Director: Yamamoto Yuusuke (Aquarion
EVOL, B Gata H
Kei)
Writer: Fudeyasu Kazuyuki (Kampfer,
Ben-Tou)
Main Cast:
Yamashita Seiichirou as Mizuno Takahiro
Shimizu Ai as Kisaki Mio
Mizusawa Kei as Celia Cumani Aintree
Taguchi Hiroko as Lisa Eostre
Nakamura Eriko as Noel Marres Ascot
Character Design: Katsura Kenichirou (Macross 7)
Music: Nakanashi Ryousuke (Kuroko no Basuke)
It took me only a few minutes to realize that I was watching a harem show with Walkure Romanze. In that time, I saw a bunch of girls, one completely normal guy, and horse ripping off a skirt. At this point, I had to brace myself for the same tropes, plot points, and archetypes I've seen many times before, and hope that I was wrong. I wanted to be wrong. I wanted this show to have a point besides "which girl gets the main guy". Was I wrong? Is this show actually good? Let's find out.
The plot of Walkure Romanze is about a school where the most popular sport is jousting. Yes, jousting with a horse and armor and with a lot less death. The main character, Takahiro, is a high school student and former knight (and the only male knight seen in the show), who is now what amounts to a coach for aspiring knights. He has no discernible personality, except for being a complete doormat to the women who surround him. Several of these women, who fill the usual harem archetypes like the clumsy girl, the quiet transfer student, the energetic bitch, etc, want him to be their coach. I personally interpret this as the girls wanting to jump on his dick, and given how this show presents itself, I think that's a fair interpretation.
 |
| Really show? Really? |
This show's presentation tells me that its main concern is not its plot or characters, but showing as many panty shots as possible. Horses eating skirts, lances whipping up wind to flip up the skirts, girls dressing in ridiculously revealing armor; Walkure Romanze will do anything to show off those panties and the skin surrounding them. Also, the sophomoric attempts at innuendo are pathetic. Just because there is a chance to make a sexual joke doesn't mean it needs to be made. All it does is cheapen the jokes and make me think the makers of this show are immature children who giggle at boobs, or at least they're aiming this anime at such people. More importantly, it makes it impossible for me to take anything that happens in the show seriously. Yeah, it's great that pink-haired clumsy girl won her first jousting match, but when I'm expecting the show to take a turn for the cheap panty gag, it's impossible for me to care.
What I think the worst part about this show is its predictability. Just from the three episodes, it's pretty clear how this show is going to progress. Each girl will get a turn with Takahiro as their coach for some jousting match, and at the end he'll pick no one so all the fans of this show can fanwank their own favorite girl as his true love. Part of this is that I've seen harem shows before, and part of this is that there isn't much else for anyone to do. The only thing anyone in this show has shown an interest in is jousting, which is all well and good, but since none of the characters are interesting, I don't care how any of them do in their jousts. Which means there is nothing else to drive the show but its harem dynamics, which means it's going to end up as just another harem show.
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| Who has more of a personality? The horse. Duh. |
And I don't have time for just another harem show. Walkure Romanze gets a fail. I feel like I'm repeating myself, but I'm sick and tired of shows that are aiming for the lowest common denominator as far as fans go. Take out the panty shots and harem shit, and this could be an interesting show. Girls doing a predominately male activity is a fun way to reverse gender roles, but not when that's being subverted by turning them into masturbatory fantasy objects.
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