TL;DR
Story: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Overall: 7/10 (rounded down from 7.25)
Good points:
+ Adorable main moe lead (Chaika)
+ Great action & fighting scenes with myriad of magical abilities
+ Huge set of varied and interesting supporting characters
+ Significant plot twists throughout development
+ Excellent OP and ED themes
+ Great animation
+ Good main antagonist (Gaz)
+ Good resolution
Bad points:
- Disappointing male and female leads (Toru and Akari)
- Plot development is a bit slow and can be draggy at times
- Some plot holes especially in S2
- Dialogue may seem too repetitive in nature
Story: 7/10
Chaika is set in a world where technology and magic co-exist, or rather where magic is seen as technology and "progressive" in nature. Also, there exists beasts and hostile creatures called Fayla with magical powers that have been studied to research into magic. While the origins and source of said magic research is not shown, the plot does keep to these believable assumptions and does not deviate from the laws it itself creates. (+1 for believable assumptions)
The story is split into 3 main arcs spanning across two seasons. The first, being the "remains gathering" arc, the second being the "Niva Lada arc", and the third and final one being the "Martial Arts Tournament arc".
The story starts off with Toru rescuing Chaika from some hostile Fayla, and already you know you're watching an action flick. It doesn't take long for the audience to realize that Chaika is completely clueless, knowing nothing save for the fact that she wants to collect her father, Emperor Gaz's, remains. Toru and Akari are then hired by her and thus begins a long journey of collecting said remains throughout the first half of series (up to Avenging Battle).
Apparently, we are told multiple times, as if the writers were afraid we'd forget, that Emperor Gaz's remains contain great magical power and we constantly get the feeling that Chaika should be looking more into her lost memories and that as they collect more and more remains, that they are making a mistake and are inadvertently going to bring disaster somehow. (+1 for interest) The story alludes to this by the introduction of Guy, a mysterious informant who does nothing but conveniently tell them where the remains are, yet answers none of their questions as to why Chaika is gathering remains. Chaika's reason was for "Father's funeral".
Also, from the beginning we are introduced to the Gilette squad, whom we already get the feeling from their general aesthetic that they are protagonists alongside Chaika, despite them seemingly trying to stop White Chaika's group from gathering more remains, with the goal of "averting disaster" or the coming of another war. This same idea that the remains could start another war gets constantly repeated and perpetuated that it would come to no surprise that it would indeed start another war - the only question remaining is how it would do so.
The Gilette squad though, while only being supporting cast, actually plays a huge role in this plot. They managed to uncover the secret of Gaz's empire from rumours heard by townspeople who saw large fortresses flying around many years ago. They were also instrumental in helping White Chaika and her gang multiple times along the way.
When we hit halfway into the first season, we get introduced to Red Chaika, who's completely different from our White Chaika, but who's also after the emperor's remains, just for a different purpose - Revenge. And that's where things start to get interesting. The story thrusts us into a realm where many things could be possible, and succeeds in making the audience curious beyond measure, asking questions like "Why are there so many Chaikas collecting remains?" and "Who's orchestrating all this?" but it continues to keep us in constant suspense.
Towards the end of the first season, there's also the introduction of another Blue Chaika, one who gave up completely on her mission of finding remains after finding out the truth that she was just a tool. She instead decides to help two fools in a quest to start a war by killing innocent girls for their memories as a form of magic fuel for flying fortress Soara. After the destruction of Soara, Vivi from the Gilette team turns into a Chaika herself, making the audience even more startled.
Meanwhile, aside from the trio's adventures, there are also multiple scenes of The Alliance of Six Nations discussing whether or not they should take military action against a certain party, and this discussion kind of goes on and on throughout the anime, and even though no decision can ever be reached, most of the parties simply take independent action and launch their flying fortresses anyway - hence completely making every one of these scenes irrelevant, save for Konrad's updates to the Gilette Team.
Most of the first arc felt rather slow and repetitive, it was all about infiltrating some location, housed by some hero who defeated Emperor Gaz 5 years ago, and this hero took one of his body parts as a reward. After getting the remains and the trio would, every single time, question themselves as to why they are getting remains in the first place - to which Toru will always answer "Let's just do it because we can."
Things start to clear up when we hit the second season, in the second arc, when White Chaika gets word from Guy to get her "father's fortune" on a secret island off a coast. As revelation upon revelation about her own past occurs, first from the Kraken Fayla who told her about her use as merely a tool to collect the remains and unlock a "destiny", and second from Iszmash, the wizard who carried out Gaz's dying wishes in creating a super powerful Gundo (magic weapon) - called Niva Lada. (+1 for plot development)
At this point of the story, it also begins to explore themes on whether Chaika was merely a "tool", akin to Niva Lada's role, in the story. Throughout the anime Chaika has been performing a role as a tool, and eventually, is revealed to simply be the "magic" that Gaz himself created to revive himself, but at the same time we can see that Chaika is more than that - despite being young and innocent, she has a personality, stubborn and all, and so does Niva Lada, and this autonomous nature of personality becomes a key driver of the plot, though it's a pity it only appears in the last episode. (+1 for depth)
Already we start to see snippets of how the anime is going end, and in the final arc, the Chaikas begin to gather at the principality of Hartgen, where it seems to be all part of a Black Chaika's plan to get all the remains at one place. After some long action, fighting and random duels, the Black Chaika finally managed to blackmail / steal from all the other Chaikas to finally get a hold of all the remains. At first, we are inclined to think that Hartgen was the perpetrator, but the plot gives a twist again - that it was instead Gaz who had all along planned his reincarnation. (+1 for plot twist)
Then again, this twist was very well substantiated because honestly there were clues littered throughout the entire anime, and for the simple fact that gathering a magician's body parts together in one place was obviously going to revive him. Anyway, Gaz reincarnates and is able to acquire this huge source of magic power, and with Niva Lada in his hands, looks basically unstoppable. Specifically, the reveal of his pre-made satellite technology used for gathering feelings of people for magic fuel, was very ingenious, original and breathtaking to watch. (+1 for originality)
Toru goes on a suicide mission to defeat Gaz that we already know will fail, but enough about him because honestly, Toru sucks. Chaika ends up being the main hero of this story, and in a very fitting way - by recognizing Niva Lada as a "person" - and to saying the final line that she had been saying all along. The line that I found mostly repetitive and annoying throughout, but at the end giving the most fitting finishing line before killing the emperor with his own weapon, "Father, funeral." That has been her objective all along, also making her the only Chaika that was able to kill her own father. (+1 for plot twist)
When it comes to coherence though, the plot also suffers a bit as well.
Throughout the first season, Toru and Akari continuously insist that it's okay if Chaika doesn't know who she really is, so long as she completes her objective. This is completely stupid and against common sense, especially when there are multiple Chaikas around. Even if they are task-oriented people, Saboteurs should at least have enough common sense and intuition to realize the importance of knowing how she got her objective in the first place and where she comes from. What if Chaika was brainwashed by bad people? Could they not have at least considered that possibility? I find it stupid that Toru and Akari make no effort to investigate and find out who Chaika really is - even Gilette did so, and all Gilette needed was to have one encounter with Chaika to set him thinking on the right track!
In episode 3 of S2, Toru's adamant insistence, that finding Gaz's remains is more important than Chaika's wish to see her father's fortune on the hidden island, is invariably stupid. Didn't Toru say before that a Saboteur's objective is his master's objective? If Chaika really wants to go to the island, what right does Toru have to convince to change her mind? In fact, why is Toru so fixated on this collection of remains when all he's doing is supposedly following his master's wishes? As a good saboteur he should be supporting Chaika when she said she wants to find the island. At least towards the end of the episode, Akari points out this contradiction between Toru's words and the "law of Saboteur" that he claims to live by, but I'm still penalizing for this under unreasonable character behaviour.
Also later on in the episode, Toru suggests that the reason why Clay Morgan didn't sell off the remains despite not wanting to be near them, was because he thought he would be cursed if he got rid of them. How does this make sense? If anything, it should be exactly the opposite - he should be scared of a curse if he kept them!
