Hitsugi no Chaika

For 500 years, the Taboo Emperor, Arthur Gaz, ruled the Gaz Empire with an iron fist and conducted inhumane experiments on his own people. But his reign came to an end five years ago, when mighty warriors—later known as the Eight Heroes—defeated him in a battle for the capital. His death ended the 300-yearlong war between the Gaz Empire and the alliance of six nations.

In the present day, Tooru Acura is a former saboteur from the war who has difficulty settling into the peaceful world, as he cannot find a job where he can put his fighting skills to use. An opportunity appears before him, however, when he meets a white-haired Wizard named Chaika Trabant. With a coffin on her back, she is searching for the scattered remains of her father in order to give him a proper burial, and she hires Tooru and his adoptive sister Akari to help her. However, the six nations alliance, which have now formed the Council of Six Nations, dispatches Albéric Gillette and his men from the Kleeman Agency to pursue and apprehend the late Emperor Gaz's daughter—Chaika.

With the shocking revelation of Chaika's identity, the Acura siblings must choose between helping her gather the remains of the tyrannical emperor and upholding the peace the continent strives to maintain.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Trabant, Chaika Main

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Acura, Akari Main

Hara, Yuuko Japanese

Acura, Tooru Main

Majima, Junji Japanese

Fredrica Supporting

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Bohdan, Chaika Supporting

Zougou, Saeko Japanese

Holopainen, Viivi Supporting

Nomizu, Iori Japanese

Stora, Leonardo Supporting

Yamamoto, Kazutomi Japanese

Guy Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Layla Supporting

Makino, Yui Japanese

Skoda, Dominica Supporting

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Tamura, Junichirou Producer

Masui, Souichi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Mima, Masafumi Sound Director

Tsukada, Takurou Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jun 26, 2014

Omfgakitten

Recommended

First and foremost, I went into Chaika without greatly high expectation as I hadn't heard too much about it, it was one of the least hyped shows airing at the moment.
And it turns out that it was also one of the most underrated!
So let's begin...

Story - 9/10.
The story of this anime may not look particularly original if you only read the synopsis, but getting into it it provides a really satisfying adventure-filled romp through various places. I didn't find the story either too simple or too complex, it was filled with just the right amount of twists and turns and didn't overcomplicate itself with overly ... wordy explanations, but you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't pay it full attention, as it's full of little details. What also made this enjoyable to me was the lack of fanservice - a nice refreshing change from a lot of the anime currently airing (similar to WIXOSS), which I think would have detracted from the story.

Art - 8/10.
Although it may not be the "standard" anime style, I really enjoyed the art of Chaika. It was refreshing and original, and I thought it gave the characters actual character. It looked really nice in HD and the colours were fitting - dark and gloomy when the mood called for it, and lighter neutral tones when needed. I also enjoyed the fact that Frederica (sp?) was not animated in 3D - this can often look clunky and out of place in anime, so it was nice to see. The 3D animation that there was (the air ships, some of the magic effects) actually fit in nicely with the overall art style and did not detract from the anime at all. The fights were also really well animated - they didn't look ridiculous, or impossible, instead going for a more believable style.

Sound - 8/10.
What I really liked about Chaika was not the sound, although a really good job was done with it. The opening theme, DARAKENA, is catchy and sets the mood for the anime quite well, and the background sounds within the anime were fitting - the mood was also set by little piano parts and punchier music. The characters' voices were excellent for their character - they could have made the mistake of making Chaika too "moe", and although her voice was pretty high pitched it never seemed to fall into that trap, at least not for me. It portrayed her apparent innocence very well. I also liked the fact that Akari's voice was a bit more mature sounding, as often in anime now even girls in their 20s sound like they are 5, which is frustrating.

Character - 9/10.
And here we come to my favourite part of Chaika. The cast of characters I thought was phenomenal - you have the two main characters, Toru and Akari, brother and sister but not by blood, Chaika, the coffin princess, Frederica the dragoon and a host of other side characters, each of which added something to the story. The interactions between the main characters are funny, sometimes adorable and always somewhat believable. Akari is obsessed with Toru, but it's a running gag that this show does not overuse so it doesn't come across as needy and annoying. And they both have an actual personality to support such gags, as opposed to them being essentially token characters. Chaika is a bit of a mystery - she seems innocent and pure, however throughout the story she is made to doubt herself and her purpose. I can't say much more without spoiling the story.
I found even the side characters had their place in Chaika, either adding another bit of comedy, seriousness and depth - the mysterious entity telling Chaika where to find remains, Gilette-sama and his band of followers and various other parties are met along the way and they all add a little something more to Chaika.

