UFO Princess Valkyrie is a 2002 manga created by Kaishaku (of Steel Angel Kurumi and Destiny of the Shrine Maiden note fame) for Square Enix's Monthly Shonen Gangan, it was later adapted by into an anime by TNK that same year.
The story is about magical princesses from outer space. One of said princesses, namely Valkyrie, lands her spacecraft on the Tokino Bath House, killing its current manager, the teenage Kazuto Tokino. So in order to save his life, Valkyrie gives him half her soul. Thus the obviously adult Valkyrie is transformed into a young girl who looks and acts like a child.
Valkyrie and her fellow princesses have magical powers. So whenever Kazuto and his crew encounter any problems, she is able to transform and protect him.
Aside from causing Kazuto and his sister Rika financial problems by damaging the bath house, Valkyrie has caused problems for her sister Hydra. Valkyrie ran away because she was supposed to marry a man she didn't love. Hydra, as the second oldest unmarried princess, is going to have to marry him if Valkyrie doesn't, so she goes to Earth and wreaks havoc trying to find Valkyrie. Eventually, she is stopped by Kazuto's shrine priestess neighbor and childhood friend, Akina Nanamura, who turns her into a little girl (like Valkyrie, but with her adult mind) so she is "easier to control". Also, Hydra crashed into Akina's shrine, and Akina keeps her around so she can "work off the damage".
Akina is also a childhood friend of Kazuto and has a secret crush on him, often putting her at odds with Valkyrie. So she and Hydra are sometimes partners in crime to cause problems for Kazuto and crew.
Later, Sanada, a catgirl maid of the royal family of Valhalla, the planet whence comes Valkyrie and Hydra, returns looking for Valkyrie. She is not shocked by Valkyrie's new appearance; in fact, she finds the new Valkyrie intolerably cute. Sanada takes her mission to protect Valkyrie to extreme lengths, including, for example, turning a bunch of ordinary girls who talk even indifferently to Kazuto, into mindless catgirl servants for the Tokino Bath House.
More crazy characters come along, including prima donna/diva/ditz Laine, Cloudcuckoolander Chorus, and the intolerably ruthless "older princesses".
The show is light (mostly) in nature and is kind of a slice of life show. There are four seasons, of varying length. The second season is more serious and dark than the others, mainly because of Valkyrie Ghost, a mysterious figure who appears to Kazuto.
This is a fun show to watch for its comedic elements. Additionally, it contains many instances of fanservice. (After all, it takes place in a bath house.)
Welcome to the crazy world of UFO Princess Valkyrie, where alien (though humanoid) princesses run wild and cause mass chaos among Earthlings.
Theme songs and insert songs are by Melocure and the background music was composed by legendary composer Kenji Kawai.
The series was licensed by ADV Films (who retitled it UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie) and later Funimation. note
Tropes:
- Absolute Cleavage: Nesty (and minor character Nanna)
- Action Girl: Hydra
- A-Cup Angst: Akina, while she isn't exactly flat, but she really feel intimidated by everyone else's "perfect" size busts. Mentioning them is also her Berserk Button.
- Amazon Brigade: The Valhalla princesses.
- Ambiguously Brown: Hydra
- Battle Butler: Miss Sanada
- Beach Episode
- Big Eater: Laine. When her two younger selves live at the bathhouse, the food bill triples.
- Bishōnen: Kazuto...
- Bizarre Alien Biology
- Blind Without 'Em: Laine (contact lenses version), Pharm.
- Brainwashed: Catgirl servants. Pharm's Meganekko servants. Seriously, there aren't interplanetary weapons treaties against ray guns that transform ordinary women into slavishly loyal servants to a foreign power?
- Brainy Brunette: Rika.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Laine.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Chorus seems to like doing this
- Breast Expansion: A scene in the second season where after Valkyrie makes a cookie bigger with magic. Just after that Hydra makes a joke about making Akina's breasts bigger. Guess what happens next
. Good thing Akina wanted bigger breasts. - Broken Bird: Valkyrie Ghost is a Anthropomorphic Personification of this trope.
