Chained Soldier Episode 4 Review

Himari Azuma’s True Ability

Chained Soldier Episode 4 was exactly what I hoped it would be. It was a Himari Azuma episode with plenty of ecchi content. Now, I’m starting to see why people like this series. Before this episode, I wasn’t entirely getting it.

Since this was a Himari episode, let’s go over the new things we learned about Himari’s ability. First of all, her ability isn’t what I thought it was. It doesn’t let her turn parts of her body into weapons. That’s someone else’s ability. Though, at this point, we don’t know whose.

Himari’s ability allows her to copy the abilities of others. However, there’s a compatibility component to it. She’s more compatible with some people’s abilities than others. That’s why she usually uses the weapon transformation ability. She’s compatible with it, so it’s easier for her to use.

Apparently, Himari is also compatible with Kyouka’s ability. Though, it’s unclear how she knows this is the case. From what we saw in this episode, it seems like this is the first time she’s ever used it. She didn’t seem to understand that there was a reward system tied to the ability.

An example of an ability Himari isn’t compatible with is Shushu’s ability. Shushu’s ability allows her to change the size of her body. She can become the size of a building or the size of a mouse. But, if Himari uses her ability, it won’t work well.

As Himari explains, when she tries to grow with Shushu’s ability, it only affects her bust size. And, her bust size only increases slightly. So, that’s not exactly an ability Himari can use in combat. I guess she could use it to great effect in other situations. But, I like Himari’s current proportions.

Mato Self-Defense Force 6th Squad

At the end of Episode 3, we met Tenka Izumo and Yachiho Azuma of the 6th Squad. Tenka is the commander of the squad and Yachiho is one of Himari’s older sisters. In this episode, we were introduced to a third member of the 6th Squad: Sahara Wakasa.

Unfortunately, we don’t know anything about Sahara yet. Himari says she’s a homebody who doesn’t get out much. That’s it. Her ability and everything else about her is a mystery. But, she’s not alone in that regard. We also still don’t really know anything about Tenka, either.

I assume we’ll learn about Tenka’s and Sahara’s abilities during the exhibition match. And, we can assume who these two will be fighting against. Sahara should be going up against Shushu and Tenka should be going up against Kyouka. Though, this means Yuuki will have to fight twice.

Anyway, let’s go over Yachiho’s ability since that’s the only one we know about. Yachiho has an extremely broken ability: Time control. She can pause time, rewind time, and potentially manipulate time in other ways we don’t know yet. But, one thing we can be sure of is that time control is always a powerful ability.

But, something to remember is that using abilities always comes with a cost. And, no, I don’t mean like the reward system of Kyouka’s ability. I mean that using abilities takes energy. We first learned this when Shushu explained how her ability worked.

The more powerful an ability is, the more energy it takes to use it. And the longer you use an ability, the more energy it uses up. So, an ability like Yachiho’s is going to use up a considerable amount of energy. And, we see this right at the start of the fight.

Intersquad Mato Exhibition Match

I already touched on the Intersquad Mato Exhibition Match a bit. But, let’s go into it more. At the end of the episode, we got to see the start of the first fight. And, of course, this was Himari vs. Yachiho.

Yachiho made the classic mistake of underestimating her opponent. She wasn’t expecting Yuuki to be as fast as he was. So, he was able to get a hit off on her before she could do anything. However, thanks to Yachiho’s ability, the fight didn’t end then and there.

She was able to rewind time back five seconds to right before the fight began. But, Himari notices something when that happens. She doesn’t know for certain that Yachiho rewound time. There is an indication, though. Himari sees that Yachiho is worn out, a sign that she’s already had to use her ability.

With this information, Himari decides to go with a different approach. She knew she was going to have Yuuki launch a direct attack right away. But, now that she sees Yachiho used her ability, she opts to attack in a different way. This is so she does launch the same attack twice.

If she had Yuuki use a straightforward attack here, things likely wouldn’t have worked out. That’s because Yachiho has already seen that attack before. She’ll be prepared for it the second time around. This is why it’s important for Himari to keep track of how many times and when Yachiho uses her ability.

I assume Himari is going to win, in the end. But, that also means everyone’s going to see her give Yuuki his reward. I can’t wait to see Yachiho’s reaction to this. And, I also assume this is what’s going to make Tenka interested in Yuuki.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Chained Soldier Episode 4? Does Himari’s ability make her the strongest member of the 7th Squad? What do you think Tenka’s and Sahara’s abilities are? And, which squad do you expect to win the exhibition match? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 5 is available now.