Valvrave the Liberator: “You are my friend.”

Having just finished Valvrave, I was tempted to make a proper “End of Season Thoughts” post but then I realized that it would mostly be nothing but a rehash of my 12 Day post. I actually thought the ending to the anime was surprisingly well done given how rushed it was.

I mean sure, I wasn’t too fond of the fact that in the end all the Magius died but Valvrave had been going for a “SECRETS = BAD” thing all along so it wasn’t totally nonsensical. Not every question that could have been resolved was resolved either but oh well.

Listen up kids, telling lies and keeping secrets is bad, mKay?

I thought the tie in to the future was pretty well done. It made a surprising amount of sense (by Valvrave standards of course) and left me, mostly satisfied. That said, the most noteworthy thing about the finale was of course Haruto’s final fight.

In the final episode, as Haruto battles Cain, he starts spouting cheesy lines about how great his companions are.

Leaving aside the fact that Haruto is praising people right as his memories are being wiped out (the questions Valvrave brings up are never actually meant to be answered), this is exactly what we expect of Haruto.

Haruto may be a crybaby and in general, a little wimpy but all along, he has been fighting, no sacrificing himself, for the sake of his friends. Seeing our little spiky headed goofball pilot himself to his demise was expected but still quite touching. What was arguably more touching though was L-Elf’s reaction.

L-Elf was a trained machine. He was thought to never make friends and to always do whatever was required to complete his mission. His relationship with Haruto was originally born out of this “we use each other” mentality.

L-Elf only wanted to use Haruto to advance their common goals. Initially, Haruto felt the same, but Haruto being the softy that he was, started to like L-Elf. He considered L-Elf to be a friend long before L-Elf felt the same way.

I like to think that somewhere along the way, L-Elf continued using Haruto not because Haruto was useful but because Haruto wanted to be used. L-Elf recognized Haruto’s resolve and ambition and continued to use Haruto despite knowing the final outcome.

L-Elf knew damn well Haruto would die. Maybe Haruto would die in this war or sometime shortly after but he would die for sure.

And yet, despite knowing Haruto’s inevitable fate  and despite being the one that pushed Haruto to this point, L-Elf still cried. That’s because somewhere along the way (possibly on the moon or sometime before), L-Elf started to think of Haruto as a partner and a friend.

Seeing his (best) friend not only die but forget all they have been through together was enough to bring even the great L-Elf to tears as he confessed true nature of their relationship.

It might seem silly to call a moment emotional in a ridiculous, over the top anime like Valvrave, but I honestly did think the above scene was quite poignant. It marked not only the end of a friendship between two young men but also the end of a promise.

Haruto and L-Elf made a promise to create a new world where everyone would be accepted but Haruto died just a bit too early. He died, never having seen the world that he helped create. But, at least he didn’t die alone.

Even though he no longer remembered anything. Even though he had no idea who the crying man in front of him was, Haruto recognized the authenticity of the silver haired boy’s feelings and reached out…

and gave a little pat on the face

before finally getting a well deserved rest.

It was wonderful.

Misc Scenes of Interest(some are from episode 23)

Oh Yamada.

Like I said, L-Elf is related to rambo.

Final Review

666/10