Valkyria Chronicles 1: Encounter with the War 「戦火の出会い」

Based on a strategy RPG PS3 game that has rave reviews released last year, the story of this series is based on a war between Gallia and an invading Imperial army.

When the town of Bruhl in the country of Gallia is under impending attack of the Imperial forces, its inhabitants start to evacuate. During this process, someone suspected to be a spy has been discovered. Our main heroine, Alicia goes to check out this suspicious spy activity. It turns out the suspected spy is only drawing sketches of fish from the river. Not believing someone could possibly so relaxed when a war is just around the corner, Alicia put the guy under arrest. When she heard the guy's name, Welkin Gunther, she is enraged that a spy dares to use the family name of the national hero from the last war as an alias.


When Welkin heard that the Imperial force could arrive at any time, he ask for permission to meet someone who is waiting for him. Obviously he is rejected:b
In no time though, he managed to escape, proving that he is more than a clueless artist. Unfortunately, Alicia happen to see his escape, and chases after him. Even though she had the chance, she could not bring herself to shoot an unarmed man on the back. Eventually she catches up with him, and agrees to accompany him to get his sister. However, on the way, they encounter the Imperial army who arrives much earlier than expected. Under fire, they managed to safely reach Welkin's house, which is also the same as the ex-general war hero's house. Still not believing that Welkin is a relative, they finally meet Welkin's sister, Isara.


However, upon seeing her, she thinks Welkin has been lying all along, since Isara seems to be a member of the Darcsens race, and couldn't possibly be Welkin's sister.
At the time, the house is under artillery attack that causes Alicia to lose her balance and drop her weapon. Isara took it, and shoot an Imperial army through the window, thus gaining Alicia's trust.

Soon, the house is under heavy attack, and Isaria reveals some old mortars kept in the house to be used for counter attack. The surprise does not end there, at the end of the episode, she reveals a huge weapon concealed under a blanket, a tank!

Impression:
A solid start, with nice music, interesting storyline, and likable characters, the series looks very promising. While I haven't played the game, it seems the story is pretty good. Adapting a game into a movie, while not diverging too much from the source material is fairly challenging, hopefully they can pull it off here.

Opening theme song: Asu e no kizuna「明日へのキズナ」by HIMEKA
Ending theme song: Ano Kaze ni Notte　(Ride that Wind)「アノ風二ノッテ」by pe'zmoku
Official website:戦場のヴァルキュリア