Coffin Princess Chaika (Anime + LN)

Anyways there's no reason why Gillette would trust Chaika from his perspective; she's a potential Pretender to a reinstated Imperial throne and he obviously wouldn't trust her with the body parts. There's not really ground for negotiation there.

Even if she's on the level, her dad's remains are immensely powerful magical artefacts. Reuniting them, even for something as innocent as a funeral, is an extremely risky proposition.

It's not hard to see our protagonists as the straight-up bad guys, actually, which is fun. "World peace and no evil empire terrorising everyone? Nah. Boring. Give me something to fight."

edited 17th Apr '14 3:42:32 AM by Iaculus

It would certainly be more interesting if they took that angle. It's probably a plausible plot to pursue.

Yeah, I kinda was imagining in my head the guy going, "Oh, funeral? That's alright I guess but, if you really are planning evil stuff, just wanna let you know I'm all for that too."

Weird that this is now basically Dragon Ball but with body parts.

edited 17th Apr '14 11:52:43 AM by Scherzo09

Re: Scrapped Princess vibes Definitely.

That really was great. "Make the world more interesting" is an understandable motive. Even if thousands upon thousands of innocents will die.

The fight scenes are really good, with smooth choreography, neat tactics and some great old-school magic chanting. Looking forward to seeing more of Chaika's arsenal of spells.

One thing to remember is that the fall of the empire put a lot of people with very specialized skills out of work. The empire might not have been all that bad, but it would still have employed orders of magnitudes more weapon- and armor-smiths, soldiers, artillerymen, saboteurs, etc. etc. than the scattered and impoverished nations that replaced it. Even if your former job could be considered morally wrong, it's hard to feel great about starving.

edited 20th Apr '14 10:44:12 AM by HighVelocityPointyThings

Episode 3. In which there are things unsaid until late.

Not at all an awkward bus ride. Inconspicuous, it's not. But you know, does it really make that much of a difference to just cover it up in cloth?

I don't think the animators are particularly good when it comes to those wider angled shots where they can't use as much detail.

Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!.

A note that small is rolled?

So Vivi's going to be their next opponent. And they still don't seem that bad as antagonists. They still lack one pair of pants, though. Or a skirt. And while I'm at it, shorts are ugly. Especially with a dressy coat like that.

Slash first, ask questions later. Hey, look. It's the informat. Whodathunk. (Me.)

She's surprisingly competent as a mechanic. Not so much as a driver. But passable.

Still haven't figured out cooking with that MAMR.

So, the antagonists are the first to doubt their own orders. That's kind of unusual. I wonder if it's going to be like Ixion Saga DT.

And they question whether Chaika actually is the daughter of the Evil Overlord. Then she says there are things she doesn't remember.

It can't be good when the dog pack starts chanting.

It would kind of be amusing if she wasn't the one they're looking for.

edited 23rd Apr '14 1:55:15 PM by AnotherDuck

As to Chaika's missing memories, just looking through the LN covers (which I had to do when I was looking for a pic to use for the page) reveals that Chaika isn't the only Chaika around — book 6 or 7 has another red-dressed Chaika, and the next book cover has them together. So there's definitely something up with that too.

It might be we might not only have a "Vecna" situation here, but a Manshoon situation too — meaning that, the real Princess Chaika might have REALLY been slain all those years ago during the attack on Gaz's castle, and what we're seeing right now with the Acuras was one of the many clones created after, or maybe awakened, to gather up Arthur's body parts.

edited 23rd Apr '14 4:22:40 PM by MyssaRei

That's what I was assuming also. It sepems like Emperor Gaz cloned his daughter, programmed them to find his body if he was killed and distributed them around outside his empire. Crazy-Prepared I guess.

It's not Vecna however, since the hand doesn't have to attached.

One other thing This Chaika mentions having memories from before the war. Not sure if that makes her original or it's a remnant of the original. Her speech patters would seem to indicate her not being a original however. So we kinda got one piece of evidence both ways.

edited 23rd Apr '14 7:17:39 PM by kiukiuclk

x3 If I'm not mistaken, those notes are sent by carrier pigeon, so they have to be rolled to fit in the canister.

I can't see this Chaika committing suicide even if she got caught though, so she does seem a little different from the others. Taking her speech pattern into consideration...maybe she's incomplete?

Any of those spoilers not for the LN, but speculation based only on the anime?

Speculation. Just spoilered so people who haven't watched the latest episode wouldn't get spoiled.

Thanks. Never know since Myssa mentioned those LN covers.

If it's as it usually is, she's either the real deal who was hurt some way by the process of creating the others, or in a way that made him create them in the first place, or she's a prototype of some kind, which could excuse any differences between her, the real one, and any other clones. Or she could be an actual clone, while the others were just puppets or impersonators of some kind.