- The Captain: Nesty
- Cat Girl: Sanada, and her "servants".
- Chaste Hero: Kazuto
- Cheerful Child: Valkyrie
- The Chew Toy: Poor Spot, always the victim of Little Val.
- Chick Magnet: Kazuto
- Chorus Girls: Abound. And not just the princesses.
- Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Averted. See First Girl Wins below (if you MUST know.)
- Cloudcuckoolander: Chorus. She thinks she's a robot and has also thought she is an alien. (Well, technically she's right about the alien part.)
- Colonel Badass: Marduke!
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Valkyrie Ghost, as opposed to Valkyrie and Hydra.
- Cute Little Fangs: Sanada, Hydra, and Laine, also Pharm though you rarely see hers
- Dark Action Girl: Valkyrie Ghost.
- A Day in the Limelight: All the non-main cast princesses got one eventually. Rika also gets one in season one.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rika, Hydra.
- Descent into Darkness Song: 'Princess of December'. Starts out as a romantic song of eternal love and devotion, sung by the titular Valkyrie, only for it to be hijacked halfway through by her Shadow Archetype, Valkyrie Ghost, who turns it into a heart-wrenching song of loneliness and despair. It's one of the first hints that the Dark Valkyrie is actually a tragic figure, rather than the out-and-out villain she first appear to be. You can hear it here.
- The Ditz: Laine
- Dreadful Musician: Akina, at least to Hydra.
- Drives Like Crazy: Valkyrie, Hydra, and Pharm. But specifically, Laine. Who fortunately drives her motorcycle better than her saucer.
- Emotionless Girl: Chorus.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Kazuto for Valkyrie.
- Evil Twin: Valkyrie Ghost
- Expy: Look at Princess Inarba and just try to tell me she doesn't physically remind you of Belldandy.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Parodied by Sanada's "Nekomimizukin" in the 3rd season.
- Fallen Hero: Valkyrie Ghost
- Fanservice
- Femme Fatale:
- Valkyrie Ghost.
- Also Hydra at first.
- First Girl Wins: Subverted somewhat. Though she has apparently "lost" to Valkyrie, Akina, in the last episode, enters a wish letter that will be granted by magical properties of Valhalla. Three people make wishes, but her letter is the only one not uncovered by little Valkyrie.
- Fountain of Youth: In the form of bath beads.
- Friendship Moment: Laine and Keena/ and Chorus. Hydra and Akina, also.
- Furo Scene
- Fusion Dance: Akina and Hydra's "Akidra".
- Glasses Girl: Pharm and Rika.
- Harem Anime: Kazuto is surrounded by women. Whether they desire him or not is somewhat irrelevant (but quite a few do).
- Hollywood Cyborg: Chorus might be one.
- Hot for Student: Pharm
- Hot Librarian: Pharm
- Hot Springs Episode
- Hot Teacher: Pharm
- Idiot Hair: Rika, who definitely does not reflect the implication.
- Improbably Female Cast
- Ironic Hell: Essentially, where Inarba sends a character if he/she has been bad. But only for a short time.
- Kick the Dog: Literally, seen with Little Val and Spot. Justified and averted because Children Are Innocent. Also, he's actually not a dog.
- Knight of Cerebus: Valkyrie Ghost, contrasting with the normally lighthearted nature of the series, stops all the comedy whenever she shows up, and her true nature adds to it.
- Leitmotif: Everybody who has a transformation sequence. Also Chorus.
- Limited Wardrobe
- Little Miss Snarker: Little Hydra.
- Love Triangle: Kazuto, Valkyrie, Akina. Even Laine made this into a Love Square at first.
- Magic Wand: The title character's Weapon of Choice.
- Magical Girl: Valkyrie, Hydra, Mehm... pretty much all the princesses.
- Magical Girlfriend: Valkyrie
- Magic Pants: Valkyrie and Hydra. Their outfits seemingly able to accommodate the change in size during transformation. Also, little Valkyrie does not wear pants (just a skirt) while the adult one does.
