Forum - View topicChaika - The Coffin Princess (both seasons) (TV).
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3651 |
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I think it's been whimpering since they left the island, so I wasn't really surprised by the ending being pretty lame. I did notice that spoiler["I have a personality" girl ends up chained up somewhere without much comment.]
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2831 |
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After watching this episode, I'm even keener in reading the actual ending to this series.
spoiler[ They did show Toru and Frederica forming a contract, but I didn't like the armour design for this adaptation nor the lack of exposition on why Toru chose not to form a contract for so long and only acquiescing at the last. ] spoiler[ Chaika getting Niva's help was probably the only way for Gaz to go down, but it felt a little forced. Then again, the series has not sold well so it's understandable they had to cut everything down to 10 episodes to fit budget constraints. ] spoiler[ Red Chaika would not have abandoned David and Selma so easily, so I'm wondering where they disappeared to. ] spoiler[ The ending was a bit flat (and cliched since Toru hooking up with Chaika isn't really a theme in the novels at all). Since the OVA episode is completely unrelated to the main plot, it looks like it's just an excuse to see the various Chaikas in swimming costumes. ] |
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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If only, IF ONLY, it could have been one episode longer. The final fight with Gaz should have been at least a two-episode deal. Just a little more drama, just a little more build-up.
The final battle of the 1st season had so much more weight to it. Layla felt like more of a threat than what Gaz was. It would have served the episode better if he didn't even have a speech or, at least, if he had been fighting while explaining his hamfisted conclusion drawn from 500 years of f***ing wisdom... which can be basically summed up by the following: "WAR-WAR-AH-AH-AH-AH! ROMA-ROMA-MA-MA! GAGA-OH-LA-LA! WANT YOUR BAD ROMANCE!" Humanity will find any reason to fight and kill. Genius! Give the geriatric a f***ing medal! 500 years will do a lot to a man's brain. And so will death and reanimation with magic. I'm surprised he can even put two words together since he has an anus for a mouth. Y'know what also would have served the episode better? A good ol' prequel Darth Vader "NOOOOOOOOO!" as spoiler[Gaz was blasted to smithereens.] No, I'm serious. At least the guy would have shown some kind of emotion to the whole affair taking place. spoiler[Niva leaves, he stares and watches. Chaika fires, he puts up an ineffective shield.] And he leaves the episode with nothing more than a shitty, boring, trite monologue and a quick beat down of Toru and Frederica (who didn't see that coming?). spoiler[Having his weapon betray him did make some sort of sense, and having him overlook that she would develop a personality of her own is potentially feasible.] The logic is a bit shaky, but I can work with it. What bothered me was how that entire scene played out, which was the equivalent of a flow chart put into motion: point A to point B to point C. There was no story or weight or, hell, emotion in the process. Just this happened ("shoot 357") to this happened ("no, I'm my own person") to this happened ("Niva, use memories to fire gundo") to this happened (*ERK DEATH XP*). The emotion and drama was ripe for the taking! It was there! spoiler[Toru realizing he wasn't a good saboteur! Toru's fight with his mentor! Chaika's fight with her father! Chaika sacrificing her memories to take him down!] That was the main problem I had with the second season - how dry it was. They had to cram so much into fewer episodes than normal that there was little room for drama building scenes or character interaction scenes beyond what served to move the plot along. But I think the season could have been saved if at least the final battle had more emotional weight rather than just being a neat wrap-up. Just one more episode. One more episode! Everything got resolved. Okay, yay. At least we got that from this season. But it got resolved in the quickest, driest, least compelling way possible. Urgh. I still like the series, and I'm happy it got an end at all since I'll likely never be able to read the novels spoiler[(and Toru crying and worrying over Chaika was sweet).] But it was a disappointing anticlimatic ending (though I already was predicting that it would be considering what all needed to be resolved in one episode). JUST ONE MORE EPISODE! *The eternal rallying battlecry made in vain* --- EDIT: Thinking about it more, they shouldn't have had the fight between Toru and his mentor. His mentor should have just joined their side in the fight or should have just been killed off as collateral. It was largely done to show Toru overcoming his mentor's words (Toru's own doubts), and the show couldn't deliver on the emotional weight such a fight should have deserved. Instead including both that fight and the fight with Gaz took away valuable time from both fights. Hell, lemme provide a different scenario even. Chaika is (kidnapped by Gaz, runs off ahead of Toru and the gang to fight Gaz) left to fight Gaz alone. Toru, in desperation, chases after Chaika, but runs into his mentor. Two key fights with the two key parties. Toru overcomes his mentor and jumps in to join Chaika's fight, who is barely holding on. Toru is enraged and attempts to fight Gaz, but is defeated (similar to the episode). Chaika attempts to save him and gets Gaz's attention brought on her. The rest of the episode plays out similarly to what happened. This way, both fights are included, and the two key players fight against their main opponents. And there's some added drama. |
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zztop
Posts: 645 |
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Vol 11, the final plot-related volume, comes out this 20 December. Most likely it will contain more (juicy) details on the final showdown.
