Chained Soldier Season 2

Episode 12

With how exciting and climactic the last few episodes of Chained Soldier have been, I can't blame you if you, like me, have been wondering what the show could possibly need to cover in this week's season finale. It turns out that the answer to that question is, “Nothing much, honestly, except for some extra fanservice and narrative housekeeping.” It's hardly the most riveting way to close out an entire season of anime, but it could also be much worse. We get some more boobs, some more lore, and some more cute character interactions in the meantime. It's perfectly fine.

Despite the title of the episode being “Gods Assemble,” the Eight Thunder Gods are once again the least interesting part of the episode, since they merely continue their recent habit of gathering together in their Evil Lair to yap about random plot nonsense that will presumably become relevant…someday? Eventually? Who knows. The Defense Force is set to reveal their existence to the world, but again, I'm not sure how that is a particularly big deal after the crazy shitstorm that Kuusetsu brewed up. The most notable detail about all of this is that one of the newly introduced Gods, Fukuma, is literally just a palette-swapped Ren, down to having who I am pretty sure is an identical voice actor. Is Fukuma a clone? An evil twin? Ren in disguise, acting as a double- or triple-agent? Who knows! I'm sure we'll follow up on that if Chained Soldier ever gets a third season.

On the homefront, Yuuki spends most of the episode making the rounds to sex up any of the girls who got left out of the Reward Roulette this season. Mira's “drive-in date” is the highlight, here, and I honestly wouldn't have minded if this one Reward didn't include any overt lewdness at all. It is funny enough that Mira considers a secondhand kiss via shared soda can to be the epitome of flustered intimacy, though of course the situation eventually devolves into tits-a-poppin' smut. I can't get too mad at the show when it ends on such a silly and blatant Titanic homage, however, so we'll call this one a win.

There's also a check-in with the hidden village that Yuuki's sister runs, which only happens so we can cram in some incredibly indulgent “massage” play with Coco and Naon, in case you forgot they existed. There's a final cuddle-rematch with Ren that is cute enough, but barely registers as just one more bit of fluff to try and stuff into this episode before credits roll. Like I said, it's all perfectly fine, but I was hoping that Chained Soldier would try to capitalize a bit more on all of the momentum that the Kuusetsu battle revved up for us. Ah, well. By all accounts, Studio Passione's crack at this season was a success, so I won't at all be surprised if we're reunited with everyone's favorite Sex Pokémon and His Harem of Deadly Supersoldier Mistresses sooner rather than later.

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.