to-win plan! And even though, how great and smart his oppenents are, he, of course, outlasts them! Nyarhahahahahah!! (kinda fishy, he always wins no matter what)

Then we also have, Alicia. I was so happy that Marina Inoue voices her. My golly, Marina-san always receive good roles but I felt she was already typecasted with this kind of roles..but anywhoozz, so great of her! Back to Alicia, well, she's your typical strong natured female personality whose prowess captures the hearts of men..Bwuhuhuhu!! I am now being jealous of her..Argh..but I know Welkin-sama and Alicia would be a perfect love team, so I'll let them be.! So that means, noooooooooooooooooooo other partiesss!!! (but this makes the story more interesting..tee hee!)

Then we also have.. I won't tell it anymore. Since I felt my ramblings had been so out-of-town already. Gomen!

Over all, I am still keeping my hopes high! I know there are more happy episodes to come. I just hope that they don't disappoint. ! **always fingers crossed**


From someone-who-can't-get-over-with-the-romantic-affair-of-this-Anime-100%,
Me

^_^

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.

I just finished this anime and I absolutley had to write a review on it!
This anime is FABULOUS. For any of you out there looking for adventure/action bit of fantasy and romance together, here is your anime.

The first three episodes are sort of slow, but once you get passed those, the anime keeps getting better and better.

The story in itself is not that original, but the way it is portrayed in the anime itself, makes it orignal. It is a story about war, and why one fights.

One outstadning point of this anime are the characters. Even if it is just ... a side character, all of them are given personalities and little side stories, and the main characters have odd, but wonderful personalities.

The anime is funny at the beginning, but turns into a drama later on, and at some point will even make those who cry at sad parts ( like me ) cry.

I enjoyed this anime very much, and recommend it to anybody who loves action mixed with drama comedy fantasy and war stories!

One of the more garbage anime I have ever watched. Unbelievable that the top 2 rated reviews are 10's. I wanted to stab myself with a writhing swordfish and vomit blood everytime the estrogen for brains MC showed his lack of testicular fortitude.

I'll start with the story. The story is awful. I didn't play the PS3 game so I'm not going to judge this through any biased lense, nor am I going to necesarilly blame the animators if they were just sticking with the source material, but trash is trash no matter how much you sugar coat it with Alicia's subtle yet blazing hot zettai ... ryuoiki. The premise is basically just a highly fictionalized version of WW2 where darcsens = jews. Most of the plot developments are highly predictable cliche scenarios, ie: corrupt superiors and war time violence. Nothing is wrong with this, troupes and genericism are fine in my book if the execution is good, sadly the execution in Valkyria Chronicles is essentially analogous to dying horribly of starvation and disease in a concentration camp which ironically enough is literally a partial description of this anime's shambles of a plot. Without spoiling, the WW2 parallels get thrown out the window a little over halfway through and this somehow devolves into a more cliched ridiculous pisstake than it already was.

The art is okay. I say that because the art style itself is very good in my opinion. Alicia and Selvaria are so cute my pocket rocket does a shaft neck tilt every time one of them gets a second of screentime. The character designs as a whole are a strong point in this anime, but thats pretty much all I can say thats good about the art. The animation quality is decent, but very poor during the action scenes. I actually spit out my drink at one sequence during a later episode that looked straight out of MS Paint. The backgrounds were boring but okay for the most part. Also there was this stupid shading pattern that looked like random streaks they used which served no purpose whatsover except to make it look like they actually did something unique and admirable in the animation style. really pissed me off and made me lightly cut my wrist a few times. Overall the art is pretty bad and makes u want to gougue your eyes out like everything else in this anime.

The sound was largely trash and by trash I mean decent material. Both OP's were okay & both ED's were okay. Nothing standout but at least it didn't make me want to jump off a cliff like the recycle bin storytelling. It had a generic video game/action flick soundtrack during the actual epsiodes, so basically just trash.

