Chained Soldier Season 1 Complete Collection Review
Chained Soldier is set in a matriarchal version of Earth where women not only rule and get exclusive privilege but can eat otherworldly fruit called “Mato Peaches” which grant them special abilities. These peaches come from Mato, a demonic world that is sometimes linked to ours by mysterious gates, opening the world up to monsters known as Shuuki. It’s up to an organisation of super-powered warriors known as the Demon Defence Force to defeat these creatures and retrieve people who have unintentionally wandered over to the other side in so called “Mato Mishaps”.
This is exactly what happens to Yuuki Wakura, who is swallowed into the realm of Mato one day along with two young kids. Thrust into a strange world, all they can do is run from the Shuuki trying to eat them, but they are saved by Kyouka Uzen, leader of the 7th Squad of the Demon Defence Force. Her power is to turn anything that submits to her into her personal slave, and while she does this with Shuuki, they don’t offer much firepower. Faced with certain death otherwise, Yuuki agrees to be her slave in a wild experiment and surprisingly unleashes devastating power that decimates the monsters. Wanting to be a hero and looking for an opportunity to search for his sister who went missing in a Mato Mishap, Yuuki joins the 7th Squad as dormitory housekeeper and Kyouka’s titular chained soldier.
Broadly, Chained Soldier presents itself as a heady, ecchi action series that feels very similar to other shows involving demonic worlds, with this showing particular shades of things such as Testament of Sister New Devil, Akame ga Kill, and even Twin Star Exorcists. While you could say it’s very derivative, it does have a unique angle in the main protagonist getting his powers from his enjoyment of submission, and honestly, I think there’s a lot more to this than initially meets the eye.
Let’s address the elephant in the room first – yes, this is an ecchi show that loves a bit of kink and BDSM, and while this may put some people off who may not like that sort of thing, it’s not as full-on as you’d imagine. After each slave transformation, Yuuki gets a reward from one of the girls, which typically involves kissing or licking some body part, or exposing themselves to him. At times it can appear to be a bit too tame, like it’s missing the entire concept of it actually being kinky, yet it keeps things accessible without getting too out there.
It’s more used at the start of the show, simply as a hook line to get you interested, which paradoxically can make it a bit of a struggle to get into. But this quickly drops away and shows itself for what it is – an action battle show that just uses its ecchi elements to bestow a superpower onto our lucky protagonist that he wouldn’t have had otherwise.
What really grabbed me though was the story, which is surprisingly simple but effective. It’s a tale of vengeance as Kyouka attempts to hunt down the single-horned Shuuki that destroyed her hometown, but Yuuki’s search for his sister also gives it a lot of humanity as he often serves as the group’s voice of reason, despite his unconscious desires.
The early episodes are a little formulaic in their ‘monster and girl of the week’ format as it has to introduce us to the rest of the squad, but I didn’t really mind as all the cast are charming enough and have some cool powers too. Shushu’s loud mothing and grandstanding is fun to watch, particularly as she chucks herself around in battle, and I love how her power to grow bigger and smaller directly references the Ultraman transformation sequence! It’s kind of tough to watch her initial rough treatment of Yuuki at the start, but she does mellow significantly after she properly falls for him. Himari, meanwhile, isn’t that strong, but she always perseveres through, no matter the situation. She can transform her body parts into any weapon she’s seen before, leading her to be an adaptable, all-around fighter. The final girl on the team is 11-year-old Nei, who is able to sense the presence of others, making her a useful scout. She does get sidelined at times because of both her age and abilities, (thankfully leaving her out of the more sexual shenanigans) but the series uses her well during downtime, offering Yuuki a clearer link to home in what feels like a substitute sibling-like relationship.
Once the initial introductions are out of the way, there are plenty of twists and turns in the plot to keep you engaged, as it throws a variety of different foes at the squad and keeps you guessing who the real villains of the series are. I really like that everyone operates in a grey area and there’s no distinct view of good versus evil. Everyone does some bad things, but when it comes round to it, everyone has a heart and it’s a case of choosing which cause you sympathise with the most. Is it Kyouka and her want for revenge? Is it Yuuki and his desire to rescue his sister? Or do you stand with the humanoid demons who suddenly appear halfway through to rebel against the known world order? It’s a fascinating prospect and it really pulls you in different directions as the series progresses. Perhaps, like Yuuki, I really felt torn between different sides because everyone feels that they are worth fighting for.
While it has the story and characters to keep you going, visually this is not a pretty show. The character designs are strong and give you plenty of eye candy, but the world itself is drab, bland and boring. While most of the series does take place in the demon world of Mato, there’s no real effort to give it any character other than it being a barren wasteland.
It just feels like a low-budget production with poor visual quality all round – several scenes look like they were animated at standard definition and then upscaled, giving them a very blurry look, something that really hurts a couple of the fight scenes, particularly Shushu’s solo defence of the dorm. The fights at the end of the series are stronger, and I’d say a lot of the budget has been saved for them, as we actually get to see Kyouka and Yuuki operating at full power in some frenetic scenes that keep the tension high. I’d say it’s just lacking the visual pizzazz to really take it to the next level.
The music backing the fights is interesting, because it sounds very similar to Hiroyuki Sawano. And that’s no surprise, for the composer for the series is Kohta Yamamto, who worked with Sawano on both 86 and the later parts of Attack on Titan. It’s definitely good and fits with the on-screen action but doesn’t quite match up to the inspiration! However, I do like the opening theme, “Yume no Ito” by Akari Kitou, as it feels like a classic rocky pop song that’s ideal for an action show. The ending is a bit more forgettable, with Maaya Uchida’s “CHA∞IN” being more of a chill track, and I don’t think it’s one of her particularly strong ones.
The voice acting is good though and I find all the characters are portrayed well in both Japanese and English, with there being similarities and differences between the two. It’s a bit harder to tell the female voices apart in the English dub, but Gabriel Regojo portrays a Yuuki who’s more sure of himself, rather than Yuya Hirose’s wimpier delivery. Neither are out of place; it’s just a subtle difference of emphasis. You’ve also got both Akari Kitou and Roxanna George providing a tough voice for Kyouka, and some solid performances across the board for the likes of Nei (Hina Tachibana and Kristen McGuire), Shushu (Mari Hino and Juliet Simmons), and Himari (Yume Miyamoto and Natalie Rial).
Chained Soldier comes to us via MVM, in another barebones-feeling Sentai Filmworks release, with the discs containing all 12 episodes of the series along with clean opening and ending credits as the only extras. The subtitles are largely fine, however for some reason Episode 10 uses the English for hard of hearing subtitles, which puts the timing slightly off because it is time coded to the English dub rather than the Japanese language track.
Overall, Chained Soldier is an exciting and intriguing action series with just the right amount of kinky romance to keep pulling you along, even if it can feel a bit tame compared to its initial premise. It’s more of a shame that the way it was animated lets it down, as the story and characters are good and it feels like it has a lot to dig into from the source material, particularly when it starts layering in different plot twists which really affect the stakes of the fights. Ultimately, I’d say you’re probably better off going away and checking out the manga if this has caught your attention because there is something good here, it just deserves a better adaptation than what it’s got.
Our review discs were supplied by MVM.
