Final Impressions / First Impressions / Valkyria Chronicles

Summary:

Inside the Marmota, the members of Squad 7 insist on distracting the enemy while Welkin goes to save Alicia. They thus split up, and Welkin soon finds himself alone in a corridor facing multiple enemy guards. Fortunately, Faldio shows up to help him, and together, they’re able to move forward. Alicia meanwhile gets brought in front of Maximilian, and he claims to have saved her. In trying to get her to join him, he promises her whatever she wants, but Alicia isn’t about to follow him after what happened with Selvaria. Maximilian feels that it was Alicia who killed Selvaria though, and when Alicia explains how she just wants to be herself, he cites that normal humans are worthless. Alicia turns this statement against him by stating that he’s afraid that his own self is worthless, and that earns her a slap. Since Alicia calls him pitiful, Maximilian decides to show her something.

While Welkin and Faldio are fighting their way through the ship, Faldio gets shot and injured, and because more Imperials are coming, Faldio has Welkin go on ahead. Pulling out a grenade, Faldio then rushes towards the guards, and Welkin hears an explosion behind him. He keeps going though and makes it to the top of the ship where Maximilian and Alicia are waiting. Maximilian has armed himself with an artificial Valkyria system that replicates the abilities of a normal Valkyria lance and shield, and to compare with Alicia’s power, he starts firing at her. Without her lance and shield, Alicia can only dive out of the way, and Welkin tries to protect her by distracting Maximilian. Welkin gets thrown back by a blast though, and Alicia’s Valkyria powers activate when she sees him get hurt.

While she’s helping him, Welkin tells her that everyone is here to save her and that they’ll go back together to Bruhl. After Maximilian interrupts the chat with another blast of his weapon, Alicia heads out to try to fight him, but he catches her off guard, and Welkin has to tackle her out of the way of the subsequent shot. Right as Maximilian is ready to finish them off though, his weapon malfunctions, and Alicia uses the opportunity to charge at him with a pipe. Maximilian is able to throw her back with his shield, but he then gets attacked by Welkin. Although he’s able to handle Welkin, the time it takes Maximilian to get ready to fire at Welkin gives Alicia enough time to grab onto his leg and activate her Valkyria power. This overloads Maximilian’s weapons and causes him great pain, and he subsequently falls into an elevator shaft.

The ensuing explosion separates Alicia and Welkin with a wall of flames, but more importantly Alicia realizes that her body is now undergoing the same process that Selvaria’s did when she sacrificed herself. She wants Welkin to save himself, but Welkin dives across the flames and hugs her instead. He declares that he’ll always be by her side, and he shows her the red scarf she had left behind, reminding her of who she is. That’s the Alicia that he likes, and he proceeds to kiss her. The kiss dispels the reaction happening in her, and afterward, Welkin puts the scarf back on her head. The two then make their way off the exploding Marmota and rejoin their waiting Squad. In the aftermath, the war ends, and the public finds out about Cordelia’s Darcsen identity. Most members of Squad 7 return home, but Largo stays with Varrot. And as promised, Alicia and Welkin go back to Bruhl to continue their lives together.

Epilogue

All things considered, I thought this was a decent final episode. They had clearly been setting up for Maximilian as the final boss, and so it was good to see that they at least followed through with that by having him actually have powerful weapons and not just go down like a pansy. That also setup nicely for Alicia and Welkin’s reunion and kiss. Actually, that scene between them wasn’t nearly as emotional as I would have liked and felt a little on the short side. Of course it’s worth noting that I’m still influenced by how great this week’s episode of Bakemonogatari was, so my viewpoint on what is emotionally powerful is a bit skewed.

What made me alternately laugh and rage was who they chose to kill and who they chose to keep alive. The circumstances of Faldio’s death was a bit surprising given how much focus they had put on him to make him a better protagonist than Welkin. The immediate actions that led to it made it seem heroic, but in the grand scheme of things, dying to random Imperial grunts felt rather pointless. Also, by that point, he wasn’t a threat to Alicia and Welkin’s relationship anymore, so killing him off wasn’t going to change anything. The thing that really got me going “WTF” though was this shot in the epilogue which appears to show Jaeger somehow alive and well. That’s the kind of thing that drives me crazy because they let it happen with no explanation after implying that he had been killed off.

