First Impressions / Valkyria Chronicles

Summary:

After the events with Cordelia, Welkin and his squad’s next task is to take part in the recapture of the key city of Fouzen. Because the place is protected by the armored train Equus that is equipped with an incredible cannon, Squads 1 and 7 don normal clothes to infiltrate the city while their allies get shelled. They arrive during the night and soon join up with the Fouzen resistance movement led by a man named Zaka. Although the others have no problem with him, Rosie reacts negatively because he’s a Darcsen, and even though Zaka doesn’t mind, he reminds her that in this case, they need the help of his people. Inside the hideout of the resistance, Alicia and Zaka talk about the now-lonely town, and Zaka points out the concentration camp that the Empire set up for his people. He and his men have been fighting to destroy that place and to retake the city from the Empire.

Prior to the strategic briefing, Welkin notices Faldio acting especially courteous towards Alicia, and he’s still bothered by what Faldio said previously about liking her. Regardless, during the briefing, the group goes over their three objectives: destroy the armored train Equus, attack the enemy command center, and liberate the concentration camp. To do this, they split up into three teams, with Largo’s team in charge of the concentration camp, Rosie’s team in charge of the train, and everyone else attacking the enemy base. Largo doesn’t like the fact that the regular army isn’t going to come until after they’ve confirmed that the train has been destroyed, but Isara speaks up since she believes that this strategy has significance because what the Empire is doing is wrong.

Since there’s still time until the start of the operation, Rosie goes out, but Welkin forces her to take Zaka along. While out in public, Rosie sees a lost little girl and wants to do something, but the girl is fortunately reunited with her mother. Zaka then surprises Rosie by grabbing her from behind and forcing her against the wall, but it’s all a ruse to fool the nearby enemy patrol. Rosie is angry afterward, but Zaka notes how she’s a woman and uses that to highlight her discrimination. Later, as they’re getting ready to leave, Rosie finds out that Zaka is coming with her, so she makes it clear to him that she’s a soldier of the militia before she’s a woman. The group then heads out to start the operation.

Preview

It turns out that Zaka’s a pretty good guy after all, and so the preview from last week’s episode was misleading, at least to me who hasn’t played the game. In fact, it seems that not only will Rosie get over her Darcsen hate through Zaka (and to a lesser degree, Isara), every indication is that a ZakaXRosie relationship is brewing, though of course there’s always the chance that one of them will die. Regardless of what happens, it’s clear that this arc is going to be more focused on the two of them and less on Welkin, Alicia, and Faldio. I was glad though to see that they showed that Faldio’s words from last episode had a lasting effect on Welkin. Maybe he’ll finally do something about it now that he’s had some time to brood over it.

Overall, I thought this episode was pretty good even though it’s kind of a set-up episode. It’s probably also noteworthy that they made an extra effort here to show the cost and horrors of war with all of the soldiers who got killed by the Equus’ shelling, including, amusingly enough, Vyse. Their sacrifices seemed a little unnecessary to me, but I think that’s part of the point the director and writers were trying to make. In any case, I’m still waiting for one of the core characters to die in order to really drive that point home. Like I mentioned last week, I think Faldio’s the perfect candidate for it.

33 Comments

  4. Actualy he lives in Japan I think? So here you go~ That’s also why RC becamse the biggest blog – he knows the language, he’s the fastest in bringing entries out and he invests A LOT of time for his entries (summaries and all).

    If you want to support him I think just click on some ad banners and/ or donate something to anime bloggers.

    mutio
    Reply

  12. kudos points for putting Vyse in the game, and then points deducted for killing him.
    Where’s Aika? She’s always buzzing around that guy!!

    But man, A story devoted to rosie… I know they need to do it but her VA annoys me, esp since she and largo seem to be the only 2 characters who DIDN’T get their game VAs to come back!!

    gundamjehutykai
    Reply

  19. Vyse is just in the Game, because the same Company is behind Valkyria Chronicles. So it’s a Easter Egg. If you want

    And yes, i played the game. but this here is not a real Spoil

    Germanguy
    Reply

  21. Haha. In the shots with Alicia and Faldio, Alicia looks rather uninterested for the most part. She clearly likes Welkin, so I’m hoping Faldio is just getting real close so he’d send Welkin into a jealous fit of rage, etc.

    Akiyama
    Reply

  24. >:O they killed Vyse. Thats just terrible.. you know i didnt have a problem with the anime being so different from the game, but to kill of the best shocktrooper, AND the main character to skies of Arcadia.. thats just terrible.. they gave me a reason to hate the anime.

    Kyou
    Reply

  29. Yeah, Skies of Arcadia had cameos in Valkyria Chronicles. Aika is a scout, Vyse a stormtrooper and Fina was one of the triplet medics (who starts running when you need to extract a wounded squadmember).

    Wind21: It’s just a flesh wound…

    Misha
    Reply

  32. Zerasu: other than the Hair color, yes it does.

    how many other characters can you name from this game/anime that have one eye goggle on their right eye and a scar under their left? He’s even got the same hair style as Vyse.

    Kyou
    Reply

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