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Intro: I must confess, I was quite disappointed with this anime adaptation. I first heard of it when I was playing the game (which, by contrast, is amazing) and a friend happened to look over my shoulder and said that he recognized it. I asked if he played, but he said that only knew it because he had watched the anime. As a big fan of the game, I was immediately interested and enthusiastically searched for a way to watch "Senjou no Valkyria". You mean, there's MORE of the awesomeness and adorableness that is Valkyria Chronicles?! HELL YEAH! ... However, what I watched did not meet my expectations, nor did it rise to meet them. Granted, I will be the first to admit that I expected the anime to follow the game, even build upon its preexisting greatness; however, to my immense chagrin, the anime went in different direction, and not a good one. Here's why beginning from least to greatest:

Sound (6/10): In the game, I thought that the sound/music was its weakest point, as there was not much of variety of osts, nor did they differ much in tone. However, I thought the sound effects were decent and the voice-acting was good. Conversely, this was, in my opinion, the least problematic part of the anime. It used the soundtrack from the game, and did not add much to it. It certainly did not significantly contribute to my condemnation of this anime, nor was it sufficient to increase my opinion of it either. Never underestimate the effect of a well-placed, powerful ost...or a sniper round...

Art (6/10): Second, I would like to discuss the artwork. While it irked me at times during the game thanks to its minimalist direction, really only showing facial expression and dialogue during majority of the game's cut-scenes, I can appreciate their ability to stick to their guns (pun intended). The game remained true to the story-book motif, and while it would have been nice to have seen more of the characters' interactions, I can respect the reasons why they chose that idea and how it made the player pay more attention to what the characters were saying and how they felt. Additionally, the cell-shaded water-color graphics were really quite beautiful. Certainly, I can understand why the director chose to retain the art style from the game (which was really the only thing the two have in common), since the anime does not use the story-book motif, the cell-shade art style, though pretty, seemed out of place. Additionally, since the anime was not bound by that motif, I felt that they could have done more with it than they elected to do. Furthermore, (I'm not a pervert, I swear) why did they make noticeable alterations in the proportions of the female characters for the anime? The women warriors of the game were already beautiful; was that really necessary?

Story (3/10): The above categories were simply slight irritations; now we are getting to crux of my complaints against this anime and I shall endeavor to be a spoiler-free as possible (although this anime is already quite spoiled in my opinion). Yes, whenever any form of media is adapted to another, there will ALWAYS be at least minor discrepancies. I knew to expect at least some differences, but in my view, the story veered too far from what Valkyria Chronicles is (to me at least) supposed to be. The game, as well as the anime, spend a large portion of time on the character interactions rather than the battles. While the action sequences in the anime were decent, even I (who places a stronger emphasis on story over action) felt that the battles scenes were too brief. In my view of the anime, they would spend about 90% of the episodes on nonsensical character interactions (more on that later) and only include maybe a 1 - minute battle scene. As an anime based (loosely) off a strategy game, I can understand why they would chose to axe the tactical discussion and planning portion of "Senjou no Valkyria" first to avoid boring a casual fan of the anime and to make room for more important components, though I felt that each of the quite short battle sequences just happened randomly without much forethought. The tactics and strategy of Valkyria Chronicles is an integral part of its essence and what made it so good; the anime might have been better if they included a little more of that essential essence. To a degree that I didn't expect, they changed so many plot details and occurrences that the anime only vaguely follows the progression of the game. While the plot of the game was not its strongest point either (evil empire attacks and underdog wins), it did not behoove the anime to stray too far from what was established, because it worked. Furthermore, the anime's light-hearted, campy tone differed from the game, which was mostly serious broken by sweet and/or funny moments. At the same time, the majority of the anime's story focuses on overly-dramatized character interactions, whereas, the game keeps the interactions simple, yet profound. No unnecessary fluff. Perhaps my main knock against the anime storyline was its lack of cute Welkin x Alicia moments (c'mon, that was hardly a spoiler). Part of what made the game so charming and memorable was the relationship-building moments during the bite-sized cut-scenes. I had (wrongly) hoped that that adorable moments I was denied in the game due to the minimalist art direction would at least show up in full-picture during the anime; to my great disappointment, most did not cross over into the anime. Since Valkyria Chronicles is, at heart, a love story; those small, but vital moments being absent from the anime really soured the series for me. I will admit though, that the anime did two things better than the game: Zaka's appearance and Character X's death. In the game, Zaka kind of just shows up after Fouzen and is like, "Well, looks like I'm joining your squad now as a support tank!" Wait...what? At least in the anime, his transition make more sense and is smoother. Additionally, in the game, when Character X dies, there's about two scenes that deal with their death and then everyone is like, "Well, this is sad, but we still have a war to fight. Let's go." ...ouch...cold... The anime storyline does improve later in the series, but it is too little, too late. i could point out many example of divergences between the game and the anime, but that would take even longer and I don't believe it's that worth it.

