Chained Soldier Season 2

Episode 10

Normally, when the fanservice of a Chained Soldier episode is as incidental and obviously shoehorned in as this week's, it would be a sign that something has gone terribly wrong. Instead, I'm happy to report the series is thankfully running with the momentum that it gained from last week's opening round of the big fight against Kuusetsu and proving that it can stand on its own as a decent action-adventure anime, after all. For once, the show truly has no time to waste on the smut that it can't save for gratuitous after-credits stingers. Even the one in-universe of fanservice that we get from Kuusetsu is meant to be an ominous spank-bank deposit.

Granted, if you factor in the “Powerful Women Kicking Unholy Amounts of Ass” kink into the mix, then “Yokohama Showdown” might just contain the most potent mass of condensed gooner energy that Chained Soldier has yet had the audacity to brew. I'm even fine using that stupid “gooner” term in this context, because you absolutely know that a sanity-destroying edging regiment is going to be on the list of Rewards that gets doled out one of these days. I can only imagine what will happened to Shushu when she gets trapped in the orbit of that particular psychic deathtrap.

Seriously, though, Chained Soldier earns a mess of points for simply involving so many of the Defence Force's lusty ladies in this epic battle. Outside of tournament shenanigans, it's been a long time since Chained Soldier has afforded the spotlight to more than two women at a time in a scene that isn't meant to literally devolve into an orgy. Torvera, Maia, Tenka, Kyouka, and even Aoba all show up to lend their precious Slave a hand. Hell, Ren even axe-kicks a psychic nuke from halfway across the planet to try and ensure that Kuusetsu gets taken out. The stakes are especially high because we learn that Mira and the other victims who got absorbed still have a chance to be freed.

What's more, the production values here are easily the best the show has seen all season. They're not incredible, mind you. Much of the episode still very much feels like we're watching moderately animated and clearly drawn translations of manga panels, with a flew splashy cuts thrown in for good measure, but the classic mid-budget tricks of the trade serve Chained Soldier just fine. I've been making plenty of jokes about the importance of Chained Soldier's appeal as good old-fashioned softcore pornography, but it really is a testament to this episode's success that I barely registered the lack of Tn'A this week. I was too busy getting hyped over how fun this big brawl against Kuusetsu has been.

The show even managed to surprise me with its ending for the second time in a row, although this time the shock came less from an overt twist and more from the fact that I didn't mind the Yokohama battle getting drawn out for one more week. The last time we got a two-parter from Chained Soldier, I was ready for the show to move on before the first episode was even done. This time, I'm champing at the bit and begging for more. Pun very much intended.

Episode Rating:

Chained Soldier Season 2 is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.