Kakumeiki Valvrave - 12 [End]

"Rise of the Heretic"

Excuse me, would you happen to know how to get to Japan? I need to kick a man.

Now I'm not the type to fall in love with every anime I watch. Most series are a one time affair for me, though there's the occasional series I can't help mulling over and getting more invested in. But may Hylia have mercy on my soul, I think I've fallen in love with the wrong series. I'll stand by what I've been saying all along; Valvrave is undoubtedly a trainwreck, acronym and all, but I have always managed to enjoy the series highly regardless. However, in the last few weeks I've ominously felt the stirrings of fangirlism arising in the back of my mind, and I'm finding it increasingly hard to keep this series off the brain, so much so that I woke up very early to stalk the internet for this finale RAW. I'm not even sure what it is about the series that has suddenly got me so hooked; it's certainly not the rape or Saki's depiction as of late, and the rest is so weirdly, well, Valvrave, that I just can't put my finger on it. Perhaps I just enjoy drama, and perhaps I'm just a sadistic masochist (yes, both), but this newly awakened awareness only makes this finale all the more difficult for me to come to terms with.

Have no doubt, however, that this was a pretty great finale as far as mecha and action series go. If you came for the robot action and violence, by all means take a seat; I've long since come to accept the CGI enough that I can really appreciate the battles and how great they look in the style. There's plenty going on to showcase them this week, and between the kamitsuki fighting off outside threats and Akira becoming the fifth pilot to save Shoko from a terrible fate, we get more than enough from Sunrise in that department. Even outside of mecha, there's a lot of action to be had, such as the hand to hand fight between L-Elf and Cain, and there's never really a dull moment during these 20-odd minutes. But as great as that is, there are two things I can't help but feel unsatisfied with. Firstly, let's talk about Saki.

Now, before I start raging about this, I want to point out that yes, I get why Saki rejected Haruto's proposal. She knows just as much as he did that he asks for her hand for the sake of responsibility, and when you're in love with someone, responsibility is not the reason you want to be joined to them for life. As I mentioned last week, Saki has been behaving with a specific complex in mind, namely, the one I'll title "I've won his body but not his mind". I also already beat to death the fact that this particular complex feels very wrong on Saki as a result of having been raped; she should not be acting as if this was a consensual act and therefore free of any responsibility on Haruto's part, even if he truly had no control over his body. The fact is, Saki is a rape victim, and rape occurred no matter what the reasoning, and thus Saki's reaction is far too logical (as in, she's thought it through far too coldly) to be entirely pleasant. Now, keeping that in mind, let's go back to that proposal. In this case, Saki's decision makes a lot of sense; she'd rather not have Haruto at all if it means he's only being with her to make up for what happened, except, you know, she's a rape victim. This is not the place for her to logically consider her options; though Haruto never meant to do any harm, the fact is he did, and Saki deserves some measure of consolation for what happened to her. No one would have blamed her for saying yes; she obviously wanted to no matter what she said to Haruto and no matter her reasoning to reject him. She's constantly been the sort of character to place herself first, so why the sudden selflessness? It's as if this isn't the same Saki she's pretending to be, and honestly I find it rather infuriating that she barely even considers it before turning him down. Perhaps she does it so as not to force him to be at her side because she really loves him? I don't buy it; look at the subtle guilt trip she tried to lead him down last episode. Perhaps such a huge commitment really just made her realize how unsatisfying it would be to be married to someone because of a rape, but again, she should be far more emotional about the whole affair, and because she loves him and because he wronged her, she had every right to accept. Instead she's made herself into something of a victim on purpose, seemingly sure she's let Haruto off the hook so he can go back to Saki and be happy. Sure, a marriage without love wouldn't have been so nice, but Haruto still cares for Saki, and Saki definitely wanted to say yes; besides, I hardly see Haruto abandoning what he sees as his responsibility here even if she's denied him this chance. Haruto's proven himself the sort of guy who would pledge himself as her damn knight if it meant he got to do something for the girl he wronged, and I don't doubt we haven't seen the last of this complicated relationship.

As for the second thing, I don't have quite as much rage stored up here as I do angst and impatience. We've always known that Valvrave was a ridiculous series when it came to plot, but I always expected some small level of resolution before we left off for the split-cour break. I fully expected a lack of answers to our already established mythology, so that isn't really the issue. No, the issue is that this episode lays the mysteries thicker than cream one on top of another up to the very last moment. We get a second glimpse of future Saki, for one thing, telling the story of Module 77 to a little boy who looks suspiciously like L-Elf 211 years in the future, and I'd be daft if I didn't catch the locket pan, the mention of "The Founder", and the foreshadowing as to the fact that what Haruto and the others are getting themselves into is no less than history taking a dramatic turn. I have no clue what any of that means right now, true, but that's already enough question marks raised without even spending more than a minute or two on the scene. Then there's all of Cain's actions at the end. We've known for a while that he's known far more than he's been privy to reveal, but now things have just gotten downright crazy. He seems to be a kamitsuki of an earlier generation, or so I assume considering he is able to pilot a Valvrave, one with an Operating System like our own diabolical Valvrave-chan. That she calls this "Blue" her Onii-chan is less surprising than the fact that the action literally comes to a halt right there, in the midst of battle, with all the possible answers at our fingertips. This is one nasty cliffhanger, one I can't be on board with no matter how much I enjoyed the episode, and I'm rather mortified to think I'll have to think about this for a whole three months before I get to watch the second season. It's horribly cruel of Sunrise, and I've never been so slighted as a fan as when Astral Ocean's finale was delayed over a month.

So the verdict? I hate myself but, somehow, unexplainably and masochistically, I'm ostensibly smitten. I am going to die waiting for season two.

N.B.: Thanks to Ivan for the caps! I KNOW YOU UNDERSTAND HOW I FEEL MY FRIEND!