Coffin Princess Chaika (Anime + LN)

Pre-empting the possible posts on the season thread, the first episode is out for this series done by the author of Scrapped Princess, Macademi Wasshoi, and Outbreak Company.

Since I was only able to watch half of the first episode before I had to run to the office, I'll leave it to the people who completed the episode to comment on it.

Though I had to laugh at the ludicrous gibs that was visited on what was apparently a predatory unicorn (!!).

EDIT: Corrected published works.

edited 9th Apr '14 6:03:56 PM by MyssaRei

Sakaki didn't write YuuShibu! And you forgot Code E and Outbreak Company

So, it's probably good but I can't stand Chaika at all

edited 9th Apr '14 6:00:30 PM by Hylarn

I wish you'd stop disliking things, Hylarn. When you do, it always makes me get this voice in my head that goes 'you only like this thing because you have low standards for quality. Hylarn doesn't like the thing, and therefore it's not a good thing, since he has discerning tastes'.

But, yeah, enjoyed the thing. I think the highlight, for me, was a weird creepy chanting the unicorn did.

I'm getting an Ubel Blatt kind of feel from this, like there's some kind of deception going on, and things aren't quite as they seem.

What's wrong with Chaika?

I can take his place. Everyone who doesn't agree with my taste is wrong anyway.

I only even bothered checking this out bc this has been disappointing season so far and Outbreak Company was better than I expected. If this turns out to be as good, that's a win.

Anyway...not bad. The Magitech is kinda neat. Staff? I got a freaking sniper rifle. And I like iron blood mode. And that they had to turn it off.

More siblings, no incest. What is anime coming to?

Only minus was the sister, who I'm not a big fan of, but we'll see. I think you'd need the 3 episode rule to be sure, but it seem interesting at least.

edited 9th Apr '14 7:39:02 PM by kiukiuclk

Can anyone explain (without spoilers) how Iron Blood mode works? Is it like, a buff to strength and reflexes that also dulls empathy/reason/etc.? They still seem to retain their sanity though, so it seems to be a step short of a berserker rage.

The creepy man-eating unicorn was a hilarious inversion though, I have to admit.

More thoughts after I get home, and I can sit down to watch it properly.

Episode 1. In which there's a cutting edge sniper.

I like her eyebrows. She's kinda funny. Weird. Speaks in single words or something like it, but managing to not come off as dumb for it. Just misplaced.

Other than those crossing locks, I'm not sure Toru could look more generic if they tried.

Our Unicorns Are Different. And quite demonic. Or undead. Or both. The summoner's (or whatever he is) little scene was oddly touching, though.

That's a very clean cut coming from a magical anti-materiel rifle.

Property damage, excessive violence. Yeah, can't imagine why he'd rather spend time with an innocent girl who appreciates his help. And they blame him? Low point of the episode.

Asks for a favour of someone he's just met, and won't say why. Gee, I wonder what the response will be.

So far there seems to be at least three sides, and none of them seem obviously villanous. Antagonistic, on the other hand...

"Sorry. You're the stupid one."
"As long as you understand."
She's not normal. And possibly stupid.

An MAMR is not for baking bread.

I kinda like this series so far, though it's not much to go by. And I find Chaika the best part of the series. And Akari is a little too needlessly violent to be likeable. Though she is also a bit funny, so it evens out, slightly.

Yeah, the guy working for that K-whateveritwas Corporation and his merry band don't look evil at all. It feels more like they're another group of good guys who've either mistaken Chaika for the villain, or Chaika's being manipulated by the Big Bad and they're trying to stop her.

I never understood why unicorns became associated with purity and love and all that bravo sierra. I mean, yeah, I get how it happened, but why unicorns? Why not something nice?

I get the impression that things will go very sour should Chaika succeed in the long run. I mean, she's probably not actively malevolent, but the people trying to stop her seem noble enough, which is a bad sign.

She seems pretty bright, so...maybe she's a foreigner? Not fluent in the language?

How does that even work?

Do recall from Scrapped Princess that there were some decent people among the religion that was hunting down the Casulls too, and I'm expecting more of the same here. As for Chaika being a harbinger of doom, well...

edited 9th Apr '14 10:27:01 PM by MyssaRei

No hinting.

Episode 1:

• I like Chaika's way of speaking. It's rare to run into characters who speak the way she does, yet you totally get what they're saying.
• Wild evil unicorn! Except it wasn't wild, apparently. Then that guy came and mourned its death... It was better if was wild, damnit!
• That said, it's chanting was weird. Maybe if I listened to it more intently, my head will explode?
• Iron-Blood Transformation's pretty cool. And there's even a chant to deactivate it? More cool.
• Chaika's all-purpose magic sniper! It can cut, cook(not), and locate your precious things! What else can it do!?
• From Mr. Count's reaction, Chaika's to be feared...

