Muv-Luv Alternative

Episode 6

The general vibe of A Tale Of Two Muv-Luvs continues with this episode of Alternative: That sense of being caught between a narrative trying to present its own singularly-adapted story while also being beholden to the baggage that comes from being such an adaptation. That's on display in particular ways in this installment. For instance, the anime has yet to properly note it, but one detail of Muv-Luv is that one of the flight team girls, Mikoto, was in fact Takeru's male best friend in the original Muv-Luv Extra universe. Like I said, they haven't really mentioned or called attention to it in this anime version, but the script has kept making cheeky references assuming knowledge of the situation. It makes some bits feel more like Easter Eggs for the established fans, and like odd dissonant asides for anyone watching who still hasn't dived that far into the wiki.

That's just one example, but it's indicative of the tone the Muv-Luv Alternative anime ends up riding this week. The latest plot-thread picked up is Takeru realizing that his dreams of his old world might be a bit more tangible than that, working with Yuuko and Kasumi to use that interdimensional connection to their advantage. So just on the face of that setup, the tone and theming here are pointedly going to be rooted in a feeling of nostalgia. Takeru's hopeful glimpses of his home reality, and his overjoyed reaction upon finally properly returning late in the episode, speak to the growth and struggles we know his character has gone through (mostly from him telling us about it). Here's the thing though: The original Muv-Luv visual novel took roughly 20-30 hours to play through. And Alternative didn't release until three years after that introductory installment. Reaching this part of the story in that original format quantifiably carried more catharsis from all the build-up of getting there than arriving in only six episodes of an anime speedrun ever could. It's that opening example of the Mikoto detail on a much grander scale: We, as a fresh audience, can tell this means something, but the format necessarily can't communicate what that is on the intended level.

So what if I told you that even with that massive, unavoidable downgrade in emotional affect, I still came away enjoying this episode of Muv-Luv a fair bit? Part of that's definitely down to the rhythm the show seemed to find for itself last week. We don't feel like we're glossing over as many chapters of the story as we seemed to at first. There's a sense of interconnectedness to the narrative at this point, with most of the story beats present in this episode relating to Takeru's status as an inter-continuity visitor and his attachment to his home timeline. So even as we do get multiple new plot mechanics being thrown at us at once, they feel more compelling now because the story's had more time to contextualize. We've had multiple episodes now that made clear to us how desperate Takeru was to save the 'Alternative' Muv-Luv timeline, so it rings true when he reinforces that goal, even in the face of potentially being able to permanently return home. And for all the comparisons to modern isekai setups I made earlier in this anime's run, it makes it that much more interesting to see a character getting to go back to their world of origin as this specific kind of adventure-game mechanic.

It also helps that this part of the story is pointedly focused on the characters the show has actually tried to endear to me. Sure, the flight team girls get a couple of their own asides, still showing off more personality than they did in the initial set of episodes. But that's almost entirely in service of a cliche 'jealous harem' gag concerning their reactions to Takeru's temporary rooming with Kasumi. Instead, the plot knows we're mainly following Takeru's relationships with Kasumi, and even better, Yuuko. The buildup to Yuuko's bid to send Takeru back to his home universe has several steps to it which speak to the slowly-rising desperation we've been detecting in her through the show. And the way she takes Takeru's initial self-doubts to task feels like a natural development from their unique collaboration of a relationship. It's expected to some degree, given that Yuuko getting the most extra effort of the anime's writing has consistently made her my favorite anyway, but it's nice to see that culminate in a way I'm able to enjoy apart from being grateful for the bare minimum. I may not be able to fully empathize with Takeru's nostalgia upon returning to the dating-sim universe, but I can appreciate seeing the alternate version of Yuuko-sensei and how the confluence of experimental universe-hopping lets her evaluate how far Takeru's come and interact with him on those same pleasantly-familiar terms.

This Muv-Luv anime project is always going to be working on terms that may not necessarily be its fault in the moment. And there's definitely an ongoing sense of frustration from something like this which is supposedly for drawing in new audience members, but instead keeps inflicting a sense of FOMO on them instead. But even with those baked-in drawbacks, I think this episode still mostly worked. It could be the show itself realizing that we've reached the more interesting parts of the story, and thus deigning to present it as an actual story. Or it could simply be me acclimating to the structure of the show and it happening to focus on characters and components I already liked this go-around. Either way, I sense an uptick in my opinion of Muv-Luv, and I hope I can ride that for a while, at least.

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Muv-Luv Alternative is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is a freelance writer who appreciates anime, action figures, and additional ancillary artistry. He can be found staying up way too late posting screencaps on his Twitter.