Reviews for Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid

This is, putting it simply, a softcore lesbian porn anime. It exists primarily to arouse the viewer; nothing more, nothing less. The story is simply an excuse for seeing sexy girls interact, fanservicey fight-scenes and borderline hentai scenes. The truth is, actual hentai anime tends to be stuck with very small budgets; meanwhile "softcore" anime can more often afford significantly better production values, as this anime shows, and I much rather enjoy a softcore show with decent production values over chicken-scratch "hardcore" OVAs. The story of a bunch of girls being trapped on an island, the "Soul Eater, but with orgasms" premise of the action scenes...all of this, as I said above, pretty much an excuse for boobs and yuri, and the characters primarily exist to fit specific fetishes. In that regard, both the "plot" and characterization do a pretty good job.

The visuals are pretty nice; sometimes the amount of polish obviously falters, but the lewd scenes tend to look quite good and the character designs are obviously the best and most appealing out of all the Valkyrie Drive projects. They lack the typical VN-esque cheapness often found in such anime, instead managing to be quite stylish and charming and, while not particularly unique, nonetheless have their own look and feel. The animation is pretty competently done when it matters and the series succeeds at having many genuinely sexy scenes.

Sound-wise there's nothing to complain about; the VA cast is fine, as is the music, and the obligatory moans do their job quite well.

As a fan of competently done lewd yuri, I quite enjoyed this series in the basest way imaginable; and really, given what its intentions are, that's just about all that I needed.

This is lewd show for sure, everyone can read the description right? though I must admit, this one is not your average ecchi show, I think it is not exaggerated to label it borderline hen***. Is it bad then? that's up to the viewer to decide. personally I'll say this show is enjoyable, not because the perverted things, it has few good points too. Story: 7/10 call me inexperienced, but I won't complain that much about this anime originality. the concept about human transform into weapon might have used in some anime. But combine it with other elements this anime has, I think this one ispretty unique. Okay let's move to real plot. The story itself is pretty decent in my opinion. It might have awkward and slow introduction, but trust me, you'll eventually understand almost everything about the chicks circumstance or even how their world is working. There are a lot of flashback as well, which is presented well and smooth. Also, there is good portion of battle in this show.Although, I'll call the battle itself a joke. No.. uhm, I don't mean the "intro", but the actual battle itself. It just went bam..bam! or maybe few flash, beam.. then its over, as simple as that. Some character might give a good show though, for example the four-eyes commander or duo lady.

Art: 8/10

There are a lot of oversized things here, if you know what I mean. I think they should made it moderate, not that I totally dislike it. Joke aside, I think the animation is good and fluid, the characters design are nice if you ignore particular part. I especially like the duo lady figures, it give "wild but cool" image matching perfectly with their personalities. And the last episode animation was amazing.

Sound: 8/10

character voices are not half bad, and I like the OP and ED.

Character: 9/10

I like most character.The blonde one have some development, everyone else are static though, just being what they are until the end. Some of them might even surprise you. I like how everyone participated in the last battle, that was some cool action there, the best part in this anime in my opinion.

Enjoyment and Overall: 9/10

Honestly, I'll even give this show full score in term of enjoyment. But I'll hold back since I don't want to be labelled as hen***. Still, this show keep me entertained until last episode, it has nice characters, decent story with good pacing. It's not show for some kid with weak heart as there are some intense scene, also not good for any good man who dislike anything lewd and irrational. But, if you think you like this kind of show, you'll realized this anime is not bad at all.. and you might want to double check your room door to ensure it's locked properly.

FROM STUDIO ARMS.... COMES SOMETHING CALLED VALKYRIE DRIVE MERMAID.. Wtf did i get myself into... Well if u like boobs... and if u like yuri... and if u like magic fighting girls with guns and swords... and u like a show with "plot" but really no real plot... THIS IS THE SHOW FOR YOU "Story" 3/10 I really am not enjoying any of this.. There is no elements that seem to matter or show importance in the show... none of it really makes sense and I really think none of it matters... Just a 15 year old girl and a 19 year old girl make love (uncensored)and one turns into a fucking weapon or something... stuck on a mermaid island with other magic lesbian girls... and activate powers by smashing tits. Introducing other fun generic yuri characters from other animes. Trying to cater to any type of fetish you may have as the viewer... but I really just dont feel obligated to watch another episode... you will never get hyped or feel any real emotion... and if you do... well good I am glad you are enjoying it... while I can't see any redeeming qualities to a show that literally needs a bouncing tit to keep the show from going to boring generic garbage... but really I LOVE ECCHI and LOVE all the other stuff but like with no story no enjoyable characters.. generic everything I just barely can make it through each episode...

Art: 8/10

Its good computer garbage stuff not amazing but... really can see those bouncing plots..

Sound: 9/10

Voice acting is fine clear, some characters don't fit there voices and become extremely annoying but at least I can really here the love noises so that's a plus..

Characters: 3/10

So far... ones an underage virgin or something and the other is a serious twenty year old with huge tits but in reality is like 15.. they become partners.. and do shit... Other characters are thinking they are overpowered female lesbians who transform into the best weapons and just get their asses kicked by loli MC and 20 year old MC and other side friends like money loli, mom with huge boobs, and basically everyone has huge boobs and is lesbian... and the one guy or governor or something is a girl thats called a"guy"... Really not memorable.. Characters are pretty generic and annoying..

Enjoyment: 5/10

A sad fap...

Overall: 3/10

Just a show with tits and yuri to keep the viewer entertained with no real story to cherish... Really disappointing... waste of time (unless u wanna fap)

If you want a similar show.. go watch High school DxD or something... idk... 3/10

just dont

Studio Arms has a rather—shall we say—less than impressive reputation in the anime community. Although they have done numerous different types of shows in the past, the most prevalent one is action/ecchi... and I mean the very worst kind of it. If there is one company who seemingly has a full monopoly on bad ecchi anime, then it's Arms. I still consider Queen's Blade to be the single worst full-length anime TV-series I have ever seen, and my faith in the studio since then has been rather limited to say the least. And thus it is hardly a surprise that I wasn't exactly expecting muchout of Valkyrie Drive either, but to my amazement... it wasn't actually that bad. Certainly not more than average at best mind you, but a hell of a lot better than what I've come to expect from Arms at this point.