Chaika's traveling with a coffin in tow. Heh, it just so happens that I know a story about a traveling traveler who travels with a coffin.

That was a really good first episode. I look forward to how they develop the fantasy setting and Chaika and the other stuff.

The artstyle reminds me of Toradora for some reason. I haven't even finished Toradora.

New week! New Episode!

See? Tactics and Strategy DO win battles. Well it does help that both Toru and Akari are scarily good at what they do.

And revelations, though I have a feeling that while Chaika's wish to gather her father's remains and give them a proper burial may be sincere, I feel that there's a whole lot of things going on unseen in the background that will twist this. I mean, the guy was supposedly an evil wizard of massive power, and gathering the body parts of someone like that in any other work of fiction and keeping them in one place leads to BAD THINGS.

Hmm, actually Vecna comes to mind in this case.

edited 16th Apr '14 4:54:48 PM by MyssaRei

Am I the only one getting Scrapped Princess vibes from this?

Two super competent sibling fighters protecting mysterious girl who may or may not doom everything if allowed to roam free while people who technically count as good guys dies try their hardest to take her down before anything happens?

Hard not to see the similarities.

I feel like Chaika's probably not exactly lying, but she's either not telling the whole story or hasn't been told the whole story.

The Lord's reaction to see proves there's more going on than what we've been told, I think.

Why don't they just put that stupidly large canister in the coffin? It should be big enough to contain it...

Poor Communication Kills at its finest, huh? If they actually talked things out and came to an agreement, they would have an easier time collecting the parts (by working together), and possibly be able to properly seal them or whatever so Chaika can bury her dad without any risk of anyone digging him up and using his remains again. Or him coming back to life as some kind of evil undead warlock.

That On the Next was adorable. NEED SUBSTITUTE DRIVER!

edited 16th Apr '14 6:00:17 PM by HanabiraKage

I get the impression Chiaka doesn't deal with people much. She's talking more normally now.

I suspect the people who have the parts now are using them to make themselves more powerful, so they probably won't give them up.

edited 16th Apr '14 6:20:19 PM by kiukiuclk

I meant Gillette's team and the protagonists could have talked things over and come to an agreement.

edited 16th Apr '14 6:32:07 PM by HanabiraKage

They did talk things over. I don't think there is any other way episode 2 could have gone down.

Episode 2. In which there's background info.

Gotta say, the OP has a good song. Or at least good singing. Very much like the OP to the one with the black rabbit.

I was about to comment that they're unnaturally alone, but they did mention the lack of guards before.

That's actually a somewhat historically accurate way of lightning fires. Though probably not in such a convenient case.

His good at traps.

He's questioning payment? When they were explicitly hired to do the job they did? That just reeks of, "Hey, I'm the protagonist here, doing protagonist things for protagonist reasons."

Why are they claiming a hired blade is someone you can't negotiate with? I mean, to hire someone you need to negotiate by definition.

That thing can't be hard to lose in a city. I mean, alleyways? It still snuck up on him.

Oh, hey, story time. About time for some answers.

Nice to see him take care of his knives.

ED's good too.

So, while the other guys have good points about peace and danger and war and such, they're still pursuing an innocent girl who happens to be the daughter of a dead dictator. Yeah, it's likely there's more going on than she lets on or knows about.

If they actually sat down and discussed things in a neutral manner, they could probably reach an agreement. But such discussions don't tend to work out well at gunpoint. Doesn't really help that he said he was doing it for the chance of getting a war, more or less. Though I find that a more reasonable motivation than just being a hero.

edited 16th Apr '14 9:02:53 PM by AnotherDuck

Mercenaries are very negotiable people. Just pay them more than their employer is.

Yeah, my point exactly. Sit down and lay everything out on the table and both sides will realise that they're butting heads for no good reason. That they can work together and come to a better conclusion than fighting each other and causing unnecessary bloodshed.

I think the point is that Gillete's benefactors might not be utterly Altruistic in their pursuit of the body parts.

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.

Episode 2:

• Gotta love the Acura siblings. They know how to do stuff.
• All-purpose magic sniper rifle, 2nd edition: Picking locks, and Solar Flare.
• So Chaika's the daughter of a man known as the Mad King. And she only wants to give him a proper burial. But, maybe there's a reason why they were scattered in the first place. If one hand contained that much power, just think of what might when all the parts are in one place. Whatever, it's Simon's Quest alright.
• Wanted: Substitute driver.