Kakumeiki Valvrave - 4

"The Valvrave is the Hostage"

Subtlety? Hah! I know not subtlety!

With every week that passes by, I get the feeling that Valvrave knows how ridiculous it's getting and cares not a whit about trying to pretend it's not. Sometimes that spells disaster, and for plenty of viewers this is indeed the case with this series. For me though, this is solid entertainment, and who are we kidding by complaining about how over the top and unlikely this is? Since when is mecha the genre when everything makes perfect sense and has everything happen as realistically as possible? Perhaps it's a shift in the generations (oh dear goddess, don't tell me I'm old enough to witness a generational shift in anime preferences) or perhaps the issue is in how unoriginal a premise and style it is (that FMA:B track is DEFINITELY in there), but for every person it produces unfathomable dislike in, there's at least one person for whom it just works, and I stand firmly in the second camp.

If I had to pick a theme for this episode, it would be the unreliability of adults. It doesn't get much more obvious than with the ARUS' senator's willingness to abandon the JIOR students when it looks like Dorssia's won the upper hand, but it really comes through loud and clear with the secession of the school module as its own independent country, run entirely by high school age students. There are really no words to justify this as a sound narrative decision (where will they get food? Water? Electricity? Clothes?), but ridiculous as it is, the situation the students find themselves in really leaves them little choice. It's a matter of choosing their poison more than it is of finding a savior, and though Haruto's been offered an alternative through L-Elf's proposal for a contract, he's loathe to have anything to do with the super-Dorssian soldier who is only too willing to turn his back on his country and incite a revolution in cold blood.

Thankfully though, Shouko gets her moment to shine and really outsmart the lot of them. After overhearing a report that Rainbow (the hacker with a human communication problem) intercepted from the ARUS forces declaring their intent to abandon the students, she gets the student council to cooperate by taking her clothes off (a decision that makes sense in light of her political position as the prime minister's daughter) and single-handedly turns the tables on both ARUS and Dorssia by claiming the Valvrave a hostage of the school. In doing so, she keeps both sides wary of one another; the moment one moves in to attack, the students simply have to offer the mecha to the other side, and they're instantly guaranteed protection. It's an excellent strategy that saves Haruto the trouble of having to rely on L-elf, but that doesn't make everything magically alright either. The school may be independent, but it's unlikely that this is the last threat they'll face to their safety, and then there's the fact that there's a Dorssian super-soldier in their midst...

N.B.: Thanks to Ivan for the screencaps!