The characters were the equivalent of ur neighbor's kid taking a voracious dump on your porch and I mean that in the most detestable way possible. The only reason its not a 1 is because the invading antagonists were actually pretty interesting characters up until the end where they all devolved into cliche riddled wank-stains. Our MC here, Welkin, is probably the worst MC of all time in any medium. He's a total softy and continually fails to do anything heroic or respectable beyond the most intrinsic required level of MC heroism. He acts like the corrupt military's lapdog and does everything in his power to cower out of the romance plotline. bruh literally tried to get friendzoned. he also gets finessed at every turn & this trash heap of an anime tries to frame it admirably ike being a babyback bitch is actually a redeemable quality. Ignoring the MC (which is impossibru because hes the MC lol), the characters are mostly stale one-note token characters. These issues become exponentially more prevalent when whatever edgefest overlord wrote this story reveals his fetish for "permanent consequences" for some of the more interesting characters in the show, which I won't elaborate any more on to avoid spoilers. basically the characters made me want to kill myself in a number of ways. Also the facial expressions were absurdly predictable, moreso than in any other anime I've seen. So yeah characters are truly awful in this anime - 0/10.

Enjoyment? Whats that? Never heard of it, or maybe im suffering temporary trash-induced amnesia because enjoyment seems like a foreign concept at the moment. i dont know how else to word it, but this anime is trash. if you want to watch an anime that makes u want to carve out your own heart with a steak knife than Valkyria Chronicles is the anime for you.

Overall this anime is complete trash i give it a -4/10 but MAL forces you to use absolute values so 4/10 aka it sucks!

As far as the anime is concerned, it's a great story and a great watch. The characters are well developed. It has the Love/Hate complex to it which also makes it a great anime. The Artistic view and the Directing view compliment each other well. A must see for anyone.

The only underlying problem i had really found with this anime, is that it kind during the middle of the story, one of the best characters die and you get stuck debating "Should i continue watching or stop?". Personally i chose to keep watching because i figured it would get better but it felt like a ... damn knife wound that was getting pushed and pulled over the next view episodes after the fact.

In the end, this anime is great for just about anyone to see. The first glance isn't that great but after you get past the first 2 or 3 episodes your either and addict by then...or you just suck.

(as written on The Hateful Anime Truth on Facebook)

Games turned into Anime are almost equivalent to Hollywood's curse of bringing games to the big screen; It usually NEVER works, and you get a botched version of the game that you liked so much that you wished it never was born. For example, Tsukihime was a well-known Type-Moon RPG filled with many different paths, but in anime form, the director thought taking the BAD END of everything would work. Not entirely.

In came Valkyria Chronicles. An anime adaptation of the video game of the same name, starring Welkin Gunther, Isara Gunther, Alicia Melchiott and other important members ... taken straight from the game. Although a select few from the game were made of any importance to the anime, the rest happens to be in the back of the anime the whole time, or don't exist at ALL. But I'm getting a little sidetracked here. Let's start with the story aspect!

Story:

Normally, accuracy doesn't get you anywhere in animes, but this anime happens to follow the game's MAIN story. Emphasis on the word 'MAIN' in that one, because the game had many side-stories that also cover the main meat of some of the characters and gave a bit more backstory to some of the characters. The anime offers a straight-to-the-point, linear storyline that focuses mostly on the war and the war alone.

But hey, the main storyline really caught the attention here, so I'm giving that a 10 for linearity, smoothness, and accuracy to the game.

Art:

Holy cow I never thought Selvaria couldn't get any hotter when she went into the anime front! Um-- I mean-- FORGET I SAID THAT!

The artists really did good work catching the very detail of Gallia, from the Gallian Army's clothing, to the tanks, weapons and armor of both armies.

And dear god those jugs of Selvaria's are huge... UMM, MOVING ON!

Sound:

As one would have it, most, if not ALL the music was taken straight from the game. I was surprised when I heard Desperate Fight in one of the episodes, but it made that one battle scene way more epic.

And that's about all I can say about sound.

Character:

Every character has their own personality. It's human nature. Valkyria Chronicles is no exception. Squad 7 is intentionally the most weird bunch of the whole army because of its quirky character choices, from the very introverted Susie, to the Lone Wolf Marina.

