Walkure Romanze

Jumping into this head first was a bit satisfying. Not knowing what to expect besides a mild definition intrigued my interest. Walkure Romanze was actually quite enjoyable for a casual watch. (Non-Spoiler Review) Story - I thought this was the most enjoyable aspect of the anime. A potential harem anime revolving around something I never imagined could grasp and pull me in. Jousting. I loved everything about the introduction to the story and the things the anime actually teaches you about thee honor of a knight. Art - The art was beautiful. Lots of Fan Service which I came in expecting. Something about medieval fan service capturesa certain part of your mind. Besides that, the animals, the buildings, the potential layout of the jousting area, everything looked amazing and bright. Sound - Sad to say, but nothing totally sparked my interest with this anime. I found myself skipping the opening and ending quite often. Character - here lies my biggest gripe. There were far to many scenes where they made it seem like Mio was subjected to sexual acts. I got tired of it. I also feel like Takahiro had a terrible reason for feeling the way he did throughout the anime. I liked the characters but hated the context. Enjoyment - It was a great sit down and enjoyable watch. Bright, beautiful, and a learning experience for an era i quite enjoy.

Walkure Romanze I watched this anime because it's listed in the Romance category and i wanted to see that, this shouldn't be in that category tho because the romance is what this lacks the most. Story The story was interesting, it's about jousting and somehow reminded me of A Knight's Tale but it was just at the end when you see the jousting, the other part is about talking, and talking, and not even romance is shown, just Mio trying to but failing because the protagonist Takahiro is slow understanding the insinuations, the end was meh, the story was fine. Art & Animation This was beautiful but for being from2013 it could have been better, so overall was good. Sound The sound in every aspect was ok, but could have been better, the VA was ok and the OP wasn't bad the ED song was meh. Character This wasn't very well developed, they weren't interesting but they weren't bad, they were fine. Enjoyment Like i stated, i was expecting some romance on this but there is none but i enjoyed the jousting and the art with the little fan service.

Jousting is widely agreed to be the true sport of nobles and is a main focus of the idealized Medieval Europe and Chivalry. While chivalry lives on in every fedora wearer's heart, Walkure Romanze enacts upon it instead of posting self loathing status updates on social media sites. Following Princess Lover which came out in 2009, Ricotta has sent another one of their H-Games out onto the battlefield of anime adaptions. Ricotta is well known for their pandering to specific fetishes and classy atmospheres. As expected, Walkure Romanze has both of those traits. While Walkure Romanze and Princess Lover both share a high class atmosphereand catering to very specific fetishes, that is where the similarities end. Walkure Romanze focuses more on the sport of jousting and surprisingly has significantly less smut. In this adaption they even omit much of the pandering, unless you are horse that is. This makes it a quite peculiar show and puts it in a weird position in regards to genres and target audiences. As expected of a show in this genre, the story is nothing outstanding. However, this does not make it particularly bad. It is enjoyable, albeit predictable and cliché. It features all of the typical activities that you will see in a generic eroge adaption such as your beauty pageant and a hot springs episode. You know, the finer things in life. However, the jousting storyline made this show stand out amongst other eroge adaptions. It is a rather unique setting which as mentioned previously, is Ricotta's specialty. What also made this particular show unique is the overall lack of fanservice and smut. If you were to take a look at the game CGs you would definitely see many vulgar things, even during the regular parts of the game and not just during the h-scenes. Not to say that it lacks fanservice altogether, but it is definitely lacking compared to what you would expect out of something like this. 8Bit and Ricotta must have taken the high road in this adaption, which is a bit different from the norm. They must have been targeting the gentleman’s market, unlike what GoHands did with Princess Lover. The story does not get dipped into the toilet with the bathroom humor that was featured in both the game itself and in the Princess Lover adaption. Some may say that this is an upsetting omission, but those people are plebeians and not true gentlemen. The characters of this show all feature tropes that any veteran anime viewer has seen a million times before. The male lead is a bit of a doormat, somewhat dense, and has a troubled past. Very unique and groundbreaking I must add. The girls on the other hand range from strong independent women (who don't need no man) to ones that are completely dependent and helpless. This is to cater to both the strong alpha male and the beta apathetic male who wants a cute doormat housewife demographics. You have to tip your fedora to Ricotta, they can really make a game appeal to a wide audience. However, this show features a unique paradox amongst the female characters. Despite many of them being “strong and independent” they need a man to be their squire and then resort to petty fighting over their mediocre catch of a male lead. This may have a deeper meaning which states that no matter how far we go in modernization, traditional gender roles still rule. If anything, it shows that chivalry is not dead, so go out there and start holding doors for women. If they get angry at you and say they can do it themselves, just grit your teeth and bear with it since they will eventually want a true gentleman such as yourself. When the news broke that 8Bit was going to be three shows simultaneously this Fall, I was a bit worried. One would expect that they would give the single cour H-Game adaption the short end of the stick over Infinite Stratos S2 and Tokyo Ravens, but they surprised everyone. The artwork was mostly on point with excellent backgrounds and very few off model character shots. The artists kept up with the classy theme quite well, thankfully it also lacked the terrible blue filter that GoHands used in Princess Lover. In regards to the sound, it was quite well done as expected. The voice acting cast is filled with veterans who you are sure to recognize if you play enough eroge, and the music was on point. As a whole, the artwork was surprisingly well done and the sound lived up to expectations. All in all, I must say that I did enjoy this show. It was very entertaining to watch each week and it never came off as being dull. For a cliché storyline such as this, that is an impressive feat. What is ironic is that 8Bit made two separate shows with a similar harem premise, and the show with the lowest expectations came out on top. Despite it being mostly good, there are still some flaws to it that I must mention. I feel that the route direction could have been done a bit better rather than just focusing on harem antics and in the case of this show, horse husbandry. I dislike that aspect in many of these adaptions, I would prefer to see a specific route done well rather than a hodgepodge of them all. What is also funny about this show is that the horses seemed to be more important than the main characters, it is like some sort of sick television show that caters to horses. It even features similar pandering aspects from the human “side” characters. Regardless, this adaption is a glorified advertisement for the game so if you would like to know more, you have to buy it. The overall lack of fanservice is another potential negative for this show. Most viewers of this genre generally expect a bit more, especially considering the specific fetish pandering that the game features. Hopefully they will make several H-OVAs for this like they did with Princess Lover in order to cater to the other fans of this series. Regardless, this show is quite entertaining and I leave you with the most powerful quote of the series: “The horses are waiting for me”. That itself sums up Walkure Romanze perfectly.

