Madness? This is Hartgen!
What They Say:
Episode #6: “The Castle of Madness”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I love a good ominous title. In the land of Hartgen, King Stephan Hartgen, the hero who killed Emperor Gaz continues his plan to lure in the Chaikas with the remains. To do that he has devised a tournament to the death with the grand prize being the remains he has of the Emperor. Of course he has two black-dressed Chaika by his side, and I wonder if he knows the forces he is dealing with. Is he using them, or are they using him?
Chaika and her entourage are approached once again by Guy, who let’s them know about the tournament. Yet he won’t give Chaika anymore information on what she is or why she was programmed to gather the remains.
And Vivi’s team is on the move to. They arrive on the island after all the action is over only to find the smoking crater that Chaika’s new companion created. The beastmen siblings fill them in on the details and Vivi learns that Chaika is in possession of what is likely a weapon that could plunge the world into war once again. Their next orders are to head to Hartgen, because the world’s new leaders are worried that King Hartgen is amassing an army for war.
Red Chaika’s group is already there, and upon entering the castle find themselves under attack in a preliminary qualification round. They pass easily and enter the competition. Vivi and her squad arrive and plan to infiltrate the castle as well. Zita and Matheus head in for an audience with King Hartgen and he obviously doesn’t heed the wish to stop the tournament.
Chaika’s group formulate their plan of attack to get back the remains. The conversation Chaika has with Niva in their broken speech is probably the cutest thing in the entire series. The group is ridiculously well organizes and a good team by this point. They’re almost giddy to get going.
There is one last person at the castle, a certain swordsman who looks very familiar but doesn’t act like who he aught to be. Gillette appears to be suffering some form of memory loss, but it may not intentionally be from Guy’s actions, but it resulted in a complete personality flip regardless. We do get to see how Guy saved Gillette’s life and surprisingly it doesn’t involve teleportation.
Suddenly a wrench is thrown into the works when during the night Guy comes for Niva. Niva agrees to go with the mysterious messenger, leaving a confused Chaika behind. No good can come from this just prior to the competition.
In Summary:
With this many relevant parties in one place you know that the situation has taken a serious turn. Black Chaika’s versus White Chaika, with some Red Chaika thrown in and an old adversary turned even more so. This set up has all of the markings of a imminent epic showdown. I’m most curious about who’s really in charge here. Going by next week’s episode title I’m guessing it’s the young ladies in black. Even if the show hasn’t managed to surprise me much, it’s still a good solid adventure.
Episode Grade: B +
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.9.5, via Safari 7.0.6, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
