12.06
There were two Valvraves previously. One the batshit stupid waste of time that baffled and infuriated me last spring. The other was the borderline ok, mostly mediocre show the series had turned into in season 2 this fall. When things stood out they were either decent or downright horrifying. Nothing so far has made me go “WOW SHIT FANTASTIC!” Nothing… until episode 21.
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOY!
So yeah that douchenozzle ARUS president? Well now that he’s got footage of Saki getting impaled as well as the lead reporter dude from last week just COINCENDENTALY stumbling on the Rune harvester ship, he’s ready to ally himself with Dorrssia and declare New JIOR as enemies of the universe! Now if anybody had a brain in Valvrave, they would call ARUS’s sudden jump to hostility out as the bullshit that it, but we long passed that point. Not like New JIOR cares, they’re being shot at left and right!
Ichiro Ookuchi discovers Reddit
With 2/3rds of the background characters Swiss Cheese, our lead characters prepare to flee Module 77 on a mass driver. The Valvraves (which are all the cause of this problem in the first place) attempt to defend the survivors but stray laser fire damages Shoko’s shuttle (OH NOES). What’s worse, the rune drain is finally taking its toll on Haruto as he loses a memory of him and Shoko hiding in a cave. This comes at a rather inopportune time for him as the other students (Shoko included) try to sell him out to ARUS to save their own butts. But ARUS being the American scumbags that they are plans to blow the shuttle anyway. In the end all parties are saved by Kyuuma, who sacrifices himself to save Haruto from being sliced and diced by Cain. RIP buddy… I guess.
I SHARED MY FRIED EGGS WITH YOU!!!
Elsewhere R-Drei continues to interrogate Saki over why she didn’t kill him when she had the chance (this storyline is probably going somewhere but the show never gives us enough time to care); the twitter feeds demand blood (hey remember when this show was all about Facebook feeds?!?), and someone bothers to drag the semi-catatonic L-Elf out of the broom closet. Next week… nothing. No preview.
So it goes...
A simple article can’t do this episode much justice, it is that batshit insane. While I’ve chided Sunrise for ripping themselves off with this show, this time they’ve elected to rip something far different as this week’s episode is a near shot for shot remake of the legendary Episode 25′ (“Air (Love is Destructive)”) of Neon Genesis Evangelion with its breakneck pace and over the top body count. Ever since episode 5, I’ve wanted to see these snotty stupid kids get whats coming to them and the bloodbath this week was the payoff. Of course that kinda makes me a bad person in a way and I’m not surprised Daisuki has delayed this episode for perhaps that very reason (this week’s caps come from GG again). Kyuuma’s death at the end is kind of an afterthough (as was Kyuuma as a character in general) but it makes sense in the long run as he dies doing what he wanted to, save people when he couldn’t save glasses girl from last season.
ASUKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Valvrave’s got three more weeks. All bets appear to be off.
9.5/10