Posted inFirst Impressions Valkyria Chronicles

Valkyria Chronicles – 06

39 Comments

Summary:

When Radio GBS war correspondent Irene Ellet shows up to do a story on Welkin and Squad 7, Alicia tries to get in her way at every turn. Alicia sees Welkin as eccentric and worries what will happen to them and to the reputation of the militia if people find out. She thus sticks close to him to make sure he doesn’t say anything unnecessary and to thwart Irene. Alicia isn’t able to keep Irene away from the rest of the squad, but fortunately for Alicia, Irene isn’t able to learn anything useful about Welkin from the others. Largo, for one, wants to talk about vegetables whereas Rosie wants to show off her singing ability. Irene doesn’t let this discourage her though and decides to pursue Welkin again, but she’s foiled every time by Alicia. Irene finally gets her break when she ambushes Welkin in the restroom after Alicia doesn’t follow him in.

Irene offers to do whatever he wants in exchange for getting the information she wants, so Welkin decides to get her to provide meat for a barbecue for everyone. They even invite Faldio and his men to the party, though a fight ends up occurring between the members of the two squads. Alicia tries to stop it, but Faldio and Welkin don’t mind since it helps the two groups loosen up and bond. Welkin and Irene then go off together, and Irene observes that Welkin isn’t like other soldiers in how he doesn’t act as formal and important. Welkin feels that it’d be boring if everyone was the same, and Irene starts to understand what kind of person he is. She finishes her interview with him, and when the time comes for her radio broadcast, all of Squad 7 tunes in. Irene ends up praising Welkin, but much to Alicia’s dismay, she also mentions that she still doesn’t understand Welkin very well, so she’ll be back.

Preview

Well, I thought this episode was a bit of a waste. Certainly it was fun seeing all of Alicia’s shocked and irritated reactions (and plus Hans and Marina were very cute together – I took an immediate liking to Marina’s character), but this was an opportunity to explore the back-stories of several of the characters, like Largo and Rosie. Instead it turned into an Irene vs. Alicia competition and then rehashed what we already knew about Welkin, and it seemed like they only barely scratched the surface of all the other characters. To be clear though, I don’t mean to say that this is a bad episode, it’s just not that great either. I guess they’re trying to extend the story as much as possible for 26 total episodes, and there’ll probably more Irene and character-specific episodes down the line.

As for next week, the preview seems to indicate that they’re setting up some sort of relationship between Lamar and Isara, which I hope doesn’t happen because I find Lamar to be rather annoying. It also looks like Faldio is hugging Alicia, however it’s hard to tell for sure if that’s Faldio or Welkin in that particular shot. Although I’m sure it’ll eventually be WelkinXAlicia, Faldio would make more sense at this point given how much they’ve been playing that up in recent episodes.

39 Comments

  1. Chen^2
    May 11, 2009,

    Alicia’s different facial expressions = win!
    I do agree its sort of a filler episode though, hopefully we’ll see some more action soon.

  2. mango
    May 11, 2009,

    faldio ftw! <3
    welkin’s pretty romantic in the game though

  3. Melchior
    May 11, 2009,

    I’ve never played the game, but this show seems more and more like Minami-ke: Valkyria Chronicles than an actual war anime.

    It’s just one more Marina Inoue character with reaction expressions. Minami-ke, Sekirei, Skip Beat!, and now this.

  4. Arth Chu
    May 11, 2009,

    *oohers*
    I like my vegetables.
    Mmm…I suppose Faldio would make more sense…but how many anime’s out there show that the protagonist DOESN’T get the girls/boys?

  5. Meery
    May 11, 2009,

    Who needs to “to explore the back-stories of several of the characters” when this show is clearly just a mechanism to share with the masses all of Alicia’s shocked and irritated reactions. >_>

  6. Masiro
    May 11, 2009,

    There is a defined pace to this show, fight filler fight filler fight filler

  7. BROOKLYN otaku
    May 11, 2009,

    i need all of alicia’s reactions from the entire season to play over a 10 second loop STAT!! dats gotta be weird

  8. Runty
    May 11, 2009,

    This episode made me laugh so freakin’ hard. If you somehow didn’t laugh at some point while watching this for the first time, you have no soul.

    My favorite bits: Isara clubbing some Squad One soldier with her wrench, Marina and Hans interactions, and Homer making Edy, Susie and Aisha cry.

    Definitely an episode for the lulz.

  11. lhy
    May 11, 2009,

    Sailor Enlil: The one in the middle is Edy, she’s one of the recrutable characters for your squad in the game.

    And as for that preview with Jaeger.. something came to mind, but I’m not sure I want to mention or think much of it o_o

  12. Jezreel
    May 11, 2009,

    me gusta las expresiones faciales de Alicia, aunque en el juego no se vió tanto pero que bien que en el anime si sale y sobre todo es mas divertido.

    espero el siguiente cap fansubeado.

    saludos

  13. Nellie
    May 11, 2009,

    I seriously wish I had waited to play the game before watching this anime.

