A Late-Night Visit from Tenka

Chained Soldier Episode 8 reveals what Tenka wants with Yuuki. She’s looking for companionship. She doesn’t want him because he can fight (with the help of Kyouka’s ability). And, she’s not particularly interested in making him the caretaker of the 6th Squadron.

All she wants is to be in a romantic relationship with him. He impressed Tenka with his loyalty to Kyouka. And, she thinks he’s pretty cute, too. In fact, she doesn’t even want to steal him from Kyouka. She’s fine with just being able to date him in their free time.

This episode changed my mind about Tenka. Before this, I wasn’t really interested in her. She has a cool peach ability. But, I wasn’t much of a fan of her personality or appearance. Now, though, I’m viewing her personality more favorably. She’s kind of cute.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I want to see Yuuki end up with Tenka. I’m still on team Shushu, even though I like Himari a lot, too. Shushu’s relationship with Yuuki is the cutest and I want her to succeed. But, I also recognize that isn’t likely to happen. This looks like more of a harem situation.

Alright, so, at the start of Episode 8, Tenka makes a late-night visit to Yuuki’s room. This isn’t the first time she’s done this. But, it’s the first time she’s done it while Yuuki was awake. Previously, she entered his room and stared at him while he slept like a psycho.

Something I’m a little surprised about is how Yuuki rejected Tenka’s advances. He didn’t outright reject her. However, his reaction to her advances isn’t the same as his reaction to Kyouka, Himari, and Shushu. Kyouka and Himari are a bit different, though, since they’re compelled to “reward” him.

Kyouka Loans Out Her Slave

I think in one of the earlier episode reviews, I mentioned how we’d only get “reward” scenes for Kyouka and Himari. At the time, I thought only Kyouka and Himari could use Kyouka’s Slave ability. Kyouka can obviously use it. And, Himari can use it thanks to her Learning ability.

Based on that, it seemed impossible for any other characters to become Yuuki’s “master.” And, that would mean that none of the other characters would have to give him a reward. However, that wasn’t exactly a problem. Shushu rewards Yuuki anyway because she likes him.

We now know that other characters can become Yuuki’s master and be compelled to reward him. Apparently, Kyouka can loan out her slave to anyone she wishes. But, she didn’t realize that the person she loans her slave to is the one who has to provide the reward.

Since Kyouka’s still the one using the Slave ability, she figured she’d still have to reward Yuuki. She’s still the one whose energy the use of the ability drains in this situation. As you might have guessed, though, that would be less interesting. It’s more interesting for more girls to reward Yuuki.

So, in Episode 8, both Nei and Shushu try out being Yuuki’s master. And, like when Himari took control of Yuuki, he changes into a different form for both Nei and Shushu. Yuuki’s Nei form enhances his senses and gives him X-ray vision. His Shushu form is slow but powerful.

Since it was only a test, the rewards Yuuki got here weren’t that exciting. Nei gave him a kiss on the cheek. But, you could argue his real reward for working with her was seeing through the other girls’ clothes. And, his reward from Shushu was her bandaging the arm she crushed.

Human and Shuuki Meeting

It turns out that the Supreme Commander of the Mato Defence Force wants to have a meeting with the Shuuki. Specifically, she wants to have a meeting between the MDF commanders and the humanoid Shuuki. But, why would she want this?

The existence of the humanoid Shuuki changed the situation within Mato. If there are humanoid Shuuki capable of speech, then they could be as intelligent as humans. And if they’re as intelligent as humans, war might not be the only solution. It’s possible that there could be a diplomatic solution to the Mato problem.

So, let me make a prediction. I think that there ultimately will be a diplomatic solution. But, that seems like it won’t happen until the end of the series. I’m predicting that Yuuki will be the key to this because his sister is one of the humanoid Shuuki. And, you know, because this is a harem series.

One big problem standing in the way of diplomacy, however, is what the humanoid Shuuki are after. From what I remember, we still don’t know what their goal is. Though, we know that Yuuki’s sister believes the Shuuki are on the correct side of history.

If the Shuuki’s goal is to eradicate humanity, then diplomacy can’t work. But, if it’s almost anything else, there may be common ground to be found. Who’s to say that humanity and Shuuki can’t live side by side?

Another problem is that not all of the humanoid Shuuki appear to be on the same page. Shikoku (the snake girl), for example, finds humans interesting. But, the other humanoid Shuuki we see with her in this episode doesn’t exactly agree. And, the male humanoid Shuuki we previously saw doesn’t like humans. So, there’s some internal politics going on.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Chained Soldier Episode 8? Which of the girls would you most like to see Yuuki end up with? Do you like that Kyouka can now loan Yuuki out as a slave to others? And, do you believe the humans and Shuuki can find common ground?

