Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Let’s talk about Hitsugi no Chaika. Long time readers might remember my review of the first season. It was a decent anime with a good story, good characters, an interesting concept, and some pretty funny moments here and there. It was an anime that surprised a lot of folks and made them fans of the series. And with the fanbase growing, it only made sense to strike while the iron was hot and make a second season. Also called Avenging Battle, the season came out in 2014 less then 3 months after the first season ended and having fewer episodes due to time constraints. Done once again by Bones (Mob Psycho 100 and Space Dandy) we continue the story of Chaika on her quest to find the remains of her father and give him a proper burial. Let’s return to our moe coffin girl and take a look at the second season of Hitsugi no Chaika.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening this time around is “Shikkoku wo Nuritsubuse” by Iori Nomizu. Holy crap, if you thought the first opening was good, you’re going to love this opening. This opening is way better and is actually a continuation of the first opening as they both have the same instrustmental but this opening just captures me more and Iori sounds as if she’s way more into this song then she was in the first song.
The ending is “Watashi wa Omae no Naka ni Iru” by coffin princess. Didn’t really like this ending as much as the first one. It starts off sounding quite haunting but then it just slips into a generic rock song that you’ll forget as soon as the credits end. Seriously, nothing in this ending is memorable and is so forgettable. The singers are good as it’s being sung by the female cast who are all good singers but not even they can save the song from how generic it is.
Episodes 1-5
The season starts off with the Six Nation Alliance talking about the events of the last episode from season 1 (good times). We find out that a month has pass from that event and everyone is still feeling the effects of it but none more than Vivi who has lost the love of her life and somehow turned into a half-Chaika which she refuses to accept (yeah, tell that to your hair). Back with the real Chaika (I assume) and the others, they have found another hero named Claudia who owns and operates a winery. She agrees to give Chaika the body part of Arthur if Chaika and the others can beat her in a fight (sounds pretty RPG-ist but I’m game,, let’s do it). The fight proves to be more difficult than they thought as Claudia is a wizard just like Chaika and unlike Chaika her incantations are shorter and stronger giving her the edge over Chaika who uses longer incantations (the magic is strong with you, but you are not a wizard yet). This results in Chaika losing with Claudia giving her and the others another chance to fight her tomorrow. Hoping to make her incantations shorter Toru and Chaika practice at night but come up with no results to make her incantations shorter (those two would have been better off making out than practicing). The next day comes and the 3 on 1 fight between them and Claudia begins with Claudia quickly getting the advantage over them.
Not much really happens in episode 2. Chaika and the others manage to beat Claudia with an assist via Frederica (that was cheating but you do watcha gotta do to win). After their victory they have tea, Claudia gives them the body part, the locations of the other heroes, and gives them food for their journey (wow, I like her. She’s like Oprah before she became fake). She also tells them about Gaz’s fortune a fortune he hid on an island somewhere long ago but nobody not even the alliance has been able to find it (the hidden quest). When the group arrives at the next hero’s house we find out that Red Chaika and her group have already taken the body part and are headed for the next one.
In episode 3 the group reaches a town by the sea (where Shelly Seashell sells seashells by the seashore) where they play in the ocean a bit since this is the first time any of them have seen it (Toru you are gonna love it here). After that they go to Clay Morgan’s mansion a hero who we find out is very traumatized by his battle against Arthur that he uses comedy to keep his mind from reliving the horrific event (you know there’s a practice called psychological therapy you should try it sometime). After successfully gaining an audience with him they manage to make him laugh and once he sees Chaika he begins to freak out and runaway (yeah Chaika’s speech annoys me to) saying that Chaika is supposed to be dead. Toru and Akari chase after him while Chaika returns to the car where we see she wants to find the island that has Arthur’s fortune hidden on it and after a bit of investigating she finds out that the island is hidden in a sea called the Evil Sea where nobody wants to sail out to because boats and sailors disappear. Toru and Akari catch Clay and he surrenders the parts to them as long as they promise to stay away from him (deal). They return to Chaika who tells them she wants to find the island (snowball chance in hell) but Toru says no because they don’t have enough information on the place. This results in an argument between the two where Chaika unintentionally fires Toru and he leaves. Now all alone, Chaika gets Frederica to fly into the ocean where she uses her gun to locate the island (man that sucker does everything doesn’t it?) and falls to the island with Frederica after being attacked by what I can only assume are dragons (this is all assuming the world isn’t following Avatar animal crossbreeding). Akari convinces Toru to go back and help Chaika where they find out she went out to sea and get Clay to lend them a ship (they lied). While sailing, Red Chaika and her helpers stowed away on the ship and confront Toru and Akari and get attacked by a kraken.
