[Archive note:  This is a 1993 post to rec.arts.anime.  It may help
to know Valis is an anime-style video game, and the "synopsis"
is mostly taken from the game. ]


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                         Valis: Phantasmal Warrior #1

    It starts in an ordinary house, on the outskirts of Tokyo.  A young girl,
Yuko, has been having strange dreams of another dimension.  She ignores them,
going about her everyday life as though nothing is wrong.
    One day Yuko's friend Reiko comes up to her.  The day is sunny, but Reiko
carries an umbrella, which she uses a minute before a sudden, impossible,
storm.  Reiko tells Yuko of a strange person in another land, who she is going
to visit.  Yuko suddenly recognizes the description as from her own dream.
"You'll probably never see me again", says Reiko, and walks around a corner.
Yuko chases her, but falls.  When she gets up, Reiko is out of sight, and when
Yuko tries to follow Reiko's footprints in the mud, they suddenly stop in the
middle of nowhere, as if Reiko has vanished.
    That night Yuko has the strange dream again, but something is different.
She wakes up, or so it seems, but everything is silent.  Then a figure
appears.  It is Queen Varuna, of the dream world.  The dreams Yuko has been
having are real, and Varuna's world needs help.  It is being invaded by Rogles,
of the nightmare world, and Yuko's own friend Reiko is on the side of evil.
Yuko refuses to go with Varuna, and falls asleep.
    We see Yuko's dream: monsters on the streets of Tokyo.  This is what will
happen next if Rogles is not stopped; after the dream world falls, the real
world will be taken over too.  Varuna appears in front of Yuko with a weapon,
the sword of Valis, and asks her to help.  Yuko rejects Varuna, saying that
she doesn't want to be a fighter and that she can't handle a sword.  She is
only an ordinary girl, and has no special abilities.
    Varuna tells Yuko that she thinks too little of herself.  She is the
person best suited for using the sword of Valis.  Varuna waves her hand, and
Yuko is suddenly clothed in gold and silver armor.  Yuko complains that this
armor obviously does not cover enough to be protective, but Varuna explains
that it is a magical suit that affects Yuko's her entire body.  Only the one
suited for the sword of Valis can wear this armor.  Yuko agrees to help.
    Yuko's first mission is to defeat the four elemental lords and absorb
their magic.  Yuko infiltrates their temples and fights them with the
magical sword, and as each dies Rogles senses it.  He will send his greatest
fighter to defeat the interloper, one from Yuko's own world.  This is, of
course, Reiko.
    Yuko's battle seemed easy, and almost fun.  These were monsters, not
really human at all.  But next comes the point when she must fight Reiko.
Yuko falls asleep, dreaming of her home--the real world, and is once again
woken up in a parallel scene to the beginning of the story.  Reiko is
attacking, with an army of creatures from the world of nightmares.  Yuko
immediately races out, hoping to talk some sense into Reiko.
    Reiko refuses to talk, other than to say that Emperor Rogles shall rule all
of the dream world, and Earth too.  Yuko slashes Reiko with her sword, and
Reiko is knocked down.  Yuko prepares a blow with the flat of the blade, but
suddenly Reiko jumps up and to the side, and accidently takes the sword
directly in her neck as Yuko pulls back in horror, but too late.
    The dying Yuko explains what was going on.  In the real world, she had
no real friends, and her family was very cruel.  She wanted to escape, and
went with Rogles to the dream world and served him willingly as leader of his
army.  Yuko tells Reiko that she is her friend, and is sad that Reiko had to
die because of what seems like fate for both of them.
    After a burial, Yuko goes off to find and defeat Rogles.

    End #1.  The saga continues in Valis: Phantasmal Warrior #2.