The villains have that 'calm-before-the-storm' type deal. The look cool, calm and collected, but at war, they become completely different people. It really did bring the best out of this anime.

OVERALL (since I can't think up of anything in the enjoyment factor and this review is taking too long):

I'd highly recommend it to anyone whether they have played the game or not. The story is highly intriguing, keeps you at the edge of your seat, you don't know what's gonna happen until it does, and hell, it has its own tearjerker moments as well.

Well done, Valkyria Chronicles, you've withstood the Game to Anime test.

The Playstation 3 game Valkyria Chronicles has fun gameplay and an epic story, so I enjoyed every minute of it (unfortunately, the original and its PSP sequel hasn't sold enough enough to warrant a release for VC3 in the west). While its admirable that the anime tries to add a few things of its own to the story and characters, ultimately it only succeeds in becoming a rather loose adaptation that's inferior to the source material.

The opening of Valkyria Chronicles is engrossing and contains elements similar to real-life conflicts such as World War I or II. The small country of Gallia, and its Squad ... 7 militia, are basically underdogs stuck in a tug-of-war between two massive nations for its vast resources, and you're compelled to see how they will survive the war. Some of the drama in VC (such as discrimination against the Darcsen people) is executed very well, and certain aspects of war such as death is portrayed realistically, perhaps with enough impact to make you shed a tear or two. The pacing of the game was okay in terms of how it was separated into chapters, with several story cutscenes interwoven between various playable battles. Unfortunately, the pacing of the anime is relatively uneven with respect to how a sense of urgency is criminally absent in many episodes despite the aforementioned war; this is perhaps due to misplaced comedy, too much dialogue in certain places, or plot developments which drag for too long. The epilogue to the series, although perfectly welcome, lacks details from the game that would have made it amazing.

The animation is solid and includes excellent action sequences during battles, especially the awesome abilities of the Valkyria. Character designs for the majority of the cast in VC is pretty much spot on, except Alicia looks younger and much less mature than in the game. The background art is nice and appropriate; there's a darker tone used to reflect the destruction and devastation caused by fighting, and brighter colours for the peaceful countryside scenery that's reminiscent of watercolour graphics used in the game (shame they couldn't replicate this in the anime).

The opening songs are sung by people with strong voices, especially the first one. Sound effects such as bullets firing and explosions are very clear. Voice acting is decent for the most part. There are several cool action sequences shown in the opening credits, so it's unfortunate that more of them aren't present in the series itself. Speaking of this, it's difficult but try to avoid watching the second opening; it contains massive spoilers that ruin surprising twists!

A new character created for the anime, Ramal, is well-developed and provides interesting interactions with the others. The background stories of key characters such as Alicia, Selvaria and Rosie are well-told despite slight alterations from the game. And then there's General Damon; the anime does a fantastic job of making you hate this guy. There's a feeling of wasted potential when it comes to developing the remaining members of Squad 7; not enough focus is placed on them and instead it seems as if they're in the anime just to make up the numbers and take part in missions.

Then there's the presence of a love triangle involving the main characters, and it's difficult to see why it was necessary in the first place. All that it manages to accomplish is ripping the spotlight away from Welkin, the son of a war hero and commander of Squad 7, and thrusting it onto his best friend Faldio (who's part of the same militia but in a different squad). Ironically this makes Faldio a more well-rounded and intriguing character, but Welkin becomes the opposite; at least in the game you get to control him in a tank and blow stuff up! Of course, this means Welkin is indecisive for large parts of the anime and his chemistry and communication with Alicia is severely lacking. The main leads, Welkin and Alicia, were a fantastic part of Valkyria Chronicles but are nowhere near as likeable in the anime. As a bonus insult the pacing of the story is badly affected by the love drama, and the time it takes up could have been put to better use developing the supporting cast.

Valkyria Chronicles is a more than average series with its focus on war, friendship and teamwork that deserves a solid 7 for those who have no knowledge of the game. I'd actually give it a 6 instead but only due to the fact that I've played the game, and while it's not a train wreck the anime adaptation doesn't compare well.

