easter.howe - 2014-12-25 18:58:16

A girl journeys to collect her father’s body parts in a fantasy world of magic and guns.

It’s amazing what a cute girl will get you to do—even watching a very mediocre show. I’ve noticed a personal trend that I’m willing to put up with a lot of shit just to see more of a cute Chinese cartoon girl. I really need to get outside and talk to more 3D women.

She's not that stupid.

Let’s start with the show itself. There’s nothing memorable about it, but the thing is...it’s not bad either. Average, mediocre, ordinary, so-so, middle of the road. It’s inoffensive. Doesn’t really strike at you. No lasting impressions. It’s like going to a Ben & Jerry’s and picking vanilla.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s “okay.”

The show is carried all by Chaika, the female lead. She’s adorable. She talks like a retard. Her grammar is criminally bad—but charming as fuck. She talks with incomplete sentences. I don’t care. I just wanna pet her and feed her and tell her nice things.

Tell me you can resist this face.

The action, the characters, the fantasy setting, the story: it’s just whatever. If it didn’t have Chaika it’d be given a 1-star for being so ordinary. As vanilla as it felt, I still enjoyed it.

Shocking truth!

junior01 - 2014-11-20 15:11:26

Please not: This review mostly involves the last 2 episodes (11-12) of the series. Whilst I avoided spoilers, there is one however the character involved is not hinted at or named.
I thought the last two eps were sublime. Felt like that after 10 eps it finally settled on its style and feel, and rather than constantly hinting at lore and not giving any, it just let the story explain what was happening at its own pace. Its also felt like that rather than trying to bundle in all the tropes of a comical series, fantasy series, and a horror-esk series, it at last found its balance, which was exactly the balance I've been praying for since the beginning. Whilst I feel that it felt slightly hollow with the sudden death of a main character at the end, and not with that happening the whole way through, I also feel that the emphasis of his death would have been lessened if he wasn't the first. So I won't gripe on about that. I also very much like how the series finally addressed the going's on which didn't involve Chaika clearly and consistently, where earlier references and development had been very unclear and vague. However, the vagueness was very well cleared up in ep 11, its just a shame that had to be done and it wasn't explained well throughout and leading up to. So overall l will hand on heart say that eps 11-12 literally saved the series for me personally. I found the early stuff intriguing, but the lack of clear cut and explained development of the lore and plot had slowly driven me away from liking the series. So I massively commend the writers for pulling this series from its massive nose dive, and making me excited for the second series.

kreiger.celestine - 2014-11-01 23:07:00

Chaika? Yes, Chaika. Chaika.

Created by the author of Scrapped Princess and Outbreak Company, this light novel adaptation is part of Studio Bone's trio of shows in the Spring 2014 season. Surprisingly, I felt that Hitsugi no Chaika was the strongest out of the three with its quirky and well-constructed elements in the storyline, characters and action department. These things help create one of the more memorable fantasy adventure anime in recent years.

Set five year after a war, which resulted in the dismantlement of the Gaz Empire, the world is now in a peaceful state much to the detriment of Toru, a saboteur who is capable of performing the ironblood transformation. Without any meaningful civilian employment skills, he spends his days, along with his sister, Akari, rotting away and waiting for the end to come. One day, while foraging for food in the mountains, he comes across a 14 year old girl carrying a coffin on her back. Eventually, she hires Toru and his sister to aid her on a quest to gather the remains of her father, who is no less than Emperor Gaz himself. Along the way, they meet the various heroes who kept a piece of his body when they defeated five years prior. On the trail of Chaika's party, is the Kleeman Corporation, commanded by Knight Gillette, who is commissioned to keep the peace and capture her. There are plenty of other factions and characters that connect to Chaika in some sort of way and each one only adds the mystery surrounding her existence.

