Hitsugi no Chaika – Sticky is Your New Name

This is review number two hundred and eighty three. This anime is part of the Spring 2014 lineup. The anime I’ll be reviewing is this show called Chaika the Coffin Princess or “Hitsugi no Chaika”. It’s a twelve episode anime about a girl trying to collect dead body parts…because she’s a freak or something. No, she’s not. Also, this is the third light novel anime I’ll be reviewing. What is up with people and LN anime? I’ve seen two subpar ones. Is this one subpar as well? Let’s read on.

Story

This anime is about a girl named Chaika. One day, she was lost in the woods and she happens to bump into a guy named Toru. After surviving an ordeal with a rouge monster, Chaika asked Toru’s help to retrieve some special items for her. After the war, a guy like Toru that was skilled to fight at the battlefield has no choice but to accept the job. It turns out though that Chaika is actually the daughter of Emperor Gaz, the main aggressor in the war. She wants to collect her father’s scattered remains and hold a funeral for him. The daughter of the guy that sparked the war now wants to collect his scattered body parts and she wants Toru to help her. With the tensions of the war far from subsiding, Chaika’s harmless little quest could actually spark another war in a world that just had one five years ago.

The show started out actually pretty interesting. Toru and Chaika meet in the woods and were immediately attacked by a unicorn. The first sight of the anime destined to be awesome was when we saw the unicorn literally split in half. Right off the bat, this is your typical standard light novel affair. We have a world with a rich background, overwhelming terms the audience has no context about like saboteur and gundo, one dimensional characters that look cool at first glance and a subtle attempt at a harem. For this show, I actually don’t mind staring at Chaika all day because she is pretty damn cute. Anyways, the show had a bit of a rocky start and I admit that it was a bit uninteresting. The show just feels a bit disjointed because the story feels too similar and the characters are a bit stiff. I think it was on purpose because Toru is supposed to be the cool “I don’t care” type. It just didn’t quite meld together that decently though. The only thing that made me keep on watching is the promise of another unicorn being split in half in a graphic manner. It was the action that really drew me in. It cuts through all the dialogue heavy scenes and the rather dull moments of the show. As it progresses though, things become a lot more satisfying and there is actually a wonderful payoff for all the boring scenes if you keep on watching. The story builds up, the characters intensify and the action becomes grander. It just had a bumpy first half but, I assure you, the second half picks it back up pretty awesomely.

This show had three plot points. They’re all nicely weaved together as it makes up the really compelling aspects of the story. The first one is about Chaika and Toru trying to collect the scattered body parts of Emperor Gaz. It’s a pretty simple set up. The two of them, along with Toru’s sister, travels from one town to another trying to look for the body parts. It is said that the eight heroes that defeated Gaz all took possession of one body part. With Gaz possessing incredible magical powers, it is believed that the body parts can be used as magic fuel to power up any machine. It can also be used to make someone insanely strong. So the story is mostly about Chaika and Toru visiting a town and then discovering that something iffy is going on around there. This usually leads them to a body part being used by a dubious person for dubious reasons. Anyways, they charge head on to retrieve the item and this usually spells trouble for the team because you’ll never know what the body parts are being used for. It can power up a strong machine, it can be used to create chaos or it can be used for something more evil. Still, Chaika is a stubborn person that would do anything to retrieve her father’s dead body and unfortunately, a saboteur (it’s like a mercenary but more ninja like) like Toru can’t disobey his employer’s orders.

Things get a bit more complicated when Chaika and Toru is become wanted people accused of trying to start another war. A group of people that is part of the Postwar Reconstruction Implementation Agency called the Kilemann Agency is now trying to apprehend the team. The one tasked to chase them down is this guy named Gillette who commands the Gillette Corps. Their job is to stop anyone that wants to threaten the peace and they believe that Chaika is doing just that. So wherever Chaika goes, the Gillette Corps is always right behind their tail waiting for a chance to catch them. Toru’s job is now becomes more complicated. He has to fend off the Gillette Corps while also charging head on to clear danger trying to collect the body parts. It is a pretty cool concept with Chaika just stealing things and Gillette going insane as he is unable to capture his adversaries. The approach is quite different though. There is an equal focus on both Toru’s team and Gillette’s team. It was clear that both of them are important characters trying to be developed. The problem is that it all feels a bit questionable at first. The story is that of a cat and mouse chase yet all the dialogue heavy scenes robs us of a chance to see that. It keeps on making us care for Gillette and the Postwar Reconstruction people as they are being overwhelmed by their higher ups. I wanted another unicorn split in half but all I’m getting is talk and it can get pretty boring. Of course, the decision to put dialogue over action is paid off handsomely once you realize the eventual role Gillette plays at the later parts of the anime …. read the full article at: The Pantless Anime Blogger