This has to be the best game to anime adaption I have ever seen hands down. I dont understand why after reading many peoples comments on forums, their number 1 complaint would be that the anime is too different from the game.

Many viewers of this anime have also played or own the game while there are few who just happened to stumble upon Valkyria Chronicles. The ones that have watched this anime for the first time have nothing but praise for this anime. What I fail to understand is why people would want the anime adaption completely identical to the game? It baffles me.

My ... interest level wasnt very high for this anime to begin with since I imagined it to follow the game directly. After a few episodes it greatly surprised me by focusing more on relationships and character development absent in the game... even taking whole episodes to explore. I found that extremely refreshing since I knew what was going to happen and this also hooked me into watching more episodes. Gallian chronicles added new dynamics to an already great story by adding a love triangle, different personalities of characters from the game, and a more drama type feel.

Another popular complaint was that the action and battles were secondary. This makes me question again why people and fans of the game dont appreciate the in depth character studies. I found that the action scenes had an appropriate amount of time and it wasnt necessary since the game was also based off of how love and friendship blooms during war.

I found this anime had an assemble of characters and sub characters with very interesting personalities of their own and a gripping new storyline that diverges itself from the game to stand on its own. The ending seemed a little rush but I figured the show wasnt getting a green light for a 2nd season which is a huge shame... I just wish this series had more exposure and is appreciated for what it is. A rarity indeed.

This is the classic example of terrible start and great finishing touch.

This show start off with irritable, hard to relate characters that you are almost constantly face palming or imagining yourself teaching them a lesson.
The show however gradually picks up, in a very steady uphill climb. The character developments are subtle, but well made. The downside to this is that subtleness sometimes makes casual watchers with less than average emotional understanding puzzled.
The characters started off as some of the worst personalities I've ever seen. However, as the serie progress, an understanding is formed for these unique ... personalities who may come off as a big pain in the ass. The main character however is one of the most interesting male lead up to date. As far as I can remember, masterminds like Lelouche, Kira (Light) is in a way much like him in term of intelligence. Unlike Kira and Lelouch however is that, instead of being cool bad ass, he is very laid back. This, I think is a great touch. Most of us anime watchers really is fed up with terrible male leads in many ways, such as spineless, dumb, ugly, or completely overblown personality. The main character here is one of the most intriguing male leads up to date.

To be quite honest, I wanted to give this show a 7-8, but a particular set of episode really changed my mind. Without giving anything away, this show had great emotional moments where if you are watching with an unbiased mind, it's something we can really come to appreciate.

In conclusion, this show is interesting, different, but not for everyone. Long story short, if you watched through 5 or so episode without getting bored, completely enraged, your most likely going to enjoy this anime.
I hope this review is helpful in some way, feedback and criticism are welcome.

I was bored one day and stumbleupon brought me to a stream for ep1 of Valkyria Chonicles, I didn't search out this anime, I had never heard of it, nor did I know the game existed until after the first ep or two, if that influences the reader's opinion of my review...


When I first started watching it, there was nothing bad about it, but I didn't feel there was any particular good points about it. From the start, I could predict EVERYTHING that was going to happen in the next five minutes, so when a battle started I was already bored, since it had just ... ended in my mind. I kept watching on the hope that the love interest might amount to something instead of continuing to be a love triangle right to the end (what can I say, I like happy endings, not awkward, status quo endings), and there was a side love story that was fun to watch progress.

Then episode 19 or 18 or something came around. Without giving too much away, there was a scene where someone was going to die, and it was playing out in slow motion for suspense. I made my prediction, and I felt it was the only obvious choice, when, oh snap! That was unexpected. Then sometime later it happened again! Just at the end the show managed to save itself with with a series of unexpected and interesting events.

Also, although I should have seen it coming, I would have been completely surprised by something had it not been revealed in the OP 5 EPISODES TOO EARLY.

Senjou no Valkyria is one of those animes that I can't help but give credit to. Not only is this a nice series that represents video game to anime adaptions well, but does well as an anime in its own right. Granted (and I am speaking through here say since I have not played the game), there are differences between the game and anime, it is still a superior adaptation compared to it's competition. Video game to anime adaptions tend to be pretty awful in most cases, however, this is one case where it is definitely not. It proves to be a good advertisement for ... the game since now I am interested in playing the game as well.

