Story: 7
I did actually enjoy the story. It's at least unusual, if not actually interesting. A seemingly immortal emperor dies after a 500 year reign, leaving behind a daughter who takes up a coffin and seeks to collect his remains for a funeral. It gets much more complicated than that, and not necessarily better, but that is at least a unique setup. Additionally, the execution is alright as well, though the reveal at the end of season 2 is predictable. Overall it's pretty good, nothing amazing but not bad. It really falls apart after this though.
Art: 6
The art only really gets a 6 because I really like Chaika's character design, and some of the animals, vehicles, and characters look alright too. For the most part it's generic 2010s anime fare. Not gonna hurt your eyes but not especially memorable. The magic circles in particular are just the same thing basically every time.
Sound: 5
I'm generally not great at remembering voices or music but other than Chaika, all the voices aren't particularly memorable. One character in particular is especially bad though. Speaking of which:
Characters: 3
Of the four main characters, in descending order.
Chaika - she's actually a good character. Her initial motivation is relatable and somewhat innocent, she's adorable, and she goes through some character growth. She saves this category.
Frederica - She's mostly the same from the end of her introduction episode until the end of the series. She's aloof, just wants to fight, I guess she gains some respect for the main characters but that's about it.
Toru - yikes. This is our main character. He's a deadpan "grew up as an assassin (or in this case, saboteur)" type character. Unfortunately, his motivations don't make a lot of sense. He says he wants to fight and directly says he's willing to start a war just so he can fight, but this doesn't come through in his character at all. Every time he fights it's involuntary or due to circumstances. He doesn't seek out conflict, so why is that his motivation? Also at one point he says "I keep telling you, a saboteur is his master's tool" despite that being the first time he said that. On top of that, his main power is both boring and really edgy. He repeats this mantra about being steel and feeling no emotion and it makes him stronger and faster. The chant the kind of thing I would have thought was cool as a 12 year-old, but it just seems ridiculous now. In the third to last episode of the series, a character says "you never change Toru" and he's right. Unfortunately, Toru's not the worst character, and he actually shares his power with the worst one.
Akari - Akari is the second worst anime character I've ever seen, though mercifully the worst isn't part of this series. Her voice singlehandedly lowered my score for the sound, which Chaika's voice had raised. She is Toru's adopted sister but they never act like siblings. I can't, off the top of my head, think of a scene where they look at each other. Toru has no emotion in his voice but Akari makes it seem like he does, considering how deadpan she seems all the time. Her personality fluctuates for no apparent reason, and it's impossible to tell if she likes her brother or hates him. She is explicitly attracted to him but never shows any emotion at all to confirm whether this is actually true. Unfortunately, she was also written to be extremely possessive of Toru, so whenever he looks at other girls she gets "angry." In her introduction scene, she sees Toru eating with Chaika, takes a hammer, and smashes up the bar. Since she is Akari however, she does this with no emotion at all. Also, Toru is blamed for the destruction by patrons and bar staff alike. Her outfit is also ridiculous, she wears a tiny miniskirt despite being entirely combat-focused as a person. The way she treats Toru is actually unfair, like there's a scene where she can see his hallucinations as he's in a dreamlike state, and he's hallucinating a peaceful, happy life with Chaika. She calls this "unforgivable." She also accuses him of having an insatiable libido every time he interacts with a girl. This is a flat out mischaracterization, and I have no idea why she is written this way. She's not even all that important to the plot, she's usually sidelined when something interesting is happening. In the final battle she fights mindless enemies. Akari, and the way people react to her stupid abusive behavior, is enough to dock this entire series at least 1 point, and she's the primary reason this section gets a 3. In another series, Frederica or Toru would be the worst, but Chaika has Akari.
Enjoyment: 4
As cute as Chaika is and as interesting as the story itself is, Akari [enraged rant removed] and the world itself contribute to the low enjoyment score. The world is boring and poorly explained. Five years ago, Emperor Arthur Gaz was defeated by eight heroes. No one apparently remembers the heroes, and all of history was shaped by Arthur Gaz, including the ridiculous, nonsensical magic system. The magic system involves saying a bunch of words in gibberish and using magical ammo, made by fossil fuels or memories, to cast magic, except when this isn't necessary. There is literally a moment in this series where Chaika remarks that they had to leave all her magical ammo behind, then uses magic. There are also scenes where people are shown just firing their magical weapons without an incantation because that scene didn't need it, whereas in other scenes using magic without an incantation is considered weird. It's also hard to tell where anything is in relation to anything else, though I do recognize that that is often hard to show in anime.
Overall: 5
Hitsugi no Chaika isn't necessarily a bad series, and I didn't have trouble getting through it, but if something like Akari's awful character and [enraged rant removed], the stupid magic system, or the boring world get to you in the beginning, it's not going to get better.
