Gotta flirt to save the world!!
Creative Staff
Story: Miyuki Nakayama
Art: Miyuki Nakayama
Translation: Leighann Harvey
What they say
High schooler Takuma Akutsu is terrified of human contact and just wants to live a quite life. Too bad he doesn’t have a choice in the matter when nine Valkyrie sisters come barging into his home! They’ve tasked him with raising their level to fight off the monsters threatening humanity–and how will he do that, exactly…? By gettin’ down & dirty to the max!!!!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Val Love is the story of a young man, Takuma Akutsu, who is afraid of human contact because of how everyone treats him. He’s bigger than everyone else, bulkier than everyone else, has sharp teeth, vicious-looking eyes, and a scar on his cheek. Because of his appearance, everyone is afraid of him. He’s even earned the nickname “the demon” at school.
Takuma is an interesting character. Given his appearance, you wouldn’t think he’d be afraid of other humans and yet being around other people terrifies him. He seems almost like a variation of the “gentle giant” trope that tends to crop up from time to time, but I don’t think that’s quite right. Rather than being gentle, timid is a more apt way to describe him. While this does make his character interesting and unique, and his desire to study as a means of escape gives him a sense of depth, I do hope his timid personality goes away soon. As interesting as it is, this kind of personality can only take a story so far before it becomes annoying.
Living with Takuma are nine girls, nine valkyrie who seem to range in age from adults to children. These Valkyrie have come to live with Takuma in order to become his lovers. The reason is because love is the source of their strength. The more love they have, the more love they receive, the stronger they become. This sort of storyline is the kind you can expect from a harem manga. Basically, Takuma’s harem is an integral part of the plot. If he doesn’t give them enough love, they can’t gain the strength they need to fight against demons and stop the end of the world from coming. Given that this is based on Norse mythology, I’m assuming the “end of the world” refers to Ragnarok. In either event, the story is atypical of the harem genre. However, I do not consider this a bad thing. If you’re reading a harem manga, then you already know what you’re getting into, and you probably enjoy this type of story.
I don’t really have any issues with the story itself. While right now, the story feels a bit awkward, that is fairly natural for first volumes in harem manga. The story generally doesn’t pick up until later volumes because the first few spend most of their time introducing the characters and story while mixing in some fanservice for good measure. If I had to say what problem I had with this story, it would probably be the slightly sloppy artwork. While the art isn’t really bad, I sometimes get the sense that the Ryosuke Asakura is a new artist to the manga scene. His lineart sometimes feels really crisp, while other times it feels really messy. I can’t tell if this was on purpose or not. However, I can say that it threw me off at times.
Having mentioned already that this volume deals more with character introduction and basic world-building, I can clearly state that the story suffers from being insufferably slow. The beginning introduces Takuma and the nine Valkyries living with him, and then Takuma goes on a date with Natsuki when they get attacked by a demon. An erotic scene happens where Natsuki straddles Takuma while half-naked and has him fondle her breast in order to power up. Then she takes down the demon. Before and after this incident we’re given some basic information about the characters, the world, and why Takuma has suddenly become the lover for nine Valkyries. It’s not what I would call a unique story.
In Summary
If someone is looking for a unique series with a high focus on developing characters and the story, I don’t know if I could recommend this one right now. However, fans of the harem genre are likely to enjoy Val Love. Some areas feel rough around the edges. The artwork and story could do with a little more developing, but volume one does a fairly decent job of setting everything up for future developments. Whether or not those developments will amaze us or fall flat depends largely on what Ryoskuke Asakura-sensei has planned. On a side note, this series is rated M because it has uncensored nudity, so make sure you’re aware of that when deciding whether to buy this.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: C
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: M
rReleased By: Yen Press
Release Date: January 30, 2018
MSRP: $12.99