The story is about as nonsensical as you'd imagine it to be. It takes place on a set of artificial islands with an all-female population. The girls are divided into pairs of Liberators and Exters. If a Liberator sexually stimulates her partner, the Exter will transform into a physical weapon which the Liberator can then wield in combat. Sounds weird I'm sure but it's pretty straightforward, and that's the way this world works. There is an established society on the islands with different internal factions and individuals pursuing their own goals. And that leads us to what I'd probably consider the anime's greatest weakness, namely the lack of any real long-term purpose for the majority of the story. For about two thirds of the show, there's no one bad guy on the islands to defeat, nor is there a personal ambition for the main duo to reach or anything like that. They just... go with the flow of events and one thing leads to another which gets them tangled up in various incidents, and eventually it converges on to a single goal. It's a bit awkward, but then again you have to consider this a secondary notion since you'll certainly not be watching Valkyrie Drive for the story anyway.

And that is where this anime exceeded my expectations: the ecchi. Historically speaking, Arms has pretty much the worst ecchi on the market, basically having the "big breasts solve everything" approach with absolutely no creativity put into it at all (and when I say big breasts I mean REALLY big). In Valkyrie Drive however, this is not really the case. Well okay, it certainly does have a lot of needlessly busty girls in it, but it's got a lot more than that. Since the series revolves around girls sexually stimulating each other in order to draw out their partners' powers, it obviously can't just get away with shoving tits into the camera every 5 seconds. It needs actual physical stimulation. And as a result, Valkyrie Drive has a plethora of uncensored yuri sex in it. That's not something you see every day. Now of course that doesn't mean it's at hentai level, but it comes pretty close sometimes (especially the BD specials, hot damn). For example there's one scene where two of the girls are blatantly 69'ing and licking each other out; we may not actually be shown their genitals on screen but... you know exactly what's going on as a viewer. Case in point, Valkyrie Drive is actually pretty hot. Not all the time of course, but often enough. For an Arms anime, that's a tremendous achievement to me. And let's be honest here, how many borderline hentai anime does there exist out there that's girl-on-girl? Yuri is normally stereotyped as something cute and romantic like in Yuru Yuri or Sakura Trick for example, not something as lustful and perverted as this. That alone gives it a lot of points for originality when you think about it.

And really that is pretty much all that needs to be said about this anime. The art and sound is about what you'd expect it to be, nothing remarkable but not bad either (I like the OP song though). The plotline is incredibly dumb but I don't think anyone believed it to be otherwise before watching it either. And the characters are for the most part not anything more than plot mechanics for the sake of ecchi, though I'll at least have to give some credit to Meifon for being somewhat of an unexpected wildcat who kept things interesting with her deceitful antics. But in the end, all that really matters in Valkyrie Drive is of course the ecchi, and although it still suffers from having a lot of oversized breasts and clothes ripping during action scenes for no apparent reason, the yuri scenes more than make up for it. There's something magical about seeing a pair of horny anime chicks passionately tongue wrestling and greedily indulging in each other's nipples, and Valkyrie Drive tries its very hardest to showcase exactly why. It may be considered crude, but so be it; at least it's crude in a damn arousing way.

Look i'mma be honest about this anime I started watching this cause someome told me it was awful and they bet me to complete it And it's fine i guess, i don't mind ecchi i don't mind bad stories like this, it was in a ''Is that bad is funny'' category, the animation music and character design is good even if most of the girls show her boobs 90% of the time. But then the new plot hit, and i hated all of it so fucking much. Is not just the fact that this was really sudden i didn't mind at the start, but when that blue haired girlstarted to appear everything fell appart.

The plot started to make less and less sense even for the poor world building they already had, the second main character broke character...how is that even possible.

They completely ruined the governeur character development.

The ending is the worst deux ex machina i've seen since darling in the franxx or hunter x hunter.

i really hate it , and i don't even have the energy to explain why the second half is so damn awful because i already wasted it all just watching it

Please don't watch this, (unless you just wanna watch hardcore ecchi) is just bad, is really bad, don't listen to the people saying is good, is not.

(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!) Picture a mermaid. Most people imagine a beautiful woman whose lower body is that of a scaled, green fish. Maybe she can sing real swell and maybe she is longing for love. But regardless, she is two halves that make up an entire whole. Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid is the same. Mermaid is one half sex and one half tale, making it one not-as-bad-as-you-may-imagine anime. STORYAnime has its fair share of strange premises; Mermaid’s premise gets added to this list.

A virus, the “Armed Virus,” infects women, granting them special abilities. Society deems these women dangerous, so they get sent to isolated islands to fend for themselves. The kicker is that these special abilities remain latent unless the women classified as “Liberators” make the women classified as “Extars” achieve orgasm. (Intriguing, no?)

Understandably, then, Mermaid is rampant with sexual content. Girls are constantly kissing and fondling and canoodling. But they are not swapping spit because the audience wants to see it (although that is one reason for doing so), they are tongue twirling because it is an essential part of the plot. In other words, the sex is not just pleasurable but also purposeful.

The season, with sex in tow, takes a standard approach. The first few episodes mostly establish the setting and the characters. The next few after move into slice-of-life territory with more character-oriented material. And the final few episodes are where the major conflict occurs.

Throughout the season, Mermaid is prone to repetition. The fights are usually one-sided triumphs rather than full-fledged duels. But even worse is the repetition in the sexual asides. Surprisingly, the anime does not get very creative, using the same means to sexually arouse the girls’ partners with each iteration. Admittedly there are not a whole lot of ways that making out and touching can be depicted, but the actions almost never come off as unique for the individuals involved.

