The second season kicks off as hectic as the first one ended.
What They Say:
The Chancellor of Dorssia is summoned for an audience with the Magius, where he receives unwelcome news. Meanwhile Captain Cain learns more about the Valvraves as he pilots what L-elf though was a broken unit, and Shoko faces new diplomatic challenges…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Valvrave is back, and it’s not wasting any time getting down to business. It kicks off pretty much right where the first season left us off, in the middle of a very eventful conflict in space, and continues to reveal even bigger things about the main plot than the first season ever did, setting up some major issues to deal with. After making sure the energy is ramped all the way up in the beginning (not taking the time to show the opening until the end of the episode), things calm down a fair amount, but the revelations continue throughout the episode in a major way.
Valvrave had some issues as it went on, but it seemed to indicate that the second season would do a much better job of living up to the potential it displayed early on. Obviously this is still very early in this season, but it certainly can’t be denied that this season is going all-out with making things bigger and more critical. It succeeds in being exciting, and the plot is quite intriguing due to all the mystery that’s piled up, but the writing being so all over the place doesn’t inspire a great deal of confidence that everything will be wrapped up in a very satisfying manner.
Besides all of the conflicts between various nations and the higher power that none of the main characters really know about yet, there’s still a lot of tension between those main characters in their personal feelings and relationships. As is specifically pointed out in this episode, they don’t have a lot of time to work that all out, what with running a country at war and everything. But for those of us in the audience who know every side of it, it just gets more painful to watch it bottle up, and it’s going to be a real train wreck when everything gets revealed and our young protagonists have to face the music.
Haruto does make some sort of progress with both L-elf and Saki in this episode, but not necessarily in good directions. Saki first offers herself up for his vampire food, realizing that he needs that sensation to feel normal again, but he refuses, much to her dismay. When it becomes apparent that his consuming is in fact tantamount to how the mecha operate, he settles on L-elf being the source of that, and considering how much they’ve been through at this point, he doesn’t seem to have a problem with this. I can see the yaoi fans just eating this up.
In Summary:
The second season begins much as the first ended, maybe with a little more hope that this one will work out. However, the makings for a disaster are definitely there, whether by design or not. At this point it’s worth appreciating the exciting plot revelations and wondering where this might all be going with so many huge factors and powers in play that we know nothing about. If nothing else, there is some surprise here.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Toshiba Satellite L655-S5191 PSK2CU-1C301U Notebook PC.