However, since this is about the anime, I can tell you what this anime did right. It set the tone extremely well. Characters were likable and through their actions, you can get a strong vibe for what they are thinking and feeling. I felt this translated very well. The story itself was extremely strong, especially for a video game adaptation. The narrative also did a nice job of fleshing out both sides, getting a sense of what Gallia was trying to accomplish as well as the Empire. The character interaction was fantastic. Watching Squad 7 (as well as Faldio and Ramal) come together and interact was fun to watch. You could feel the camaraderie even though not all the characters got along. It did a great job of building character relationships (such as the love triangle between Alicia with Welkin and Faldio) as well as the dramatic tension (such as with Rosie and Isara).

As far as it's production is concerned, the artwork was fantastic. The character models were well drawn and even the atmospheres were fairly well captured. The artwork did a nice job of capturing that 1930s warfare style. If I thought there was a weakness to the artwork, it was that the action sequences seemed somewhat choppy, perhaps a little too slow-paced. I felt as though the artwork should've been a little faster paced when there were sequences of someone getting shot at or tanks firing. The composition in my opinion was solid. The songs seemed to fit the mood quite well and the insert songs were great. My only gripe about the composition was it seemed to repeat a little too much. It seemed that the producers were dealing with a limited soundtrack throughout the series. The voice acting was superb. Sushumu Chiba captured the role of Welkin Gunther perfectly and Marina Inoue played Alicia Melchiott extremely well. Even the supporting roles I have to consider second-to-none, in fact, probably some of the best supporting voice acting work I have ever heard in an anime.

Now, as much as I want to admit how much I loved Senjou no Valkyria, there were flaws. I felt this anime didn't do a very good job with back stories. Due to this hindrance, it resulted in some awkward scenes within the anime. For example, the first episode when Alicia met (and captured) Welkin. Due to a flaw that the video game was able to explain, Welkin was away from Bruhl for 8 years and that is why Alicia considered him a traitor at first. Due to not knowing that fact in the anime, it makes it confusing to the viewer as to why Alicia doesn't know both Welkin and Isara (Alicia and Isara's relationship is yet another flaw that the video game explains). It isn't just here either. There is another scene where Welkin is thinking about the battles he fought in and makes a reference that he told his father that he'd never get involved in the same business he got in. However, the anime doesn't do a very good job of explaining that back story and why he didn't want to get involved in General Gunther's business. Even the history of the Gunthers, their tragic past and the fate of both General Gunther and his wife were not well hashed out. Even the adoption of Isara was not well hashed out either. The anime generally explains that General Gunther and Isara's parents had some sort of affiliation but it wasn't properly explained. There are MANY flaws surrounding the Gunthers and their back story that was severely lacking. For being one of the main protagonist (including Isara with this), their back stories were just not hashed out well. Perhaps it was that this anime didn't have enough time to explain these back stories? I'm not sure but it felt as though some of these episodes were wasted with unnecessary character development that we already know about the characters as well as I mentioned earlier, the too slow pacing of the fight scenes. As much as the lack of back story bothered me, it wasn't enough to completely deter me from watching this show with complete interest.

Overall, I cannot stress enough how much of an underrated series this is. I never even heard of this anime (even though I heard of the video game) before a friend recommended it to me and after completing the series, I cannot believe this series hasn't received more praise and recognition. This series had a little bit of everything you'd want in a war-type anime and even the much expected death scenes (expected in the sense that it's war, you expect people to die) had a heavy feel to them. The likability of the characters certainly helps in that regard. While I admit this anime isn't perfect, it is still a fantastic series and the one anime I'd recommend for a video game adaptation done right. I understand it is an adaptation and not everything is going to be perfect. However, as I said, video game adaptations are difficult to translate to the anime realm and this series did a solid job of representing Valkyria Chronicles. If you like war and strategic battles, this is a great watch. If you like romance and great character interaction, this is a great watch. This series isn't quite as gritty or violent as a typical war-type anime but still seems to capture the atmosphere extremely well. I will admit that Senjou no Valkyria is the best war anime I have ever seen.