In order to combat this repetition, Mermaid dabbles into other areas besides sex. One episode follows a girl who grows gigantically. (The size of her breasts have to have broken an anime world record of some kind.) Another episode has the women participating in a beauty pageant. And all the while, the anime injects bits of comedy, like Mamori getting called a “virgin” or Meifon having a “Foreclosure” sign censoring her crotch.

Repetition is further fought when the anime continually includes more and different details. Liberators and Extars that can switch roles. Artificial Extars. New abilities and powers. The introduction of enhanced “Soldiers.” And massive robots. The anime does a decent job of constantly introducing new material even if said material is only around for a brief period of time.

The general amount of fun that Mermaid takes part in mistakenly pushes away the relevancy of the major conflict until the end of the season. The Soldiers and their organization are very briefly mentioned in flashbacks or in passing, and it is only near the end of the season where they finally reveal themselves. Since the show did not buildup to this conflict, when it finally appears, it almost feels out of place.

The ending has tonal issues, too. Before, the anime could get dire, but it was never grim or overly dramatic. The major conflict, however, does away with this notion: rape, underhandedness, and lots of losing become the norm. On the one hand, the tonal shift is welcoming because Mermaid did not seem to have a coherent narrative in mind. On the other hand, the tonal shift is rather jarring when it gets as dark as it does.

The ending also has two more problems.

One, it is too contrived. Not just that the virus essentially cures itself, but also there is no precedence for it. Momoka brings up the idea at the end in passing only. And nothing really changes between Mamori and Mirei over the course of the season to constitute them achieving “Valkyrie Drive” at the end as opposed to the countless other times.

And two, it goes against the plot of the anime. The entire time, the girls on the island were trying to prove that they could be reinstated into normal society by exemplifying order and stability. But the solution given instantly saves everyone, meaning that the events leading up to the ending were mostly for naught.

When all is said and done, there are about two ways to view Mermaid. The first view is the simpler one: A grander message does not exist. This anime is all about action and boobs and girls and not much more. This interpretation is fine; a show does not have to be deep to be worthwhile.

The second view, however, gives the anime a bit more credit: Always have hope. Placed on an island far and away from normal civilization, the girls still hold out hope that they will someday make their way back home. Until that time, they rely on each other. They do so more intimately than one may think, but, as they prove, hope is made stronger when it is held by many rather than when it is held by few.

Or one can believe in the third, hidden, and arguably best view: Yuri is a blessing. What saved the girls and cured the virus was not some newfound piece of technology or a breakthrough in medicine. What brought peace and comfort was the beautiful love that two girls shared between each other.

If that is not a wonderful message, then no message is.

ANIMATION

Mermaid is best watched (perhaps obviously) while uncensored. The uncensored version does away with nearly every single light beam that shines throughout the censored version. “Nearly every” because the one in episode six, where Mirei performs a rather lewd exercise, exists.

Given that Mermaid is watched while uncensored, it focuses its art and its animation where it counts the most: the girls, the boobs, and the near-fornication.

Downtime in the anime hardly sees extensive animation such as with hair or limb movements. However, the anime almost always makes sure to have the breasts jiggling. Battles, in contrast, do try their best to keep up in animation. Flying fire birds, colorful laser beams, and difficult-to-pull-off acrobatics, while lacking in tight choreography, create a lot of movement on the screen. Mermaid knows it cannot always keep up, so, to compensate, the cinematography hones in on risqué shots of the characters’ butts and bosoms wherever necessary (or unnecessary).

Where Mermaid diverts most of its animation is into the sexual content, and, more specifically, the scenes where the Liberators have to use their Extars. Extra frames for turgid nipples, dancing tongues, and locked legs are more than welcome, creating steamy scenarios that even the people in the anime cannot help but blush at.

The rest of the art is similar to the usual amount of actual animation in that it is not that impressive. Island terrain makes up the vast majority of the art – jungles, hot springs, and ocean fronts – but the castle, a hidden abode, and an underground factory attempt to shake up, however slightly, the usual offerings.

And to be fair to the anime, the characters are on an island. Meaning, it may be silly to expect anything else besides a lot of trees and the sea.

As for the character designs, while the characters rarely change outfits, they are diverse and detailed enough to be considered interesting. Furthermore, each character wears lipstick or has their lips colored, accentuating their beauty that much more.

For example, Mirei’s long, blonde hair, too-short skirt, and ample figure maximize her attractiveness. Meifon’s signature pink cowboy hat symbolizes her fun and carefree nature. And Akira’s different designs contrasted well: While disguised as a male, she wears a professional, commander suit with cropped hair, and, as her regular self, she wears a summer gown with long, red hair that undeniably proves she is female.

Also, a special shout out goes to Charlotte’s design. Her styled, pink hair, purple, regal outfit, and exposed, ample bust turns her into quite the sexy minx.

CHARACTERS

The cast of Mermaid could go either way.

The characters do not have a discernable theme that connects them all. An argument exists for the characters protecting or fighting for a partner, but, since many of them do not have partners or do not uphold this sentiment, the theme is not that strong.

Looking more closely at the cast, Mamori, the oft called “virgin,” appears to be the main protagonist of the anime. But she quickly makes it clear that she is not entirely fit for the role. She is wimpy, scared, and unable to fend for herself. However, what makes her a tried and true protagonist is that she is perhaps the strongest Extar on the island. This detail is only made known when her Liberator finally appears.

Said Liberator is none other than Mirei, the actual main protagonist of Mermaid. Mirei does not speak much: for her, “actions speak louder than words.” She also contrasts with Mamori (and not just in size). Mirei is strong. She is confident. She is able. (“Opposites attract.”) On top of sharing a dislike for violence (this trait of Mirei’s is revealed later) with Mamori, Mirei is the perfect match for the tiny, redheaded girl.

Thus, the two become a team. They work together to protect each other and to help the other denizens of the island. Although not everything is serene. Mamori longs to go home; she misses her parents. And Mirei has a past that remains mysterious to the audience for quite some time.