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about the benefits of supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 9 is available now.

Tenka Izumo’s Ame-no-Mitori

Chained Soldier Episode 7 confirmed what Tenka Izumo’s peach ability is. She can manipulate space — and we see her do this in two specific ways in this episode. But, it’s possible that she can use this ability in additional ways, as well.

Back in my review of Episode 6, I theorized about what Tenka’s ability could be. And, at the time, I wasn’t sure if creating portals was unique to her. Though, I was pretty convinced that her ability had to do with the portals to some extent.

Well, now we know. The portals are unique to Tenka. And, they’re not exactly portals in the sense that I was thinking of them. Like, yes, they’re portals. But, more precisely, they’re wormholes created by her space manipulation. She can enter a wormhole in one place and exit from it in another.

Creating wormholes alone would be a pretty powerful ability. However, that’s only part of what Tenka can do. We also saw her create a black hole to suck in her opponent. And, if the villain wasn’t saved by his ally, that would have been game over for him. There’s no coming back from that.

From what I saw, there also doesn’t appear to be a drawback to Tenka using her ability. Like any ability, she’ll get worn out if she uses it too much. But, we saw her use it quite a bit here and she didn’t look tired afterward.

Now, the craziest thing about Tenka’s ability is what it means for the 6th Squadron. They have members who can control both time and space. And, yet, they’re not even the strongest of the Mato Defense Force squadrons. So, what kinds of overpowered abilities do the other squadrons have?

Twice the Work, Twice the Reward

In the most recent fight against the shuuki, Yuuki did something new. He became the slave of two masters (Kyouka and Himari) at the same time. This made him even more powerful than if he was the slave of only one of them.

Before I continue, I want to point out once again that this is likely the most masters he’ll ever have. I mentioned this in one of my earlier episode reviews. But, only Kyouka and Himari can become Yuuki’s master because it’s part of Kyouka’s ability.

So, I doubt we’ll ever see an even more powerful Yuuki with three masters. He might get another power-up in a different way. But, it won’t likely be through the addition of another master. Now, with that said, this power-up also doesn’t seem like something we’re going to see used often.

Yes, having two masters made Yuuki twice as strong. But, it also came with twice the cost — both for Yuuki and for his masters. Yuuki was worn out more than usual. This could be due to the number of shuuki he fought. However, it also seems to be due to his power output while in that form.

Luckily for Yuuki, having two masters means he gets two rewards. And, the reward he got this time was bathing with Kyouka and Himari. That’s a pretty good reward. But, the reward itself seems to be based on how hard Yuuki worked.

So, if he had two masters and he did a little bit of work, he might get a normal kiss from each of them. But, because he fought so many shuuki in this battle, his reward was greater. That’s why this was the most sexual reward he’s received, so far.

Visiting the 6th Squadron

In the second half of Episode 6, Kyouka, Himari, and Yuuki visit the 6th Squadron’s headquarters. Tenka, Yachiho, and Sahara are there, as expected. But, Tenka also mentions that they have other members who are currently out.

We don’t know how many other members the 6th Squadron has. However, we know there’s more than one since Tenka mentioned members (plural). And, we know one of the people not currently at their HQ is the caretaker. Though, I’m going to assume the 6th Squadron’s caretaker isn’t a man like Yuuki.

What about the other member(s)? There may be only one other aside from the caretaker. And, if that’s the case, I’d expect them to fulfill a role similar to Nei in the 7th Squadron. After all, Tenka, Yachiho, and Sahara are all combatants. Well, Tenka’s also a support type. But, they’re not dedicated supports like Nei is.

Speaking of Nei, she’s the titular character in the next episode. And the reason I’m bringing that up is because it implies we won’t meet the other members of the 6th Squadron just yet. If we were, I’d assume the episode to be named after one of them.

There are some other things we learned about members of the 6th Squadron I want to mention. The first is that Yachiho has an obsession with Himari. We knew she secretly liked her younger sister. But, after seeing her room, it’s clear she’s obsessed.

Yachiho isn’t the only member of the 6th Squadron who likes someone from the 7th. Tenka is also interested in Yuuki. And, at the end of the episode, she asks if Kyouka would be willing to give him to her. I doubt Kyouka will allow this since only she (and Himari) can bring out Yuuki’s potential.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Mato Seihei no Slave Episode 7? Is Tenka’s or Yachiho’s peach ability stronger? Were you surprised that Shushu didn’t try to insert herself into Yuuki’s reward this week? And, why do you think Tenka wants Yuuki? Does she have a crush on him or is there another reason?

