Kakumeiki Valvrave Episode 5: Blackout and Catfights

Impression:
BEFORE I START: OH SHIT. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. SOMEONE IN HARUTO’S FAMILY WAS THE ONE TO CREATE THE VALVRAVE! OH MY GOD. I am assuming it is his father (the odds are more likely in these cases) so I wonder what happened to him… He either disappeared, were killed or perhaps died earlier on. But man, I wasn’t expecting that to be honest. There is definitely a family history to look and what were their means and motive behind creating such an technological advanced mecha in the first place. It looks like Dr. Kibukawa was an acquaintance to Dr. Tokishima and wondered whether he sold his soul to the Devil (which fits the criteria since the suit itself is quite a merciless Devil).
So we had a break this week from the war and causalities making this quite a laid back and I in particular liked that they addressed a bit of realism of how the kids would react. It was described as Neverland, which is a very accurate and probably the best description you could ever give it. While there were a handful of those doing the responsibilities that needed to be done, the majority of them were really just living the life, such as boys taking advantage of the free access to erotic movies aka porn, and some girls decided it’d be fun to snag and wear some wedding dresses.
But what I loved most is that Haruto and his team are pretty well organized themselves. It seem that supervision and rule management is left to the Student Council with their only teacher in the building is Nanami Rion as their supervisor (Dr. Kibukawa doesn’t count because he’s not a staff member). In the beginning we learned that Kyuuma was hoping everyone could pitch in, even a little bit for their donation pool, however by the end of the day thanks to their home-message music video they rounded up supporters who were willing to donate to them from JIOR their motherland and ARUS.
However amongst the sweetness there were tensions that were quick to flare as when their artificial environment started malfunctioning due to having consumed too much power. And now that they are far away from the sun to provide them natural heat, they had to work fast before everyone freezes to death. That’s where Yuusuke, and Thunder comes in to save the day. I included Thunder because if he wasn’t with Yuusuke, the guy would have fallen to possibly his death or wounded up in a critical condition where he wouldn’t be able to move. (Ah, speaking of which, do they even have any doctors? I haven’t seen any… With a nation ruled by children, that’s a bit of a serious situation don’t you think? Well who knows maybe there are doctors but they aren’t significant enough to be featured…) nor would he have probably been able to access and fix the system himself. Kudos to Thunder though, because even though his bullet wound had opened up again, that man kept hanging on to Yuusuke.
As for the tensions, there was a cat-fight today. Surprisingly- no wait, I shouldn’t be (not when Shouko is in the center of attention). It was amongst the girls who were riled up and started putting the blame on Shouko for her idea of independence. Then Saki FINALLY popped up for the first time this episode and stood up for Shouko being the bamf lady she is by saying what we the audience were thinking, “Oh STFU you agreed to this too!” sort of thing and that’s when things got messy. All the boys who were at the scene except for Haruto didn’t get themselves involved figuring that it’s probably best to stay out it. I was glad that Haruto didn’t stand around and watch the girls push each other around. The best part to break the tension was when Shouko randomly out of blue started singing Jingle Bells (Bless you Shouko, bless you!). But it was even SWEETER when Saki bitchslapped Ninomiya back. YOU GO GIRL. Then the power came back on and poor Haruto was labeled bas a pervert due to the costume he was partially wearing to stay warm, its horn was stuck under Ninomiya’s skirt. BWHAHAHAHA.

Now Saki. MAN! She caught us off guard three times this episode!!!
The first time: BITING NINOMIYA!
I was surprised to see that she did that, so it draws me back to one of my theories that her one or both of her parents were part of the team who had created VALVRAVE. This brings me to theorize perhaps she could have been one of the earlier prototypes. And so one of the disadvantages could be when she bites another, they must be  opposite of her gender- a male. Or, perhaps the power or whatever it is is triggered in a different method (such as a kiss for example). Heck maybe she turned out to be one of the rejected, failed prototypes! It is either that, or for some odd reason she thought she’d be able to magically do it herself.
Second time: SINGING
NO SERIOUSLY, WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? I was shocked to see her actually do it and sing well too! Of course she only did it for them, more so because Haruto had asked, but still! To think she actually went through with it! /MINDBLOWN
Third time: SAKI KISSING HARUTO
DAMN! SHOUKO LOOK OUT, SAKI IS BRINGING ON HER A-GAME FOR HER PURSUIT TO MAKE HARUTO’S HERS. DAMN, SHE JUST KISSED HIM. BOLD GIRL! Not to mention, Saki has the upperhand since it’s a secret between the two of them and Haruto doesn’t want Shouko of all people to learn about the monster inside of him.
One more point I wanted to make about Saki is that she revealed that she had given up ever since she been to this school. I am curious to see how she turned out that way in the first place (and whether it has any connections to what I had just mentioned in the first point). However next week it looks like we will be seeing a whole new lively side of her.
In the mean time L-Elf has been staying low and investigating in the dark. He had found VALVRAVE’s piece and is filming footage of it to get as much information he can. He was also the one to deliberately bring Haruto and Saki to the chamber he had found containing varies of different VALVRAVE’s skins.
Haruto actually had identified them as Curses (you can’t blame him though after having seen what VALVRAVE’s tech have done to people) and asks Saki to keep it a secret between them about the whole VALVRAVE monster thing and what they’ve found. He fears other people finding it since he doesn’t want them to become what he’s become or possibly getting killed like the last guy who tried to pilot it.
Oh man, it was hilarious to see that VALVRAVE’s mascot look so confused and wondered if this was a sexual intercourse! I burst into a fit of laughter! Having seen that she is who is probably the motherboard who had its own conscious like Yui in Sword Art Online and Chamber in Suisei no Gargantia.

Finally last but not least, the revelation of a tragedy that Dorrisia had experienced called Red Thursday. The Dorrisian’s conquest seems to be motivated by this tragic event. We don’t know what had happened, but one of the most interesting thing about the speech is that they relish Life itself. It is important for them to have power over others, so I wonder if Red Thursday is what triggered this whole conquest in the first place (as of we have no idea how long it has been since it has happened and how long they have been at war facing hostility against ARUS). With that in mind, I wonder if Red Thursday also had encouraged L-Elf to plot this revolution of his. Actually, we don’t even know if his comrades even know about it. If anyone it would probably be A-Drei since he seems to be the closest to L-Elf.
Judging by the preview, it looks like Saki is bringing on her A-Game to pursuing Haruto. Talk about an initiative love-triangle and we will finally get to see VALVRAVE either as a new machine or skin (I’m pretty damn sure they are skins as according to the ED- though admittedly it would prove to be interesting to see them be alternative suits that are yet to be claimed.
PS: Akira we all felt for you when the blackout happened.