Chaika: The Coffin Princess - Avenging Battle

Keichan1827 Dec 11, 2014

7

I don't even know how to start this review so let's just get to the components. I will give pretty much zero spoilers here so everything will be veeeeeeery vague.Story:The story is, of course, the continuation of the previous season. Chaika continues looking for her father's remains so that she can give him a funeral. But, during the journey they come across various questions like why there are so many Chaikas. Anyway, all in all, most of the questions were answered near the end and everything wrapped up nicely. But personally, I really think that there are still few really important questions that remains unanswered even after the finale. So, I'm left in a jumble and I must say, not very happy about the finale. Animation: The animation is very nice. Like, nice motions and effects and stuff. Yeah. I don't really know what to say so that will be all for this section Sound: The sound are good. Not amazing but like, good. Characters: I found most of the characters in this series to be very interesting. The impression that Chaika gave me first was....yeah, big. Completely white, bushy eyebrows, and talks funny. But then again, it just grew on me as I continued watching. Toru is a pretty good male lead as well and I found Akari to be pretty funny with how much she likes her brother (not related by blood)Toru. But I really did not see much development in the characters so I don't really know what to say about that.Overall: Overall, the anime was enjoyable but the fact that it was a bit anti-climatic and questions unaswered really brings down the score for me since I really hate that. Well, the reason for 7 is not only because of that of course but it's pretty much that. I hope you guys have found this very vague review helpful.

Mendacious Dec 1, 2014

7

Chaika's Talking Memorable Yes This is one of the better series I have seen recently. While it does have faults it is mostly good. When watching an anime or any piece of fiction I always ask two questions. Does it have an interesting and involving story? Does it have characters that develop and who stimulate strong reactions in the viewer? Are the story or characters memorable? Often the answer is no to both of these for some series. For Chaika they are mostly yes. This story is set in a fictitious medieval world with plenty of magic and beasts. The best part of this show is the lead female Chaika who is mostly white, which is appropriate for her name. She is a short young girl with bushy eyebrows who carries around a coffin on her back with a magic rifle, called a Gundo, contained within. Her speech is broken because her first language is different from that of the other characters. She is friendly and good natured and determined to bury her dead daddy whole. Her father was the most powerful wizard in the world a while back, before he was killed by a group of heroes, cut up and scattered about the world. The decapitated pieces of his body contain powerful magic. There are other people, some with connections to Chaika that also seek her daddy's remains as well. The quest has some interesting twists and turns which challenge our female protagonist's sense of identity and purpose. There is a good deal of mystery surrounding Chaika and her dead dad. The lead male Toru Acura is a million times better than most male leads in anime. He is self expressive and not timid, he has guile in abundance and is motivated by a sense of mission in working for Chaika that he was lacking before the story. Most importantly he is not repulsed by brutality as should be expected from a person in such a world. A few criticisms. Chaika's or Toru's character does not change throughout. We never hear Chaika's inner voice so we learn little about her thoughts in response to certain revelations. There is partial incest here with Toru's sister's persistent advances. The ending of this series is a bit anti-climactic. But another series continuing the story is promised so this is not too bad. Artwork, sound effects and music are all above par. A good fun show. I recommend it!

Takafumi Dec 14, 2014

7

As someone who generally dislikes fantasy settings, the first season of Hitsugi no Chaika was surprisingly one of the more enjoyable anime of Spring 2014, so picking up the sequel was a no-brainer. Hearing that it was only 10 episodes long, and that it would be an anime-original ending, was worrisome… but hey, that just gives me more to look forward to once the anime is over! So I went ahead and started watching. I am glad I did. Hitsugi no Chaika: AVENGING BATTLE is a thoroughly enjoyable show. It has a lot of problems, and the show ultimately fails to explore the full depth of the world it created, but it is enjoyable nevertheless. Note: As this is a sequel, if you have not seen the first season of Hitsugi no Chaika, you may want to stop reading now. The series starts a month after where the first season left off, with a couple of episodes that reintroduce us to the characters and reminds us of many of the wizarding techniques at White Chaika’s disposal. They all do pretty much the same thing, but the engrish is cute, so we’ll just let that pass. The quest to collect Gaz’s body parts is brought into focus quickly, however the big priority of the first two episodes is the state of the world after the events of the first season. We get a glimpse at the council’s affairs, and there are some well-timed check ups on both the Gillette Squad and Red Chaika’s party. These first two episodes bring to light the direction that the anime will soon take. The Council, the Gillette Squad, and Red Chaika & co. will continue to get increased screen-time, which I think is great. If you don’t care to much about the characters outside of White Chaika’s group then this might be an unwelcome change to you, but I have no big complaints about it. Equal rights for all Chaikas! Chaikas…? Chaika…? What is the plural of Chaika? This does unfortunately bring up a problem for this short 10 episode anime: by the end of the show, a lot of characters will be seemingly sidelined or forgotten in all of the action. It really brings the overall quality of the show down. All of the episodes after this are well-timed and each group get a good amount of time to shine… until the ending. I won’t say too much about it, but let’s just say that Hitsugi no Chaika sticks to the DnD-style storytelling right until the very end. If you’ve ever played or seen the ending to an average DnD game, you’ll know how it is. NO SPOILER! A quick shout-out for the animators of this anime. Now, the show doesn’t look amazing, but it is the quality I expect of an anime in 2014. The real reason I want to bring animation up is because this show (including the first season) has spawned more amazing gifs than any anime I’ve seen before. If you haven’t been looking through the /r/anime discussions on Reddit, the gifs alone make them worth checking out, so do that! A lot of these gifs are prime examples of the refreshingly comedic moments of AVENGING BATTLE. These moments really bring out the personalities of the many lovable characters in the show. Each character fits the world they live in, even though they might not be content with it’s current state. This brings up a strange problem I have with Hitsugi no Chaika… All of the characters have an end-goal. There is something they all want to fulfill… By the end of the show, it feels like all of those goals didn’t matter. It’s disappointing.That’s a fitting word for my final thoughts on AVENGING BATTLE… Disappointing. If you want an entertaining show that changes things up, and you liked the first season of Hitsugi no Chaika, then definitely pick this up. Just don’t expect to come out of it without a desire to know how the source material would handle the ending.