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about the benefits of supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 8 is available now.

Mato Exhibition Match Round 2

Chained Soldier Episode 6 covers the second round of the Mato Exhibition Match. This is the fight between Shushu Suruga of the 7th Squad and Sahara Wakasa of the 6th Squad. Unfortunately, this is also the final round, since the exhibition match gets cut short.

In the first round, we had Himari vs. Yachiho Azuma, which makes sense since they’re sisters and rivals. The final round was supposed to be Kyouka Uzen vs. Tenka Izumo since their the commanders of their squads. But, that doesn’t mean the Shushu vs. Sahara match is simply the leftover pairing.

Both Shushu and Sahara are hand-to-hand combatants. They need to get up close and personal to fight with their abilities. So, this is the martial arts round of the match. And, to start, both girls agree not to use their abilities. That doesn’t last very long, though.

We already know what Shushu’s ability is and how it works. So, there’s not too much to say about that. But, what I will say is that I would have liked to see her swap between sizes on the fly. Like, going from giant when attacking to tiny when dodging.

Sahara’s ability is the new one. I’ll go into more detail about it in the next section. But, for now, the basics are that she chooses a time limit for her ability to be active. And, the shorter the time limit, the stronger her ability is.

What is this ability that she’s making stronger? It’s simply her physical strength. So, even when Shushu is in her giant form, Sahara can hit her hard. This is exactly why I would have liked to see Shushu use her Paradigm Shift in a more dynamic way. While giant, she was a sitting duck.

Crazy Sheep Sahara

The name of Sahara Wakasa’s ability is Crazy Sheep. However, the subtitles I had called it Mad Sheep, which is pretty strange. We literally hear the characters say Crazy Sheep in English. So, I don’t know why they decided to localize it to Mad Sheep.

Anyway, as I said, Crazy Sheep is a physical enhancement ability. Sahara chooses an amount of time between 1 and 60 minutes. And, I’m assuming she has to choose whole minutes, not something like 5 minutes and 32 seconds. Her ability is then activated for that timeframe.

The shorter the timeframe she chooses, the stronger she becomes for its duration. So, choosing 60 minutes will give her a small strength boost. And, choosing 1 minute will give her an insane strength boost. But, we don’t know how this strength boost scales. Is it exponential? Linear? We don’t know.

What we do know is that she chose 3 minutes in this fight against Shushu. That turned out to be the perfect amount of time and strength for her to barely take the win. I had predicted that Sahara would win. But, I didn’t expect her victory to be by such a slim margin.

The only reason Sahara won was because of a second part of her ability. If she’s unconscious while her ability is active, she becomes even stronger. So, when Shushu knocked Sahara out, she sealed her own fate. This is what gave Sahara the power boost needed to win.

Of course, Sahara’s ability isn’t without its drawbacks. While unconscious, she becomes a berserker who doesn’t differentiate between friend and foe. Also, after her time limit runs out, she has to take a 3-minute nap. So, she’d better win the fight or have her allies ready to protect her.

What Is Tenka Cooking?

We’re most likely going to learn all about Tenka’s ability in next week’s episode. After all, each episode pretty much focuses on a single girl who’s called out in the title. But, before her ability is revealed, I want to do some theorizing about it.

My first impression was that Tenka’s ability is how she opens portals. We’ve seen her do that multiple times now. But, the more I thought about it, the more I’m not sure that’s unique to her. Don’t the other girls use portals like those to come and go from Mato?

I could be wrong. And I’m not going to go back and look at previous episodes to find out. But, I’m going to assume portals between Mato and our world aren’t unique to Tenka. What could be unique to her is creating portals between different places within Mato.

How does this explain her being able to defeat the Shuuki army single-handedly, though? We saw the Shuuki burned to death with blue fire. That appears to be due to a completely different ability, right? It could be. But, the blue flames could also be from a different region within Mato.

Mato is a weird place. Maybe there’s a sea of blue fire. And, if there is, maybe Tenka opened a portal within it, allowing the blue fire to rush out and kill the Shuuki. That’s my current theory. If it’s true, then Tenka has a pretty strong ability.

We’ll also have to wait and see if there’s a drawback associated with whatever her ability is. So far, we haven’t seen one. But, we also know that not all ability drawbacks happen immediately after an ability is used. Kyouka’s Slave ability is one example of this.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Chained Soldier Episode 6? Were you expecting Shushu or Sahara to win their fight? Where would you rank Sahara’s ability compared to the others we know of? And, what do you think Tenka’s ability is going to end up being?