Final Thoughts:

Looking back, my thoughts on this final episode reflect how I feel about the series as a whole. There were some decent plot twists, but they didn’t develop the relationship side of things as well as they could have, and for almost the entire time, Welkin couldn’t compare with Faldio. The production quality was good enough when it needed to be, however I’m still not happy that they spoiled the whole Alicia as a Valkyria thing with the second OP. In the end, Valkyria Chronicles will go down for me as a decent series that had its share of flaws and never really got great. Maybe it’s time for me to finally go play the game now…

80 Comments

  3. Do you think I should watch this series to completion? I stopped around 5 or 6 and at the moment don’t think its worth it (based on the “Final Thoughts” and opinions about some other episodes).

    Dynzad
    Reply

  6. Buy and play the game. Trust me. You will see how much better the games storyline is better than the animes. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the anime. However, the game is superior. Then again, I played the game before the anime so my opinion might be biased.

    TheAntagonist07
    Reply

  10. I personally liked Valkyria’s ending as compared to Bakemonogatari. But that’s mainly because I watched 4 episodes in a row, which is a rather good atmosphere build-up for the final ending. I also think that kisses in animes these days are rare, so it’s definitely one of the shows I will dearly remember. Having said that, it’s kind of sad to see this show come to an end. It is one of the more decent 2 seasons long anime.

    sotandem
    Reply

  19. Thank god for the crying kiss, or else, u know what lol… anyway great end, after the stupid turmoil in the middle. its endings like his that make me forget the bad endings of other endings i saw recently, thanks for that.

    and like many people said during the series to get the game instead, i did about 3 weeks ago, finished it before this last 2 episode, and yup that was much more of a smooth joy ride.

    DtB2 time..

    Chimasternmay
    Reply

  20. Mush, pure mush – but atleast they didn’t rush it, surprisingly. As for Faldio, I thought he was dead like 3 episodes ago so whatever. He shows up out of nowhere just to save Welkin then he dies trying to save the twit, good show. But srsly, who can actually go back & watch the first half of this series. Hell, the series didn’t even go anywhere until Isara died…& it had to drag its feet for 2 episodes just for the idiots to move on from that.

    I’m still wondering why they just couldn’t copy the game. It would have been way better than this silly shit. I never delete anything – but this is just asking for it – I still won’t give in to the temptation though. *So damn tempting* 😛

    Megas
    Reply

  23. I’m so confused as to why the anime decided to throw out the decently thought out plot progression of the game and go with… this shit. Not to mention killing off random members of squad 7 in the process. UGH. Stupid adaptation.

    Sonicbug
    Reply

  26. Unlike those bawling game-nerds I definitely LIKE this series! I don’t give a damn about the fact that it stems from a game (I will NOT play it so don’t bother). has good character designs and Alicia has been my favorite from the start. Surely there were a few things that could have been done better, but as a whole I thouroughly enjoyed it!

    Luke
    Reply

  27. Wow, the anime did something right…

    I never did like Faldio’s death in the game. Though Anime!Faldio makes me groan his end here definitely made more sense than the game.

    And yes, go play the game. If you can’t then watch it on youtube, people have the full story uploaded here.

    Acerbus
    Reply

  33. Yeah…I definitely prefer the game’s ending(…and story as a whole) a lot more. Why they didn’t choose to go with that? I don’t know. I’m also not sure why Faldio played such a big role in in this series…he’s not cool. And lastly I felt, in the game, the whole relationship was handled A LOT better and it actually made me care.

    And yes Omni, I demand (respectfully beg) that you go play the game now lol.

    Prime Synergy
    Reply

  34. “Unlike those bawling game-nerds I definitely LIKE this series! I don’t give a damn about the fact that it stems from a game (I will NOT play it so don’t bother). has good character designs and Alicia has been my favorite from the start. Surely there were a few things that could have been done better, but as a whole I thouroughly enjoyed it!”