  14. Bonita
    May 11, 2009,

    What are they doing to my favorite PS3 game…. =( They’re getting further from the game’s plot every week! (Random useless fan service. The female soldier’s in the game wear pants, like Marina is, except for Rosie/Alicia/Isara who are wearing skirts.) Have the mechanics shown up yet? They’re kinda important in the game plot…

  15. Seeker4life
    May 12, 2009,

    lol I think the whole reason of watching this anime is just to watch Alicia’s expressions

    http://images.randomc.net/Valkyria%20Chronicles/Valkyria%20Chronicles%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2036.jpg

    http://images.randomc.net/Valkyria%20Chronicles/Valkyria%20Chronicles%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2020.jpg

    http://images.randomc.net/Valkyria%20Chronicles/Valkyria%20Chronicles%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2004.jpg

    http://images.randomc.net/Valkyria%20Chronicles/Valkyria%20Chronicles%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2007.jpg

  16. Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
    May 12, 2009,

    DAMN YOU HANS!!!! *wishes he was in Hans’ place*

  18. dxj
    May 12, 2009,

    wtf jaeger is a playa… I don’t remember seeing that in the game lol

  20. Nellie
    May 12, 2009,

    @Bonita I know what you mean. Like Faldio having more screen time with Alicia than Welkin. I dropped the anime and just played the game again. I feel better.

  21. Eri
    May 12, 2009,

    Hmm…I expect a welkinxalicia but i like faldio…gyaaa.

  22. asdffdsa
    May 12, 2009,

    Agree with Nellie and Bonita. Not really liking where they’re taking the anime so far, but I’ll stick around until it gets unbearable.

  23. Sandles
    May 12, 2009,

    i think the fact they tried to add in Largo’s vege obsession and rosie’s singing meant they tried to develop the characters. like those extra chapters, anyone?

  24. tenton
    May 12, 2009,

    Cutemi2, there are different kinds? From the department of redundancy department.

    Sailor Enlil, those three are, from left to right, Aisha Neumann, Edy Nelson, and Susie Evans. All three are recruitable in the game, and Edy has her own DLC mission.

  25. BOZZY
    May 12, 2009,

    Interesting episode, especially all those Alicia reactions, which were made of gold. I have a feeling that the guy in that last image of the preview for next week’s episode is Faldio (his hair is longer in the back). It’s interesting how they went about incorporating what appears to be a love triangle in the series.

  26. jho
    May 12, 2009,

    This episode was really laid back, i like this once in a while, but hopefully they’ll go into more plot development

  27. Duran
    May 12, 2009,

    sounds like they’re inputting a typical anime thing There’s something between guy a and tsundere but she’s tsun about it, and there’s guy b who she’s dere at the start for….

    they must be fancatering to pull a stunt like this (I’m half tempted to make a joke about KyoAni)

  28. SeedStriker
    May 12, 2009,

    Seems that Kana Minami replaced Alicia Melchiott for this episode only…

    Having in mind that in the game there was spcial missions for character development (Largo, Rosie, the Edy Detachment and even one for Cmdt Varrot) starting right now is not so healthy for a 26 eps series. More so, with the games’ 7th Squad divided into Welkin’s and Faldio’s squads in the series, we got a glimpse for the rest (eg: Musaad, Coby, Salinas)

  30. IDBjoshm
    May 12, 2009,

    That episode was great! If I wanted endless fighting, I’d go play the game. Nuff said. It was cute. like I said, if you want some action, go play the game!

  31. IDBjoshm
    May 12, 2009,

    Marina: o________o

  32. dojikyo
    May 13, 2009,

    Hans was so lucky this episode. Marina <3

  33. FX102
    May 13, 2009,

    At least some of the recruitable characters finally got to talk, I was worried they’d be relegated to background characters.

    And yes, we all love Marina and her relationship with that under-cooked set of pork-chops. Just please give her a small scene showing off her sniping skills.

    Overall, I still prefer the game though the series is in someway different enough to warrant a watch as you really don’t know what may happen next.

  35. Layla-san
    May 13, 2009,

    this anime rocks! i cant wait for the next episode!!!

  37. IDBjoshm
    May 13, 2009,

    @Aya Reiko

    Excellent! I have the same complaint about sandbags and other things you could conceivable duck behind, but can’t. Bwahahaha.

  38. lilu
    May 14, 2009,

    @IDBjoshm:
    The answer is Faldio.

    Episode 6: I don’t mind that someone would hurt Alicia. Maybe then she wouldn’t be so irritating.

  39. Azar
    May 14, 2009,

    *sigh* what a shame. WTF happened to this series?

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