A while back I downloaded fansubs of all six episodes of the third UFO Princess Valkyrie series, but I only watched the first one. Now they're finally being released in region 1, and I have the first three on one DVD. (The rest come out early July and that will be on my next order.)

One problem with this series has been trying to decide just what the names of the non-Japanese characters really are. The blonde's name is "Warukyuure", except we know that it's really "Valkyrie". "Haidura" is pretty straight forward as "Hydra". "Korasu" works for me as "Chorus". "Memu" is OK as "Mehm".

But the credits want me to make Raine be "Laine" and I refuse. They're not pronouncing it that way. And now we have Fama, or Fam, or Pharm. Again, the problem with the last one is that they aren't actually saying that. So as far as I'm concerned, she's "Fam". (Though it's actually pronounced as "Fom". Or maybe "Fahm".)

What do we know about her? 1. She wears glasses. 2. She has green hair. 3. She's nuts. 4. She has the biggest boobs of all the princesses, and that's really saying something.

Coming into the third series there were still three princesses who we only had seen briefly, and the third series is primarily about them, as far as I can tell without consulting spoilers. (Mind you, not that there's much here that can be spoiled.)

Episode 1 is Fam's episode, and I saw it before. Now it's higher res, and I can take frame grabs without embedded subtitles.

Anyway, in her own way Fam is nuts. Seems to be an occupational hazard for being a princess of Valkyrie. I long since decided that Hydra is the only one who was recognizably sane. Even she is a bit crazy, but she manages to keep it under control most of the time. The other four we've met don't bother. (Mehm might come across as sane at first glance, but I think she may be the craziest one of the lot.)

So Fam is nuts. But she's a jiggly meganekko who's nuts, and that's fine. And if Sanada can create a catgirl army, then Fam can create a meganekko army. The world will never be the same again.

Frame grabs below the fold.

And then it gets silly. Fam does her transformation deck and then utilizes her special power, and then...

This franchise sets all new records for stupid. It's virtually the canonical example of fan-service-fluff -- except that the second series was a lot better than that. I don't have high hopes for the third series, though. I just noticed in the credits that the Queen of Tears did the voice of Princess Inarba, who is featured in the other two episodes of this DVD. (If, indeed, that's what her name turns out to be.)

That's always a bad sign. As much stuff as she's done, and as popular as she is with other people, fact is I don't ever recall a series where I was actually glad she was in it, and thought that her contribution was particularly valuable.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in at 10:16 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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