The anime Valkyria Chronicles is based on a popular tactical role-playing game published by Sega exclusively for PlayStation 3.
The show takes place in Europa, a fictional 1930's Europe which has a rich supply of ragnite ore that can be refined into a fuel.
This has brought Europa into the warring sights of the Eastern European Imperial Alliance which is also engaged in a war with the Atlantic Federation. The main story revolves around Welkin Gunther and Gallia town watch captain Alicia Melchiott. After narrowly escaping the Imperial forces' invasion of Gallia, the two of them, along with Welkin's adopted sister Isara, join the country's militia.
Welkin and his squad must battle the superior Imperial forces led by Prince Maximilian and his vicious generals.
The backgrounds are illustrated in a watercolour style, while the shadows on the characters have an added pen-hatching to enhance the feeling of illustrations. Though these might be purely cosmetic, the anime is taking a leaf out of the original game's book whose graphical presentation and animation has been described as a 'moving watercolour'.
The show is being aired on several Japanese TV and cable channels with Animax being the primary station. So anime and gaming fans in the city should keep a lookout for this show to hit Animax Hong Kong's schedule soon.