- Market-Based Title: When the anime version was released in English, ADV retitled it UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie, the reason for that is because at the time, ADV had licensed quite a few series that had "Princess" in the title and stores were asking them not to license anymore series with "Princess" in the title because the weren't selling very well, this prompted ADV the alter the series' name.
- Meganekko: Pharm. Also something she is fond of...
- Mercury's Wings: The title princesses all have these type of wings.
- Miko: Akina
- Monogender Monsters
- Moral Dissonance: Sanada, when one
opens the fridge... - Ms. Fanservice: Laine and Miss Sanada.
- Musical Episode
- Nice Guy: Kazuto
- The Nicknamer:
- Rika, who calls Little Valkyrie "Valkyu".
- Also Little Valkyrie who calls people by cute variations of their names, like "Hydie" for Hydra and "Chorie" for Chorus.
- Non-Action Guy: Kazuto... oh boy.
- No Sense of Distance: Comet Sleipnir, just passing by Earth in the last episode, will visit Valhalla in 900 years since it's on the other side of the galaxy.
- Not Himself: Used ironically, as the past versions of Laine see a marked difference in the character of their future self. While in the past Laine also noticed that Valkyrie as a child didn't act like little Valkyrie at all.
- Odd Friendship: Akina and Hydra.
- Official Couple: Kazuto and Valkyrie. Surprise.
- Onee-sama: Valkyrie to Hydra. Though this often seems cast aside as a joke or a phase Hydra went through, even though Hydra doesn't seem to prefer the male gender, though, besides Kazuto, there isn't much choice. Also, Valkyrie to Laine, in a flashback episode.
- The One Guy: Really, other than the little pet guys, Kazuto is the only major, or even recurring, male in the show.
- Only Sane Man: Kazuto and Spot usually share this role.
- Only Sane Woman: Rika.
- Panty Shot
- Power of Friendship: Parodied, because Akina and Hydra have to actually become mad at each other in order to activate their Fusion Dance, and separate when they get along again.
- Pretty in Mink: Some outfits have white fur trim.
- Religion Is Magic: Priestess Akina
- Romantic Comedy
- Rousseau Was Right: Arguably, the tragedy of Valkyrie Ghost.
- Shrines and Temples: The Nanamura shrine.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Sanada and the Catgirl ray gun.
- The Snark Knight: Rika
- Space Pirates
- Stalker with a Crush: Laine.
- Standard Snippet: A rather unique version of "Ride of the Valkyries" is often used during the series.
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- Straight Man: Rika, to everyone else, and is probably the borderline Only Sane Man.
- Talkative Loon: Chorus
- Talking Animal: Mar, Mur, Spot.
- Team Pet: Spot
- Third-Person Person: Little Valkyrie
- Time and Relative Dimensions in Space: The whole Laine thing. Pretty much the third example of the trope.
- Time Travel: Laine, Laine, and Laine.
- Token Mini-Moe: Valkyrie and Hydra fit this trope unless they do their transformations.
- Transformation Sequence: Valkyrie, Hydra, Akina + Hydra, Valkyrie Ghost, Laine, even Sanada!
- Troubled, but Cute: A lot of the characters fall under this, actually.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Akina.
- Unwanted Harem
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Laine's ability
- Morphic Resonance: While she is a capable Voice Changeling too, the two parts of hers she can't possibly modify are her breasts (she is somewhat well endowed) and her antennae thing which is also her "weak point" since pulling it means she will revert back. These are the only things that can give away her disguise, especially when she tries to put on a disguise as a male character.
- Glamour Failure: And if that wasn't enough, her extremely perverted and OOC behavior (by the impersonated character's standard) usually gives her away before Fridge Logic kicks in.
- Waif Prophet: Chorus. Even though most of what she says is nonsense, she is somehow able to predict the 12 Moons of Valhalla arc.
- Whole Episode Flashback
- World of Buxom: Out of the eight princesses, Chorus is the only one who isn't extremely ample, and that's because despite her height, she's actually one of the youngest if not the youngest of the princesses.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Hydra and Chorus.