    -says the bawling anime-nerd. See how pointless that comment is? Just because someone both played the game and watched the anime prefers the story in the game doesn’t make them into “bawling game-nerd”. You on the other hand…

    -the fact that the anime stems from a game is irrelevant, it’s the comparison of the stories between the two versions that people have opinions on.

    -glad you enjoyed it, and ultimately that’s all that matters. At the same time, it also doesn’t invalidate some of the criticism against the changes in the anime adaptation, and personally, a “lot” of things could have been done better, IMO.

    Mike
    Reply

  35. I didn’t mind the ending actually. I thought quite a lot of this series wasn’t well done (Welkin going into a funk for ages was just plain annoying), but the ending redeemed it. Plus, I had to laugh at all the ‘hug and roll’ shots.

    I haven’t played the game, but I really want to.

    Satoida
    Reply

  38. The Faldio death was the most typical way to get rid of the loser in a “love triangle.” It can be done well (as in a certain WWII movie starring Jude Law) or it can be done like lazy rubbish like in this cartoon. I saw it coming as soon as Faldio appeared, so a couple of episodes in. Frankly I’m surprised it took until the last episode for them to throw it in, considering how content-free the previous handful really were.

    Sciros
    Reply

  41. I have to say that the way Faldio died didn’t bother me at all – it happens in actual war. High rankers my be highly ranked, but this does not make them immune to bullets, even if a moron is pulling the trigger.

    So IMO this actually adds a bit of grit and realism to the series, no matter how silly it may seem.

    I actually preferred the way the Mango and Animu handled several of the scenes compared to the game versions, and vise versa. Ideally if it were up to me I’d have used a combination of both!

    Dulicious
    Reply

  42. Having played the game and watched the anime, the game has more content, but the anime does a LOT of the scenes that it covers MUCH better. More like the anime tried to correct some of the things in the game that would be really stupid or make no sense:

    (WARNING: huge game and anime spoilers)
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Anyway, the game has a LOT more content which was enjoyable. The voice actors are mostly the same. It’s a good game and a good anime, though I prefer the anime for those annoying loose ends.

    LockeOne
    Reply

  44. the game’s ending is WAY better. honestly, im quite disappointed because i was really expecting the same ending with Show Spoiler ▼

    sigh. i wish there was an extra episode or a special that shows that ending, then i will be satisfied.

    Layla-san
    Reply

  45. Just watch the last cutscene from the game & you’ll see why the anime fucked up – I think RickyMack pointed that out.

    But I also think that the game’s ending (mostly about Faldio & Max) was bullshit. The anime’s ending was much more concret, but they still left out too much – & damn them to hell for leaving out little Isara.

    Megas
    Reply

  53. LockedOne, I agree with some of the things you listed and not so much on others. There were a lot of moral lessons being thrown around in the game. Realism was not something I felt Valkyria Chronicles had going for it and I was fine with that.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    I do agree that the anime did some things better than the game, like when Alicia is transferred to the regular army.

    Nellie
    Reply

  54. While the game has a better ending (and afermath for all principal characters), the series itself made the right choice of not making a blatant copy-pasta of all the game events, and so, the ending here was right. Jaeger being still alive shouldn’t be a surprise, he’s way too GAR to be killed in such pathetic ways. Faldio sacrificing himself was logic at that point, because he knew that his wound was fatal.

    Omni, play the game and just compare key events, that should be enough.

    SeedStriker
    Reply

  55. I have also played the game and finished this show and I think there are good points for both the game and anime, I think the anime did better with the overall drama aspect tho but that’s just me. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that in the game certain things just seem to move too quick, I think it’s because they dont want ppl to complain that the cutscenes are too long. I think the anime altho not perfect either focused better on the drama and the relationships overall. Talking to a lot of ppl I get the feeling ppl who played the game came in with an expectation of what to see which is why so many ppl are dissapointed.

