Chained Soldier Episode 10 aired on Thursday, spending most of its time preparing for the season’s climax next week. Even though we received some action here and there, along with some story development and a minute of the most bizarre fan service of the entire season, Chained Soldier still managed to deliver another enjoyable episode—well, for the most part.
The best antagonists are those that give reason as to why they became the “villains” in the first place. Forcing the viewer to walk along the chain-linked fence between who’s right and wrong is a key component of storytelling. However, a crucial layer to that part of the cake is you have to make the antagonists, and anyone on their side, go through proper development first to become believable in the first place.
In the case of this episode with Aoba, Naon, and Koko, there haven’t been any moments where I feel convinced. Sure, the experiments they went through and how they became what they are now can stir a feeling of sympathy, even Kyouka leveled with Aoba on this. But what kills me is that even though Kyouka and Tenka agreed with her that the atrocities committed at the Ying Yang dorm can’t be overlooked and must be destroyed, Aoba stood there and still wanted to kill both of them anyway.
So when two sides get to a point of reason and the one just shrugs their shoulders and wants to take down the other anyway, it creates a sort of a shallow antagonist, especially when the real puppeteer of everything, Shikoku, is somewhere soaking in a bath enjoying herself. Aoba denying Kyouka’s help out of distrust for the Demon Defense Corps rather than being reasonable made me shrug my own shoulders not caring what happens to her next—sorry, Yuuki.
I would say that stepping in Aoba’s shoes here would be the right thing to do to gain perspective on the situation a little better. But when she constantly says how much she loves and trusts Yuuki only to end up ignoring him out of irrational thought and emotion, it’s hard to really care and now I’m full set on Kyouka and Tenka just taking her out completely.
Fan service in Chained Soldier has been nothing more than fan service itself and a crutch for the comedic aspect of the series, which is perfectly fine. Oddly enough, the timing of it all is almost perfect. But when you implement odd fan service in the middle of something serious just for the sake of fan service, it takes away from the experience and what’s happening in the story. And, unfortunately, it did that in a way with episode 10.
I loved the team setup and who was paired with whom to fight against Aoba, Naon, and Koku respectively. Unfortunately, having Yachiho defeat one of the Naon’s shuuki in a bad-ass moment just to have half of her entire uniform strip off killed everything in its tracks, especially considering what happened with Himari right after. It’s one thing to have your uniform ripped and torn during battle like we saw in the exhibition match earlier in the season, but it’s another when everything goes silent and the camera pans up her entire body for a second as everything is torn from a single slice of the shuuki’s blade.
The other one comes with Kyouka and Tenka, mainly the latter. I understood what Kyouka had to do, I could take it or leave it, really. But Tenka joining in on the fan service out of pure possessiveness in the middle of a big conflict just derailed the anger she had before entering the cave. The jealousy surrounding Yuuki and the female cast in the series is understandable but not at a moment like this, save it for after everything is resolved when things have calmed down.
I’ve mentioned that Chained Soldier tends to separate itself sometimes from other ecchi series when it comes to story development and character development, and that still holds up to this point even in episode 10. But “time and place” is a thing for a reason.
I loved the color designs of the different backgrounds in each part of the episode. Perhaps it’s just me but everything seemed to pop a little more than usual, especially in the cave. The dark purplish-blue may have been a tad oversaturated but for some reason it fit and all the characters themselves looked great in most of the frames of the episode. The dark backgrounds involved fighting, while the lighter blue and green ones were mostly shown in moments of dialogue.
Yuuki’s voice actor Yuuya Hirose was part of a video for Chained Soldier that showed fans some behind-the-scenes production at studio Seven Arcs, which is animating the series, and one of the people he spoke with was color designer Kaoru Nishimura. So thank you to Nishimura-san for all your hard work!
I also enjoyed what episode director and storyboarder Kazunobu Fuseki did with Naon’s backstory. I know using aspect ratio in the series is nothing new, but the artwork was great and so was the camera work, especially the wrack focus when Naon saw her new hand for the first time. Small techniques like that can go a long way in taking something dramatic to another level.
I wouldn’t say anything was downright jaw-dropping to the point I spit out my drink and wondered how he did that or what was going through his mind when he did. A lot of close-up shots, some medium shots, and a few wide shots here and there but nothing too over the top. However, he handled Naon’s backstory moment tremendously.
Sahara and Shushu’s fight had its “Dragon Ball” moment when punches were flying and each cut felt like something out of the iconic series, so inspiration definitely had to be drawn from it in some capacity. However, we saw the Dragon Ball influence when we first saw Sahara fight Shushu earlier in the season. Other than that, Himari being captured is really the only development of the episode that had some weight to it and Yachiho’s scream (voiced by Nene Hieda) sent chills down my back.
Episode 10 rating: 7/10
If you loved Chained Soldier Episode 10 then be sure to vote for it in our weekly poll! Episode 11 of Chained Soldier will be released on Thursday, March 14. HIDIVE is streaming the uncensored version of the anime.
Images via HIDIVE
© Takahiro / Yohei Takemura / Shueisha / Magic Defense Corps Public Relations Department