[Spoilers] Valvrave The Liberator Episode 001 Discussion

So I was browsing Crunchy on my phone while I was out and decided to give it a look.

The first episode was quite interesting, taking some risks that while not entirely unpredictable, weren't really par for the course.

Killing off the main character's love interest was ballsy, but it was smart I think the way they set up normal school life with the crush and the playful banter. The interrupted love confession pretty much sealed her fate, though I figured she'd be dying as soon as the evil kids showed up. The buildup for the main character as a non confrontational wuss had to be remedied some way, and she was obviously going to be the remedy.

I gotta say, one thing I didn't like, though they basically HAD to do it (or find a new main character) was the odd zombie thing. I mean, they foreshadowed it with "Do you resign as a human being", and obviously they couldn't kill him, but when he got up with his weird sparkle face BS I was like "really?" I figured the double neck shot would do something, but at the most I expected advanced healing abilities, and he'd wake up the next day without stab wounds and bullet holes. Not for him to get up and bite the kid who tried to kill him. But who knows, this is only episode one. Maybe it makes more sense in the future. Though, if they killed off the both of them in the first episode, and someone new came in as the main character, that would haven WAY more awesome.

I also don't like how OP the suit was. But I can also only assume it becomes more evenly matched with other better suits as time goes on. I understand it's "cool and flashy" when one unit takes out all the grunt units effortlessly, but I think back to the original Gundam, and the struggles Amuro went through against handfuls of grunts, and how his victories were more meaningful because of it. It didn't feel like a meaningful victory tearing through the grunts, even though he got his revenge for his love's death. I prefer when the main suits are stronger, but not by much, and they have backup. When a high school kid rips the enemy to shreds when trained soldiers and defensive structures were quickly killed without the enemies taking any losses.

You know I fell in love with this anime by the OP alone? The same people who did Code Geass did this series, which is why it feels so Gundam-ish in terms of human characters/story instead of focusing on the mech.

But I absolutely despise the little red haired kid, with all my being

The opening is amazing, but Elk you should continue to watch it... and it does make sense in the future. When I watched the first episode I was confused as well.