Hitsugi no Chaika OVA

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When first aired, Hitsugi no Chaika was a well written series that was severely underrated at its time. Now with its second season and the entire plot of the series all wrapped up in a neat little bundle, what exactly was left to make an OVA out of? Well, I guess burning things to the ground was a start.

Story (7.00/10): OVA stories are never really quite fleshed out or developed, more or less existing as an extra side story for fans of the series to watch. In this case, the OVA for Hitsugi no Chaika more or less follows a plotline of two minisodes, each of which taking up about half of the runtime in a single episode. Within each minisode lies pretty much the same sort of plot that the original series has been running through throughout its two seasons which involves our main characters Tooru, Akari, and Chaika running away from the Gilette squad in order to resist arrest and capture, before ending in a nice fiery explosion. (In addition, the OVA is set sometime during the first season.)

Literally, the entire OVA is about our main characters attempting to escape capture, before destroying some historical monument in a fiery explosion. While the OVA was really more fluff for the series' fans more than anything, with an oddly entertaining flair to it, there really wasn't much in terms of the story. However, as a fan of the series, I definitely did thoroughly enjoy this extra 20 minutes, and while it wasn't exceptional story-wise, it definitely was entertaining.

Overview:
+ Entertaining OVA
+ Interesting comedic flair added in

Characters (7.33/10): The characters don't really differ all that much for the most part. Since there are no changes to cast or development, as this is an OVA that comes off as a little side adventure, there really isn't much to say.

Art and Sound (7.44/10 and 7.79/10): The art quality for Chaika has always been relatively fantastic and of great quality since the series was produced by studio bones. However, some parts of this OVA do dip a little bit in quality. Some character faces look slightly off, and for some reason, the overall quality looks less than what it was originally. That's not to say it's bad, but it certainly is a sad change.

Sound for the OVA recycles the songs from the second season, Avenging battle. Both using the kickass OP and the awesome ED as its two tracks.

Overview:
+ Good soundtrack
- Art quality dipped a bit

Personal Enjoyment (8.00/10): Chaika was a series that I felt exceeded what I had expected from it originally. After the series was over, I had pondered what this OVA would have as its plotline. I originally thought that it was going to feature something post Avenging Battle, but sadly, I was disappointed. Regardless, this is a fun OVA that brings a little light-hearted nature to the series, making odd things like seeing Tooru cross-dress and seeing the characters destroy random buildings a lot more interesting than they should've been. If you're a fan of the Chaika series, watch this. It'll definitely be worth your time.

Overall Score: 7.21/10

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The Chaika OVA or OAD or whatever it is has finally gotten subtitles. I’d been looking forward to this for quite a while as Chaika is one of my favorite anime of last year (it ranks number two with Unlimited Blade Works at the top spot), as well as one of my favorite of all time (my top twenty). It hearkens back to The Slayers and other silly fantasy anime of the nineties while having a unique humor, weak though cute and fun characters, and a plot that isn’t deep by any means, but allows for all the goodness to ooze out like cheese in a quesadilla.

This OVA is two mini episodes combined, both taking place during season one. In the first segment the Gillette Squad chases Chaika and company into a theater where they all become a part of a play (unwillingly of course). Some mildly amusing comedy comes out of this but it’s nothing more than an excuse for Tohru to be dressed in drag and Vivi to wear a bunny costume.

The second segment finds the gang being chased down not only by Gillette, but also Red Chaika. The three factions fight their way through a ruin as they search out a piece of Gaz’s corpse.

I liked this half of the episode more; it had a little relevance while also getting all my favorite characters together. It includes plentiful action for those who have a mud fetish and Chaika’s underwear because why not? While the ending is funny but disappointing, the entire ten or so minutes is a lot of fun, even if it is useless and just an excuse for fan service.

If you’re a fan of Chaika you’ll relish a reunion with some of the more memorable fantasy characters of recent years. If you were only mildly amused with the series or watch this to get a feel for the overall product, you’ll be disappointed.

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An OVA in the spirit of season 1 but with more focus on comedy. Really, nothing special to mention about it. There's no story at all and it's a typical OVA in that way. They go on two small adventures that has no purpose and seems to be there just to make the characters fool around for fun. It's just that nothing at all makes sense and it feels half-arsed. It was much better than season 2 though. At least it was slightly humorous.

It was a fairly nice OVA to end this whole story with, managing to rinse out at least a little bit of the bad taste from season 2. You can watch this after season 1 or season 2 as there's nothing going on here and it has no relevance or connection to the main plot whatsoever. I personally assumed it was meant to be watched after season two because it was aired later than season 2, but the truth of the matter is that it's more fit to be watched after season 1 because it's in the same spirit as season 1 and if you watch it after season 2, you go a long while back in time to when they were still running around with the previous teams and it just feels out of sync. If I had to guess when this OVA actually transpires, it'd be somewhere in season 1, somewhere around the middle of that season, at least before the last battle in season 1 because characters are present that wouldn't be there otherwise.

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