Hitsugi no Chaika's world is curious mixture of old school fantasy and early 20th century technology. The various devices that are shown reflect this odd mashup of aesthetics like the communication room working like a Skype call or laser cannons/barrier shields mounted on a flying fortress. Traditional fantasy elements like monsters and spells exist alongside with the more modern gundos and automobiles making the setting unique among its peers. Chaika assume that the audience is smart enough to figure out the mechanics by giving out just enough information and letting the viewer fill in the rest of the blanks. Things that are casually mentioned become the center of focus several episodes down the line, like the magical fuel powering all machines and spell-based weapons. This fuel, paralleled to our gasoline and diesel, is the key concept behind the core plot, economic system, and thematic overtones of this anime. Like grades of fuel at a gas station, the Emperor remains are all in a class of their own, which becomes very apparent in the later episodes. As such, all the locales visited are interwoven through this plot device making the background feel authentic and consistent. From a town's bustling marketplace to the subdued atmosphere of a mining to an ominously unsettling interior of a floating castle, this world begs to be further explored by the viewer. Just be mindful of the demonic unicorns, roving packs of lightning wolfs and the fog of despair.

Given that a good portion the current anime  is overrun with loli, Chaika is a breath of fresh air because she is not defined by fanservice or  pointless antics. In her profession as a badass wizard, she brings the hurt through her magical sniper rifle while lugging around a ginormous coffin. In addition, she is a skilled mechanic driver, and one of the few people in the show who can operate magical devices. Aside from wrecking people's days from afar, there is a certain charming side to Chaika that many viewers can't help but be entranced by it. While her casting skills are formidable, her attempts at cooking are just downright hilarious. By attempt, I mean that firing her magical rifle at uncooked food counts as such. Also unrefined is Chaika's speech pattern, which is filled with fragmented sentences and the subject of many GIFs floating around the internet.

Toru, when contrasted with Chaika, is far more serious in his demeanor and outlook on life. Trained as a saboteur from his childhood,  his life lacks meaning in peacetimes and it is only when Chaika employs him that his mindset begins to evolve. While not as memorable as Chaika, he does have his moments of fun and is far from a cardboard cutout of a character. Although, they have completely different backgrounds, they both complement each other well both on a combat and emotional level. Both of them cover each other's weakness in combat as Toru is a close-quarters specialist while Chaika is a ranged caster. In their downtime, Toru acts as a guide and mentor to a very naive Chaika and in return, she gives him hope for a future that doesn't just involve fighting.  Their relational development is very well-done as it felt natural to have this pair grow closer together on this journey.

Providing a majority of the comic relief, Akari, non-blood related sister to Toru, is deeply and madly in love with  him. Incestuous vibes seems to be all the rage right now but Hitsugi no Chaika does it in an approach that is more akin to siblings bickering, rather than full on eroticism. Toru is very much aware and rather annoyed of her feelings towards him. Her suspicious timely interventions are done in a deadpan manner and is played out for laughs rather than being a detriment to the overall show. The last character, Fredrica, to join up with Chaika is most certainly the wildcard out of the entire party. Being a dragoon, which is the equivalent of a nuclear weapon in fantasy lore, tends to overshadow any foe quickly. She is not present all the time when fights do happen but make her presence very felt when she does decides to show up. Overall, I do think that she is a fun addition to the cast being the bloodthirsty loli, and is essential for saving the day when the plot calls for it.    

The team under Gillette tracking down Chaika is a odd assortment of former soldiers who had nowhere to turn after the war. As Gillette is a man who believes in justice and is an idealist, they are grateful to the knight for his compassion and share his in vision to keep the peace. Not much time is spent on them but I don't consider them to be the antagonists as they are quite justified in their reasoning for chasing her down. One particular member, Viivi Holopainen, is one-noted character being her infatuation with Gillette as the defining point. In a series that has a good amount of depth to the main characters, the supporting cast is a bit of a disappointment when compared to them. Many other characters are encountered along the way and they all have their own story to tell. Some you feel sorry for, others will make you want to see them on the receiving end of Chaika's rifle.

Easily one of the highlights of Hitsugi no Chaika, the fights are expertly choreographed, fast and brutal. This is where teamwork, tactics, and sheer skill triumphs over any overpowering foe or magical contraption. It smartly avoids the shounen trap of yelling out attacks and having character reaction shots by giving the audience a straight up brawl. One of the few things that I value when it comes to character is competence and it shines through during the action sequences. Each person in Chaika's party knows exactly where to go and what to do to place their opponents into overlapping fields of fire. Traps, ranged weaponry, blades strikes and  are often used in combination and in quick succession for maximum efficiency. Same goes for the opposing force as their composition is also a mixture of different class types and employ ambush tactics, which makes for some very entertaining clashes. It's not just humans that our protagonists faces for the world of Hitsugi no Chaika is filled with monsters and other very unpleasant things. A demonic-looking unicorn that shows up in the opening minutes sets the tone for how ruthless this show can be when it comes to its creature design.  