Valkyria Chronicles (The PS3 game which is the source material of the anime) is a piece of art with it's immersive storytelling, humane and multi-dimensional representation of the main, and a certain part of the secondary cast of characters, and with it's subtle way of conveying about the ""two sides of the coin", portraying the lack of solid difference between the warring factions of your ordinary soldier on either sides, all displayed on a background, unraveling the war-torn, even if fictional world of Europa.

And despite it's interesting premise, the anime adaptation of that material "Senjou no Valkyria", crashes down in all ... the beforementioned highlights, which made this franchise different from the other similar ones, shoving in our face chewed up, and weirdly twisted story, altered with too much plot-holes, one dimensional characters, bearing resemblance to the original cast, but having their definitive traits hyperbolized to, in the most cases, abnormal and absurd scales. In the same way, the flow of the storyline in the source material, with it's ebbs and flows of relaxing adventures, followed by relatable and well-written personal struggles and political conflicts, from various perespectives is smashed up with the anime adaptation's almost seemingly two distinctive parts - the first episodes, giving you feel of watching teen rom-com with seemingly zero interest of the characters upon the current problems of the war (while it's assumed they're army recruits) and the second part, very hard trying to be more mature and serious, which by itself is step in the right direction, but in the current case, trying to build up tension and feeling of relateableness with the beforementioned "haapy go lucky" portrayal of the characters, which are dwarfed to the well-known archetypes (the Tsundere, the overly generic main character, the third wheel in the romance) is plain tragic to watch, and it also feels very awkward at times.

One of the important messages of the source material was, by showing us the sorrows and the horrors of the war, seen from the point of the common soldier, combined with his own personal struggles, reshapes his perception of right and wrong, but in the same time, by being in touch with his dreams and wishes, gives him will to prevail and move forward, which could also be an inspiration for us as well in our own lives.On the other hand, the major focus of the anime was mostly about the romantic relationships, and the unwavering unity of the squad, aka "Friendship Power" which sounds much more cheesy than developing actual plot and clever tactical strategies to outmaneuver and outwit their opponents, which makes any feeling of actual gritty combat non-existent in the anime. An also, the romantic aspect (which is one of the main themes here, it seems) is very poorly and unoriginally executed.

There is overall character development, but it's far from realistic and mostly relying on tropes, with the sole exclusion of Faldio, who gets far more screentime than in the source material, and he has his own developed story, which is a small breath of fresh air considering the others. The other good sides of the anime are the art and it's sound, although they're not really lifesaving for this adaptation in my opinion, since the story and character departments are handled horrible and almost parodically.

To summarize my thoughts - Senjou no Valkyria is not horrible anime by itself, although it's quite generic and average by any standards, which had great potential, if the source material was handled well, to be one of the best animes, depicting the feelings of hope and despair in wartime, which instead decided to be this light-hearted, bright-coloured goofy action which is good for killing time, but oblivious in any other serious aspect.

I remember when I had just finished the first episode- I felt very, very satisfied. Indeed, I was an immediate fan of the anime's setting and artwork. But unfortunately, that was the high point of the anime for me. The art work and animations were both of very high quality. The sounds were also high in terms of technical quality. The voice acting went very well with the characters (although it was not necessarily a good thing, read below about my impression of the characters), and the music I did not take note of, but this is a indication of good music, according Feng Zhu(concept ... artist) in one of his videos.

Many of the characters, especially the main ones, felt like the overused, virtuous archtypes that -at least for me- made for some very bland characters. As a result, I felt myself enjoying the bad guys far more than the good guys', haha. The story wasn't very engaging to me either, but I did end up finishing the series hoping that the story will pick up and build to the main characters epiphanies where they shed their moral obligations as they reconciled with the world.

Needless to say, if those types of characters are what you are looking for, this should be a very enjoyable anime for you, as I think this also had some effect on the story for me. It was not an enjoyable anime series for me.