Episode 3:

• Shouldering a coffin is grounds for suspicion.
• Chaika, taking in what the city offers.
• Let Vivi have a crack at 'em! For restoring Gilette's honorSaving the world!
• Mysterious informat is a mysterious guy. Named Guy.
• Well, well. Gilette's group isn't a group of blindly loyal idiots. That's good.
• Chaika's got driving and maintenance down. Now if only she can get her all-purpose magic rifle to actually cook something without epic explosions...
• Akari's a master of fine horror story-telling.
• A pack of wolves. Bad news. A pack of electric wolves. Worse news. A pack of electric wolves that chant. THE WORST!
• Hello, dragoon cavalier.

x4 I wonder if the cloning process took her memories and she'll get them back if she finds the clones.

edited 24th Apr '14 12:41:46 AM by kiukiuclk

To me, it seems like there probably isn't a real Chaika at all; just a legion of fakes who think they have amnesia when they really have implanted memories.

Episode 4. In which there's a dragon.

Yeah, listen to her. Chaika totally didn't forget about that. It was just temporarily misplaced from the forefront of her mind.

I'm not quite sure how a sneak attack wouldn't work. I mean, what their faces look like is kind of irrelevant, and if they just want to beat her, it's easier if you can get close to her without her being apprehensive about it.

I kinda think he's telling her what she should order him to do quite a lot. Which isn't really how a mercenary thinks, unless he has his own agenda.

It also heats bath water.

The animators are kinda lazy. If something isn't necessary it's not there, like that scar. Or the soap suds that should've been in the water.

Akari's kinda odd in her jealousy. And Chaika's a little daft when it comes to thinking Toru's talking about something he's trying to say he isn't talking about.

Someone who's honestly just wanting for a good fight while not forcing it on people is a little unusual. Well, maybe it isn't, but it feels kind of relaxed, somehow. I like her, at any rate.

I kinda figured all the statues and portraits were important. She certainly didn't come off as a narcissist, so they had to have a purpose. And the usual Taken for Granite idea when there are lots of life-like statues doesn't quite fit, as there were no talk about Medusa or a basilisk or one of the many other creatures with that ability. That leaves either a source of power, or a memory. This was about an already powerful individual, so there'd be no need for a source of power.

There's the dragon. It was right in front of them all the time.

I'm thinking that's quite a solid The Only One Allowed To Kill You relationship they're going to have there. I kinda wish she'd keep her other form, though.

edited 30th Apr '14 2:01:57 PM by AnotherDuck

Poking around in the usual LN-reading fora has revealed, in not so many words, that a good chunk of the material used for this episode had to be either cut out, or changed to make everything fit into one episode. And one of the stuff cut out was how Chaika apparently looks like the real Dominica's dead sister, which apparently becomes an important plot point later on.

edited 30th Apr '14 6:03:12 PM by MyssaRei

Episode 4:

• Lodge first, ask questions later.
• That was quite the tale Akari put together, and she said it with such a straight face. She's also passively jealous.
• And they're not blood siblings. I thought the reversed hair and eye colors meant something...
• That's what The Boiler should be used for. Much better than epically exploding meals.
• Hmm? Looks like Chaika lost her head at one point.^note She really is a zombie
• Now that was a good, clean fight.
• After living a purposeless life for a while, the dragoon cat girl now rides with the gang. The journey just got more exciting.

edited 3rd May '14 8:47:00 AM by Diamite

Apparently this is by the author of Scrapped Princess? He sure hasn't moved very far from his comfort zone. Luckily it's a decent comfort zone. Have to say I liked it better before Akane suddenly became jealous though. I don't care if they're blood related or not, I just wanted to see more superpowered siblings escorting a princess. Not a dealbreaker, just a minor annoyance. This time it seems more upfront about the brother being the main character.

I'm sure people will think I'm nuts, but Chaika reminds me of Aisling.

And now we have gained another loli.

Okay, some novel-readers have helped point out the changes made to the events this episode portrayed:

Unmarked spoilers, as the episode has already ended:

• Dominica didn't die of "some sickness". Apparently she went the route of suicide-by-apathy, and literally stopped caring about herself.
• The Acuras didn't confront "Dominica" head-on. They did plan to poison her, but the way it played out in the book was different — Akari let herself get "knocked out" on purpose at the start, and while the dragoon chased Toru around, Akari went about closing all the windows and doors in the house. Why? Because it restricted the air in the mansion, which would make it harder for the dragoon to breath which... made the poison they used on their weapons affect it faster? Your guess is as good as mine as how the logic to this worked.
• Neither Toru nor Akari went Iron Blood in the actual fight, but Toru didn't need to anyway, as he quickly realized that the dragoon was all power and no technique.

Man, cooking with a magical sniper rifle seems to be a really terrible idea.

New week, new episode. Boy, having Frederica around makes traversing the countryside incognito awkward, huh. Which makes you wonder... where the heck was she during the second half?

And yes, we finally encounter one of the other Chaikas. This one dresses in red, has short hair, is more brusque, and bustier than the Chaika we've been following.

I've seen this question on every anime board I visit. Was it that easy to miss that she jumped off the cart after scratching him in the face? They went on without her.