    50yen
    Reply

  58. Gonna agree with the other people here in saying the game’s ending was much more satisfying than this. The whole ‘holding hands and staring off into the distance’ is so.. eh. That and this was all foreshadowed in the first opening. Just seems really lazy. D:

    Akiyama
    Reply

  61. Now that you guys finished watching it, go out and buy the game to play. It is a truly epic game that gone way under the radar.
    BTW if you do play the game, there is a sense at the end of the game that they didn’t mention in the anime about Alicia and Welkin. Not going to spoil it for you, but Welkin’s sister’s name came up 🙂

    realgundam
    Reply

  62. Actually I advise you not to play the game. It’ll make you hate the animation even more.

    Well I’m neither disappointed nor satisfied. This is kind of ‘just another animation.’ Hopefully it’s remade some day to be a better adaptation of the game (in the sense, both being truer to the game and having a better storyline).

    p.s.) Might be a spoiler, but they didn’t show (the name of) Welkin’s and Alicia’s child (daughter)?

    Starshade
    Reply

  63. A decent ending to a series adapted from a game. There were times that I liked watching this series and times I didn’t, mostly because of when Welkin was in his emo state. After watching a few animes adapted from games I tend to not keep my expectations high because most of the time they either feel rushed or leave you hanging, but overall I enjoyed the series. And also Faldio dies, kinda unnecessary at this point don’t u think?

    Siege
    Reply

  64. I’m not sure how the game will hold up after the anime actually, as it’s very sober and restrained. I mean Alicia and Faldio are almost entirely different people (and both ever so slightly dull) and the romances hardly have anywhere near the amount of attention they do in the anime.

    It’s going to be quite the culture shock.

    Philweasel
    Reply

  67. awww…so sad i was so hoping that they would show welkin and alicia’s daughter she was sooo cute!
    and faldio’s death seemed quite unnecessary at this point of time.
    felt like e animation really wanted him to die someway or another.
    personally,i still prefer the game to the anime but one of the things i liked about the anime was RamaXIsara(not a bad match!=D)although they didn’t confess to each other='[

    mickey
    Reply

  74. I took a few minutes to try and watch the game ending, but I find the graphics to be no match for the anime version. But then again, I don’t like computer animation as a main feature; it is too artificial and lacks the atmosphere that is present in the anime. And worst of all: it was with english dub, an instant interest killer…

    Luke
    Reply

  75. I just find it really humorous that Welkin did not even grieve for his fallen BEST friend even AFTER the war was over. Both Anime and Game. If YOU lost your best friend in war, wouldn’t you grieve/pay respects to them even AFTER the war ends? =_= It was like he died and therefore he died and nobody cared and everyone lived happily ever after, etc. I dunno. I just found that a tad strange and rather funny.

    RL
    Reply

  77. lol, I didn’t even notice Jaeger’s appearance until you mentioned it!!!! HAHAHA

    Well anyways, I thought it was a pretty good anime with very nice art. The last episode could’ve been a bit more exciting and convincing though….like what everyone else thinks

    Yea I bet the game is a s*** load better =)

    aizenchocolate
    Reply

  78. the game ending was alot better, it had better closure than this shit.
    welkin and alicia got married in the game and had a child named isara. oh and varrot married largo.Show Spoiler ▼

    lol
    Reply

  79. The biggest problem with this anime is that is focuses WAY too much on character development while neglecting the story. Like someone mentioned earlier, things don’t really get moving until after Isara dies. They tried too hard to expand upon the many character foundations in the game, eg: exploring new facets of Welkin’s personality not particularly prominent in the game.

    In short I think they lost focus in the beginning, and when the time came to get back to the story, it was too late to create a satisfying, solid storyline – the “fresh, new” non-game story also made this harder to do since they are essentially replacing the old foundation (Although certainly it had the potential to be far better than the game if done correctly.)

    And the ending seemed rushed. Like many people here have said, it lacks closure. The game does a much better job at this, with Alicia and Welkin achieving their dreams of being a baker and teacher respectively, in a rebuilt Bruhl, with their adorable daughter as a kind of “onward to the future” symbol. Frankly, I’m surprised the anime didn’t go with this ending considering how much focus they put into the baker thing, and better days after the war.

    Overall, it felt like something which allowed me to get to know the characters from the game better, especially the minor ones, but didn’t really contribute anything new and significant to the story. I think it would’ve been much better if they had developed the characters USING the main story (As not to lose focus, and still get good character development), rather than through the many “escapade” episodes they has, like the one with Karl and Selvaria.

    Sentinel
    Reply

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