Chained Soldier – 12 (Fin) – Money on the Table

While Tenka saw her future with Yuuki and Aoba flash before her eyes last week, we get more of Kyouka’s past flashing by here in the finale, as we see the peace and happiness and love in which she grew up turn to ash, and everything she did to become stronger.

She’s fueled by the desire to avenge her hometown and everyone in it, just as Yuuki is fueled by his desire to save his sister, protect his friends, and stand beside Kyouka. Their combined resolve manages to defeat the berserk Unihorn and force an impressed Shikoku to retreat.

With both Coco and Naon being captured by the enemy, Aoba is determined to rescue them. But while she trusts both Tenka and Kyouka to have her and her brother’s best interests at heart, she can’t trust the organization they work for, so she declines their offer to help her.

Kyouka vows to become Supreme Commander, so she can change the policies of the Demon Defense Forces, protect Mato victims like Aoba and her friends, and maybe one day find a cure to their condition. Aoba heads into hiding with a new appreciation of her little brother’s strength, knowing he’ll be just fine until they meet again.

That said, I doubt she’d be okay with Kyouka sharing her bed with Yuuki for a night as his reward while they’re both in their underwear. It’s pretty tame by reward standards, but then again it’s based upon Yuuki’s imagination, so perhaps he can’t quite imagine going all the way with Kyouka (or any girl, for that matter).

The rewards of last few episodes have seemed more of an afterthought; like the show knows this is the system it has set up in order to operate in both the sci-fi action and ecchi spheres, but its heart seemed to be much more in the family dynamics and combat.

That’s evident by how happy lil’ Nei is to see Yuuki when he returned with Kyouka, and how the two go all out to prepare a huge feast for everyone once they recover from their battle injuries. Honestly the sell for Chained Soldier for me is more about these lovable, nicely-designed characters, whether they butt heads, get along, or fight over Yuuki.

Of course, while Tenka can still sneak into Yuuki’s room with her ability and mount him whenever he wants, the fact remains that he’s Kyouka’s “servant” first and foremost. When Nei detects a horde of Shuuki and the 7th squad is mobilized, they’re the ones to deliver the coup-de-grace to the big Shuuki boss.

Since the show kinda just ended with a kind of summing-up of this dynamic, with lots of stuff still to do, either a second season will come along (Update: second season confirmed) to continue the story, or those interested will have to settle for reading the manga. And while I can’t yet commit to a second season, I also won’t deny that I had fun watching this one.

Chained Soldier – 11 – A Common Enemy

While it looked like the humans were poorly matched against their opponents last week, the tables are gradually turned here in one battle after the other. While Kyouka takes on the Unihorn, Tenka finds that Yuuki’s sister (her sister-in-law) moves so fast, all she can do is flee by teleporting; there’s no time for an attack of her own.

So Tenka, who can teleport 666 times in a row, just keeps playing defense, counting on Kyouka to eventually defeat Unihorn and help her out. As she teleports away again and again, she’s also learning Aoba’s movements. That’s the DDF Commander Difference: extra attention to detail and above all, patience.

When Coco reveals that she’s super slimy and her trusty dog is nigh invincible, Shushu and Sahara switch it up. Instead of being huge, Shushu shrinks to the size of a baseball, and Sahara launches her into the dog’s mouth. Then she grows to huge size again, and the dog explodes in a grisly cloud of gore, bone, and fur.

This, of course, it’s the largest plot hole in Avengers: Infinity War: Ant-Man could have easily gone up Thanos’ **** and blown him up from the inside. Anywho, Sahara grabs one of the dog’s teeth and uses her highest-level Sheep power to launch herself at Coco, slashing her across the abdomen. Great creativity and teamwork from the muscle-heads here.

How does Yachiho deal with Hinami suddenly being choked out from behind? By simply rewinding time. Every time Naon and her spider show her a move, she’s able to go back in time and counter it. When she needs a rest, Hinami protects her in kind, by among other things sprouting a hundred guns from her hair and firing them in all directions.

When some of the bullets hit Naon hiding in the wall, Yachiho rewinds time and targets her directly. While they’ll alway be a little hostile or competitive with each other, it’s more than clear that Yachiho and Hinami love each other dearly and will always have each others’ backs—literally in this case.

That brings us back to Tenka vs. Aoba. She’s gotten into such a repetitive rhythm of dodging attacks and teleporting that Aoba is totally caught off guard when Kyouka breaks that rhythm with her katana. She makes it possible for Tenka to finally use her attack for offense. But when she has Aoba right in her sights, she hesitates.

