Video Game / Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni-

Rinka and Ranka Kagurazaka.

A mysterious illness suddenly broke out on girls in their teens and twenties, enhancing them mentally and granting them the ability to turn their bodies into extremely lethal weapons. The cause of the illness was a particular virus currently classified into two types: "A-Virus" and "V-Virus".

The World Government enacted a law to care for patients infected with the virus. Five secret artificial islands were established to quarantine the infected patients.

One such quarantine island: Bhikkhuni.

The island is famous for successfully controlling the "V-Virus". Girls who enroll in Bhikkhuni's school can overcome the virus. And thus, it is a school with many hopeful applicants. Among them is a pair of sisters infected with the "V-Virus".

The elder Rinka Kagurazaka, whose innocent graces hide her power within.
The younger Ranka Kagurazaka, whose outgoing energy belies her frailty.
They are still unaware there is only one way to control the virus.

And that is... for infected patients to battle each other.

— Introduction

Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni- is the videogame side of Marvelous' Valkyrie Drive project. The game has spawned an interquel manga called Bhikkhunism and a manga sequel/AU for mobile phones called Otherside.

The game is set in the same universe as Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid but on a different island, the eponymous Bhikkhuni. This island is famous for being the only one to have its inhabitants successfully gain control over the Armed Virus' infection. Rinka and Ranka Kagurazaka — our protagonists — are recent arrivals to the island and can't wait to finish the island's program to cure their infections and return home. But soon enough they discover there is more than meets the eye and that obtaining a cure might be harder than they thought...

The game saw the light on December 10, 2015, in Japan, on September 30, 2016, in Europe and October 11, 2016 in the United States. A PC port was released worldwide on Steam on June 20, 2017.

---

Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni- provide examples of:

• Academy of Adventure: Whereas Mermaid was downright considered a Penal Colony, Bhikkhuni is a boarding school with all kinds of services needed to let its students have a comfortable life.
• Alpha Bitch: Viola fits the trope to a T until her character development hits in.
• And the Adventure Continues: The Order ending has the girls deciding to take the fight to AAA, and they're not alone this time around because Koharu reveals she has contacted the other artificial islands in order to unite all Valkyries against the World Government.
• Artistic License – Biology: This goes without saying. It is highly unlikely, if not outright impossible for a virus to grant people the ability to turn into weapons and back again.
• Author Appeal: Being a game by Kenichiro Takaki, Bhikkhuni takes many cues from its sister series Senran Kagura, like the Dressing Room, the clothes-breaking mechanics, and the well-endowed cast.
• Beginner's Luck: Subverted. The first few times that the newcomer Valkyries –Rinka, Ranka, Mana, and Momo– face any of the senior students, they are swiftly defeated by them.
  • Unless said senior is Manpukumaru, due to her being too debilitated by hunger.
• Beneficial Disease: The Armed Virus already gives enhanced physical capabilities to its hosts, but the VR strain that affects the game’s cast also enables them to be Extar or Liberators at will.
• Benevolent Conspiracy: Bhikkuni's staff allow no-one to leave the island, and uses all of its graduating Valkyries to create a new Pillar God with each passing generation... because they're still looking for a cure for the Armed Virus, the Valkyries comprising each God (thanks to their permanent Drives) are placed into perfect stasis until such a cure is found, and the AAA would essentially enslave any Valkyrie that did leave the island.
• BFS:
  • Koharu’s rapier gets progressively larger on each Drive level.
  • Rinka’s Katana ends up being bigger than her in Final Drive.
  • Mamori’s sword form is once again wielded by Mirei.
• Big Bad: Gundari takes this role after Bhikkhuni's secrets are brought to light.
• Big Brother Is Watching: A benign example, as the Director keeps tabs on the entire island via a surveillance system run from her office. The shopkeeper Echigoya also has a similar system, but she uses hers to fulfill any possible deal she can with the students.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Mana. Although in her defense, she was a genuinely good girl at the start of the game.
  • The Director shows shades of this once her plans for Koharu are derailed.
• Boss Rush: Order 20-B has Rinka and Ranka taking on the Four Pillar Gods in a gauntlet.
• Brains and Brawn: This is the basic Dynamic the Kagurazakas have when paired together: Rinka brings the Brains and Ranka the Brawn.
  • You get this dynamic by pairing any character with Manpukumaru, the strongest Valkyrie on the roster but also the most ditzy and easily distracted.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Same-sex example between Rinka and Ranka. Ranka, especially, since she truly only has eyes for her sister and gets jealous if anyone else gets too close to Rinka.
• The Cake Is a Lie: Those infected with the virus are lured to the islands under the promise of being cured of their condition. However, it's later revealed that there is no cure for the virus and that the Four Pillar Gods have fallen back to freezing the time of those infected indefinitely until a cure is found some time in the future.
• Cast Full of Gay: Every girl on the island is a lesbian. And that includes the Four Pillar Gods especially Gundari who is revealed to be Echigoya's partner.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The game starts as a lighthearted action story with comedic elements. The narrative gets a lot darker after an unnamed, naked girl drops out of Gouzanze.
• Child Soldier: Momo was raised on the battlefield before coming to Bhikkhuni, and the manga reveals she was part of the SOLDIER program like Mirei and the subsequent cultural clash between her and her civilian classmates is the driving theme behind her character arc.
  • Viola mentions in passing to have been in actual combat during her interactions with Momo.
• Closed Circle: The characters are on a remote island surrounded by a giant barrier. It's near impossible for them to leave along with anyone else who steps foot onto the island; nobody has ever left it since its inception. This remains until the girls take down the barrier that is.
• Clothing Damage: As expected from a Takaki videogame.
• The Conspiracy: The latter half of the story focuses on the Kagurazakas (and Momo) fighting to discover the truth behind Bhikkhuni, getting obstructed and lied to by most around them.
• Continuity Cameo: Mirei and Mamori from Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid are available as DLC characters. They don't figure into the plot, but character-wise this appearance takes place after the events of Mermaid.
  • In addition, Mermaid island is mentioned in the Order ending as one of the islands that Koharu has contacted in a bid to unite all Valkyries to fight back against the World Government seeking to use them as weapons.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Zig-Zagged with our protagonists:
  • Rinka and Ranka come from a relatively normal background, Mana only has self-esteem issues with no hint of an unhappy home life, and while Koharu’s past is left mostly unexplored, it's implied she hasn’t had to face any real issues before coming to Bhikkhuni.
