UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie- 1st dvd

[Rift120]

Okay I was at best buy the other day and picked up this DVD ona  whim.... alright so the line about a 'catgirl army' piqued my interest in truth.

This is a anime of the Silly comedy, psuedo maigcal girl genre.

Set in the future, Young Kazuto Tokino has one dream. To run his grandfathers bathhouse. Unfortunatly one evening a spaceship carrying the royal princess Valkyrie, recently run away from planet Valhalla in order ot avoid arranged marriage meetings, crashes into the bathhouse. And incidentally ontop of our young hero as well.

Distraught over killing him she grants him half of her soul to bring him back to life, or as she calls it 'the most precious thing a woman can give another' *needless to say that phrase causes a lot of hijinks in and of itself*. As a result Valkiyre is reduced in age to about 5-6 years old, physically and mentally. Only able to regain her true form whenever her and Kazuto's.

Thus she joins Kazuto and his sister, who is mainly interested in getting into a good college and getting away from the bathhouse. Also providing romantic tension is Kazuto's best friend since elementary school, a powerful priestess.

Of course being a princess, others soon follow her. First being Hydra, Valkyries sister, who wants Valkyrie to return hoem so that SHE doesn't get forced into marriage instead. Unfortunatlyshe runs afoul the afore mentioned priestess bestfriend and gets sealed in a chibi form as well. Albeit her mind doesn't get regressed like Valkyries does.

Also arriving is Ms. Saneda, Valkyries Loyal head maid catgirl. COmpelte with her catgirl ray gun, that she promptly uses to make a catgirl army to serve the princess. Shes actually soemwhat amusing, alternating from diligent servent, to completly out of control maniac shoudl she assuem soemthing is wrong with: A) the princess, or B) The princesses 'bethrothal' to Kazuto. The fact that she can call in a army of self created Catgirls is merely a bonus.

there's also some weird xenosaga bunny type charcter, whose main purpose appears to be the punching bag of innocent chibi as he only appears when chibi-val is unwittingly torturing him.

The series in and of itself is not deep romance, but more silly saturday morning cartoon. In fact if it weren't for the large amoutn of Fanservice and bared breasts, this would probably have been licensed by Fox or Cartoon network to air. Most interesting is Chibi-valkyries and her niave 6 year old mentality. You really get hte sense that she is a little girl.

Being a fanservice comedy there is naturally a large amount of panty shots and nude bathing house scenes. There's also the highly suggestive transformation sequences of both Valkyrie and Hydra from chibi to adult. Hydra is somewhat amusing mainly in her obsession with her chest. (Her battlecry when allowed to change back to adult form? "YES! THE BOOBS ARE BACK!")

For some reason watching valkyries sequence makes me feel slightly guilty, I think its the nude little kid to nude adult. Still it is fairly well done. While watching the little kid chest blossom into a adult boobs is osmewhat interesting, I think the best part is the facial transformation. When it reaches that point there is a semi-subtle fade from child to adult face structure that is really well done.

As to the series itself, it is as I mentioned fairly silly. The show is set in the future where mankind and aliens across the universe live in harmony. I think the main reason for this is so that the shows animators can A)Draw any sort of alien girl you can think of (Catgirls, dragongirls, doggirls, elves, Ramgirls...) and B) Draw whatever sort of funky aliens that cross you mind.  

Its actually kind of fun examining various scenes and catching some of the more unique aliens that were drawn in as background charcters (My personal favorite was the Bannana with legs alien...) IN any given scene you can find several aliens walking and intereacting with other background people and not just pretty fanservice girl aliens either.

The action and comedy is very fast and physical and occasionaly over the top. Still enjoyable. Story and plot isn't very deep, but its servicble and presumably will get more involved in future DVD's. Even if it doesn't the series and its hijinks is amusing enough to satisfy by itself. Besides how can you not love a series with a 'catgirl' raygun?

the english dub voice acting (I was feeling to lazy to watch it subbed) is very nice. My personal favorite is Chibi-valkyrie who does sound like a little girl, complete with mispronouncing of big words.

One more fact about hte DVD... for the 1st dvd of a series it has a LOT of extra's. Aside from the normal clean opening and closing music, and ADV previews. Theres also the original japanese commercials, two different japanese openings, notes from the seiyuu, explanations of the Valkyrie universe and names, and a video jukebox (A series of scenes set to various musics, offical AMV's if you will).

overall I'd give the series a 4 out of 5 defintly something ot check out if your in a comedy mood.