Aoba strikes her down with a direct hit, and asks her why she hesitated. Tenka’s answer proves her love for Yuuki: she didn’t want to make him upset by killing her. Aoba assures Tenka she didn’t need to go easy on her, but she also beams as brightly as we’ve ever seen her as she thanks Tenka for thinking of her brother’s feelings. She’s decided she likes Tenka now.

Mind you, that doesn’t mean she wants Tenka to marry Yuuki, but in her battered, possibly concussed, yet mostly lovesick/horny state, Tenka can’t help but hear Aoba’s words and start visualizing a life with Yuuki  as her husband and Aoba as her sister-in-law.

It’s quite simply sweet as hell, and if it brings the battle to a screeching halt and serves as a momentary truce of sorts, so what? Battles are fun, but character stuff like this is fun too, and really deepens my connection with the characters. This isn’t good vs. evil. These battles only even started because hotter heads prevailed.

Turns out it’s a good thing everyone stops whaling on each other at this point. As soon as Naon and Coco appear before Aoba with Shushu, Sahara, and the Azuma sisters in tow, the two “godlike” humanoid Shuuki Shikoku and Jouryuu blast a hole in the cave ceiling and descend.

To the humans’ surprise, these two are not on Aoba’s side; in fact, they consider Aoba and her friends to be “mutts.” Shikoku introduces them as the “Eight Thunder Gods”, leaders of the Shuuki. One stomp from Jouryuu sends everyone flying, and when one of Shikoku’s snakes bites Unihorn, it turns on Aoba.

Clearly, these two are extremely powerful, possibly more powerful than Aoba, Kyouka, and Tenka, especially when they’re already extremely beaten up and fatigued. But that mighty wind Jouryuu kicks up? Aoba shields Yuuki and Kyouka from it, and when she’s down on the ground and Unihorn is about to deliver a critical blow, Kyouka comes between them—while riding a freed Yuuki.

If Coco can get herself and everyone healed and they find their second wind, I’ll take all of them plus Yuuki working together against anyone, any day. It’ll be an uphill fight for sure, but it looked that way for the humans last week. A lot can happen in twenty minutes, and Shikoku’s naked arrogance might be something that can be exploited.

Chained Soldier – 10 – Caught in the Middle

Naon tells Yuuki the story of how she was just an ordinary human model doing a shoot when she ended up in the middle of a Mato mishap. She tasted a peach, which then went haywire, and the next thing she knew she was a captive research subject of the Onmyou Bureau slowly transforming into a shuuki. It was cruel, inhumane ordeal that makes her desire for revenge valid.

But that validity begins and ends at the Onmyou Bureau, and the people who hurt her directly. It should not extend to the entire human bureaucracy in Mato, including the Demon Defense Force. And yet, despite Yuuki’s protests, Naon, Coco, and his big sis are itching for a fight, alongside their hulking monster familiars.

Kyouka, Tenka, and the others arrive outside Aoba & Co.’s cave, and Yachiho uses Golden Hour to instantly defeat all the small fry. She and Himari take on Naon’s weapon-wielding spider-like familiar, while Shushu and Sahara face off against Coco and her bear-like familiar.

The melee abilities of our wrestler girls are a poor match for Coco’s ability to make herself slimy and slippery, and her familiar’s near-invincibility. Yachiho’s Golden Hour ends up working on the spider monster, but it used itself as a diversion so Naon could ambush Himari with Yachiho too far away to help.

Meanwhile, Kyouka successfully tracks down Yuuki, and I love the way Tenka wordlessly opens a portal, walks through, nabs Yuuki, then walks back and waves to Aoba. Kyouka still owes Yuuki a reward, so she starts sucking and licking his fingers. Tenka joins in despite not under the effects of any contract, because a.) she must feel left out and b.) she really is into Yuuki.

When Aoba finds them and rushes at the girls, Yuuki stands between them and halts her attack. He tells Kyouka and Tenka about Aoba and the other humanoids’ circumstances, and how they’re victims to. Kyouka promises that the Onmyou Bureau will pay for what they did, but Aoba doesn’t trust her. Tempers flare, and Aoba ends up tying Yuuki up with her hair so that he’ll be out of harm’s way while she fights Kyouka and Tenka.

Kyouka ends up taking on Aoba’s Unihorn familiar, making Tenka Aoba’s first opponent. When Tenka introduces herself as Yuuki’s girlfriend, it enrages Aoba (who is a bit of a brocon) that much more, hopefully to throw her off balance.

With Naon and Coco in firm control of their battles against the others and the mysterious Shikoku ready to make a big move, things are really starting to heat up. But don’t get it twisted: the show remains committed to tossing in as much ecchi content as it can.