Takafumi

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.