Finally, the plot begins to move big time in episode 4. After landing on the island Chaika gets captured by demi-humans and imprisoned in a magic research facility hidden within the island. The Red Chaika, her companions, Toru, and Akari make it to the island alive where the Red Chaika and her companions get captured by the demi-humans and Toru follows them to the hidden facility. Akari continues to explore the island which is overrun by those fayla monsters (i.e unicorns and orothos) and meets back up with Frederica. Toru finds Chaika where she apologizes for her selfish actions and behavior (yeah you were kinda acting like a spoiled brat back there) and they escape deeper into the facility where they reach a pool full of dead faylas (well that’s not disturbing at all) and find a talking kraken who tells them that this facility is used to study the fayla and they used his body to clone them for their own selfish reasons (don’t let me call PETA on you guys). The kraken also tells us that the magic Chaika uses isn’t really magic it’s human magic that humans artificially produced in the past. Humans captured faylas and studied magic producing their own magic and the one person who excelled at this the most was Arthur (man this guy just did everything didn’t he?). Their talk gets interrupted by the demi-humans who capture them and bring them (as well as the Red Chaika) to the facility’s director Vicktor who tells them that the facility was created by Arthur to continue studying magic and tells them the truth about Chaika (finally, I’ve been waiting 16 episodes for this moment). It turns out that Arthur never had a daughter (noo~, really? The guy who we saw had no wife didn’t have a daughter. Stop the presses). After the war orphan children were everywhere and Arthur worked out a plan saying that upon his death Vicktor was to gather up girls of the same age for his grand plan. Magic was used to alter the memories of the girls to make them believe that they were Arthur’s daughter who were all given orders to find Arthur’s body parts. Even though all of them had different motives into why they were gathering the parts they all had the same mission (http://youtu.be/sk85lYvLdjQ). After being told this both of the Chaikas are shocked at what they heard (can you blame them? They just found out their whole life was one big fat lie) but according to Vicktor they don’t have to worry about it as he plans on dissecting their brains for study (have fun mourning in the afterlife girls).
In episode 5 the two Chaikas (or the Chaika sisters as I like to call them) are being taken to the dissection chamber where they escape their captives and call a truce deciding to escape together (and then they’ll fight to see who the real Chaika is). Toru also escapes his captives and begins searching for the Chaikas while Akari and Frederica sneak into the base to help out. As the Chaikas are escaping they hide in a room where they meet Niva a strange girl (who looks like Sophie from Tales of Graces) who says she’s been waiting for Chaika (which one, the tsundere red one or the loli white one?). Chaika frees her much to the Red Chaika’s displeasure and they continue their escape where Vicktor figures they’ve escaped and mobilizes who the demi-humans and faylas on the island to find and destroy them. Toru meets back up with them and they escape with Niva outside the lab followed quickly by Akari, Frederica, Red Chaika’s companions, and the two demi-humans who were bought to the island for cloning only to be killed off by Vicktor (all for the glory of Arthur). They fight their way through all the clones and figure out that the key to stopping them is to destroy the main tower being controlled by Vicktor. Chaika uses her gun to take the tower down while Toru and the others protect her. She takes her shot but her bullets aren’t strong enough to penetrate the tower’s defense. That’s when Niva reveals her true identity, she’s a powerful gun as part of Arthur’s true fortune that he’s been secretly working on (I am having a hard time following Arthur’s plan). With the power of Niva, Chaika is able to destroy the tower and take out Vicktor in the process (who’s worthless now bitch?). Once the fight is over they all go their separate ways with Niva staying with Chaika (great another mouth to feed) with Chaika still unsure of what to do now but Toru says to just take her time and think about it.
Episodes 6-10 and OVA
In episode 6 after the group is done resting by the sea they make their way to the Principality of Hartgen where the last hero Stephen Hartgen a war maniac who has twin daughters who are Chaikas as well (the Chaika revolution is underway. It’s the freakin’ blob) is hosting a martial arts tournament (DBZ did it) where the last team standing will be awarded Arthur’s body part as a prize. So naturally all the Chaikas gather to this tournament. We have the Red Chaika, White Chaika, and surprisingly Vivi along with another member of Alveric’s team has entered the tournament to investigate it believing that Hartgen is planning something sinister (they are of course correct). Speaking of Alveric we find out that he’s still alive (thank you God) thanks to Guy who for some reason saved him at the last minute. However, Alveric has no memories of his past and is now serving as a bodyguard for Hartgen (all the players are gathering in one place). The Chaikas and Vivi pass the qualifying round and are taken to the holding grounds where the tournament will take place in two days from now (screw the wait, let’s do it now, I’m ready). Tour, Akari, and Chaika decide that rather than fight their way to the top they’ll just sneak into the castle and steal it themselves (makes sense). Toru and Akari sneak into the castle while Chaika stays with Frederica and Niva who is being taking away by Guy who says that Chaika’s mission to bring Niva here is complete and doesn’t have to worry about her no more (oh come on, we only get her for two episodes and that’s it? Man, that’s bull).