It is not until a very harrowing situation that Mirei reveals her secret: She was part of an “Enhanced” project that altered her body. As further flashbacks reveal, Mirei used to be with another partner, Momoka (codenamed “A3”). When Mirei refused to fight, she was deemed “useless” (the anime’s words), and she was nearly terminated. But the doctor (in a slightly contrived manner) wanted to make amends for his sins, so he did not kill Mirei. He sent her away.

Having abandoned and been abandoned, Mirei was lonely. She was lost in a world that did not want her. She was eventually caught as an Armed Virus holder, and she was once again whisked away. Only this time, she met the person who would save her: Mamori.

Mamori was there for her and kind to her. But, most importantly, she became her friend, her lover in arms. It is Mamori that drives Mirei to go the distance. Mirei defeats Momoka, saves the girls of the island, and leaves with Mamori to be together forever.

The negative side effects of Mirei’s enhanced form are brought up, but Mermaid mistakenly does not use this detail for any purpose except to conveniently force Mirei to retreat. Still, it is apparent that Mirei is the strongest character of the show. She gets a lot of focus, and, more specifically, she gets a lot of focus in the final few episodes of the season. This development is nice for her, but Mermaid almost seems to forget about its other characters.

For example, Mamori hardly has a presence. After she reveals how much she wishes to go home, her character receives very little attention. Literally right at the end, however, she demonstrates her newfound courage. When presented with the chance to finally go home, she decides not to, opting to help the other girls affected by the virus all around the world.

Lady Lady are characters that likewise lack presence. They believe that people should be allowed to do what they want, and they repeatedly show this by acting of their own volition. It is an interesting trait, but since Lady Lady never have their characters elaborated on, they are more like convenient plot devices than actual characters. They are arguably heavy side characters, meaning them not receiving a lot of attention is understandable. But having at least a background would have been nice.

And then there is Shigure who is yet another example of a character lacking presence. Her character acts as a mediator between Akira and Charlotte as well as a stern yet forgiving leader for the other girls on the island. She has a subplot involving Hibiki, a girl whose initial arrival on the island causes her severe mental trauma. This detail is minimally referenced throughout the season; the audience is only made aware of the full background near the end. Still, Hibiki gets inspired by Mirei to finally help and thereby giving the audience its first look at Shigure’s Armed state and bringing this meager subplot to completion.

The rest of the characters follow the trend of not completing their character arcs. The most glaring example is Akira. Her character represented hope. She was instilled with hope, she provided hope, and she believed in hope. When she was exposed to be a woman and not a man, her defeat is symbolic of hope being lost. And as the events show, hope is lost.

Yet the anime does not revisit her character, i.e., her arc does not complete. She shows up at the end, but very little time is given to her and her message of hope. The same happens with Charlotte. Charlotte was not much of a character; she was relegated to being a thorn in the sides of everyone. Later on, she takes over as Gouverneur, gets smacked around by Momoka, and loses thoroughly to Mirei and Lady Lady. Yet, like Akira, her character does not have a complete arc. The last line she speaks is “Now we can go home,” but that does not demonstrate if she changed or if she will change.

As for Momoka, besides not showing up until the end of the season, she was setup as a nice antagonist. Indirectly betrayed by Mirei, she was forced to undergo further experimentation, turning her into a “monster” (her own words). She is conniving, cruel, and crazy, but it is her unfathomable need for revenge against Mirei that made her seriously sinister.

What results is her taking over the island, kidnapping Momoka, and nearly wiping out Mirei and the others. The final fight against her involves most of the cast – as well as a combined, “Valkyrie Drive” Momoka and Mirei – and it seems she is defeated. She is even the first one to get cured with a kiss from Mirei that also symbolizes the apology to her and the reformation of their relationship.

But, again, what happens to her afterwards is not shown. It is alluded that she is taken into custody, but whether or not she lives a happier life, tries to be nicer, or simply matures is not shown or known.

Thus the cast could go either way. However, since the anime was juggling many characters (and boobs) at once, and taking into consideration what the anime set out to do, they turned out rather okay.

SOUND

One of Mermaid’s top strengths is the effects and music that it uses.

Starting with the effects, two in particular stand out. The first is the breasts. The anime likes to have the breasts moving, and, to let the audience know that said breasts are jostling, the anime adds a breast-jiggling effect. No matter if Mirei is doing sit-ups, Torino is running to Meifon, or Charlotte is simply shifting her body sideways, the breasts are not just seen but also heard.

The second effect is heard most commonly when Mamori goes into her Extar form: a metallic moan. Including this effect is not necessary, but doing so made the transformation that much cooler.

Moving away from the effects and towards the music, the opening track for Mermaid is rather nice. The vocalist is on point, the hard guitar is rockin’, and the background choir is in harmony. The OP, while not the best part of Mermaid, is still pretty strong.

The ending track contrasts completely with the OP, and that is only part of what makes it so awesome. The lyrics move at lightning speed. The onomatopoeia enhances the song. And the repetition makes it easy and fun to follow. Combined with the various vocalists and the catchy beat, it is clear just how “super-ultra-hyper-miracle-fantastic-romantic” this ED is.

The rest of the original soundtrack offers a nice array of tunes. Trumpets and violins for the silly times. Guitars and fiddles for the tense ones. And chimes and flutes for the sexual yet gentle moments. The other effects and music are stronger than the OST, even making up for some of the OST’s weaknesses, but the OST does what it has to.

And because why not, the voice acting performances within Mermaid are generally above average. Yuka Iguchi as Mirei uses a husky and attractive voice for the mature girl. Mikako Izawa as Mamori uses an adorable voice for the small and shy girl; a nice performance for one of her first major roles. And Yuna Yoshino as Akira uses low- and high-pitched voices for her male disguise and female self respectively, demonstrating her vocal range.

Also, a very special shout out is more than deserved for Yurika Kubo who gives a fantastic performance as Meifon. The voice she provides can only be described as perfect for the carefree cowboy. Her line in episode six – “Hip raising training!” – in particular is spectacular.

ENJOYMENT

Yuri is my jam.