In episode 7, Toru and Akari are seen using these wooden snorkels to dive. Despite having these snorkels though, their heads still resurface when they need another breath of air. What's the point of having those snorkels if you're going to end up resurfacing anyway? Isn't the whole point of it supposed to keep you slightly more inconspicuous as you breathe through the snorkels, just slightly below the surface of the water?
In episode 9, we see the Chaikas being forced to battle it out in a duel orchestrated by the Black Chaika, whose goal was to capture White Chaika and force them to hand over the remains. Not a bad deal, but then why also capture Vivi who didn't have any remains? For entertainment? Also, Gillette's memory erasure was never fully explained. Why is it that only when his hand got cut off did his memories come back to him?
Also, the mystery behind Guy is never really fully explained. He seems to have mind controlling powers as we see in the scene where he saves Gillette from death by ordering all the soldiers around him to surround him using their bodies to protect him from the magic blast. He also seems to have multiple forms of himself towards the end. If Guy was really Gaz, as was suggestion by the similar voice and hairstyle, how did Gaz managed to create Guy? In fact, what's the point of having a human body if Gaz could simply use all his magic through Guy? Guy was basically invulnerable by all his appearing and disappearing.
So a total of 6 plot holes, unfortunately I can't give a bonus point for coherence.
Art: 8/10
Animation: 3/3 - Very well done. I loved all the Gundo animations when magic was being used, and all the action scenes were very well animated.
Aesthetics: 3/3 - Excellent. Character designs were very varied, many different outfit and hair colours, very pleasing to look at. Even the Fayla designs, demi-human designs were pretty good.
OP Sequence: 1/2 - I didn't really like the first season's one, but the second season had really nice OP sequence
ED Sequence: 1/2 - Just beautiful with the wonderful designs. I liked S1 better than S2 ending sequence.
Sound: 10/10
OP Theme 1: 2/2
ED Theme 1: 2/2
OP Theme 2: 2/2
ED Theme 2: 2/2
Background Music: 2/2 - They also use the same music for most action scenes, and all the sinister scenes, but it's really good :)
It's amazing that all of the themes are just good - all catch and upbeat, exactly the way I like it!
Characters: 6/10
This section is probably where the anime may suffer a bit. We'll go through with the best characters, followed by the worst characters of the lot, from both protagonists and antagonists.
My favourite character definitely has to be Chaika Trabant. While all the other Chaikas are all cute, moe and pretty awesome as well, Chaika Trabant is like the epitome of innocence and cuteness. Her cheeks are always permanently blushing with that red tinge and she is voiced very well with that cutesy voice. She's a magic user so she has basically like a gazillion useful spells up her sleeve, and her stubborn and helpful nature means that she will insist that they save people along the way, like the demi-humans, even if they aren't necessarily part of the objective (+1 for cuteness, innocence and sincerity, +1 for magic usage).
The second best character would have to be Gillette. Despite being relegated to a supporting cast member, Gillette shows a high sense of duty, honour, responsibility, and also lots of courage and bravery - being able to stand up to an entire army, risking his life to save his friends, Viva and Zita in the Soara arc (+1 for bravery). He also shows us that he can think on his own and goes to research about Gaz and his connection with Chaika. Unfortunately, being a supporting cast meant that he doesn't get much screentime and despite playing a key role in the plot, is not developed any much further beyond that. But he's still very likeable as a character.
The other character worth special mention is Gaz himself, the main antagonist of the story, later revealed. He's a not the simple villain type role who only seeks destruction around the world, he merely uses war as a means to further magic research, to gain magic fuel, as well as power to rule over the entire continent (+1 for deep motives). While he may seem inherently cruel, and throughout the anime stays shrouded in mystery, he's also actually contributed lots to the progress of society with his research of magic tools, so perhaps he's not such a bad guy after all.
Last but not least, the character that shows the most amount of growth through the anime is actually Vivi, the girl on Gillette team who not so secretly likes Gillette. At the beginning, she doesn't show much development, she was just portrayed as shy, and a bit like a tsundere-type, but once Gillette is reportedly dead by Leo, she transforms into a chaika herself and starts making things happen on her own rather than always clinging on to Gillette. Her determination really starts to show, and even though Nikolai was given mantle of leadership, it mostly seemed like it was Vivi who was the most influential in the group (+1 for character growth). It was also a pity that we didn't get to see more of this beautiful supporting character.
