10 Second Anime - Valkyrie Drive Mermaid - Episode 10

Charlotte's reign of terror begins while Momoka pursues her own agenda. Mamori and Mirei find Kasumi conflicted about following orders.

Episode 10 - "Oppression"

Hmm.

I have to say that Valkyrie Drive has gotten better at storytelling as the season unfolded. Kasumi's flashbacks were used to show the history of Mermaid Island. We saw the progression from female Lord of the Flies to gathering different factions and roaming gangs under the Akira banner to the present situation when Mamori and Mirei joined the story. Those old loyalties were still under the surface, which explains Kasumi's and Charlotte's relationship dynamics.

The flashback device works well here, like the TV show Lost. Flashbacks were used as individual character memories to explain emotions and motivations during current events. As the case here, these memories deepened the world and explained past mysteries.

While following Mamori's story, the audience was the one experiencing the mystery with her, since she joined the story late. Using Akira's flashbacks and now Kasumi's later in the season built a good storytelling structure. I had complained earlier about premise holes, but I didn't realize that the island and its facilities were as much a part of the story as the magical girl characters.

Mirei is still mostly a mystery, though we've had this same flashback device used to explain what's happening to her now. But the main mystery of why someone similar to the infiltrators like Momoka was sent to the island will probably be the last dramatic flourish between her and her old partner before the final clash and epilogue.

Heh.

Whoa! Kasumi was always a fierce fighter.

It was interesting to see Kasumi's hair get shorter and shorter as she took on more responsibility.

I'm glad we picked up the story when the special characters of Mamori and Mirei landed on the island. The events of turning the chaos of these weapon girls into some kind of order would have been a much darker and less cuter anime.

Oh, so that's what Momoka and her other secret agents came to the island for: to find the Valkyrie Effect her organization measured when the other girls explored that hidden facility.

Akira was found lacking. Lacking in Valkyrie Effect stuff, not buxom stuff.

Talk to the hand, Kasumi! Charlotte was everything I expected her to be as "Gouverneur," including being very persnickety about others addressing her as such.

Kasumi still kicked hard, especially when she was coerced into using her Arm abilities.

The Nimi episode, where Kasumi showed how friendly she was to the other factions, did have a purpose in highlighting the kind of person Kasumi was, but now she had to balance that friendliness with her best friend Hibiki being used against her.

Meifon and Lady Lady stayed true to their characters. Lady J and Rain fought against their raiding party while Meifon sneaked away. Torino and her girls peacefully submitted to capture. No glaring surprises here, which was a good thing.

Oh, so Momoka and Mirei meet again (maybe) at the very end of the episode. Classic serial cliffhanger stuff.

Geh.

Now that the story swung back to the ugly side of young prison lesbianism, the NSFW was much uglier and darker than we had been enjoying, er, watching.

Jeez, roving gangs of violent magic girls who grow more powerful when sexually aroused. What a horror show that would have been.

Akira is easily my favorite character in this whole show. She landed on the island fully aware of what was going on and she still managed to cobble together some kind of normalcy for the ones who came later.

Kasumi's loyalty to Akira was mixed in with a sense of duty, honor and gratitude for saving and protecting Hibiki. But with her masculine charade found out, the only loyalty Kasumi had left was to Hibiki.

This particular cell appears to be where all the booby grabbing happens. Even when someone is being rescued instead of "interrogated," like Meifon did to Mirei and what Momoka was doing to Akira.

Well, we know good guys would never hang somebody up as an example.

Mamori had quite a shock that her "Prince" was a beautiful lady. It wasn't clear to me that she recognized Akira as "Miss Heelhold."

Next time, former partners are reunited and the episode title "Soldier Arm" suggests we'll get our answers about the mysterious Mirei and what happened to Momoka in that first flashback in the very first episode.