English Dub Review: Chain Chronicle: Light of Haecceittas “Light and Darkness”

Wow, that was some tower defense game!

Spoilers Below

So, whoever wrote the script on this one sure knew the application of “in medias res”. We open the episode in the middle of the climactic battle of an epic war that… Okay, let me go look this up on a wiki because they’ve got my attention. Ah. So they were all living in an idyllic fantasy world under the Holy King until the Black King and his Black Army came in and screwed everything up. The game’s hero, named Yuri in the anime, put together a Volunteer Army from all these unique, eccentric clans and they stormed the castle to liberate the country. Yay!

Oh. Oh, they lost. Oh, they lost before the opening credits of the show. Well, this is not the turn I was expecting. A good half of the episode is spent discussing what this means and how it could have been avoided. You are given glimpses of characters we are probably going to see again, as the Volunteer Army breaks apart and returns home. Because that’s just what you do when the villain destroys your mysterious, magical history book, kills a fairy, and erects a force field.

Amid the depression of a war lost and the promises of world destruction, a street rat with a heart of gold fights the bullies and corrupt businessmen of his town and helps old ladies cross the street. Aram is such a stand-up guy, he helps that same old lady by pulling her cart to the next village. There, he meets up with the survivors of the Volunteer Army as they fight soldiers from the Black Army amid a black, mana-sucking mist. As he fights alongside them, Yuri notices Aram’s very presence fortified the mana of the rest of the team. This returns Yuri’s will to fight, and he enters the fray, back to back with Aram.

For those that didn’t know, there was already a movie of this, which spans the first four episodes of the anime. Since I can’t get my hands on that, I will more than happily plop down in front of my Roku for this. My only complaint is that it does rely heavily on you having played the game for a connection to the characters. It gives you the basics and a few other allusions to their story here and there, but without playing the game, you feel a little lost until the battle at the end happens.

The animation is top-notch. The opening battle was amazing, loaded with action, well-animated movement, and excellent art and character design. Though it didn’t show as much until the end of the episode, they still put that same level of detail and care throughout. And, while it’s kind of standard for television shows, the opening credits were absolutely brilliant in their art. Turning through the pages of the eponymous Chain Chronicle and showing off the characters as illustrations within that book, ink stain colors flowing in.

I was particularly impressed with the dub in several spots. Not only did I believe each character’s voice, but there were points where we got extreme closeups of the speaker, and the line looked like it had been animated in english. I really do have to hand it to the dub team on that one. You did really good work. They didn’t quite keep up that level throughout, but they did so when it really mattered.
So, between the excellent art, higher-than-average dub, and slap-you-in-the-face-at-the-get-go writing. I was more than pleased with this anime’s first outing. They got some top-notch teams on this project, including flying DOG (Who worked on Samurai Champloo), Showgate (Casshern: Sins), and Graphnica (Hellsing Ultimate). Be prepared, because the quality of this will likely be maintained throughout. If the quality of the dub continues, it is a must see. Not only will I be watching more, I will be looking up the mobile game… Not in America… And the servers are shut down. Oh, well. I still give this episode Nine Vanished Fairies out of Ten.