Chained Soldier wastes no time getting started. We immediately join our two main leads in flashback: ambiguous memories that are supposed to give us some kind of motivation for the characters play across the screen—complete with a stock film reel overlay to emphasize that what we are seeing is in the past! The main credits then kick in with a bombardment of imagery that tells you exactly what kind of show you are about to watch—one where the sexual energy on display is far more important than character or plot. The episode pumps the brakes after this to introduce our male protagonist—a bummed out high school boy named Yuuki Wagura who doesn’t seem to be good at anything other than cleaning and sewing. We quickly learn that gates to Demon Cities in another dimension are appearing all over Japan, and that if girls eat the “peaches” growing there, they gain some kind of superpower (girls only, though). While Yuuki is out job hunting, he accidentally wanders into one of these Demon Cities and is suddenly attacked by some monstrous creatures! He is then miraculously saved by a mysterious girl with long white hair in some kind of military uniform riding on the back of another giant monster. Her name is Kyoka Uzen, the leader of the “Magical Defense Corps,” which includes three other girls who receive a minimal amount of screen time. When they get into a tight spot, Kyoka decides to share her power with Yuuki, but with a catch—Yuuki must become her slave! He agrees and their contract is enacted when he licks her finger for some reason… Yuuki is then collared and transformed into a giant monster for Kyoka to ride into battle as he rips the monsters to shreds. Once the battle is over, Kyoka proposes making him her permanent slave, but the arrangement comes with a caveat—the price of her ability is that she must compensate her slave with a reward…KISSING! When Yuuki gets nervous and tries to deter her, she says the price of her ability compels her body to act without being in control, because OF COURSE it does. Yuuki, for reasons that don’t require much imagination, agrees to become her permanent slave and live with her and the other three girls as their slave both on and off the battlefield. What whacky adventures will our hero get himself into next??
If you can’t tell, Chained Soldier is a trainwreck of over-the-top sexual situations and stereotypical anime tropes. I watched this with my wife and her siblings as a big group. It was 23 minutes of us screaming at the TV and cringing in our seats—which wasn’t the WORST way to spend a Thursday evening, I suppose. But with an opening theme song sequence that includes literal boot-licking and a barrage of BDSM imagery, we knew we were in for a doozy. For myself personally, as a Christian, my standards of what I choose to watch or not watch is not always necessarily based solely on the content on display, but how the content is handled and what kind of message is at work in whatever piece of art I’m consuming. Admittedly some of my favorite anime series include some nudity or sexual situations in ways that build character development and can even surprisingly have a biblical worldview about the content they depict. But this series seems to exist merely to get its characters into suggestive or sexual situations, and, based on that alone, I simply can’t recommend watching this series to anyone. And while this character is not sexualized in episode one, one character in the harem of girls is revealed to be 11 years old, and I have a bad feeling that she is not going to be safe from the general nastiness of the series. But I wouldn’t get too disappointed, as this series is nothing to write home about anyway. While the fight scenes are mildly engaging, the thin characters, forgettable music, and mid-tier animation do not make a compelling first episode. The concept of the Demon Cities is actually a somewhat interesting idea, but that idea is completely wasted on a show that has the sole goal of sexualizing its thin, underdeveloped characters. I know this is only the first episode, but many shows can make compelling characters and a compelling world in even less time; the screenplay and direction of the series just doesn’t allow for even a feeble attempt. My advice: use your 23 minutes to watch something better. Have a nice conversation with your family. Go outside. Just do something to remind yourself of how great the world can actually be—because you won’t find anything great in episode one of Chained Soldier.
Chained Soldier is available to stream on HiDive.
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