Toru and Akari infiltrate the castle in episode 7 where they run into Shin their mentor who said that Toru wasn’t cut out to be a saboteur (and look at him now) and is now working for Hartgen. They have a short fight where Toru and Akari retreat and return to Chaika where they come up with a new strategy. Toru and Chaika will form one team and fight their way through the tournament while Akari and Frederica form another and fight their way through the tournament looking for a chance to sneak into the castle (or how about this, we have a shape shifting OP dragoon in our party, let’s have it go berserk on everyone and fight our way into the castle guns blazing, swords swinging, hammers smashing, and fists flying). While that’s going on we see that Hartgen has a third a daughter who’s also a Chaika (man 6 Chaikas, just how many Chaikas did Arthur create in the world?) and Guy delivers Niva to Hartgen who wants to start another war because he has nothing to live for anymore (you know the scary part is there actually are a few veterans out there who think like Hartgen). He claims that fighting is the only thing that kept him alive and killing Arthur was a huge mistake on his part. He believes that with Niva in his hands he’ll have the power to start another war and with the help of this tournament the conditions to turn Niva into that powerful gun will be met. As for the daughters, they’re also war maniacs too (like father like daughters) who want to see the three chaikas fight (damn sadists). The next day arrives and the tournament begins where all you have to do is fight and beat three teams and steal their armbands (hey wait a minute I thought this was a fight to the death like the Hunger Games). The Chaikas and their teams make it through the first round with ease and move on to the second round except for Red Chaika who was caught cheating and her team gets moved to a special event away from the competition. As Toru and Chaika make it to the second round they decide to make the first move against Hartgen.
In episode 8 everyone gets their asses kicked. Toru, Chaika, Vivi, and Nickolai (Vivi’s partner in the tournament and current acting captain of Alveric’s team) are removed from the tournament under the accusations of cheating and are taken to a special arena where they’ll be forced to fight for the amusement of the Black Chaika sisters. While that’s going on Akari and Frederica sneak into the castle where they make their way to the top and instead of finding the remains they find a whole bunch of ninja Chaikas working for Hartgen (By God, they’re everywhere. Speaking poor grammar and everything). Akari and Frederica escape the Chaikas but they run into Shin who takes out Akari and kills Frederica with arrows (Baron: Oh my God! They kill Frederica! (Corbin): You bastards!). Back with Toru and Chaika they are lead to an arena being overlooked by the Black Chaikas who are about to watch Vivi and Nickolai fight against Alveric for their amusement (http://youtu.be/Y5JxIrn4OVs). The fight begins and as you would expect both Vivi and Nickolai are shocked to see their captain still alive (not me. Cool characters don’t die, they just come back cooler than ever) and are hesitant to fight him even though he doesn’t remember anything about them. When Alveric finally has Nickolai pinned to the ground and ready to drive his sword into him (http://youtu.be/6nSKkwzwdW4?t=3s) Vivi grabs the heavy blade and chops off Alveric’s hand (now tell me Alveric, who’s your father?). This manages to snap Alveric out of whatever trance he’s in and returns him to normal (and this fight ends in a no contest). In the next match it’s Red Chaika with David in her corner vs Chaika with Toru in her corner. They have their fight where Toru and Chaika manage to win after Red Chaika admits defeat in order to save David. Red Chaika and David get taken away leaving Chaika and Toru in the arena to face Shin (we’re going into overtime). Chaika gets captured by the guards from behind and Toru loses to Shin who once again says Toru isn’t cut out to be a saboteur because he’s ruled by his emotions.