Enjoyment - 9/10.
Of course I very much enjoyed Chaika, I thought it was a fun, heartwarming and exciting experience. I fell in love with the characters very quickly, they're so well written and none of them seem out of place.

I would recommend this anime to anyone who enjoys a fun adventure story with bits of comedy and a lot of magic.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 25, 2014

nightwalk

Mixed Feelings

With the obvious big shot of the season being No Game No Life, a lot of otherwise also decent and sometimes even better shows get pushed in the background, while I think some of these deserved a bit more attention. One of these titles would be Hitsugi no Chaika (Chaika, the Coffin Princess) by Bones.

Just like many other titles every season, Hitsugi no Chaika falls under the category of light novel adaptations and it has many things which indicates this, such as the medieval setting with a magic system. But at some points this anime was a bit different from usual light novel adaptations. For ... example we have no teenagers as protagonists, but fully grown adults. Well, except for Chaika Trabant that is. But Toru and his half-sister Akari are both adults and saboteurs who were used in war. But since the war is over for a while now, Toru and his sister have nothing to do and are easily bored and hungry since they have no jobs. This especially affected the character of Toru as he is constantly looking for the meaning in his life in the beginning of the show, as he still sees himself as a soldier. But a soldier in a land without war and in peace is useless. Thus on an errand to gather some food for his sister and himself, Toru then proceeds to accidentally cross the patch of the awkwardly speaking, coffin carrying and confused looking Chaika Trabant in a nearby forest. After an encounter with a unicorn which gets defeated by the two, Chaika - who turns out to be a sorceress who is a bad ass with her magic rifle- asks Toru and his sister if they could accompany her on her journey. They agree and thus their story begins. I won’t go into further detail because light spoiler territory.

The story itself is rather mediocre and not that worth mentioning to be honest, but it has a few twists and turns along the way. The setting on the other hand is a nice mix of a medieval post-war world, mixed with some steampunk elements, which can be noticed especially at the clothing of some characters as well as some machines like various vehicles and guns. What really hurt the immersion of the experience for me was the severe lack of world-building and background information to the characters themselves. After the 12 episodes of the series’ first cour we don't really know that much about Toru's or Akari's past, which I personally found a bit disappointing. The world itself, besides looking pretty, doesn't offer any lore or explanations to really get invested in like say Attack on Titan or for a better example the Toaru Majutsu series does. Magic and how it works doesn't even get hinted in the slightest, and we just have to take it how it is. While this saves some annoying info dumps and boring expositions, it also spoiled my enjoyment a little, as I always would have loved to know what was going on when a spell was casted, Toru activated his blood-iron transformation, you name it, thus making the story part easily the weakest point of the show for me.

But thankfully, though we have a really lovely cast of characters to help the show along the way. Let’s start off with our main trio which consists of Toru, Akari and Chaika. Later on we get one additional side character that is rather a plot device than a real character on her own in my opinion. Like she’s just there to clear an obstacle or help a few times in battle but doesn’t do too much besides that. The main three on the other hand serve the plot very well; none of them were annoying or hurt the experience for me. And when some battles take place - which is not a rarity - the whole group got involved into the battles. No one really stood at the side lines and watched, no. They were all active which made the well animated action scenes all the more powerful. Also great to look at were some of the saboteur tactics and gears used by Toru and Akari during said fights. While we not always get explained how they are used, they are always there in the right time and are used practically to make the battles appear a bit more strategic and thought out. This was an aspect of the show I really liked in the beginning, but when we advanced after the first half of the show things started to slow down a bit. The action was still there but not in the dimensions like in the beginning. But thankfully the last two episodes speeded up again and gave me more of the exciting action I was hoping for The character development of the main characters wasn’t anything outstanding but noticeable, so it was there.

On the other side of the spectrum we have Gillette-sama and his companions, trying to stop Toru, his sister and Chaika from completing their goal of spoilers. Gillette is a soldier and nobleman trying to fight for the sake of good because they and the high class people think Chaika and her new found friends are a threat to the peace of the land. Toru and his group actually appear like the bad guys for a change as they are confronted by Gillette as they are supposedly the trigger for another war. Unlike every other light novel main character would try to fight for there to not be war, Toru doesn't really care. Why? Because he's a soldier, a weapon, and a weapon without a use is useless in his eyes. These made for an interesting change in perspective in the early parts of the show and made this show stand out from the usual clichés and tropes a bit. Unfortunately they didn't really do anything extraordinary or worth mentioning with this premise later on...

