Valkyrie Drive – Mermaid

A new franchise, “ヴァルキリードライヴ” will be built up from three projects: an anime, a Playstation Vita game and a mobile phone game. The franchise’s anime project, titled “Valkyrie Drive – Mermaid”, recently began to air and I decided to give it a try after reading comments online about its yuri level.

Had spotted “Valkyrie Drive – Mermaid” in the autumn season line up earlier, but its plot synopsis sounded ridiculous and suggested it would be one of those over the top action anime that would attempt to reel in viewers with cheap fanservice.

Unfortunately, my suspicions were right and was sorely disappointed in “Valkyrie Drive – Mermaid” after watching its first episode. The mediocre animation quality by studio Arms aside, this show is an unrealistic, poorly executed action series with an ridiculous plot premise filled with cheap yuri fanservice.

While there are plenty (too many?) ecchi anime full of explicit fanservice that serious viewers best steer away from, this show is but a sad addition to the yuri genre. Where one could fault playful yuri shows like “Sakura Trick” that admittedly also reel in fans with some explicit yuri scenes, the type of fanservice “Valkyrie Drive – Mermaid” offers is plain ridiculous considering the plot context.

One would be better served either watching a yuri hentai anime instead like “Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o: Anata to Koibito Tsunagi” or if you’re looking for a decent action series, pick up this season’s “One Man Punch” or “Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans”.