Kakumeiki Valvrave Episode 1 [First Impression]

“Do you reign as a human being”

 
First Impression:
I am glad I decided to wait till this morning to watch and cover this because I was just too tired to focus last night. Holy macro. So, I believe we can all agree this show kicked off with Gundam vibes? You know shit is going to happen if the introduction is all fine and dandy with the fluff, followed by “transfer students” who infiltrate the school in order to locate “something” which was VALVRAVE. Of the three mecha series that have all debuted this season, this by far kicks off on not only the bloodiest note, but dark and grueling as well. I found it to be very satisfying to have some of the classic Gundam Series vibes since it feels like it’s been years since we last seen a mecha series with this kind of opening.
OH GOD THAT MESSAGE, “It’ll be too late to cry if someone gets to her first” aka killed, oh god what gruesome irony. At that very moment we all knew that Shoko was going to die. It’s a real shame because I actually liked the girl. I became very concerned and horrified of what kind of death she was about to experience, especially since the Dorissan Army’s Special Forces was only five-ten feet away from them. It didn’t make me feel any more comfortable when L-Elf got all worked up about “halfs” and “dividing” and dangerously approached Haruto and Shoko and asked if he’d split his “Would you cut the yolk from a ham’n egg for breakfast in half, or split your love for a girl in half”. At that very moment I covered my eyes because I honestly thought he was going to attack them. Thank goodness that he didn’t, but poor Shoko was already fated to die in this episode and when she went to check on a person inside a car, she was obliterated on the spot.
So lets talk about our main character here: Haruto. He’s our typical soft male protagonist who is a bit shy, but appears to be a positive and gentle person. However everything changed when the fire nations attacked Shoko was killed. He boldly went up to the VALVRAVE that was pushed to the surface by a brave engineer *salutes* (his cruel death was not in vain) and got on board. Haruto eventually reads the fucking screen accepts the terms and agreement of reigning as a human being. He gets pricked and something was put into his blood and all and I’m sure some of us thought this was part of identifying/registering the DNA and/or getting an injection of this special potion. What we didn’t know was that the question was being dead serious, because Haruto was just stabbed in the heart and shot twice in the chest by L-Elf and he’s back on his feet taking a bite out of the guy. So Haruto is either an immortal now or a zombie with a conscious- ah wait that would contridict being zombie wouldn’t it… so maybe he’s a vampire… WHAT? DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT! HE BIT L-ELF, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO THINK BESIDES A ZOMBIE AND AN VAMPIRE?! THOSE ARE THE FIRST TWO THINGS THAT WOULD CROSS ANYONE’S MIND!!! Or he is something else entirely which is most likely to be the case and we’ll find out what he turned into next week.
Anyways, I think it’s a bit early to judge whether I will really like Haruto’s character or not since it all varies on how he copes with these new abilities as well as Shoko’s death.
L-Elf is a fairly interesting character. He is very calm and poised- that is until he overhears something talking about “Sharing is Caring” or “The Great Divide”. Well we know one thing for sure, this guy isn’t going to share anything at all since he hates ‘halves’. He doesn’t even like splitting ham and egg! He also has shown us that he possesses remarkably sharp eyes- so sharp that he can see the entire school within a distant. It think it’s very likely that the “Special Forces” are most likely modified humans, or part of the paramilitary.With that said, something about him screams that at some point in the future, there’s a chance that (oh who am I kidding, this is Gundam Seed feels all over again) L-Elf and Haruto have either a temporary alliance, or even become friends. Or are actually long lost brothers stop it Eva, you’re going off track.
In this episode, we learned that 70% of the human population has left Earth there are about three major  colonies/nations(?) that we should pay attention to. We have the Dorissan, who heavily focus on military efforts… and conquest by the look of it. ARUS focuses on the markets/economy and here we have JIOR, who as far as we’re concerned thought it was neutral with the Dorissan and were caught off guard during their attack. We don’t really know too about about JIOR, but judging by their techs (eg: Wired) and VALVRAVE itself, it probably focus on technology. This is probably had something to do what made them Dorissan’s latest target in the first place.
Overall this was a great start, I am glad that Kakumeiki Valvrave lived up to my expectations (SUNRISE I AM COUNTING ON YOU TO DO THIS RIGHT!). I was relieved to they explained the circumstances of the the different nations and what are their primary focuses, and giving us an idea some background on our enemy and their latest actions (besides seeing them infiltrate the school). The animation was definitely a lot different than I expected it to be, especially the character designs. I like that the designs have a touch of originality that helps separate them from the same old similarities that we tend to see every now and then- but there are undoubtly a handful of similar faces. As for the mechas, well designs, I am quite satisfied with the balance between the CG and the mobile suits. The quality of the CG has definitely improved as it doesn’t stand out as much as it used to, so props to you SUNRISE.
Possibility of Blogging: Guaranteed
PS: EVEN THE ED THEME SCREAMS GUNDAM VIBES!!!!