Anime: Hitsugi no Chaika

• Hitsugi no Chaika is a medieval fantasy anime focusing on Chaika’s quest to gather the remains of her deceased father, Arthur Gaz, in order to give him a proper funeral. Emperor Gaz was a powerful and evil wizard who ruled the Gaz Empire for five centuries until he was defeated by eight heroes, bringing an end to a three hundred years long war. The world is now at peace, and our protagonist is a former saboteur who is jobless in peacetime. Chaika encounters him in a forest and decides to hire him and his sister to help her in her quest.
  At first glance it looks like your generic stuff
  The few early episodes make it look like it’s a garbage show. Every characteristic of the generic fantasy anime is there, from the very unoriginal art-style with the character designs that don’t fit the universe (weird haircuts, colored hair, clothing that is impractical for fighting…), to the excessive use of magic circles that all look the same and can do about everything modern technology can do including fuel, rifle cartridges, projectors, microphones and even fixed telephone. You can only be thankful that there are no magic cellphones or magic espresso machines. But you can’t be very thankful either since one of the main characters is a goddamn sniper loli with a Victorian dress.
  The genericness applies to the backgrounds which, even though they are well-drawn, look pretty dull in the few early episodes. It also applies to the characters designs, which are for the most part generic and forgettable. The best examples are Fredrika and Vivi: their character designs are very similar; you will have a hard time telling them apart in the beginning of the series.
  The opening, the ending and the background music are also unoriginal. The opening is generic and bad; the female singer doesn’t know how to sing. The ending is pretty much the same, but with Chaika naked. Great.
  But surprisingly, it’s not that bad
  I would even say it’s an okay anime. Firstly, thanks to the animation, which is actually of high quality overall. It is clean and smooth, there are few to no inconsistencies, and few static images. The fight scenes look very good. Even if the backgrounds in the few early episodes are pretty unoriginal they are well drawn and well detailed, and as the series progresses we get to see some more original ones. There are a few cool buildings and vehicles, for example the steampunk-looking floating fortresses that we see in the three last episodes. Even the CGI is alright, with cool looking vehicles made out of wood and iron.
  Secondly, the story and characters are somewhat decent or at least, not utter shit. You have a clear objective for the main characters which is gathering the late emperor’s remains, and it is implied that the completion of this objective will have important and harmful consequences, as it could potentially revive the evil emperor. There are also some secrets, like who was actually the emperor, what happened to the eight heroes who killed him, was he really as bad as people say, among others. Some of them are unraveled in this first season. For once, the protagonist doesn’t have morally good intentions. He and his sister actually want the world to be at war again since as former soldiers they have no purpose in a world of peace.
  Lastly, there is at some moments decent comedy – I am not talking about the incest jokes – which makes the anime more entertaining to watch. Nothing incredible, but it made me chuckle more than most “comedy” anime series I’ve watched.
  Still, it’s nothing great
  I have already mentioned some of the flaws in the first paragraph, but there is more. Even if the characters are somewhat better than average – and in the wonderful world of anime, average means garbage – they aren’t all that great either. Chaika is made slightly annoying by the fact that she is a naive, clumsy child who easily gets scared, shocked or happy. Sure she is cute and all, but that isn’t enough to make her a likable character. Then you have the protagonist’s violent sister with big boobs, Akari. Oh sorry, did I say sister? Actually they aren’t related by blood. Totally didn’t saw that coming. But it doesn’t matter since she will still call Tooru “ani-sama” (TL note: ani-sama means “big brother”), and make predictable, unfunny incest “jokes” by attempting to murder him each time he gets too close to another female. By the way, despite the fact that they are very poor (they live in an old run-down house and eat bugs), Tooru and Akari still manage to be clean and well-clothed. Not very coherent.
  During their quest, the main characters are chased by a group of people sent by the government (the Kliemman organization or something like that) because gathering all of the emperor’s remains would have grave consequences on the world. The characters of this group aren’t good. You have a boring romance where one of them, Vivi, is in love with the leader Alberic but doesn’t have the courage to confess her feelings, and will do everything she can to be noticed by him. For some reason there’s also a goddamn cat-boy in the team. These guys are bad at their job. The best example of their incompetence is when after a fight between Tooru’s group and some other guys, one of them asks “you think a magic battle took place here recently?”, when they were literally 20 meters behind and should have seen everything. In an episode you also see them doing shopping, because that’s relevant to the plot, apparently.
  Other problems include cheesy lines about finding a goal or following your convictions, and some fan-service (suspicious camera angles showing the loli’s thighs, bath scene…).
  Bad naming syndrome
  People seem to think that characters’ names is a minor detail, it isn’t. The characters’ names are said in practically every dialogue. If the names are bad it will automatically hinder the dialogues. In this anime the names sound European, with the exception of Tooru and Akari (because saboteur = ninja = Japanese), so you have random and ridiculous names such as Gillette (like the razor brand), Trabant (like the East German car) or Vivi (like… nothing). For the love of god plot writers, choose better names. If you have to give your characters European names, pick names that are actually used by people, not brand names or European-sounding syllables soups!
  Pedophilia
  Yet another anime that portrays a romance between an adult and a child as something normal. How am I not surprised? According to the synopsis, Tooru is 20 and Chaika is 14. By the way, it would still be pedophilia even if she wasn’t 14, as her body, her behavior and her character are that of a child. Seriously. As of today, I have reviewed 25 anime (not including this one). 5 of them had some form of pedophilia. In all of them it was portrayed either as acceptable, either as “funny”. Disgusting.
  Verdict
  Hitsugi no Chaika starts out as generic garbage and ends up as an okay show. The plot and the characters are slightly better than average (average meaning bad), and the animation is of high quality. There are a few cool things here and there, a few good comedy moments, and good fight scenes. It is a somewhat entertaining show that is easy to watch. I would recommend it to fans of the genre, but it has nothing new or incredible.