Vol 12, coming in March, is a sidestory volume. It seems the anime was using its own original designs for Gaz and Dragoon Toru. LN illustrations appear more detailed. For example, spoiler[reborn Gaz looks much younger in the LNs: https://bamotaku.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/revisando-raw-de-hitsugi-no-chaika-vol-10/ Dragoon Cavalier Toru wears more detailed armour, with white hair: http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5366168&postcount=1397] |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 10 (Final)
It was not a bad episode, but it feels really clear that it could have been much better if it was spread over 2 episodes. There was no time between character actions to have the necessary emotional weight to their actions, everything was a little too quick. I wanted to feel Toru's spoiler[frustration and need to join with Frederica, and in taking on his mentor]. To know why Sticky (Red Chaika) spoiler[was kind of getting what she wanted with her father returning, but this was not actually something she wanted, and why she was happy to be with the others]. I wanted to feel that it was spoiler[love that had Chaika and Toru decide to have to destroy Gaz]. To get a closer idea to the start of the Chaika situation, and for how it ended for them. Lastly I wanted to see what were the spoiler[side effects of using her memories, what was gone how did she stay the same, and how she was recovering]. I would not call it entirely bad though. I really liked that Toru decided spoiler[to finally accept the contract with Frederica, becoming stronger, kind of cheating and giving meaning to being told he was not meant to be a saboteur]. I like that we got a Chaika spoiler[puppet showdown where Red Chaika got to Black in the face]. I liked the Toru and Chaika relationship, that spoiler[Niva had a personality and decided to help Chaika], and Chaika spoiler[did the kind of sacrifice thing]. And I really wanted to see post fighting for the groups. I will rate this season a little lower than the first, so it is a Good rating from me. The season was a little uncharacteristic as it largely did no have quite the same feeling of the first. I don't think it damaged my opinion of the series though, I have been pleasantly surprised with liking the series. Choosing a favourite episode would probably be when they introduce Frederica, and really they managed to use her without it just being deus ex thing. Kind of surprises for this series that a young girl who speaks in broken sentences does not feel like just for moe, Toru has been kind of a harem character but has not felt intrusive. Akari's flat tones and "brother" loving have not felt too creepy, she has been rather creative despite kind of not changing tone, and back to Frederica she is pretty humorous in most things like kind of creepy things in human form, love of fighting, scary in dragon form, and keeping presence in cat form. And how often can you say you can root for antagonists like the GIllete squad and Red Chaika group? Sad it is ending, but it was a good time. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3982 |
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Excellent post DuskyPredator. I agree with pretty much everything. Also I think the quickness stands out since one of the things this show did great to me for pretty much the rest of its run had been how smoothly and generally naturally paced everything was, always leaving time for an extra character interaction/reflection/reveal/or witty comeback.