Ergo, I had a lot of fun with this one. The repetition did not phase me because that meant I got to see more naughty moments between Momoka and Mirei as well as the other pairings throughout the show. The bountiful bare breasts were likewise welcomed whenever they appeared on screen (which was practically every other minute).

This anime is pretty much designed for someone like me: a fan of yuri and bosoms. Disregarding these factors, I was honestly impressed with the show’s ability at attempting to be meaningful. It did not do anything groundbreaking, but I appreciated the anime spending time on the characters, the world, and the action.

Charlotte was easily the most attractive to me, but the character that I found to be the most fun was Meifon. She was not around a whole lot, but, when she was, she brought the laughs. Trying to whistle unsuccessfully, getting scared by Mirei, and screaming while raising her butt in the air as Lady Lady used their massive gun were just a few of her hilarious antics.

Mamori gets a nod, too, for being so darn cute. But she (indirectly) also has my two gripes with the anime. Firstly, I was disappointed that the anime dropped the “virgin” joke with her name. I found it to be a simple yet silly running gag, so when it disappeared I was bummed.

Secondly, I was not a fan of how she developed feelings for Akira and how she got forcefully used by Momoka. The first one had nothing occur between them. The second one was not her fault. And Mirei never lost her status as the girl with the highest compatibility with Mamori. Regardless, both instances came off as betrayals, betrayals that made me sad to see.

Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid has enough girls, boobs, and yuri to last a lifetime. But, surprisingly, it has some substance. The story, while finishing poorly, is interesting. The characters are competent. And the visuals and music do exactly what they have to. Mermaids may not be real, but, thankfully, this one is.

SUMMARY

Story: Bad, repetition of the sexual content and a contrived ending do too much harm for the narrative to overcome

Animation: Good, the art and animation remains high where it counts the most but not much elsewhere, with nice character designs

Characters: Fine, while the characters lack a consistent theme, their mixture of both positive and negative qualities make them at least competent

Sound: Great, nice effects, good OP, great ED, nice OST, above average VA performances

Enjoyment: Good, lots of yuri, branching out, and many laughs made for an almost entirely fun time

Final Score: 6/10

Ecchi has never had a big presence in the wide niche genre Yuri, or Shoujo Ai as it’s more accurately called. Yuri has always been a genre that I’ve always leaned toward the “erotic” side than the actual “romance” one, only because most anime tend to be too sugarcoated with soap opera quality stories. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be any good ones. I think yuri fans deserve better than Valkyrie Drive Mermaid if they want their “dumb ecchi anime.” If I had to describe the quality of Valkyrie Drive Mermaid in a very short statement, it would be, “Not even trying.” What does itnot bother to try? It is an entertaining ecchi anime. The boobs, butts, curves, kissing and tripping all amount to pure nothingness. None pack any charm or sensibility that generally makes ecchi anime exciting escapism. Whether it be from really poor comedic timing or the characters being incredibly stale and formulaic, upon further examination, the latter seems to be the biggest culprit than the former.

It’s not even that none of the characters have any profound characterization that makes them stale. It’s the fact that their personalities, created by their dialogue and actions, are completely devoid of any humanity to them. A few of them even top my list of the worst characters of 2015. These characters are Mamori Tokonome and Mirei Shikishima. Mamori being the biggest crux of them all, is by far one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing and listening to. It isn’t just the bad, shrill voice performance by Mikako Izawa that makes her insufferable, but also how completely one-note her character is. All of the characters suffer from being one-note, but she takes the cake from her just being a character. Mirei kisses to gain power and be mocked because her name is the same as “virgin.” When something isn’t that clever the first time does not mean it will be funnier five more times.

Mirei Shikishima does do more than our damsel Mamori. However, her development is predictable when she is introduced as a silent character. You could replace her with a cardboard cutout of her, and it wouldn’t make much of a difference; that is how wooden her archetype is. The other characters, besides our two main ones, fall into similar territory. Our only male character in the anime, without spoiling anything (but you can probably guess anyway.), has one twist that comes off as so laughably random. Nothing can distinguish that character other than that noticeable moment before or afterward. The only character that was only semi-intriguing was Meifon Sakura because (1) she is voiced by Yurika Kubo, so I could imagine Kayochin from Love Live doing the things Meifon is doing and (2) she has some charisma that feels genuine.

Setting aside the other characters that are too forgettable even to bother reminiscing, the art is somewhat interesting to look at. On the one hand, the animation feels as though Studio Arms was going on a lower budget than what they usually work with. As much as the girls' gorgeous art designs are nice to look at, I don’t think there was enough material to go around to make these designs blossom. The first episode alone had way more dumb ecchi service than all of the episodes combined. Instead, we are forced to sit through the most contrived story that one can get from an ecchi anime; hell Ikkitosen at least had interesting lore to it that made it intriguing. Valkyrie Drive Mermaid has little to no meat to its story that garners any praise.

Indeed, I don’t watch many yuri anime that come out once or twice a year. I have not seen the great classics like Oniisama e…, Maria-sama ga Miteru, or even Yuru Yuri to appreciate the genre fully. Valkyrie Drive Mermaid seems like one that openly insults the genre. It comes across as, “Well, let’s just put a Shoujo-Ai element to this so that we can attract this niche audience to make money off of.” No, not even putting an ecchi spin on it will somehow make it somewhat different or unique when there is nothing to it. It is lazy implementation as one can get when watching this rubbish. As much as that one episode with the colossal naked girl at least gave me a single ray of sunshine in the mix, that was still not enough after it was over.

You know you've done goofed when you can’t entice me, the self-proclaimed ecchi connoisseur, with boobs and butts. Describing Valkyrie Drive Mermaid in one word is “soulless.” Soulless in every sense of the word. Boobs and butts that have no soul in them might as well not be boobs and butts at all.

Grade: D-

I guess to start off saying... if there was a season 2 I would watch. That's how much I enjoyed this show. Despite everything that it is. Story: 8/10 There's a virus that only concerns with girls, for in which if she is found with the virus she is sent to an island to fight as a weapon or the one that uses the weapon. The story mainly follows two characters Mamori and Mirei. They are partnered on first meeting. And use each other to fight off or for emergency uses. However to turn into a weapon one must get turned on, meaning her partner must helpget her aroused to turn into a weapon. Which is a weird idea, but gives the boys their yuri ecchi scenes.

