I was reading through the notes included in the extras, and it pointed out something I had missed.

The third episode certainly is utterly stupid, but there is a scene which is a bit sweet where they play a song called "Agape". It was actually recorded for the first series, by Melocure.

Which really is a nice song. And listening to it is bittersweet.

I like the music of Melocure, but there won't be any more of it. It was a pair of composer/performers, Hinata Megumi and Okazaki Ritsuko. Hinata did the OP for the third series, and it's good too.

Okazaki wasn't involved, because she died in 2004 of septic shock. She was 44. A beautiful voice was stilled by a stupid bacterial infection.

What a waste. (I've lamented about her before.)

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So "Inarba" is イナルバ inaruba and it's anybody's guess whether that's supposed to be based on an English word. It doesn't sound familiar at all. I guess I go with "Inarba" absent a better answer.

She's really a bad ass. Even Mehm is afraid of her! This doesn't seem to be the kind of character where Inoue Kikuko will open up the tear ducts; maybe it'll be OK.

I wonder if Inarba ever smiles.

UPDATE: Inarba is the only princess whose transformation deck doesn't involve nudity. What a ripoff.

Chorus doesn't have a transformation deck, but she seems to be doing much better. She isn't as crazy. (Of course, it would be hard to be more crazy than she was, so any change has to be an improvement.)

Anyway, Inarba says, "Valhalla Imperial Household Law, article 25: A princess must be kind-hearted and elegant and maintain an attitude of refinement." Which makes them 0 for 7 so far IMHO, including Inarba herself.

UPDATE: Ordinarily I'm pretty careful about spoilers but this is not a series which is worth preserving and I'm not going to sweat it.

Inarba's special power is the ability to condemn others to the Plane of Punishment, an immersive illusion which is special Hell for whoever her victim is.

Two so far. Hydra's punishment is to listen to Akina doing heavy metal karaoke. Sanada's is even stranger.

And I guess one person's hell could be another person's heaven. Fam's punishment below the fold.

UPDATE: Looking for things like "logic" and "meaning" and "sense" in this series is a fool's quest, but there should at least be justice. It looks like Inarba is going to punish everyone. Looks like Chorus is her next victim, and that isn't fair.

Worse, from an episode summary I saw, I know she's eventually going to hammer Akina, and that's wrong for two reasons. First, Akina isn't under Valhallan jurisdiction; she's a citizen of Earth, and is on Earth. Second, Inarba and everyone else on Valhalla owes Akina big time, after the events at the end of the second series. Without Akina the whole damned planet, including Inarba herself, would have been stuck forever in a time warp.

Inarba is a bully. Looks like the point of this episode is to show funny punishments for everyone, but there really should be some justice to it. It's no wonder everyone is terrified of her. I think it's time for Akidra to show up and kick her ass. But I bet that isn't going to happen.

But for this episode to be satisfactory, someone needs to stand up to her. Probably it's going to be Kazuto.

UPDATE: Raine's punishment seems to have bounced, perhaps because Raine is just too laid back to get upset about things. "You mean, that's it?"

UPDATE: And she's punishing Jiro, too. Same comments for him as for Akina; without him, Valhalla would be stuck in permanent deep freeze.

UPDATE: End of the episode, and that sure wasn't what I was expecting. As I said, looking for "logic" and things like that is hopeless in this series.

Jeeze, that was stupid.

UPDATE: The buildup for the third episode is so damned stupid I'm not sure I even want to watch it.

I still want Akidra to kick Inarba's ass, but it probably isn't going to happen.

UPDATE: Akina never gets punished by Inarba, so there is at least some justice. But what does happen to her isn't nice. She's always been my favorite character in this series, and she was doomed from the start.

As to the third episode, two comments: First, you know things have gotten strange when Chorus has to show up to explain what's going on.

Second, Fam is really a lusty one, ain't she?

Anyway, the other DVD comes out in two weeks, and we finally meet the 8th and last princess. She's the big redheaded one who wears a pirate hat, and apparently her name is "Nesty".

Will the writers redeem the situation in the end? Will Akina get her happy ending? Will we actually get a resolution to the story? Is the bear catholic?

UPDATE: So I took a look at the fansub for the 6th episode, last of this series. I can't believe how stupid this is. No, the writers don't redeem the situation. No, Akina doesn't get her happy ending. No, there's no resolution to the story. There's a hook for yet another sequel, but thankfully there wasn't one.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Valkyrie at 07:37 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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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.

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