spoiler[I pretty much agree with all of that, the stuff they did well and pretty much all the little flaws mentioned that made the finale merely good when it could have really come through on that emotional weight if it could have done what you said and had the time to give these last confrontations the time they could have used, as they had done pretty good in the past battles and in the season 1 finale. As you said I liked almost all of the choices of "what" they did and if they could have given each of those things just a little more time it would have been great to really squeeze the drama out of each of them in that extra episode or two. And Gaz himself would have benefited from being a battle threat for two episodes with a real cliffhanger mid-battle and a little more to build up to the final magic blows between Gaz and Chaika/Niva to flesh out leading up to Gaz standing there putting up those shields, since I had no issue with overall how it played out it just could have used a bit more drama.] Given the cut down runtime spoiler[I would have atleast liked a few extra seconds to detail Chaika's recovery from using some of her memories and Red Chaika having a few more seconds to give a more full reaction when she learned the remains were gone/used to bring him back as well as a few more seconds of reaction after Selma, Akari and Red attack (loved Red Chaika's flying kick to the face) when Black Chaika gloats and Red gets to give her that great final kick. I loved the "So what?" that she gave and I would have liked her to have a few seconds to expand on that. Technically I'm surprised they didn't do the credits over an entire story scene thing to sneak in just a bit more on atleast Chaika's recovery to atleast confirm how much she remembers given how much they had to squeeze in.] spoiler[Could not say that any better, totally sharing these thoughts on the characters. As you said with Chaika it was such a pleasant surprise that her quirks/cuteness/moe-ness were done in a way that felt like something more than just there for moe (Red Chaika talking like that in tough-talk probably contributed too), same with Akari and Toru, and Akari had some of the funniest deadpan lines. I too loved Frederica and her personality in each of her forms. And I too was immensely surprised by how the show got you really into and rooting for not only the main group ofcourse but as you said also the Gillette squad and Red Chaika's group. I was always happy to see both groups and it really made the entire world lively and it was always great watching the relations between the three groups and their characters fluctuate depending upon the situation and story progress.] Same here, loved the show it was a wonderful surprise and I'm going to miss it, I too would give the slightly higher grade to season 1, the pacing felt dead on in the first season and ofcourse it got to properly deliver on the tense atmosphere finale that this season had the pieces for but probably needed those 2 extra episodes to do again. I too would one day like to read about the more fleshed out ending the books will probably be able to have time for.
spoiler[Agreed, atleast for now I'm just going to assume that David and Selma are there outside while Red Chaika busts down the door lol.] Edit: Thanks for the links zztop 
Great images and this one was badass looking: https://bamotaku.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/tyaika_10_039.png |
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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Really sad to see this show go. A good example of a fun, fantasy adventure with a charming cast. Based on the Japanese viewership, we're probably never get a 3rd season
 Anyway, I'll check out the manga for more, and the LNs, if they ever get released in the US.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2831 |
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If there is a 3rd season, it would be completely original since the series of novels is about to end with the final volume's release later this month. |
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CoreSignal
Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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A completely original 3rd season could be interesting. Even though novel is ending, the Chaika universe has a lot of potential material for further stories. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel or prequel, or even side stories with some of the other characters. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23742 |
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I agree with the criticisms that have been noted above, although I seem to be a little happier with the wrap-up than others were. Like Key, I chuckled at Akari's spoiler[literary effort] and I got a little misty at the idea that Chaika spoiler[(presumably) has lost all her memories but is with Toru regardless and seems happy to make new ones.] We saw spoiler[Frederica the Cat bounce around, so she's still in play.] The Gilette Squad got its leave taking and will doubtlessly be helping men every where get closer shaves.
I rated this season Decent compared with the first season's Good. As I've said before, I just couldn't bond with this season. One last thing: I really wish that at some point they had Chaika and Toru realize that collecting Gaz's remains was not a good idea, but they would do it to prevent others from doing it first in the hopes of averting whatever bad outcome was inevitable. It really makes them look dumb to have the goal the entire time and then be, "whoa, there was a potential downside to gathering the remains? Who knew???" Mind you, my favourite line from the eppie was when Chaika said spoiler[she was going to give her father a funeral just before she shoots him.] 
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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OVA
A fun OVA of two stories set in the first season. Not exactly original, the first the spoiler[type where the heroes end up in a play], and the second isspoiler[ trying to get a treasure from ruins]. They both ended up being tied together by being similar in having spoiler[Frederica come in dragon form and Chaika blows the place up, with the heroes commenting on feeling bad in what they destroyed]. Personally I had some fun with this being a little silly with Toru spoiler[ending up in drag], both spoiler[Chaika's getting covered in mud], and how some of the bits like spoiler[kicking into mud] and such was petty. |
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Heh, as a fan of spoiler[Akari, I think it was fun. It's like one of those OVAs where you watch for the laughs even though they were kinda fighting for their lives. As usual, Akari misunderstands Tooru in gender bender mode. She misunderstands quite a bit
]
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2831 |
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I didn't have high expectations, but it turned out better than I thought it would. It's really the same setting for both half-episodes, only with a slightly different cast and a different process through which they end up at the same conclusion.
Another plus is the material being entirely original and not lifted from the books. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23742 |
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Red Chaika ... rowrrrr.
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13224 |
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I lost it at the "Whoever lets go is the real mother" bit
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