Art: 9/10

The art is beautiful! Studio Arms did a great job at animating this show. The fight scenes are fun and epic. However, one I thing I will say is that don't be fooled by the appearance Mirei and Mamori. Although Mirei looks like she 25 or something she's only 15, so watch out pedos! And it might come to surprise that Mamori is older than Mirei by one year. Other than that the art is fantastic!

Sound: 10/10

The opening is absolutely beautiful. The song amazing, and it's one of my favorite openings at the moment. The ending song is really cute. The chibi version of all the characters were so cute! Especially, Mirei!

Characters: 9/10

I personally really like the characters. I can understand how Mamori would feel in this situation confused and naive. And I feel that's something people tend to forget. Mirei was such a great character showing the her unusually care for Mamori's safety. Lady Lady and J were such a great duo I think. Mei Fong was absolutely hilarious. Overall loved them.

Enjoyment: 9/10

So I watched a while ago. But I wanted to rewatch to see if I still believe in the score I gave it the first time. And I still do. I really enjoyed this show and I for a season 2 at some point.

Overall: 9/10

Boobs and Yuri make a dreamwork ;)

For my anime reviews I am going to review the anime on the order of which you would experience while watching an episode of the anime that is being reviewed. 1.Art - The art for this anime was not very impressive. Wow that's a really negative thing to start of with, sorry. I'm just say that the art was super average as well as the character models. Now, that being said, there were some moments where the animation became strangely good.... like actually outstanding. I couldn't help myself when I saw some amazing CGI in this show. It was kinda weird.Anyway I give art a 7.

2.Sound - At first I didn't find this soundtrack attractive at all but after a while I started to like it. By like it I mean I only enjoyed the opening and ending songs. Those were awesome and might I add a perfect display of the characters boo..... designs. The other songs in the soundtrack kinda suck. They pretty much felt like background music to the show. But I can't ignore the opening and ending I give sound an 8.

3.Character - This is where this anime really stood out and hung over to me. The plots on each of the characters were enormous, with a few exceptions. It was nice to see the relationships between the characters' plots, they were all mushing together and rubbing against each other. On an honest note, all of the characters were interesting. Surprisingly they all had pretty explained backstory and of coarse I'm not saying that there was a lot of backstory, I'm just saying that for a harem/yuri anime there was a surprising amount of it...... I enjoyed it. 10/10 for dose plots doe..... !

4.Story - Well here's the thing.... I'm gonna rate the story keeping in mind of the other Valkyrie Drive islands and stuff so the story didn't feel unfinished to me. I knew there would be more story adding on to Valkyrie Drive Mermaid so I had nothing to complain about but if you watch this anime while secluding it as it's own story, WHICH IT IS NOT, you will feel like it lacked. By the way how could you hate a show the has awesome boo..... character designs and a pretty interesting story. I know, you can't. I can't give it a perfect score because of the story that can be added to this overall Valkyrie Drive thingy mcbob but I loved it enough to give it a 9.

5.Enjoyment - This show was very enjoyable. Of coarse it has a lot of hilarious fan service in it but if you like story it does have some of that to. Honestly it was a very fun and relaxed show to watch. I totally recommend it to you guys. I enjoyed it at 10/10.

This anime is an overall 8.

*I will also recommend that this anime is only watched by a matured audience.

Caution:

!Keep in mind this anime has nudity.

If you are looking for funny yuri with lots of ecchi, I mean what is there not to love? I had a blast watching this, maybe cause I took it for what it was. I never expected a GREAT plot or the emotional aspect to the whole yuri aspect, and I really enjoyed it. After watching stuff like Strawberry panic, I dont know if I want to put them in the same category, as their purpose and style is totally different. Tho, if you want action, cool battles, ecchi yuri girls on the edge of hentai I dont think you'll be bored with this one

It’s a masterpiece! I do mean that, in a sense. Of COURSE this anime is lackluster in the grand scheme of things but that isn’t what’s important here. What matters is that I went into this series expecting to drop it after the first episode(I try to give everything I watch 3 episodes unless it’s just horrible, I was expecting Valkyrie Drive to be horrible) but what I got was a strangely drinkable sexy-action anime with plenty of light hearted moments and humor to boot. I’m not really even that interested in these kinds of action series either but Valkyrie Drive is uniquely charming. The 5 outof 10 score may as well be a perfect 10 considering what we are talking about and my predisposition I had for this anime. If you were curious about this one you should definitely give it a go, you might be surprised!

Here is my review on the anime Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid This anime is a rather unique and exciting one, mixing multiple genre elements into something new. New characters are introduced in just about every episode with clear introductions in various types, ranging from slow and explaining to quick and brief. The artwork of the anime looks great with pale and vibrant colors, plenty of detail, and lots of deep lighting effects. The audio is also great, being deep and clear with absolutely to disturbance between voice and sound effect The anime comes with lots of epic, high-paced, combat which shows the weapons, abilities, and skills ofall characters engaged in it which is always loads of fun to watch. As for being ecchi (and a yuri). This anime clearly doesn’t shy away from anything and that actually makes it hentai-like showing lots of sexual activity between exter and liberator, or more freely between any other character. The intro and outro of the anime are amazing, having the intro being far better than the outro. As the outro honestly feels a bit misleading compared to whats shown in the anime itself. But the songs used in them are fun to listen to and are actually kinda addicting to listen to.

Overall, this anime is loads of fun to watch. It has a mix of multiple genres, amazing artwork and animation, and bold sound. It’s loaded with action and adventure, the yuri in the series seemed confusing at first glance, but the way everything has been cleverly put together just made it all make sense. This anime is recommended for those who like anime with action, adventure, and fantasy of sorts. It can be for people who like shoujo and/or yuri.