Walkure Romanze is a great Harem, Sports, Romance visual novel that garnered a bit of success, so I guess some studio had to make an anime adaptation of it. However this is simply the case where a title is better left untouched, in its original format, rather than being half-arsed like this. Because at least there, each of the girls are given enough time and development for the players to even give a damn. Watching this series gave me flashbacks of the Princess Lover anime adaptation, but in this case, the male protagonist attends a fairly prestigious academy with "Jousting" as its main extracurricular activity.Although in this universe, jousting seems to be a sport predominantly done by knights with a bit less gruff. Yes, that means young cute girls, because apparently boys seem to be useless unless they are piloting giant mechs. But even with how immersion breaking it is to see dainty little girls, covered in plated-armour, holding 2-3m lances; the actual jousting itself is handled quite well and managed to hold my interest. Unfortunately far too much time and effort is put into nonsensical stuff un-related to progressing the story, characters or relationships. In other words, pretty much every aspect a good visual novel is known for is left out, but instead all of what makes a mediocre harem is crammed into this series. Which simply is a waste considering this is a 12 episode anime and those 12 episodes should have been used to make me fall in love with the story & characters... not the character's alluring physique. But speaking of characters, the male protagonist Takahiro Mizuno, happens to have a rather refreshing personality and in this anime with its 1:9 male to female ratio, it is nice to see that he's not initially considered useless. Just a shame that what little personality he has, is later stripped away and he becomes nothing more than a walking plot device. As for the girls that make up the bulk of this anime, it's a shame to see them as nothing but 2-dimensional tropes. No doubt they are certainly made to be appealing, depending on your tastes and a lot of the voice actresses did fantastic jobs on their characters. Nevertheless I can just imagine them being some fascinating female characters, if given the time & effort to flesh out their relationships & back-stories. At least the animation for this anime is rather fleshed out, with its vibrant colour palette and the character's bubbly erm... personalities. Heck even when it transitioned to the 3D rendered jousting, it did not feel all that jarring. It looked all round good. Just like the animation, the soundtrack happens to be decent and ramps up nicely during the jousting. From the clashing of the lances to the sounds of the horses, it all sounds pretty good. But overall this isn't an anime I'd remember for its audio. Walkure Romanze is just another anime I'd remember for its lost potential, when it comes bringing something interesting with its jousting and romance. And frankly there's barely a hint of romance, for it to even be in the title. So if you're just here to wet your seasonal appetite for girls partaking in strenuous activities, then you won't be left high and dry, at least once the Blu-Rays come out. But if you're actually interested in seeing an anime, balance such an unusual sport with romance, or simply just a fan of the source material, then you're likely to come out of this feeling somewhat disappointed. Having seen how Walkure Romanze was poorly mishandled, I fear to see what will happen to future visual novel adaptations (i.e. Grisaia no Kajitsu).