  • Momo is a Child Soldier, Viola mentions having been involved in actual wars and Manpukumaru’s obsessive fixation on food and not wasting it is a coping mechanism for her time being forced to fight constantly on another island, and she's genuinely unable to see the point in anything unless food is involved now.
• Deus Sex Machina: To turn into weapons, Extars have to enter a trance-like state. While sexual arousal isn't required, it is the easiest way to get Extars to transform.
• Dragon with an Agenda: By the start of the third chapter Mana has willingly become the Director’s enforcer so she can fulfill her wish of becoming Bhikkhuni’s ruler as the fifth Pillar God.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Manpukumaru’s nicknames for Momo (Peach) and Koharu (Shadow Moon) fall into this.
• Equippable Ally: The VR-Virus allows for every girl in the roster to become this at will.
• Evolving Weapon: By raising the girls’ Extar rank, they can adopt newer and stronger forms during combat. Unlike Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid, the Bhikkhuni Valkyries can access four different tiers of power: Drives 1, 2, 3, and Final Drive.
• Final Boss: Depending on the route, you get to fight either Gundari in Chaos 20-C or Koharu in Order 20-C.
• Friend in the Black Market: Echigoya will get anything for you as long you meet her prices, up to one firmly defined point.
  Echigoya: "I will deal in anything but human lives as long as the price is right!"
• Gag Censor: Unlike the Senran Kagura games, Bhikkhuni counts with two layers of censorship, Lens Flare Censor and underneath it, a bunch of flowers ensures no naughty bits get exposed during gameplay.
• Gender-Restricted Ability: The Armed Virus doesn't affect XY chromosomes, so only females can become Extars and Liberators.
• Gilded Cage: Despite Bhikkhuni being an artificial island built to quarantine V-Virus carriers, it counts with all kinds of luxuries for its inhabitants: shopping districts, luxury homes, top-of-the-line medical services, beautiful beaches, and a caring and capable faculty to take care of you, but it's a Crapsaccharine World. You have to battle other alumni every day and if your track record isn’t satisfactory, you will shipped off to another island right on the spot. This without taking into account the whole “get sealed inside a giant robot indefinitely” or the "used as a weapon by the government if you leave the island" bits.
• Humongous Mecha: The Four Pillar Gods, teachers, and guardians of the island are modeled after The Four Gods. To wit:
  • Kongo is based on Genbu
  • Gouzanze is based on Seiryu
  • Daiitoku is based on Byakko
  • Gundari is based on Suzaku
  • Later in the game, it is revealed that the entire VR-Class is being groomed by the Director to become the fifth member: Kirin. Thankfully the girls can stop this plan.
• Jiggle Physics: The animation of all the characters' breasts is very bouncy, even when they're not moving that much.
• Lens Flare Censor: Used to censor the character models once their clothing is destroyed in combat.
  • Since Mirei’s uniform doesn’t include a bra, it grants this to any girl who wears it.
• Living Weapon: Momo was treated as one in her Dark and Troubled Past. This is also the fate of any Valkyrie not on Bhikkuni.
• Mecha-Mooks: The island has a huge amount of these to serve as sparring partners for the Valkyries.
• Might Makes Right: Since the treatment for the V-virus depends on the students fighting each other regularly, those Valkyries that perform exceptionally well during the combats receive preferential treatment from the island's faculty. At the beginning of the game Manpukumaru, Viola, and Koharu's power is so well known by everyone that they are exempt from needing to attend classes and do schoolwork and can spend their days doing whatever they want.
• Multiple Endings: A first for a Takaki game. Depending on your performance you can unlock two ending routes: Chaos, or Order.
• No Antagonist: As usual in a Takaki game, There isn't a villain, just lots of fights with students and teachers.
• No Canon for the Wicked: Downplayed because the Chaos ending isn't a Bad Ending (although the girls decide to remain on the island instead of trying to liberate it) but after completing the game for the first time regardless of the ending you get, you will get a notification saying to achieve an SS rank on certain missions with a "!" mark on them to view the true ending of the game. Achieving an SS rank on these marked missions will unlock the Order route which also leads to the Sequel Hook detailed below.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: During the Order route, Rinka, Ranka, and Momo are talking about what to do next after learning the truth about Bhikkhuni in the preceding chapter. When Rinka asks Ranka if the latter would like to come with her (to fight against the Pillar Gods), Ranka somehow takes this as a marriage proposal, immediately going on a tangent about where the two of them should get married. When Rinka asks what Ranka is talking about, Ranka realizes her mistake and becomes embarrassed. Even Momo is at a loss for words because of this.
• Onehanded Zweihander: Rinka, Koharu and Mirei wield their swords with one hand.
• One-Woman Army: Through the game, you pretty much mow through all of Bhikkhuni’s students with the girl of your preference.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Played with, while only Liberators can wield Extars, the VR-Class members can freely interchange roles and extars between them.