Note: This review only contemplates the first season of Hitsugi no Chaika, a second review covers Hitsugi no Chaika: Avenging Battle.

---

Review
There is a special kind of charm to medieval fantasy, a charm people from the west grew up with. It was born in Tolkien books, shown in Dungeons & Dragons, taken across games such as Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age, and evolved in the big screen with the epic movies such as 300 and Lord of the Rings. What the hell does it have to do with Hitsugi no Chaika (Chaika)? You may ask.

Well, Chaika is yet another japanese attempt at medieval fantasy. It is a tale about a mysterious princess in search for the remains of her father, the emperor of the greatest nation in recent memory and believed to remain alive for hundreds of years through epic magic. Chaika's quest to bury her deceased father, slain by a group of heroes who brought a new age to the land, puts her in the path of Toru and Akari, two mercenaries siblings who have lost their utility since the wars have stopped after the fall of the emperor. She asks them for aid in her quest, and from there her mysterious past and the tale behind the emperor's fall start to get clearer.

You get a similarity with Scrapped Princess? Yup, this is made by basically the same people of the 2003's great medieval fantasy show and has much of the progression, style, atmosphere, and setting of it, although slightly overwhelmed by the "modern" character design.

Overall it is a decent idea for a medieval fantasy show. You have a clear objective, you have a land with a dramatic change from war to peace, the mystery behind how such powerful emperor was defeated by these eight heroes, and Chaika's past itself. It is not the most innovative thing ever, but can serve as a starting point for any kind of RPG adventure if you ask me. So, where lies the problems?

---

1. The atmosphere
   Japanese works have always failed to capture the charm of medieval fantasy I mentioned at the start. Very few were the shows that brought us something clear and inspiring. They typically lose this aura when the lame humor kicks in or when the character design is basic or exagerated for its tale from the start. Rune Soldier Louie is dumb, Slayers is more of a comedy than anything else, Orphen is just average, Loddoss War nearly gets there but is kinda boring, etc.
   
   Chaika is yet another of those. It fails to build the atmosphere of its medieval setting when Chaika herself is a loli dressed with a gothic lolita cosplay, when 90% of the female cast are just silly young girls blushing and thinking of love, when the villains become just comical stupid figures, and when the setting itself behaves more as modern Japan than medieval europe (this is no asian feudal stuff).
   
   The plot thickens at least
   Despite not creating a decent atmosphere, Chaika's plot is quite engaging and the pace is surprisingly good. You are quickly thrown to believe something is amiss when it comes to how the eight heroes rose to power and that Chaika is more than "just" a princess. Pursuers, political interests, and new characters pop from time to time to keep things fresh. Their design and behaviors are just as dumb as you would expect by looking at Chaika, but their purposes and stories prove out to be worth of a watch.
   
   Adventure!
   Chaika's adventure is a fun one. She meets the two mercenaries, find mysterious look-a-likes, gather the aid of a overpowerful dragon, and so on. There are many events that, although not exactly original or breathtaking, contribute a bit to turn the experience into something fun, be it for the fights, the comical parts, or just the moesque fanservice. As typical of current shows, however, this is just a part of the big tale, a first season for more yet to come.
   
   The "Charming" Style
   Animation studio Bones once again does a great job. The character design does not help, surely, and you can't expect much from a show where half the clothing of the girls looks like some sort of decorated swimsuit. The cuteness of the art, the sharpness of it, the bright colors, and the decent and fluid animation, however, turns Chaika into a gratifying visual experience.
   
   The sound direction does an average work, calling for some of those weird j-pop that somehow got related to gothic stuff (Rozen Maiden, for example), and giving us a decent voice-over. Chaika herself, even with all the cutie-cutie art and voice, manages to be fun at times with her weird form of speech.
   

---

Comments
I think Berserk was the only medieval fantasy show to ever get the feeling I had when playing Dungeons & Dragons with my friends. A serious setting, magical stuff, demons, hungry mages, gods, awe, and everything else rarely gets to shine when japanese authors throws in lolis, comical relief every second, fanservice, and modern references or behaviors that has nothing to do with the setting. These issues, however, are not exactly bad points, it just serves to show that authors in the east still tumble on their own legs when they try to conceive a western-based setting, something that doesn't happen when they create some fascinating medieval Japan/China worlds.

