The best male character in this anime.
It has been nearly 5 months since I last posted a review here, mainly because of some unavoidable issues, plus some laziness maybe? Anyway, the audition for this blog’s ‘Anime of the Year 2013’ continues in 2014 with Kakumeiki Valvrave, which finished airing its second season when I procrastinate during those 5 long months. A second mecha anime title reviewed in this audition after Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince, this anime performed surprisingly very well, especially in one unexpected area. Read on to find out more.
The best female character in this anime.
Story:-
Sometime in the far distant future, where Windows Metro GUI has actually succeeded and people lived in space colonies, the main male protagonist and his friends lived a peaceful life in a fully-residential high-school. Then a special op team from another military empire attacks and the main male protagonist watched the main female protagonist dies in front of his eyes. Enraged, he conveniently found himself an overpowered mobile suit hidden beneath the school, become immortal and then started to repel the invasion.
One thing that dawns to me when watching this this anime is the storyline is better than the one seen in Majestic Prince. I actually do not really expect this to happen. It could have been better if the main female protagonist did not rise up from the dead and the main male protagonist lives his life in perpetual rage just like his counterpart in Shingeki no Kyoujin. The fact that the reanimated main female protagonist is involved in some several cringe-worth moments in the anime, especially the early parts of the series does not help either.
But then again there are some awesome moments in this anime which mitigated the problems that the main female protagonist poses, like the ‘Moses moment’ that also happens early in the series. That particular event surely shows that Japanese anime writers still has some gas in their creativity tank. The only major blot that marred the quality of this anime’s storyline, at least when compared to Majestic Prince, would be the ending arc.
The lousiest death scene in anime history.
While the ending arc of Majestic prince is quite solid, the same thing cannot be said for the one for this anime. Throughout the course of this series, some flash-forward scenes that happened roughly 200 years after the timeline of this anime’s storyline. The major drawback of those scenes is that they made the ending more predictable than it otherwise would have been. The flash-forward scenes should not have been shown at all, and instead the time jump should have been incorporated into the ending arc itself. Another thing I dislike about the ending is the entirety of episode 22, which is full with cheesy dramatic moments, like in the picture above. Unlike Majestic Prince, the ending did not accommodate any room though for a third season (or a movie).
The pacing of the storyline of this anime is great, much faster (and better) than in the Majestic Prince. It slows down a little during the ending arc, but not too much that it becomes detrimental for this series. The flow of the storyline could have been just as good too, but for too many usage of badly-placed flashback scenes.
Character developments in this anime are done very well most of the time. I say ‘most of the time’ because the person that matters, the main male protagonist, has only so-so character development strategies. At best, his character developments are not better than some of the side characters of this anime like that high-class blonde lady with big breasts. Even his counterpart in Majestic Prince has better development than him. By comparison, the main female protagonist has better developments, and so are many of the other characters. The first two screenshots above should indicated the characters I consider the best ones in this anime.
Character Design:-
When it comes to character designs, I vastly prefer the ones in Majestic Prince over the ones in this anime. Designs in this anime is actually not bad, it is just too generic and way too normal just like the first three titles reviewed in the audition. The only good character design in this anime is probably the green-haired leader of the military republic, I’m kind of attracted to that one but alas his airtime is extremely limited. Lack of black hairs in this futuristic anime title is forgivable; after all most of the characters are genetically-engineered to be immortal.
Voice Acting:-
This anime did not do exactly a good job in this aspect because just like Majestic Prince the voice acting gigs are uninspiring. Those two titles are on the same level if you ask me. No notable voice acting gigs either, even for both of this anime’s best characters here.
Music:-
From all the various OP/ED themes this anime has, I think only the 2nd OP theme is decent. The other themes are meh, and so is the OST.
Animation/Direction:-
Animation quality in this series is great and pretty much flawless, slightly better than Majestic Prince. Integration between CGI and 2D animation is seamless too. This anime has inferior mecha fighting scenes when compared to what seen in Majestic Prince though. The director of this anime has better cinematographic techniques than his counterpart in Majestic Prince, but also struggled somewhat with the presentation aspect of this anime.
The fact I know this line will be said at this scene is proof enough on how predictable the ending is.
Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. Same score as Majestic Prince, therefore not in the running for 'the ‘Anime of the Year 2013’ title. Maybe I should just cut short the audition, and make the next review the last entry for the audition. The next one should not take another 5 months though.
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