Chaika, back. Chaika, still speak like Yoda.
Picking up a month after where the previous season left off, our heroes continue their search for the remains of the evil emperor, opening with a magic fight between Chaika and one of the eight heroes, Lady Claudia. Unlike some of the other heroes that they've faced so far, Claudia is a fair sport who runs a winery and gives jobs to former soldiers who were displaced by the end of the war. She offers Chaika a deal: if the three of them can defeat her within one day, she'll give them what she wants.
The rest of the episode is an interesting combination of recap and new material. It covers the premise in the opening, but has some new information mixed in. Just as time has passed in the real world with the split cour, time has passed for the characters as well, so it makes sense to check in with everyone while also providing a little bit of a refresher for the finer details the viewers might've forgotten during the break.
It also helps that the new information covers some lingering plot threads right away. For example, the guess that Vivi had become Chaika turned out to be right--in a sense. Unlike the other Chaikas we've met so far, Vivi has kept her memory and her personality, but is still recognized as "Chaika" all the same, shown by the appearance of Guy. While this answers one question, it brings up the bigger question for the plot--who, or what, is Chaika?
That said, while we get a broad overview of everything that made the first season a great watch, this episode didn't exactly hit the ground running plot-wise. The only thing that the group really did in this episode was figure out that Chaika's cast times are too long (which is something that I wondered about in the first season). That said, it's nice to touch base with everything that is going on before the show launches back into the main story.
If you are new to the series, it would be better to start with the first season than to assume that this is a good jumping-on point. Despite the recap elements, the episode does assume that you already know what's going on. It doesn't do much more than give a basic overview of what's at stake in Chaika's journey before checking in with the major characters. If you have seen the first season and enjoyed it as much as I did, it looks like the show is starting to get things on track to wrap up the bigger mysteries of the plot. I can hardly wait to find out the truth about the mage her refers to herself in the third person.
Images from Crunchyroll.com. This post is also available on OASG.