"""""" spoiler warning"""""" The first time I watch this I dropped it before the first episode was over,I called it ugly fucking rape anime with no soul heart or noting just breast and sex,,,,,Then when I picked it up again I realised that I have never been more wrong in my life.This is my review on an anime I first hated but then it became one of my most loved anime ever!! Mamori wakes up on an island afraid and all alone with only the crabs at company ,Sen early age Mamori have known she is not a normal girl she is different!! The Island is runby a male but he's right hand is a female that do most of the work. And soon some other females meets up with Mamori and goes for the attack. When all seems to be lost, a rescuer shows up. But it's not a prince on a white horse. It's a strong lesbian warrior princess and she are keen to protect Mamori. With her by her side their journey on this mysterious Island begins!!!

Story 7/10

I find the main story pretty,, Well stupid,,Girls kiss girls and give them orgasm and that turns them into deadly weapons,, But this anime is full of side stories that are really good and some of them are so heartwarming. And full of females that care for each other. Which is the most important aspect for me

Sound 8/10

I really like the fighting music . And all the female high moaning orgasm isn't the bad either =P Tip be ready to jump on the volume here because they really go wild sometime

Art 9/10

I think its looks really good ,,Crispy vibrant colours that pops really good. But not too much so they sting my poor old eyes.And the animation is flowing nicely in the battles, Explosion and everything else works.But to be honest im here fore the pretty girls.And when it come to the females this anime really shine in my meaning!

Character 10/10

Here is the strongest card in this anime. I first saw them as only giant walking boobs. With no heart or soul only cable of hurting and rape other females. I have never been more wrong in my life!! Even if many of them may have huge breasts they also have giant hearts. They are warm females and care so much for their sisters, lesbian partners, and lovers. We have the lady that runs the in,She protect her sisters look after them,making sure they have food cloth and a safe harbour! We have the high ranked strong female who have a friend that suffer from a mental illness and because of that she can't fight.So the stronger female fight for both. She raise in the ranks so she can protect her beloved.The love between the females are really strong and that is what I like the most in this anime

Enjoyment/Yuri 10/10

I love Yuri noting is warmer in my meaning than females that love other females. And because of all kissing lesbian couples and everything else I really enjoys this anime so much. And it makes me feel invested i cheer for my girls and having a fun time.And the drama segment are also good in my book.It makes you feel for strongly them! And isn't that what we are after? For me it's very important

Overall 10/10

For a Yuri lover life isn't always easy. If you are lucky they release one real Yuri a year and if you are lucky again you get a kiss,, sometime a peck on the cheek or something is blocking the kiss,,This anime really delivers. Lesbian kissing lesbian having sex lesbian couple and more. it's so much fun.Nice warm loving characters with big hearts and boobs,, To drop this anime was a big mistake i'm very glad I gave it a second shoot and if you are a Yuri lover then it is something here for you.But there are a lot of over the top sex scenes ecchi and other similar stuff.If you can see past that as I did, I can recommend this! Otherwise maybe its better if you stay away!!!! Give it a chance i'm glad I did!!!!!!

This hentai had a surprising ammount of plot. To be real though, this anime is far from being yuri porn. All extreme nudity and sensuality aside, what you end up with is an anime with an enjoyable myriad of characters, each with their own flaws, and a story that had me thoroughly enthralled the whole time. Despite the ending not having all the romantacism that I was eager for, it was enough to satisfy and leave me with a warm feeling. All in all, if you can get past the "plot" you can enjoy a truely good anime. Also that opening is fire.

So, I'll start off by saying that I am not a huge watcher of anime, meaning I do not know the meanings of a lot of Japanese expressions a lot of people use. I would, myself, class this "anime" as a light/softcore porno. After looking up the meanings, I can definitely say this show is a ecchi/yuri (hope I'm using those right). # - What is good about this anime? In my honest opinion, the artwork and sound are decent. Apart from that though, the "plot" *cough* is pretty bare-bones. ----# - Plot/Synopsis

""Girls with special abilities are sent off to a secret island called Mermaid"" - that general synopsis drew me into this "anime", because I thought it sounded pretty cool - oh, how I was surprised at what I actually got.

Enormous-breasted, over-the-top, cliché anime girls perform sexual acts and one of them becomes a cool-looking weapon and the other one is able to wield the weapon.

The main character is basically a 14/15 year-old virgin, so I'd say this "anime" borders on lolicon - the protagonist is ripped from her college and shuttled off to Mermaid where immediately upon arrival she is forced into lesbian foreplay with your typical edgy, not-so-talkative, "side-kick", so that she transforms into a weapon and can then defend herself from her attackers.

----

That basically sums up the "anime" right there.

Girls on the island perform some genre of sexual activity and become weapons/wielders of weapons.

The girl in question has to be sexually stimulated for this to work, so of course you see a wide variety, if not all, sexual fetishes. In the first few episodes we see grinding, BDSM and a few others.

---

My overall rating for this anime is 4/10 simply for the fact that I wanted to watch an anime and not porn.

(No, I'm not the type of person who will rate this type of anime highly because it allows me to crank out a quickie - which I didn't).

This type of anime is a turn-on for some people, because #boobs, but for me it just turned me right off and I just dropped it like a brick.

P.S: It's 4/10 and not 1 or 2 because the artwork and sound are ok and boost the score.

Does Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid have elements of yuri? Yes, it indeed does. Is it an amazing romance anime? No, I wouldn't say so. The romance element is diluted by the lot of drama. Is it a really well constructed show with a meaningful message? No, there really isn't. There is just lots of commotion, and the plot isn't really organized. Fanservice is overused in this show, but I guess that is the purpose of fanservice (I don't know). If you enjoy fanservice, this is the anime for you. There is a bunch. If you look forward to a good yuri anime, go look for better yuris.