Holy shit is all I can say about episode 9. Toru, Akari, and Frederica are forced to give the remains of Arthur to Hartgen in order to save Chaika. Red Chaika has her one remain taken away from her by Hartgen’s troops and Alveric’s team is told to stop Hartgen before a flying fortress arrives to strike his kingdom and start another war. Toru and Akari deliver the remains to Hartgen where the Black Chaika eats them with her vagina (trust me, it’s best not to question it) and gives birth to Arthur who in reality is Guy (congratulations it’s an OP final boss). Arthur kills Hartgen using magic with just his hands (he was a dick anyway) with the other two black Chaikas laughing at the death of their fake father (sluts). Arthur explains to everyone in the room (and everyone at home) that the Chaikas aren’t really human they are just magic entities that he created for the sole purpose of finding his remains and giving birth to him once again. He goes on to say that the reason he allowed himself to be killed was to gain a better understanding of the world (and getting yourself killed and making a needlessly complicated plot to be reborn in the world was the best plan you could come up with?) saying that he wants to absorb all of the feelings in the world and grant humanities wish which is war saying that all of humanity secretly desires war (not this guy. Just give me a harem of my top 11 hottest anime girls and I’ll be happy). He calls for Niva and uses her to destroy the floating fortress from faraway in one shot and then calls forth his castle which is in space (well there’s no sense in hiding it, they’re all gonna die).
In the final episode Toru finally (and I mean finally) becomes a dragoon knight with Frederica (about damn time) and goes off to face Arthur in his flying fortress. Arthur lets him in since he finds Toru fascinating (that doesn’t sound creepy at all) and Toru faces against Shin again where he finally defeats Shin with two blades to the stomach (well I guess Shin was right about the whole saboteur thing after all). Back in the remains of Hartgen castle the Red Chaika and her posse return to help Akari and Alveric’s team take down the Black Chaika and her puppets. They manage to destroy her gundo throne (I don’t know) and Red Chaika delivers the finishing blow where even facing death the Black Chaika rubs it in her face that she accomplished their mission first (whatever. Curb stomp). Toru and Frederica face off against Arthur who chops up Frederica (man this has not been her day has it?) and overpowers Toru (yeah what were you expecting to happen?). He launches them out of his fortress where they get saved by Chaika who uses her last magic bullet to shield them from his attack. Arthur than points Niva at Chaika but Niva refuses to kill Chaika because she’s developed a personality (I don’t see it. You have as much personality as the Chaikas in this anime which isn’t saying much). Niva than goes to Chaika and with their combined power they defeat Arthur in one shot (fuck. You. Anime). I kid you not folks, all this build up and the main villain of this series goes down in one shot (remind me again why this guy was such a threat in the past?). So Chaika defeats Arthur but in order to use Niva she had to sacrifice all of her memories to do it (oh God the girl could barely speak now what’s she gonna be like?). With this everything returns to normal (or as normal as this anime can get). Alveric and his team are rewarded for their efforts and Alveric retires from using the sword and takes a desk job (he kinda has to seeing as how the girl who loves him chopped off his hand). Toru, Akari, Frederica, and Chaika decide to live out the rest of their lives in peace in a cabin by the beach with the Red Chaika coming by to hangout with them (does the white one remember anything? Don’t know, never explained or looked into. The end).
We do get an OVA this season and you would think the OVA would explain the ending more right? Nope. Instead, the OVA just serves as extra stories between the group running away from Alveric’s group. The first story is of them running away from Alveric and taking over a play. In the second part they run from them in some abandoned ruins. Not worth your time.
Final Thoughts
Ohh~ this was bad. I mean, wow, what the hell happened? The season started alright and kept the flow of the story going but the final episode just kills the season. It was rushed, had a weak climax, and an ending that left so many unresolved and unanswered questions. The same can be said about the story. It’s choppy with many of the plot points left unexplained or not holding much substance such as Niva, Guy, and Vivi’s mysterious transformation. The characters are no better. We got very good and interesting characters in the first season but the second season doesn’t build off of them at all. They never get a chance to flourish or develop at all. We never explore Toru’s feelings for Chaika, Chaika’s revelation of who she is isn’t looked at with enough light or detail so that story falls flat, and the other characters outside of Akari and Frederica have no purpose being in this anime at all.
The animation remains the same as the first season so not much has changed there, the soundtrack is slightly better, as are the fight scenes but everything else is a miss. The comedy also takes a heavy it as we shift into a more serious tone about war and how it’s a cycle that can’t be stopped only to not talk about it at all and the comedy becomes non-existent removing any life or joy from this anime and flopping hard.
Final Score
My final score for Hitsugi no Chaika S2 is a 3.5/10. What started off as a decent anime took a huge nosedive and crashed big time. I like to think that the reason for this messing season is because the novel was incomplete and they had no choice but to make up their own ending but even that’s not an excuse for this terrible season. If you like this series and I liked the second season good for you, but I think I’ll be checking out the novel instead. This anime left a bad taste in my mouth, I’ll need to watch something good to wash out. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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