Character (2/10): Okay, so this is my biggest and fiercest grievance against "Senjou no Valkyria": they screwed up the characters, completely! I usually care more about the overall plot than the characters whenever I engage in any sort of media, but Valkyria Chronicles the game is a rare exception. While certainly a classic, the underdog-beats-big-bad-empire plot line is hardly novel, but its the characters and their interactions are what make Valkyria Chronicles spectacular. I'm very critical of main characters, because it's very easy to make them generic, but I really liked game Welkin. He's a decisive, and brilliant military officer, and as a fellow 22-year-old ecologist, I thought he was extremely relateable guy. Though a LITTLE spacey and awkward, especially when entering eco-geek mode, (game) Welkin is an honest, calm, and caring man more-than-deserving of Alicia. I really respected him as the game's protagonist and consider him one of my favorites. In contrast, anime Welkin has to be one of my most hated protagonists. They greatly exaggerated the spacey and oblivious aspects of his personality, made him incredibly indecisive (which is a huge no-no for a supposed military commander/war hero), and dense. Episode 11: "Oh...I didn't notice that Alicia was cute. I just saw her as a subordinate (insert head-knock and tee-hee here)." YOU IDIOT!! In the game, we've established that you think Alicia is cute by the beginning of chapter 3 (and vice versa)! That was perhaps the most painful and inaccurate thing to watch in the anime. Ah, yes, speak of the devil (angel?): Alicia. I was greatly saddened by how they chose to portray her in the anime. As a video game character, Sgt. Alicia Melchiott is probably one of my favorites, she's a beautiful, bad-ass warrior woman who still has cute, thoughtful, and sweet aspects to her persona; when I heard that I could get more of her in anime form, I was like "YES!" But what did I (and perhaps many other fans) get instead? A generic tsundere. Okay, I confess, that the tsundere is my favorite anime girl archetype (it's n-not like I l-like it or anything, baka! SO CUTE! YES!), but Alicia is NOT one of them (or isn't supposed to be). Alicia is only hostile towards Welkin during the Prologue of the game because of the CIRCUMSTANCES; she arrests him because she thinks he's an Imperial spy. After she's convinced he's not, Alicia is nothing but warm, friendly, supportive, and sweet towards him (except when he says she's "beetle-tastic" or makes hold hold the goat excrement) because that's her personality is like. One cannot be a tsundere of circumstance; it's either part of a character's preexisting personality (perhaps influenced by circumstances) or not, and Alicia has too sweet a natural overall personality to be a tsundere. The decision to portray her in the series as a tsundere Finally, good things, (and bad things) come in three, let's get the finale of this unholy trinity: Faldio. He seemed like a fairly okay and chill sort of fellow in the game, but aside from plot-related stuff, he didn't factor into the story much. In the anime, though, he plays a much more prominent role, and not in a good way. Once again, they took a minor aspect of his personality, which is only mentioned in his personal file, and blew it out of proportion. Yes, the game says he a flirt with the ladies, but he NEVER hits on Alicia, EVER. Hell, that is not even implied at any point during the story; Alicia is Welkin's girl from day one and Faldio is enough of a bro to respect that boundary (of course, game Welkin isn't a blithering baka either). Instead, in the anime, they focus the majority of the story on this tired love-triangle trope and push this weird Alicia x Faldio development and the rivalry that ensues between him and Welkin because of it, effectively reducing one of the best video game romances (and possibly one of the best fantasy romances) to nothing more than cheap, generic, angsty drama! NO, THAT IS NOT OKAY!! Everyone else I don't even care enough to comment on. Oscar was kind of cool though.

Enjoyment (2/10): I know that when watching an anime is feels like chore, I'm not enjoying it. I trusted the words of the friend who recommended it to me and kept hoping it would get better, but that hope was in vain. If I haven't already made it clear why I think "Senjou no Valkyria" was not enjoyable, then I think you, dear reader, have missed the point of everything I have said up until now.

Overall (4/10): Most disappointing, and a waste of my time. You know an anime is bad when its best aspects are its art and music. Yes, I knew the anime was going to be at least somewhat different from the game, but I was unprepared for discrepancies of this magnitude. Even as I tried (I really did) to not compare it to the game, "Senjou no Valkyria", as a stand-alone anime series is, at best, mediocre. If you are a fan of the game, I would strongly urge to not watch this anime, as you may be as disappointed as I was. Sega and Sony are surely not lacking in monetary resources, so they had every means at their disposal to make "Senjou no Valkyria" something truly amazing as an anime, perhaps even better than the game. Instead, as a fan of Valkyria Chronicles, the result greatly pained me. That is why, dear reader, I spent two hours longer of my life on this sad excuse for anime adaptation of a fantastic game so that you, dear reader, can avoid falling into the same trap that I did. I can only pray that my words do not fall upon deaf ears (eyes?)...and that you even bothered to read this far (which if you, you are to be commended, thanks :D). If you truly want to experience the splendor, and awl, and absolute adorableness that IS Valkyria Chronicles, don't subject yourself to this anime. Instead, play the game, because you, dear reader, deserve better than this.