Overall the characters were all likeable in my opinion, especially Toru and Chaika really grew unto me and I even understood the "villains" as they got a surprisingly huge amount of screen time during the course of the 12 episodes. Story wise it came to a satisfying conclusion with a cliffhanger plus an announcement for a second season in October. Count me in.

In terms of visual and audio the show didn't really do much to me to be honest. Even though the colors were bright and the character designs rich it somewhat looked cartoony and lacked detail at some points, pretty disappointing for a show made by BONES. Thankfully during the fight scenes when it wants to look good, it does. The soundtrack was sadly barely noticeable and the Opening as well as the Ending song weren't that outstanding either, but fairly alright for my tastes. Otherwise the soundtrack ranged from average to slightly above average.

So, we finally get to the verdict. Should you watch Hitsugi no Chaika? Well, that depends. On its own it's by no means a special anime in any particular way, so it may be just another time sink for about 5 hours for you. But if you're trying to catch up with the less bad stuff of spring 2014, I'd definitely recommend you to check this one out. It may not blow your mind but I do think the hours with this were well spent and even if you’re just looking for a small action snack, this one should do you well.

Scoreboard:

STORY: 5/10 (okay premise but it didn't do much with it, lack of world building was disappointing)
ART: 6/10 (pretty colors and character designs but an often lack of detail, good action scenes)
SOUND: 5.5/10 (just slightly above average as the OP and ED songs were alright)
CHARACTER: 6/10 (likeable characters but a lot of background info to them was missing)
ENJOYMENT: 7/10 (I had a good time with it, only after the 1st half it slowed a bit down)
----------------------------
OVERALL: 5.5/10 (Mediocre)

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 4, 2015

TzKal-Zuk

Not Recommended

The action genre may have been the genre that pulled in many anime fans, such as those long running shounen series that is widely known in the West. Growing up, those were the sort of things found on mediums like Toonami and introduced the medium of anime to the West. Being someone that falls into this category, I wasn't fond of the long running series, but always have a guilty pleasure of finding enjoyment in the action genre. I have been watching action/adventure series recently and stumbled across this which had a not so interesting premise but a promising first two episodes. Well this show ... certainly left a mark on me, a deep wound filled with venom that gives me nightmares just thinking about.

The plot is simple and its good that it is, anime series that expand upon the simple plot seem to do well. Chaika introduced a lot of plot points early and it seemed like it was going to have promising payout had it been handled correctly. Unfortunately for those who have watched it, no answers are given and frankly the new plotpoints brought up are just not interesting. Really, this is some of the most simplest, watered down type of writing which a 10 year old with imagination could come up with! So many plot points are shrouded in mystery and the writer had one job, to answer those in a fluid manner that doesn't detract from the overall plot yet we are given new things to think about. Closure of these ideas are critical in good story telling and if the reader of this review is looking for that, pass on Chaika.

Characters are boring, stereotypical archetypes that we find in tons of anime, exception being the male main lead, Toru. He has actually has characterization to him and I've grown accustomed to seeing "me vs the world" kind of archetypes, so I don't mind his actions. However, the rest of the cast is reduced to satisfy anime tropes. The ditz, the childhood friend jealous, dense antagonist, blah blah. Full of lame characters with lame interactions, and also the females are reduced to sexual eye candy which isn't a problem itself but the show is not very subtle with it. Development is an issue as frankly it was non existent and they seem to be there just for the plot to move along. It is a poor excuse at moving the story along and seemed force.

Sound was...wait there were sounds? Probably was but my disatisfaction for everything else must've lowered my perception of other elements. OP/ED are ok, good animation for it I guess. Sound for the voices fit their archetypes and really brought the tropes to life. Not a fan.

Animation was underwhelming to say the least, action anime should have action scenes. There was a lot of building up/setup for the fights and a lot of them ended up being a 30 second moving with commentary type of scene. In the end, resolved within seconds and not impressed. Also, what is up with the females eyes??? Who knew everyone would have mascara or eye liner w.e the fk it is above and below the eye?

Chaika is like waiting in line to get a video game at midnight and you just reached the door in the long line. People who have bought the game say there is only 10 copies left and you're the 11th person in line. Thats the feeling I get from watching this. Anticipation for plot points and the disappointment from not getting any answers. I am usually a fan of action/romance/adventure but this is just on a different level of poorly handled. Too much is left to be desired and while I haven't watched the 2nd season, I doubt any answers are in that as well. I stress the plot for the show because there are too many convenience factors within it. Characters were too meager and inconsistent for me to remember.

SPOILERS



and wassup with the romance being between a 14 and 20 year old. The brotha has a partner at the same age right next to him. SMH japan ur doing it wrong

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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