Muv-Luv is a sprawling continuity involving multiple parallel worlds, giant robots and unstoppable aliens. It also begins with an intentionally cliched harem romance with Muv-Luv Extra before dropping the protagonist, Shirogane Takeru, into the apocalyptic land of Unlimited and Alternative. It started out as a spinoff of Rumbling Hearts, âge's drama visual novel/anime.
On September 25th 2015, having gained domestic acclaim and a sizable international fanbase, âge, in collaboration with Degica (a Japan-based e-commerce company and video game publisher), officially launched a Kickstarter campaign
to fund an official English localization of Extra, Unlimited and Alternative. Within less than a day, âge achieved their funding goal of $US 250,000. The campaign concluded on November 4th, 2015, having exceeded the target amount by more than $US 1,000,000.
Works in this series:
Below are tropes pertaining to works in the franchise that have not yet had pages made for them or other things that do not fit neatly onto any existing pages.
- Art Evolution: Due to a change character designers. Take a look at a screenshot◊ from Alternative versus the newer side story◊ Confession.note
- Battle Harem: Hibiki's in The Day After.
- Death Seeker: Atonement reveals that Marimo, seeking death in the aftermath of those of her squadmates, began to fight like a mad dog, but ironically surviving, all the while losing close friends and subordinates. In The Day After, Hibiki's crew realise that she's getting terminal, and manage to more or less snap her out of it.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: In the fandisk Kimi ga Nozomu Muv-Luv ("The Muv-Luv You Wished For"), between Takeru and Takayuki of Rumbling Hearts. This results in Takayuki (in Takeru's body) living the carefree life of Extra, while Takeru (in Takayuki's body) is stuck trying to manage the heavy drama of Rumbling Hearts.
- Lighter and Softer: The main story of Muv-Luv Extra and all other works that share the same or similar setting, including the main entry in Altered Fable: "Kagayaku Toki ga Kienu Ma ni" (Before That Shining Moment Fades), which is the direct sequel of Alternative from Takeru's point of view.
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Nintendo Hard: The Rumbling Angel card game included in the Muv Luv Supplement fandisk (known as "that card game from hell") and the two Turn-Based Strategy games included with the fandisks Altered Fable and Haruko Maniax (infamously known as "Get Raped By BETA: The Game" and "Get Raped By BETA: The Game 2". - Old Save Bonus: Unlimited shows several scenes for certain heroines only when their corresponding routes in Extra had been cleared. Alternative does similar things with regards to both Extra and Unlimited. In-universe this is a major plot point: see Tomato in the Mirror below. There was an issue in the 18+ version of Alternative where it would not check for applicable event flags taken from the previous two games; this was fixed in the all-ages version. The Steam version considers that you got every ending in Extra/Unlimited, regardless of your saves.
- Omake: Several non-canonical, and comedic, "Radio Dramas" set in the world of Alternative, about such things as Mitsuki attempting to find out what exactly the relationship between two of her squadmates is, the Shogun (or so it seemed) showing up in place of Meiya during Squadron 207's breakfast, and Squadron A-01 facing off with a berserk Base Commander.
- Running Gag: Meiya injures her left ankle while in a cave in Extra, prompting Takeru to carry her out on his back. In Unlimited, she injures it again while rescuing the old women during the Mount Tengen eruption, again prompting Takeru to carry her to safety. In Altered Fable, she injures it in a skiing accident with Takeru. This time, however, he gets knocked unconscious, resulting in her dragging him to safety.
- Self-Deprecation: "Chicken Divers", which refer to pilots who have survived a second orbital drop, is a Gallows Humor title they applied to themselves, as "cowards" (chickens) who ran away from death twice.
- Someone to Remember Him By: The True End of each heroine's route in Unlimited. It's actually a subversion, though, since the moment he actually dies the world of Unlimited resets.
- Taking the Bullet: Marimo's former squad leader shielding her TSF from a laser-class BETA in the side-story Atonement.
- Two-Part Trilogy: They can be considered this from both from a narrative and meta standpoint. From a narrative standpoint, Muv-Luv Extra is, Foreshadowing aside, a self-contained romance VN that serves to introduce the main cast, and the post-apocalyptic BETA-verse arc doesn't start until Muv-Luv Unlimited. Additionally, from a meta standpoint, Muv-Luv Alternative is being released and sold separately while Extra and Unlimited are packaged together, both in the Japanese and international releases.
