English Dub Review: Chain Chronicle: Light of Haecceittas “Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword”

The pieces are all on the board. The refrain is in the wind. The final battle has begun.

Spoilers Below

Courtesy: Funimation

The legions of the Black King Suppression Army has gathered around the Imperial Capitol. The shield is still up, barring their way, so something must be wrong. The Ark carrying the Sword of Light came under attack in transit, and crashes, spilling its crew and cargo overboard. When Aram gets his feet under him, enemy units arrive to put him down again. Behind the lines, the enemy numbers are greatly bolstered. Furball the Guardian Dragon arrives at his aid, carrying Musica. Everyone who was aboard the Ark is ready for action. While most of the group head for the castle to take down the Black King and rescue Phoena, Musica heads for the Sword to begin her song, with Furball’s Dragonfire for percussive backup. The song is stirring and adventurous, full of determination, and its magic eats away at the barrier. The united forces charge in, cutting a swath through the Black Army’s mooks.

Held captive by DarkHart in the throne room of her father, the Black King, Phoena clutches her portion of the Chain Chronicle and touches the magical crest on her sternum. A quick flashback reveals why exactly she was stripping for Melchior before the battle. He tampered with the deep, old magics that resided in her as the keeper of the Chain Chronicle, giving her some form of active spell to be able to use if the situation became dire. There will be a cost, however. Should she use this shield spell, it will cost her her life. Dark Yuri arrives and takes the Chronicle from her, binding her in a tendril of solidified dark mana. The Black King begins the process of corrupting the light half of the book. A bit of light glows from the emblem on the cover. Of course, Pirika had been hiding there ever since her disappearance.

Now freed from his duty of guarding Phoena, DarkHart goes after a much more personal prize, Queen Juliana. Using his darkness-amplified powers, he separates his former employer from her troops (and her horse, poor thing) by a spire of the suddenly-raised earth. He mocks her, asking if things were easier for her now that she dumped the Suppression Army on someone else. She admits it to be true but claims that she will be ready to take responsibility for it. He attacks, pressing her against a rock wall. Obviously, he’s been spending too much time watching Masamune-kun’s Revenge, because that move never works. Instead of struggling, she places one hand to his faceplate, telling him that a person’s weaknesses and strengths are on them. This shakes his resolve a bit, but he knocks her flying. From her hand drops Berkhart’s old insignia from the Holy Guard. DarkHart picks it up. Bit by bit, the hold the darkness has over him falters. Juliana hoists her sword, her resolve forming a halo and angel wings behind her. If she was the reason he became this way, then she would take responsibility by being the one to end him. Her strike hits deep, knocking him from the cliff and to his death. As he falls, he holds his insignia up to her. Is it thanks? A declaration of renewed loyalty? An apology. She covers his corpse with the battle flag of the Holy Capitol, as the knights grieve his loss.

In the castle, Aram and company forge ahead through wave after wave of Black Soldiers. The Black King remarks about the light of hope that Aram emits, but it doesn’t matter anymore. He connects the two halves of the Chain Chronicle, and darkness flows through to the pure side. With all this darkness at his command, the Black King unleashes a new wave of corruption, doubling the soldiers at his command. Together, they muster enough power to knock Musica from her perch, ending her evil-destroying song. The barrier regenerates, sealing our heroes in and removing the possibility of retreat. Phoena, seeing how bad things have gotten, contemplates using the ace of up her sleeve.

Courtesy: Funimation

Elsewhere, Aram runs into Yuri, who has rejected that name for Black Knight because that’s the sort of thing a sane person does when they aren’t in a death metal band. The fight is perforated with Aram trying to talk sense into Yuri, to reassure him that he doesn’t have to shoulder the burdens he felt from everyone. That Yuri just has to do what he feels called to do. Black Knight, however, has no will of his own. Suddenly, Aram’s conversation with Velnar a few hours before makes more sense. In this situation, the desire to help is powerless without the resolve to finish the fight. If he wants to save Yuri, he has to be willing to kill the Black Knight. He gathers the light of hope into his blade. The two warriors agree: this next strike will end the fight.

Oh, man this is heating up! It’s a heavy action episode, but also one that resolves conflicts with a couple characters, and gets us ready for the series finale next week. Art and animation were amazing here. I noticed the very little use of CGI characters. Really, it was left mostly to the Black Soldiers. Creative directing and editing kept the complicated motions to a minimum, allowing them to really put their full effort on traditional animation for the battles. Music was actually very good, set the tone well. It had to since this song was a part of the plot since the beginning. Voice acting was fine, but it doesn’t take much to act in a battle scenario. Syncing was really badly off for the Black King, but that may have been a problem with my viewer. Overall, I give this episode eight DarkHart corpses out of ten.

SCORE
8.0/10