Anime Review: Chained Soldier Season 2

Not a lot of the heavier fanservice shows tend to get second seasons. Chained Soldier is a bit of an exception, with its combination of action and fanservice, rather than putting its focus on the fanservice itself. This makes for an interesting position for the show’s second season.

Season 2 throws Yuuki Wakura and the Seventh Division into the middle of Mato politics. With the reveal of the Eight Gods of Thunder at the end of last season, the Mato Defense Corps has to plan a response – so we get to meet the members of various teams. This kind of ends up shoving the plotline around Yuuki’s sister, and the Onmyou Agency’s role in her transformation, onto the back burner. Yuuki’s sister Aoba does end up making some appearances, but otherwise that plot rarely comes up; not even in the context of trying to figure out who else Yuuki, Kyouka, and Tenka can trust.

What we do get, in addition to some fanservice for Yuuki’s “rewards” is some very well done action sequences. We have a story arc involving Himari Azuma’s family, and her fighting to maintain her independence and to stay with the Seventh, and a storyline with the Eight Gods of Thunder going on the offensive, with some well executed fight scenes to go with it, including a bunch of action in the real world.

(Also, I’m deeply amused that as part of this setting, because it’s more matriarchal, Hillary Clinton was elected president instead of Donald Trump. People probably still historically hate Thatcher though)

One of the things that I think is managed well about the fanservice this season is that while the fanservice retains its Bondage and Domination tones, it also differentiates between those and sexual assault. In particular, Yuuki is sexually assaulted in the last part of the series and is nearly raped. The sequence is played briefly for fanservice at the start, before the music and camera angles shift into something less sexy and more distressing. It gets across that sometimes, with sex, something that started out consensual can shift partway through into something non-consensual when a partner does something that the other finds uncomfortable or not okay. Hidive’s release included a content warning at the start of the episode and contact information for RAINN at the end. It treated the subject matter with the gravity it deserved.

Probably the biggest fault of the season is neglecting the Onmyou Agency plot. There was an opportunity here to also feel out the other Divisions and their commanders, as a way of laying some ground work for later, but sadly we didn’t get that. What we did get through was fun.

Chained Soldier Season 2 is available for streaming on: