The big final battle starts, but there’s still a few BD potential fanservice scenes to be had.
Things kick off quickly with Futaba powering up:
For the most part Val x Love has followed these ecchi scenes so closely that they are literally tracing them at points. What’s interesting here is that the anime version of this scene seems about 75% different than the manga version, and is quite frankly inferior. Some of the best shots in the entire manga are in this scene but they aren’t shown in the anime, not even in censored form.
Hopefully this is further evidence of there being extended scenes on blu-ray. However, I do worry that this scene might have been cut a little short given the time crunch the series is currently in. The last two episodes are going to have to cover at least seven chapters, (hopefully eight) after averaging close to two chapters per episode for most of the show.
Here we finally get Shino to take her helmet off, revealing her surprising beauty underneath. She also loses her clothes for good measure.
Ichika doesn’t have a ton of sex appeal despite a nice body, and if anything this is even more true in the anime than in the manga. With that being said, there was a “it’s so wrong it feels right” quality to this scene that reminded me of some of the more risqué moments in Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!?
The bad news is that once again a huge amount of this scene is simply missing in the anime. Again, hopefully it’s a case of there being an extended scene to come and not because they had to cut down to save time.
As you can see, Röskva turns into a booby monster in the manga, and this is understandably toned way the fuck down in the TV anime version. Seriously, this type of monster has popped up in anime and manga so many times in recent years that these booby monsters should really have their own name at this point.
Overall thoughts:
On the positive side this episode covered a lot of ground and featured three notable ecchi scenes. On the negative side those scenes were cut short (at least for now), and the animation/art quality has hit a new low too.
So a bit of a mixed bag, though a best case scenario on BD could transform this episode into something awesome.
Next week is basically judgement day for this series. Firstly because we’ll get to see if any of this even matters when the first blu-ray drops on December 20th. If there’s no changes and no nudity on that blu-ray, this show officially becomes the biggest disappointment for an ecchi series ever, easily dislodging Keijo!!!!!!!! from the top spot.
However, if there is nudity and the scenes are extended then Val x Love immediately becomes a candidate for top ecchi show of the year. There’s also an okay chance that some of the redraws might improve the art as well. The website, promotional materials, and social media have not tipped their hand at all as to what might come on BD, which is both interesting and worrying. Anyway, this is going to be one of the more interesting BD releases in several years- hopefully it’s not a crushing disappointment.
Next week is also interesting in terms of what the series is building to. Assuming that the BDs aren’t a trainwreck, there’s still reason to hope for the series ending on a big bath scene in the final moments similar to how Triage X ended. All it would take is another four chapter effort like what was done here in episode eleven. Unfortunately, nothing in the next episode trailer directly hints at this bath scene happening, it seems the creators of this show just want to hold us in as much suspense as possible.
