Chaika – Avenging Battle Episode #8
Forget walking into a trap, let’s fight our way in!
What They Say:
Episode #8: “The Bells of Contention”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
We rejoin the death games, already in progress. Yes, the gang is still competing to reach the inner castle to get the final remains from Hartgen. At this point I’d like to note the fact that the Chaika light novels are not finished yet, and we’re on episode eight of what is likely a twelve episode season. I’m not certain if we’re going to get a cliffhanger ending to this series or a anime only ending, so my confidence on where this could all lead is starting to fail. Maybe they are stalling for time trying to stretch out what they have, although this series has already been condensing events from what I understand.
Akari and Frederica end up making their way inside and start climbing up. Vivi and Nikolai are caught by the guards after making it through the next round and told they’re disqualified for lying about their identities. What they don’t know is that Hartgen’s black Chaika girls are rounding up the Chaikas in the tournament. Vivi is sent down the same dark passageway that Red was. Toru and Chaika aren’t far behind.
While they walk Chaika reflects on what Emperor Gaz’s true motives where. I like the fact that Chaika is actively questioning what her destiny is at this point. I feel like in to many of these situations the lead girl often just conveniently goes along with everything without wondering why. Toru assumes the former Emperor wanted indefinite war, and Chaika asks if that’s what Toru wants as well. Chaika clearly doesn’t want the fighting to continue, making her one of the few in this world who doesn’t.
Leo breaks Zita and Matheus out of the cell they were being held in and a former advisor to King Hartgen explains what happened. The King returned from the final battle a changed man, despondent and unsatisfied by his victory. At least until black Chaika showed up, and offered to satiate his bloodlust once more in exchange for the remains he held.
Akari and Frederica find a room full of Chaika and coffins during their search, which attack them on sight. (The color coding thing is getting out of hand here.) Frederica goes down for the count once again, proving to be the world’s most useless dragoon, while Akari faces off against Shin.
More importantly everyone else has been sent to an arena where the black Chaika in charge wants to make them atone for their sins. First into the arena are Vivi and Nicolai, who must face off against Gillette. This goes down about how you’d expect, but I must give credit to Vivi for doing what she had to do. Then it’s Toru and Chaika’s turn against red Chaika and David. Red Chaika proves to be the idiot in the group who can’t even see who the real enemy in this situation is.
When that battle ends Shin arrives with his hostages, belittles Toru, and seizes Chaika. For the moment, it looks black Chaika is winning this war. I’m not sure what they all expected when they walked into this trap.
In Summary:
A never-ending world of warfare appears to be the end game for most of the characters in Chaika. However, I wonder what the end game is for this series itself. There are still many questions about who, if anyone, knows what the Emperor had planned for his Chaika army. Black Chaika proves to be a devious mastermind pulling a great deal of strings, but what is this atonement she speaks of? I can’t help but feel she too is just a pawn. Right now though I just want to see how everyone gets out of this situation.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.9.5, via Safari 7.0.6, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
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