Chained Soldier Season 2

Episode 11

“Slave: Heaven” is a perfectly appropriate title for this penultimate episode of Chained Soldier's second season, since the climactic battle against Kuusetu sees the show aiming for the stars. Okay, maybe I shouldn't give Chained Soldier too much credit here; this is the same sleazy and cheesy combination of tropes and T'n'A that it has always been. I'm just impressed with how excellent this recent arc has been for an anime that I was genuinely worried had given up on being anything other than titillating softcore thrills for a crowd that is still a bit too afraid to commit their credit card numbers to a more salacious source of smut like Fakku or PornHub. Maybe it would be more appropriate if I said this is “an episode that shoots for the stars…except, in this universe, all of the constellations have been replaced with crudely drawn doodles of big butts and bouncing boobs.” Yeah, that feels right.

Something I have to give “Slave: Heaven” credit for is that this is the best that the animation and action choreography has been in Chained Soldier since…well, maybe forever. Yes, the sometimes jarring adherence to shot framing that feels ripped straight from a manga page keeps the material squarely in the realm of shlock instead of cinema, but it's damned fun shlock. I especially love fun little cuts like the slow-motion roundhouse against Kuusetsu that gives you the impression that the animators are just as happy to get to cut loose and show a different and novel part of a sexy woman's body getting rocked by blunt force trauma from one of Yuki's appendages.

It's also gleefully ridiculous to see Yuki's slave transformations get brought to their logical end-point as all of Yuki's Mistresses lend him their powers to create an onslaught that not even Kuusetsu can withstand. You just can't help but feel proud of our horny little bozo as he dons his shiny new armor, unleashes his Eternal Chains, and synchronizes with Kyouka's Sword of Subjugation to completely body Kuusetsu and bring this fight to a close for good. Not only does it make for a satisfying moment of pure spectacle, it provides a solid conclusion to the mini-arc of development that Yuki and Kyouka's relationship got starting with that whole jealousy conflict from a few weeks back. It's simple but legitimately good writing like that where Chained Soldier earns its place as a “real” anime.

Don't get it twisted, though; this episode is also Chained Soldier in pure Goonercore Mode, which you can hardly blame the show for given how much it has had to restrain itself during this elongated action sequence. When the dust settles and the world goes back to (mostly) normal, Yuki has one hell of a reward to indulge in with Tenka and Kyouka, which includes the welcomed and funny return of Mira, who is much two shy to join in on Yuki's steamy threesome. If that weren't indulgent enough, getting banished to the Dream Dimension has only made Kuusetsu even hornier and more deranged, and her “reunion” with Yuki delivers some of the most downright explicit material that Chained Soldier has served up yet. I can't think of a better way for the show to wrap up its best run of episodes yet.

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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.