  • Played straight with Mirei and Mamori since they can’t change roles and are restricted to each other as possible partners.
• Recycled In SPACE: By extension, this is basically Senran Kagura that is high(er) on yuri.
• The Reveal: More meta than anything, but Bhikkhuni reveals that Lady J and Rain Hasumi's status as Extar/Liberator hybrids, while rare, isn't all that unique: the entire cast of Bhikkhuni are hybrids.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Turns out that all the shops and facilities on the island are being run by these. Only the current graduating class are humans.
• Robot Maid: The Elite district assigns these to its tenants to take care of their daily needs.
• Rule of Cool: The whole game runs on this.
• Science Fantasy: On one hand you have a futuristic setting filled with robots and on the other, you have all the protagonists using weapons like swords, spears, and bows.
• Sequel Hook: In the Order ending (also called the "True Ending" by the game itself), after Bhikkhuni has been liberated it is revealed that Koharu has been in contact with the other artificial islands including Mermaid and is looking to unite all Valkyries to fight back against AAA.
• Shout-Out: Rinka and Ranka get dressed on Asuka and Homura's shinobi uniforms in the manga.
  • Momo makes one to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann of all shows when she's trying to cheer up Ranka after Rinka was sent to the hospital after pushing herself too hard:
  Momo: Don't believe in the me who believes in you. Believe in the you who believes in Rinka!
  • At one point Manpukumaru says "It's raining naked girls! Hallelujah!"
• Stealth Pun: Half of the girls on the island transform into weapons through sex. They're objects of desire, you see.
• Spiritual Successor: The franchise is this to Senran Kagura. Both series feature busty girls, are heavy on fanservice with breasts being the main fetish, and are conceptualized by the same creator with the only difference being that this franchise doesn't bother keeping the yuri as subtext.
• Tamer and Chaster: Despite being part of the same franchise, Bhikkhuni is a lot tamer than its sister anime Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid. In an interesting example of this trope, this situation stems only from the strict regulations that the Japanese Rating Board puts on video games, if Bhikkhunism and Otherside are any indication.
• The Stoic: Momo is this during the first half of the game. She later grows out of it after interacting with the Kagurazakas and Manpukumaru for an extended time.
  • Mirei continues to be like this as expected.
• Tron Lines: Connect mode gives the girls an appearance that can only be described as half-naked Tron girls.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Rinka and Ranka have this dynamic with each other.
  • As does Koharu and Viola, although surprisingly Koharu is the tomboy of this pairing.
• Transformation Sequence: The Drive cutscenes, which get more elaborate at higher levels of Drive power.
• 20 Minutes into the Future: Bhikkhunism reveals that the story is set at an unspecified point in the future.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: The Director, Echigoya, and the Four Pillar gods are so committed to keeping Bhikkhuni as a haven for Valkyries that they will endorse Mana's sociopathic behavior and seriously consider killing the Kagurazakas for asking too many questions.
  • The World Government/AAA falls under this as well. According to Echigoya in Chaos 17-A, the World Government was formed to keep the world safe. The way they do this is by controlling wars and weapons between each country by selling the latest weapons to each other so that no country ever becomes strong enough to threaten the world at large. As Echigoya says: they start conflicts to end conflicts. Rinka is horrified by this revelation.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Bhikkhuni's entire staff but special mention goes to Gundari considering she's the one that created Bhikkhuni's system.
  • The World Government/AAA would fall under this but their methods are considered by others to be too brutal since the AAA considers Utopia Justifies the Means. So brutal that after learning about the truth of Bhikkhuni in the Order route, the main cast agrees with Koharu's plan of contacting the other artificial islands to unite all the Valkyries in the world and fight back against the World Government.
• We Interrupt This Program: Echigoya is fond of hijacking the Director's transmissions to advertise her shop.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 4 reveals that the Pillar Gods are powered by Valkyries and that the Director is in fact, Gundari.
• Wham Shot: The second fight against Gouzanze, where the player is likely to go after her weak point like every other fight with the Pillar Gods, only to suddenly have a naked girl fly out of Gouzanze's body once a weak point is smashed.
• What You Are in the Dark: Subverted, all the Valkyries are aware of what happened while they are in Extar form.
• World of Action Girls: Is easier to count what characters aren't one. Justified since the Arm Virus only affects females.
• World of Buxom: Every female character is decently stacked.
• Younger Than They Look: Despite being one of the most mature girls in the cast, Momo is the youngest character in the game, only 14 years old.
  • Echigoya is only 18 despite running a massive commercial operation that covers the needs of everyone on the island.