Walkure Romanze

- Judul:  ワルキューレロマンツェ(Walkure Romance)

- Judul Alternatif: Walroma, Valkyrie Romanze

- Type: TV(Oct 2013)

- Episodes: 12

- Genres: Action, Ecchi, Romance, Harem, School, Sports

- Rating: R+ - Mild Nudity

- Synopsis

Taking place at Winford Academy located in an old town called Helen's Hill, the story is all about knights and the sport of jousting. At this school, students learn how to become knights, ride horses and joust properly. The main character is a young man named Takahiro Mizuno who was training to become a knight and jouster but after suffering an injury he dropped out of the knight program and joined the begleiter (assistant) program instead. Due to his animal handling skills and former experience as a jouster, this makes him a hot commodity. Multiple beautiful girls in the school want him to become their personal begleiter, though Takahiro always refuses their offers.

One day a bizarre accident causes his friend, Mio Kisaski, to be challenged to a jousting duel despite her not actually being a knight. Takahiro agrees to become her temporary begleiter, but that ends up only being the beginning of their partnership as she enrolls in the annual 

If you're looking for a sports anime with an unconventional plot - jousting, with some action and ecchi scenes then Walkure Romanze is for you.

While the story and character development are lacking, the show has its merits and is a decent show overall.

[ Story - 7 / 10 ]

The concept of jousting as a story base is interesting and not something you will see in other anime. While there are indeed several anime dealing with sport, jousting has not been covered previously, as far as I know.

The story itself is simple: there is lots of jousting and a tournament at some point where the main characters participate. Not much apart from that, which can be both a good and bad point, depending on the viewer. It's for you to decide. If you're expecting a huge plot with lots of details, you won't find it in Walkure Romanze.

There is also a fair amount of fan-service mainly in the form of boobs shown during bath scenes. Considering that the show is based on an ero visual novel, these scenes were to be expected. The scenes however are unobtrusive but some viewers may mind.

The show does deliver a few laughs here and there but it's not comedy-centric. The sexual-flavoured jokes and joke scenes fall short and are not really funny - they seem somewhat immature.

I hated the cliché scenes. For example, you have the to-be-expected bath scenes and the male MC getting embarrassed. Or the scene where the whole harem gathers and confronts the male MC on a question and the guy evades their question. Or the male MC being a clueless idiot. Or the female MC getting suddenly undressed. Too many of these scenes, unfortunately.

[ Art - 9 / 10 ]

The art of Walkure Romanze is excellent: well detailed backgrounds especially the cityscapes and nature scenes and very lively colours. In short, everything is pretty and has pretty colours!

Character design is acceptable but nothing extraordinary. The armours, however, are worth mentioning as they are well done, with the use of CG for the reflections. Considering the variety of character designs (and hair-styles!), every viewer should be able to find their preference.

The battle-scenes get a bit repetitive after some time, but their representation from the point of view of art is good, done with CG and traditional animation combined. The CG parts are fairly apparent though.

[ Sound - 7 / 10 ]

I liked the closing credits music more than the opening! The music used throughout the show does its job.

One complaint I have is that the battle scenes are not intense enough in terms of music. I would have preferred something more heart-pumping to get the tension up.

[ Character - 5 / 10 ]

I give the character aspect of the show only a fair rating because of a few reasons:

Firstly, the cast is restricted to only the main characters and the story completely revolves around them. It is as if the school only has the main characters as students. There is absolutely no effort to elaborate on any background character apart from the main cast. In every episode, you will see the same characters doing basically the same things. This gets a bit boring after a few episodes.

The main male character is a dense idiot. The most he does in the series is deliver some inspirational speeches. At other times he broods and be a general moody idiot. That's about it. No evolution. Even at the end, still an indecisive idiot. For some reason, there are no other noteworthy male students in the whole series. Fine, it's a harem show with only 12 episodes. Doesn't mean they can't take 5 mins to show ONE male knights battle.

The female characters do change slightly throughout the show but in one aspect only. For example, one of the female characters becomes more friendly, but that's it. Another becomes less lonely. Again, that's it. They don't change much beyond their single aspect.

Character backgrounds are nonexistent. We are told that the characters come from all over the world but their background story or their motivation for jousting is never explored in depth. A missed opportunity I would say. I am not expecting extremely in-depth character development in a 12-episode show but still, some character development would be appreciated. Some story on why or how they even got into a jousting school would be great!

One example: the main male MC gets flashbacks throughout the show. At no point are those flashbacks detailed upon. We don't even know who the people in the flashbacks are, or what they did. I blame this on the 12-episode limit but the lack of details deducts points from the show.

[ Enjoyment - 8 / 10 ]

Why the hell would I enjoy such a seemingly boring show? The story is damn simple and the characters are static. Turns out, it's pretty interesting.

There's that jousting aspect which I hadn't seen in any anime before. The way they depicted the sport is good actually. You won't get a sudden boost in power where a character suddenly goes super saiyan mode and suddenly wins everything. Nah, nothing like that.

Also while I was expecting the show to be predictable, it isn't always so. I was expecting the main female MC to do a few things (avoiding spoiling here). She did none of those, which surprised me positively. This made the show more enjoyable for me, for all the unexpected twists in the story. Just for this, the show is watchable and earns a 8.

Would I rewatch it? Not sure. I think no. Did I enjoy my first watch? Yes!

[ Overall - 7 / 10 ]

Walkure Romanze is not a bad show. It's not a good show too. It's an okay show. You watch it for the interesting jousting aspect and and maybe for the ecchi scenes if you're into that.

If you like pretty scenes and nice art, it'll make you happy and you will like the show. If you want a deep story and very extensive character development, look elsewhere.

Overall, a watchable but unremarkable series.

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