The weakest part of the show is, by far, in its visual department. It comes in a distant third when compared to Bone's other offerings  like the attractive looking Captain Earth and Soul Eater Not!. The problem stems from the lack of all the fancy shading, reflective flair and light bloom that modern anime seems to be so fond of, making it look rather low budget and something that aired years ago. Thankfully, the motion is fluid enough during its more intense scenes and it's only a small blemish in a show. I want to give props to the Seikou Nagaoka (Strike Witches and Pretty Rhythm) for a solid accompanying soundtrack as orchestral tones fits in well with Chaika's adventure.  The opening and ending are no slouches either.  Both, being of the rock genre, are filled with dark imagery and gives off a unsettling feeling that Chaika is caught up in something far greater than her goal of giving her father a final funeral.  

From the reading up on the previews, I wasn't quite of what Hitsugi no Chaika was all about. To my pleasant surprise, it became one of my top shows of the season with it charming characters, seamless world building and excellent fight scenes. My gripes with Chaika is primarily with its comparatively low animation budget and the slightly weaker characters on Team Gillette. If I could give Captain Earth's entire budget to Chaika, I would do so in a heartbeat.  However, these minor concerns should not deter viewers from diving into this show as they will be greatly rewarded through the one person that stands in the center of it all.

Chaika.
 
8.5/10

gkub - 2014-10-23 14:18:31

Episodes watched: 12 + 3

This is a very rare breed. I mean literally. This is one ofrare cases, when an anime could exist solely on 1 character (Chaika from the title), but actually tries to not to do that. A white-haired bushy-browed strangely-talking girl with magic capabilities (she uses an actual rifle (with bullets!) to cast magic) is searching for remains of her usurper father, that was killed some time ago in a rebellion. He's like local Hitler here, but with magic. And he was supposed to be practically immortal or something. The girl was supposed to be dead as well, but who cares: kawaii cannot die.

At the beginning of the story she finds and somewhat "hires" 2 "saboteurs", who can enhance their strength and seed through incantation. And the anime depicts their adventure. And it does has some twists in it (one of them is pretty sexy).

In terms of characters though... Well, IMHO only Chaika is worth the mention. Others are not "flat", but they do lack some kind of significant development. There is also a dragon (dragoon) who can turn into a cute loli, but even she feels more like an addon to the case due to very fragile motivation for the journey.

The art is really good. Just google those Chaika's eyebrows to see how good it is. And the style has a bit of steampunk touch to it, like rifles to shoot magic, magic-moved machinery... There are things to look at here.

It's strange t say, that plot is good here even though characters are not so good, but it is true. When you will not see Chaika on the screen it will be 8/10, when you see her - 100000/10

schulist.juliana - 2014-10-12 07:47:03

When I was considering watching this show I didn't expect much. But trust me, You'll love the show to death. It has a great mix of Action and Comedy. One of my new personal favorites. This show gets +1 starfish. 4/5 for my personal rating.

angelita.kulas - 2014-06-29 01:19:47

Hitsugi no Chaika was an anime produced by Bones in the spring 2014 season.
This show follows Chaika and her group of allies as they try to accomplish the goal of collecting the remains of her father Emperor Gaz, who died in a war, in order to give him a proper funeral. This show had the potential to be very great, but failed in a lot of key aspects necessary to make it so. The characters were bland, and the story really hasn't done anything new or exciting. The sound was alright, but Bones really slacked on the animation at times (although they were making several other shows this season). The last three episodes however, were quite entertaining and I really enjoyed them.
Overall, this anime is rather fun to watch at the best of times, even if it wasn't the best thing to come out this season, but I will still be looking forward to season 2 in autumn!

darius.klocko - 2014-06-26 23:58:03

People tend to give light novels shit. Whether this is justified or not, I won't go into but sometimes an author comes along that is aware of the genre's conventions and decides to differ from the norm.

