Valvrave 20-21

So... I'll call you.

Welcome Home

Our heroes return home. That means Shoko gets some screen time after… how many episodes has it been already? Pretty much all of Season 2?

Families are reunited and friends are mourned. The journey wasn’t exactly a success what with Saki being captured and people dying and stuff, but at least Haruto and the others know some of the truth now.

In Module 77, people are in a positive mood. Well, except for L-Elf who is moping since the love of his life died. Guy really should take some revenge lessons from Haruto. I was expecting him to snap, but the guy has really lost all confidence in himself. Makes sense. He's too much of a realist. That’s kind of sad.

Anway, Shoko has not been idle and has managed to get the other countries to take action against Dorssia. Good for her. There’s a big meeting with the press and everything. It’s like JIOR actually has standing as a country now.

The Reveal

At least until the Dorssian boss shows up on screen and has Saki stabbed on live TV. The Magius are taking action now.

Yeah, the vampire thing is not a secret any more. Then they add it by blaming the Rune harvesting ship (Phantom) on JIOR and declaring all people in the Module are not humans.

Nasty plan. Effective but nasty. Especially when you take into account the president of the other side is also in on the secret conspiracy. Guy doesn't hesitate to jump on the bandwagon and has some school kids shot.

And by some I mean a hell lot of high school students.

Seriously.

Damn.

Betrayal

You Killed My Father. Prepare to Die

The monster revelation has everyone confused. Training from L-Elf or not they are still just teenagers. They react like every other person would react. They panic. They blame each other. Paranoia is heavy on the air.

Shoko tries to remain calm in the crisis and puts her trust in the pilots, especially Haruto.

At least until she fucks up that is.

Now don’t get me wrong. It was a tough situation and Iori didn’t help matters with her shooting Haruto and all.

But damn, it was a dumb move to sell out Haruto.

It would have really helped if they had tried to lay the foundation of mistrust between Haruto and Shoko. Season 1 seemed to be going for this. There were things like Shoko going “Haruto would never write that” back when Saki took him over. Then the weird look in her face when Takahi said Haruto asked her to cheer for him. Then there’s the death of her dad via Haruto, and the increasing time Haruto was spending with Saki.

They could have continued building on those during Season 2, but Shoko’s lack of screen time didn’t help things. Doesn’t help that what tips over her decision is Haruto forgetting a childhood promise.

This isn’t Love Hina.

That said Haruto could have been more assertive at the time.

Bro-est Bro

No Words

L-Elf and Haruto are sold out by their allies.

Their enemies have no intentions of making good on their promises.

Someone needs to step up.

A hero.

Inuzuka plays the role flawlessly. Seriously, that was a damn good showing he made there. Plus, a damn good speech. So what if people hate him?

He’s Holy, bitch. He protects everyone.

He also tries to fix the Shoko/Haruto relationship and gets Haruto to admit he loves her.

Man, those two are so not going to make it.

Awesome heroic sacrifice though. At least there’s that.

As an aside, we are really going to need another season to wrap things up.