Completed Series: Hitsugi no Chaika: Avenging Battle

[catystorm]

 Series: Hitsugi no Chaika: Avenging Battle / 棺姫のチャイカ AVENGING BATTLE
 Year: 2014 | Fall
 Episodes: 10
 Production: Studio BONES

 Official Summary: The search for the remains of Emperor Gaz continuous. Chaika still in search of knowing who she really is and what her purpose is. Similarly, the Red Chaika continues the search for the rest of Emperor Gaz's remains. The Gillette corporation continues the mission to catch every last Chaika. In their adventure they give a revealing account kept secret by the Emperor, which Chaika, Fredrica, Toru, and Akari decide to uncover. (via MAL)

 Catie's Thoughts: Technically this is just the second half of the series, but as there seems to be a trend of separating the shows by a season. The story picks right up where it left off with no silly thing as a recap to remind you where we were or what was going on.

I really did enjoy the show as a whole, however. Studio BONES does some nice things with their original shows, although the "here's the twist" thing is kind of getting - not old, but perhaps a bit predictable. However all the clues to where the show was going to end up were scattered through not only this season, but from the original season as well. 

This may just be my lack of memory regarding the first season, but it felt like the "whoops surprise here's our mentor we have to fight to the death now" thing came out of left field. I have a vague memory of a flashback from the first part of the show, so it may just be the fact that there was a half-year between that and this to blame. The last two episodes felt a bit rushed and too slow all at once, which is a weird pacing issue - I'm not sure I liked how quickly Toru just threw away his identity? It felt like it came out of nowhere, although he was much more a subtle character so I probably missed the signs. 

Overall I did like the show - it doesn't stand out among BONE's best by a wide margin, but even BONE's middling series are a head and shoulders above a lot of other studios.

Watch it: on Crunchyroll, where else