Anyway, Chaika yet proves to be as fun as some of the decent medieval fantasy shows out there. This happens because it manages to keep a steady pace, it offers fun events at many turns and it embraces a light approach on its serious premise that helps in the long run. It works better for moe fans or people who are up to things like Sword Art Online mixed with Toradora, but can also please everyone else who is looking for a good adventure.

Notice: This review covers both seasons of this anime.

This show seems at first to be like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, about a group of adventurers going from one area to another, gathering artifacts, while fighting monsters or other adventurers, and eventually taking part in a sinister plan that threatens a whole empire. At the same time, the premise of the story is a subversion of the classic epic fantasy formula, since it begins where normal epic fantasy ends. The evil wizard is already defeated, the heroes won, their leader became a king, and the world is at peace.

The catchy part is how many years later, lots of factions are discontent with the king and are ready to go to war, while the heroes who had nothing to do in times of peace become shadows of their former selves. At the same time, the protagonists of the show are close to bad guys, mercenaries who want to defeat the heroes, and begin a new war, so they can profit from the chaos and death.

With such a brilliant get-up, we could have a masterpiece if it was written and animated properly… and we didn’t because the damn thing is a light novel. Despite the occasional dark tones and creepy moments full of death and despair, nothing is taken seriously, the plot is running on convenience, and the author was more interested in making the characters quirky and gimmicky.

To its defense, if you see it only as a light action / adventure, it is actually pretty fun. Despite being based on light novels, there are no done to death Japanese high schools in it, most characters are adults instead of teenagers, and the setting is western medieval in looks with a weird mix of magic and technology. Superficially, it is doing a decent job at entreating a casual audience.

The early episodes had a fine introduction of main characters, making you care about them, while not forgetting to offer you lots of well animated action scenes. They have far more choreography, motion, and strategy than most fighting shonen do, with fancy visual effects which do not hide gore. In most shows when a monster dies it goes poof in stardust, but over here they are butchered to pieces and blood is splattered everywhere.

The protagonist is Tooru, who would be a great character if his behavior wasn’t so dry and the show was taking itself seriously. Despite having that bland personality all light novels protagonists suffer from, he is eons better than most of them, since he doesn’t want to protect the world or save the empire. He craves fighting and wants to constantly be in the middle of a battle instead of spending his life in peace.

The co-protagonist, and trademark of the show, is Chaika, a girl who has a very noble cause in mind. Being the daughter of the deceased evil wizard, she simply wants to give him a proper funeral by gathering his scattered remains. Combined with how she is also a powerful magic sniper, she could have been one of the very few respectable and dynamic female anime characters. And sadly she isn’t, because the author treats her like retarded goth loli maid that says silly things in broken Japanese and acts cute for the sake of pandering to the otakus.

Despite their shortcomings, these two make a fine duo and were more than enough to carry the whole show. I can’t say the same thing for other major characters, who were excessive baggage. Akari for example is Tooru’s sister. She has the same bland personality and the exact same fighting skills. Why is she in the story? So she can offer incest jokes. Because what kind of a light novel would we have if it wasn’t promoting incest?

Then there is Frederica, the loli dragon. She began as an adversary who wanted to kill them, but because the script is so lazily written, she becomes an ally out of nowhere and constantly saves them thereafter. Her inclusion to the team ruined most of the excitement in battles, since she can pretty much do anything. She has a dozen broken powers that offer convenient plot armor anytime the plot calls for it.

There is Niva, a loli weapon of mass destruction that again because the script is bullshit, gets emotions out of nowhere and goes against her programming, helping the protagonist instead of killing him.

And in case one kawaii Chaika wasn’t enough for you, there is also red Chaika. And then blue Chaika. And then fifty black Chaikas. Did you notice how I don’t mention any other male characters? Well, it’s because none deserve to be mentioned. The only memorable ones who have importance to the plot are all female, making the whole series to seem like a harem.

Ok, there is also the big bad of the story who is male, but he is such a joke of a villain that I hardly see him as a character. It’s Gaz, the dead evil wizard, who wanted his remains gathered, so he can be resurrected. Something that was obvious from the start but none of the characters in the story could see it coming. I mean, come on, they are only gathering the perfectly preserved remains of a powerful wizard for a funeral, there is nothing fishy about that. This guy is another Aizen. Everything is supposed to be part of his plan, he thinks everything is working in his favor, and yet he keeps making these completely retarded mistakes that lead to his obvious downfall. Despite all his bold claims and epic level powers, he never felt dangerous.

This show could have easily been so much more. You end up watching it for the action and the moe girls, with the danger of a new catastrophic war and the resurrection of the evil wizard being nothing but excuses to move from one fun adventure to another fun adventure. There is no real excitement and even the finale was done in a very rushed and messy way that doesn’t leave you satisfied. But look on the bright side. No Japanese high schools for once.