Now we come to the rather problematic Toru and Akari. Sure, they are both good fighters, but beyond that they are nothing special. Their Iron-Blood Transformation was supposed to make them faster and stronger, but in almost every battle they end up just being on par with their opponents, hence making them actually physically weaker or making the transformation have so little effect that it's technically useless.
Toru is a major problem in this anime and it's a shame that he was given they main character role over others. Toru's main flaw is with his narrow-mindedness and ability to only think about the objective, following the "Saboteur's Law" which Shin has constantly reminded him that he isn't cut out to be a saboteur in the first place. Toru makes countless of annoying references about being a Saboteur, and while it's great to see that he has fervent loyalty to Chaika, his loyalty is also baseless and he fails to substantiate anything he does with any reasoning beyond "It's my duty." Even at the last part when he goes on a suicide mission, it was simply for revenge on Gaz for calling Chaika just a tool? I mean, really what gives with this stupid male lead?
Then we have the other stupid female lead, Akari. Akari is slightly more interesting because at least she has this brother complex that makes her say weird and inappropriate things about Toru, things like being wet, preying on girls and so on, but her character also fails to pull through. She maintains only 1 kind of facial expression throughout the show and I've honestly never seen her smile, cry, laugh or anything of the sort. She seems devoid of emotions and her character is reduced to nothing but "brother complex", which is very sad for one of the main characters.
Luckily for the anime, it's saved by it's host of very varied and interesting supporting cast members like Fredrica, the adorable dragoon, Zite, Nikolai, Claudia the vineyard manager and even the whole of Chaika Bogdan (Red Chaika)'s group. All of them are just a really great cast that made the story a whole lot more interesting and enjoyable to watch. (+1 for variety of supporting cast)
So as a whole, the characters are mostly fine, save for the main characters Toru and Akari, whose backstory was pretty okay save for the fact that it didn't get any proper character development whacked into them somehow. This is a first for a set of main characters who have a backstory to have so little and so trivial development. Just a complete disappointment.
Enjoyment: 7/10
The suspense for this anime, despite it not being a mystery show, was pretty good and they managed to keep it up all the way until the Niva Lada arc, which by that time, I was honestly thinking the resolution was going to fall flat on it's face due to the number of unanswered questions, but eventually the anime delivered so I'm giving it a point. (+1 for suspense)
The action sequences in this anime were also very good from start to finish. Every episode had a good action scene in them and it was also using a combination of interesting magic spells coupled with saboteur-fighting, plus throw in a dragoon and you've got a great fight sequence (+3 for action).
There was also some parts of humour in the show, particularly with Akari's completely inappropriate and spontaneous comments that came out of her brother complex, every time that Toru gets wet or has to go with Chaika. Red Chaika's interactions with Toru when she was captured was also rather funny to watch. (+1 for comedy)
As for pacing, the story started off really slowly, with not much going on and the plot hardly progressing beyond collecting more remains. At this point, things and conversations could get so repetitive that it was tempting to just skip to where more key plot lines were being uncovered. Towards the middle, even as things were being revealed, it also took a really long time, with Blue Chaika (Layla), the Kraken, Iszhmash and finally Gaz himself to tell Chaika that she was a tool before it finally hit her. The good thing was, at least the story didn't end abruptly, and the resolution was pretty much complete. (+1 for satisfactory resolution)
This anime receives a bonus point for not having any filler episodes! (+1 bonus point)
Overall: 7.25/10
Having watched Shingeki no Bahamut (an anime with a very similar plot line) before this, I was really expecting to be disappointed at the resolution. Fortunately, I wasn't, the anime resolves all the conflict in quite an amazing fashion, tying up most loose ends, and wrapping up a plot that had much fewer plot holes than that of Bahamut. Another key difference is that while Bahamut's forte lies in the exquisite nature of Favaro, the hero, Chaika's forte lies in the innocence and sincerity of Chaika, the tool. While both animes may seem similar, I ultimately enjoyed Chaika better than Bahamut, owing to a more consistent plot that had less plot holes overall, and a much better antagonist.
