Kakumeiki Valvrave - 7

"Haruto Under the Ruins"

My shoujo senses are tingling; I smell a bromance.

I think this is the week I really got into Valvrave; though I've liked it all along, this was the first time I was completely engrossed in what was happening, which is ironic considering how long it's taken me to get around to it. Perhaps it's due to that sense of things finally going to hell (though to be honest, they've been going to hell since episode 1) and seeing things get even crazier than normal. L-Elf's return to prominence surely has something to do with that sense, though his motives remain mostly unknown. What is clear is that he really has turned traitor now that he's seen what Haruto is capable of, and though he disagrees with their methods (or rather, has better ideas for using it to his advantage), it seems he's thrown his lot in with Sakimori.

L-Elf is a curious character for quite a few reasons. What first comes to mind are his actions; for a man said to be so loyal that A-Drei (A prince, is he?) explicitly wants him back in his employ despite taking his eye, he seems to me to be more calculating than that. I don't think it's a matter of loyalty that drives him, but rather some sort of goal, and whatever it is that motivates him, he takes the most productive route to get there. Then, of course, there's his seemingly prophetic powers. Whatever this skill actually is, it's hard to think that this is the last we'll hear about it. It certainly makes him formidable, as both an ally and an enemy, and it seems like he alone is gifted with the power out of all the Dorssian soldiers. His decision to ally with Haruto only makes calculative sense, though Haruto's willingness to cooperate is an entirely different matter.

Speaking of our vampires, Aina has a new name for them, the Kamitsuki, as she expresses that she doesn't consider Saki and Haruto monsters, but people "blessed by Kami-sama". I'm not sure that's an apt description myself, but I can see why, to the Sakimori students, the pilots of Valvrave might seem like saviors, even when aware of their true nature. However, any suspicions of Aina's becoming a pilot when Haruto is pinned down by injury vanish once her mutilated body is spotted by another student. Though this series is hardly lacking in violence and death, I can't help but be rather shocked that a bypassing student has actually died in a rather realistic sense (I mean, she was just standing there in the middle of an fight, so it's almost certain she would have died or been injured in an anime less crazy than this one). I'm not sure how her death will relate to the larger scheme of things, but I hardly doubt that this is of minimum importance; this is the first casualty the Dorssians have inflicted on the newly independent Sakimori Academy, and there's definitely political value in her death.

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