English Dub Review: Chain Chronicle: Light of Haecceittas “Unyielding Will”

Yggdra, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.

Spoilers Below

Quick recap: Heroes are all split up. Kain, Marina, and Mashidia went to the Holy Capitol for healing. The wizard army went back to Sage Tower to analyze the Sword of Light. Aram and Phoena press on to Soul Island to meet with a chick named Yggdra (same as the continent) about where Pirika went. Yuri went…. evil. Oh, and he’s tearing up Soul Island before Aram even sets foot on it. The forces of darkness await our heroes and the servants of Yggdra (the woman, not the continent, though you could argue both is true) jump to their defense. Dark Yuri appears, taking the fight straight to Aram. With their new friend’s help, however, the pair are able to move past him and press on. Even the forest itself is fighting for them, as trees grow and move to block the path and attacks of the enemy. Heck, there’s a giant ent up there casting shielding magic!

The pair finally meets up with Yggdra, keeper of the chronicle… Wait, but I thought Phoena kept the Chronicle until Shuza stole it? Let’s back it up a little bit. Yggdra the woman is the keeper of Soul Island’s Chronicle, a magical book that contains a living, constantly updating history of the entire continent of Yggdra. One could use this chronicle to view anything that ever happened in the whole continent. One could also use the bond between chronicle and continent to infect the continent with darkness. Phoena’s Chain Chronicle is the same, but for the entire planet. Aram joins Phoena and Yggdra on a trip inside the Chronicle, where they flip through various points in history since the loss to the Black King. They witness the defeat of Yuri and his subsequent infection with darkness. They see the apparent murder of Pirika at the hands of the Black King.

Then, they see one thing more. Yuri sits with Kain, bemoaning his inability to save the world. But, he hasn’t given up. He would defeat the Black King at any cost. However, he begs Kain for a favor: to take Aram under his wing and train him. That boy is pure potential and is full of light and hope. At that point, in the outside world, Dark Yuri catches up to the defenders of the Yggdra Chronicle and blasts the book with darkness. The black mana taints the book, separating the heroes from each other.

Aram find himself in another scene. Yuri, before war gripped Yggra, fights against a squad of black soldiers. A knight appears and uses a magical lunging attack to take them out. Yuri is impressed and wants to learn the technique so he could defend his village from any more of the monsters. The knight tells him that he could spend years studying the skill and never learn it, but with hard work and determination, he will. So, Yuri trains day and night for over a year, attacking a tree until it falls from his strike. He returns to his village to find it under attack. He uses the magical lunge called “Seize the Light”, defeating the soldiers and reclaiming the village… of corpses and ruins. He was too late.

The pages turn again, leaving Aram in frozen wastes, not unlike Maze Pass. Here, there is a Balthazari as well, and he seems to be living, not just a record. He claims that he could do anything. So, Aram asks Balthazari to make him strong. Strong enough to beat Yuri. Strong enough to beat sense into Yuri. Strong enough to save Yuri from himself. In response, the old man sends Aram back a few pages, to where he and Yuri fell off of a cliff in the Maze Pass. He manages to catch the captain and is about to climb back up when Dark Yuri appears. He grinds his foot into Aram’s hand, trying to talk him into letting go. Good Yuri also protests, saying that Aram should let go and save himself.

“Pure potential? The source of hope? Don’t you lay that stuff on me!” Aram responds, throwing one Yuri at the other. While the two duke it out, it lies in Aram’s court to finish the fight. He charges his sword with mana, and the light grows even brighter. He lunges forward and… Seize the Light. As the strike hits home, Pirika’s voice can be heard by all in the Chronicle. She will return when all have seen the light. Fortunately, Dark Yuri’s defeat in the book has put the kibosh on his plans to stop them from learning anything about Pirika and ejects then from the book. Darkness retreats from Soul Island, leaving a black stain on the Yggdra Chronicle. Meanwhile, two servants of Shuza approach Queen Julianna. They have no intention of allowing Shuza to become the new Black King, and plan to kill him for the good of all. Shuza, however, is preoccupied. The Chain Chronicle has a single beam of light shooting out of it. It seems that maybe Aram had used the bond between Yggdra and its chronicle to infect the world. Not with dark, but with light! This has even spread as far as the Black King’s throne, as whole chunks of its ruined architecture glow with light. We have hope. And now, Fate has been set into motion.

So, I felt this episode’s plot was pretty strong. Lots happened, and a good amount was explained without being expository. I’m glad they got a little more into the Chain Chronicle and its power, though most of it was stuff we could surmise from what we’ve already seen of it. We got more of Yuri’s backstory, and we’ve advanced Aram. Ready for the next adventure? I am! Animation was solid. I can see they used a little more of CG Aram this time around. This isn’t a bad thing, as they have put real work into the model and its animation so that it takes a trained eye to spot the difference. His action in the big battle is just as high-flying energetic as when they started this. They aren’t slacking now that they are in the home stretch. Voice acting was fine. Everything seemed pretty well synced, and the voices were all working for their characters. Nothing really to report there. I give this episode eight giant wizard tree out of ten.