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 7 is available now.

Prime Time with Yachiho Azuma

Chained Soldier Episode 5 focused on the exhibition match between the Azuma sisters. I thought we’d at least get to see the start of the next match. But, no. That’s okay, though, because there’s still quite a lot for me to discuss.

I went over Yachiho Azuma’s abilities a bit in the Episode 4 review. But, let’s go into more detail, this week. Yachiho’s main ability is that she can control time. However, that main ability has two sub-abilities. She can freeze time and she can rewind time.

When we see her use both of these sub-abilities, she does so in 5-second increments. However, we know that’s not the only amount of time she can control. According to Yachiho herself, her ability is more efficient when she strikes a pose. And, she struck a pose every time she used her ability in this fight.

What does that tell us? It tells us that Yachiho can control time in smaller increments if she wants simply by not striking a pose. But, in the case of this battle, those smaller increments wouldn’t have been very helpful. Instead, she needed to control more time.

This is where Prime Time comes in. Prime Time is an evolution of Yachiho’s base ability. It allows her to control double the time that she normally can. So, if she strikes a pose while using Prime Time, she can control time for 10 seconds.

How does doing something like freezing time for a set amount of time work? If you freeze time, won’t 5 or 10 seconds never pass? I’m sure nobody asked, but I’ll answer these questions anyway. Time is relative. Rather than freezing time for everyone else, you can think of it as Yachiho moving at the speed of light.

Battle of the Sisters

In the end, we saw Himari and Yuuki defeat Yachiho, just as I predicted they would. And, of course, this victory was important for Himari. It was her opportunity to prove to Yachiho that she’s not as weak as Yachiho thinks she is.

As I believe I said last week, Himari seems to be the strongest member of the 7th Squadron. So, it’s a bit wild for Yachiho to consider her weak. Himari has a very powerful ability. Though, I guess from Yachiho’s perspective, most abilities are weak. That’s how strong time control is.

Also, we need to keep in mind that Yachiho went into this fight thinking she had an advantage. Both Azuma sisters are very familiar with each other’s abilities. We saw Himari changing up her strategies based on how tired Yachiho appeared. And, Yachiho said something that implies she has a lot of information about the 7th Squadron, too.

You might have missed this. But, Yachiho commented on how swapping between abilities works for Himari. If she copies an ability that has a cost, she can’t swap to a different ability before she pays that cost.

This tells us a few things. First, she knows that there’s this limit on Himari’s Learning ability. Second, she knows the ability Himari copied is Kyouka’s. And third, she knows Kyouka’s ability has a cost that must be paid for using it. With all that information, it’s easy to see why Yachiho would think she has the advantage.

But, that’s not all. Yachiho also (correctly) believed she had an ace up her sleeve. Himari had no idea about Prime Time. So, Yachiho was able to use that to take Himari by surprise. And, she would have won at that point if she hadn’t dropped her guard.

A Slave and His Rewards

Okay, let’s talk about the reward Yuuki got from Himari at the end of the episode. Was this the best reward so far? Maybe. I’ve seen quite a few people saying that it was. And, to be fair, this was a very good reward.

However, I don’t think I can say that it’s better than the reward he got in Episode 4. I get it, everyone wants Himari to kiss them. I do too. But, come on. was that better than her sitting on his face? I’m not so sure about that.

There was one thing I was disappointed with in terms of this reward. I was looking forward to Himari having to give Yuuki his reward in front of everyone else. Like, imagine if Yachiho woke up to see Himari sucking on Yuuki’s face. That would have been epic.

But, at least Shushu saw it happen — even if Himari and Yuuki don’t know it. And, this got me thinking about Yuuki’s rewards in the future. Obviously, this is a harem series and Yuuki’s going to be involved with most of the girls in some way.

The thing is, the majority of these girls won’t have to give him a reward like this. That only applies to Kyouka and Himari (when she’s using Kyouka’s ability). It’s not like Shushu is ever going to have to service Yuuki against her will. Though, I can definitely see her doing it anyway.

What about the other girls, though? Are Tenka, Yachiho, and Sahara all going to fall for Yuuki on their own? That seems less interesting than them having to reward Yuuki. I mean, the slave-reward dynamic is the main draw of the series, isn’t it? I want these girls to be uncomfortable and embarrassed.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Chained Soldier Episode 5? How do you feel about the way in which Himari and Yuuki won the fight? How much do you think Yachiho knows about the cost of using Kyouka’s ability? And, was Yuuki’s reward in this episode your favorite? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 6 is available now.

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.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 5 is available now.