Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Wait, you thought you could have an anime season without the gratuitous fanservice-ladden boobfest ?

There are a couple of upcoming videogames tying in with this, but with different narrative focus ; this is basically its own thing.

Characters

Tokonome was an ordinary girl with merely an unfortunate surname (it can also be read as “Virgin”) until she got snatched by MIBs and stranded on a mysterious island where people keep attacking her. Or assaulting her.

It quickly becomes clear that the place is a gathering place/academy for super-powered girls. Half of them are “Exsters”, who turn into weapons when aroused ; and the others are Liberators, who do the arousing and can wield them. And they gang up on the newbie as a way to test her strength.

This is actually way more organized than it sounds ; the women supervising the whole island set up the whole thing, and there’s even betting between the numerous bystanders over who will win.

A Mysterious Girl shows up just after our heroine (wait, were they all sent by missiles ?), and they quickly partner up. Unlike Tokonome, she actually has a clue about their abilities and what’s going on ; she forces Tokonome to transform so that they can handle the S-M duo sent against them. Also, she’s so stoic and silent that her finally actually speaking in the last scene of the episode is quite the shock.

Production Values

Of course it’s studio Arms at the wheel ; and this is even more softcore-porny than their average, with exposed boobies, clothing damage that barely covers the crotch, and onscreen lesbian sex. Also, nobody seems to be wearing a bra.

Overall Impression

On the one hand, props to the writers for putting a bit of thought to their excuse plot, which is way more elaborate than necessary. On the other hand, this is still crap, with annoying main characters, even more annoying antagonists, and a deep sense of unease throughout that makes this feel very unarousing indeed.

One episode was well enough, thank you.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015 – Page 4

Published by

Jhiday

I've been kinda blogging about anime for years... but mostly on forums (such as RPG.net's Tangency) and other sites. This site is an archive for all that stuff, just in case.

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