Valkyria Chronicles
There’s been a lot of new anime releases this season so I’m going to start watching a lot more anime again. I’ve kind of been on an extended anime break for quite some time since I’ve sort of become more of a gamer and spent most of my time playing games rather than watching some shows that I put off indefinitely. If there was ever a time to start watching again, now would be that time with the flood of new series. Some of which I’ve started and/or looking forward to are K-ON!, Full Metal Alchemist 2, Higashi no Eden, and Valkyria Chronicles, the latter of which I will be talking about.
Valkyria Chronicles is based off of the PS3 game of the same name which was released in the US on November 4, 2008. It is a turned based strategy game which isn’t actually my cup of tea but I decided to give it a shot when the demo came out and I actually found myself liking it. It actually has a slight twist to the gameplay where you are allowed to move a certain number of your units a certain distance during each of your turns. The story takes place in a fictional version of Europe where a resource known as ragnite exists. Here’s the basic rundown of the plot taken from Wikipedia:
When Imperial forces attack the small border town of Bruhl, Welkin Gunther, son of late General Belgen Gunther, is forced to fight for his life alongside Town Watch captain Alicia Melchiott. Along with Welkin’s adopted sister Isara, the three escape to Gallia’s capitol and subsequently join the country’s militia forces. As members of the newly-formed Squad 7, they must work to repel the invading Imperial forces and discover the true purpose of the invasion itself.
The art style is also very unique. It has a cel-shaded hand drawn look which many have praised as looking like a drawing/painting coming to life… or something to that effect. It does look quite neat though.
Anyways, the anime stays faithful to the story of the game. Also, believe it or not, the art style carries over as well, with the colors and shading looking like they have that hand drawn pencil feel to them. It doesn’t look quite as impressive as the game but it was interesting to see that they attempted to recreate the same effect in the anime. The voice acting is pretty good (I believe they used the same voice actors from the game?) and as stated earlier, it sticks closely to the source material. Overall, I enjoyed the first episode and hope the rest of the series is just as good. The only slight problem I’ll have is that I haven’t yet finished the game since I’m stuck on a battle so I’ll most likely pass the part I’m at in the game if I keep watching which could “spoil” it for me in a sense but I don’t actually mind that much.
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