The premise of this show is absolutely absurd and is an excuse for the anime to be a softcore porn. That being said, if you accept the fact that you are in fact just watching porn, it is actually executed pretty well. The plot arcs in the show are rather generic, but are executed well enough to keep you interested. The characters interactions with each other are often incredibly sexual, but in many cases they have deep or thoughtful conversations about the tasks and issues at hand without it sounding like an excuse to get to the next girl on girl scene. The girl ongirl intimate actions also drops off towards the latter half of the series, but the girl on girl fighting action picks up for some pretty memorable and intense fight sequences. Overall, not a bad anime if you're ok with watching porn.

Started for the yuri, stayed for the plot. Story: 7 Premise is interesting enough. I started watching this for the guilty pleasure, but the immersion took me in, and at the least, it provides literary enjoyment as well. Some characters I have sympathized in the beginning turns out to be antagonists, and in the end I sympathized with antagonists I never thought I would. Ending has a madoka-feeling too.Art: 8

If you're looking for lots of yuri kisses, here you have more than enough.

Sound: 8

The only complaint I have is the awkward breast sounds, but the voice actresses and the ending theme are a blast to listen to.

Character: 7

The idea of an innocent maiden and a strong and determined partner isn't too unique, but it does the job for the setting.

Enjoyment: 8

Lots of suspense following rising action and during climax.

Overall: 8

Of course, this anime isn't to everyone's tastes. If you want sort of like a softcore hentai that has a better story than the one-shot hardcores, then give this a go.

I think it was the point where I was watching a four-storey naked woman scream that I stopped hoping this show would ever make any sense. Look. I knew I was getting into something pretty questionable. This is the show that said "You think Eromanga-Sensei is trashy? Hold my beer." This is a show that credits both a "Special Breast Effects" person and "Giant Breasts Producer"--yes folks, there were two people whose entire full-time job was animating giant pendulous breasts. In some cases, literally giant (aforementioned). But there's no point interrogating the logic of porn. Which I think this is--it's the worst kind of exploitative view of(female) sexuality. A view that doesn't even try to make sense. The entire premise is that certain women, when sufficiently aroused or in a trance-like state, will transform into weapons. Okay... well, anybody who's ever had a frank conversation with a woman would realize the flaw with this, namely sexual response just doesn't work that way, when you need a weapon you need it now, not after several minutes of heavy petting, and for many--perhaps most, I would venture to guess--the immediate life threat would make it pretty hard to get well and truly turned on anyway. I say there's no point interrogating the logic of porn, but is it too much to ask for basic plausibility? Although I should have known; even the silhouette of the main character pair shows a wanton disregard for the realities of biology, with Mamori's rib cage clearly in a different time zone from her hips. And for a show that's supposed to be all about a bunch of women having sex with each other, it... sure seems to have no real idea of how that actually works.

I've (elsewhere) praised Monster Musume for being refreshingly straightforward about what it is. Most ecchi harems are coy and unconsummatable; this one opens with a snake handjob. Most harems spend at least some effort coming up with an excuse for the women to pursue the main character; MonMusu, someone just sort of tells them to, so they do. Most harems wouldn't have basically the entire cast just give up and call the guy a variation on "MC-kun". But Monster Musume knows exactly what it is.

Not so Valkyrie Drive. The show keeps reaching for a narrative weight, a seriousness and importance, that it has no way to earn, neither through its compelling plot (which it doesn't have) nor its lovable characters (also missing, instead we get one-note cliches, from Miss Protect Virginity to the various Obviously Psychotic Sexpots who show up, always with the non-consensual S&M routine). But because it has pretensions or aspirations to legitimacy, it tries to deal with ideas well outside its weight class. The threat of rape--weaponized rape, rape to turn its victims into weapons--looms heavy over the show, but won't be seriously examined. It can't be examined, because it's a cheap source of drama and menace, but also (so far as I can tell) supposed to be *hot*; and never mind that the already flimsy premise of plot-convenient arousal falls apart when women can be raped into ecstatic transformation--unless the show is seriously trying to sell a view that's seriously despicable.

The show can't seem to decide if it wants to be Fantasy Island or Lord of the Flies, and when the serious high-drama plot starts happening you'll have seen it coming from literally episodes away. The only real question is how did anyone allow the situation to get to the state it's in, where all the dominoes can come crashing down so readily.

There's a way to read this show that as actually a statement about unbridled female sexual desire being such a powerful force that society will do anything to subjugate it, keep it under wraps; that women--especially women who love women--are oppressed and contained because of their *power*. There's a way to read this show as making direct commentary on the very objectification--literally transforming into objects--which it engages in and depicts. There's a way of reading this show that shows that the real monsters are the ones who try to keep these forces repressed, and that the real tragedy is the way women's solidarity turns into a power-struggle catfight as their society immediately reproduces patriarchal norms of dominance from the outside world. Or, rather, there *should* be. But the show's just not up to it. And I wouldn't mind that so much if it would just be honest about it and stop trying to claim some greater significance.

There's a way to read this show as being about militarism, psychological trauma, about bonds of love and the awakening of same-sex desire... but instead violence is just a thing people do, some because they're broken and others because they're stupid and sadistic; and desire is just a thing that happens when you touch your nipples together or lick the right parts, no matter what the circumstances. Guess it's lucky all the women with the virus happened to be into other women too, huh.

Ah well. I guess I should've known. Turns out it's just porn after all. But if that's what I'd wanted, I could've found something that didn't drag for three hours.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch one episode each of three different shows to get this thing off the top of my recently-watched list.

Here is my honest opinion. The reason I'm watching this is for the soft-core borderline hentai Yuri where girls orgasm to the point of transforming into weapon kinda stuff, throughout all the episode, all I can think about is ass and tits. Then after episode 8 things started to get kind a a bit interesting, especially about the story plot. Here is where the story told you a little about the secret of the island and the organization behind this, and also Shikishima Mirei's past history. After that, the battle went a bit intense and the story keeps me a bit interested about what is going to be unfolded. Theending was okay, I guess. It reminds me like that last scene from Madoka Magica of some sort, where everyone was saved and the MC became godlike (not to the point of becoming god themselves however).

Almost forgot, I like the opening song though, for a story this mediocre it's kinda catchy.