In Hitsugi no Chaika's case, this author is Sakaki Ichirou, who also penned Scrapped Princess, Outbreak Company and the short-lived comedy Magician's Academy. His works are often playfully aware of the tropes and conventions of light novels and make varying attempts to stand out among the crowd.

The story starts off relatively simple. A pair of twenty-something sibling mercenaries are bored senseless in the years following the last great war. Through a series of events they are hired by a mysterious young princess to help recover the remains of her father, the former Emporer/Evil Sorcerer of a fallen kingdom so she can give him a proper funeral.

Along the way they are pursued by agents of the current regime out to capture said princess as well as getting into a bunch of other fantasy adventures. The series actually reminds me a lot of the first half the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime. The part where Ed and Al wandered the countryside and got into a bunch of episodic adventures that taught you more about the world?

It feels very much like an adventure in that sense, and that's something that had been kind of missing from anime as of late. Everything that happens progresses the main plot in some way, but each episode kind of stands on its own as a little mini-quest in various towns and areas.

The setting is mostly medieval fantasy with some unique steampunk aesthetics. Most of the magical equipment looks suspiciously like technology of yesteryear. Chaika herself carries around a magic tool shaped like a 30-40's sniper rifle. While some might complain this is lazy design or that it created a mesh of aesthetics that contradict eachother... I think those people are big dummies.

The plot starts out simple but it grow exponentially complicated the further you get into it. The execution is mostly excellent barring some things I would've preferred got more focus. The characters aren't really archetypes, but they tend to stick their preordained roles without really developing past them. Toru and Akari are basically two halves of the same character, almost comically to the degree of Edgar and Ellen. 

While the visual style gets a passing grade, the actual animation is lackluster. BONES seems to have pushed all their money into Captain Planet this season, leaving their other shows to feed off of scraps. There are tons of off-model shots, undetailed models and backdrops, a lack of lighting/shading in certain scenes, and even some jerky movement, which is odd for BONES.

BONES has a bad habit of sacrificing detail for fluidity, which is not a compromise I agree with. But even then, outside of fight scenes, which are well choreographed, the movement is often awkward and stilted, so they basically cut down on detail for no reason. It's definitely watchable, but the animation isn't earning itself any extra credit.

The OP and ED are both excellent, and the background music can be as intense as it needs to be. One or two memorable tracks stand out but otherwise the OST is fitting but not special. 

The real treat is that a second season is to air in the Fall, adapting the other half of the LNs. Which means we might actually have a full complete LN adaptation for once, which is more than enough reason to celebrate on its own. 

This is a solid fantasy action adventure series in an era that seems strangely devoid of them. It's a breath of fresh air. Can't wait for its continuation. 

Rewatch Value: Yes (Based on a Yes/Maybe/No scale)

marshall.conn - 2014-06-26 04:00:18

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 because 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 path of the awkwardly speaking, coffin carrying and confused looking moe blob 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. 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. About the world itself besides looking pretty it 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. 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.

maria58 - 2014-06-18 07:36:17

This is definitely one of those shows you need to obey the "three episode rule" with. It starts off awfully cliched, but give it some time. The flat, factory-stock characters get a whole lot more interesting (ex. protagonist actually WANTS to start a war, since he was raised as a soldier and has no purpose otherwise) and the world fleshes itself out quite nicely, with a continent rebuilding and struggling with internal issues following a massive, decades-long conflict, fallen heroes and loli-neko-tsundere-dragons. And I swear I'm not making that last one up. 

 Only real gripes so far are with the animation at points. Fight scenes are great, but if you look in the background during some of the conversation scenes, the off-side characters look like their faces were drawn with the wrong side of a cigar. But yeah. Very solid fantasy series. Emperor Gaz would be pleased.

rhett.mills - 2014-05-28 03:03:45

This anime plays out like the studio created it all while screaming at the top of their lungs. What were they screaming, you ask?

"PACING? WHAT'S PACING? YES, COLOR HER EYEBROWS IN MORE. TURN HIM RED. WHY DO YOU KEEP SAYING THAT WORD? WHAT IS PACING?"

I almost couldn't follow a single thing, it was thrown at you so quickly. You meet a wide handful of characters without much proper introduction and, honestly, I can't remember even half of their names. By the end of the first episode, the only thing I'd gathered was that I'd be highly unlikely to bother watching the second. Save yourself some time and check something else out, this season.