Episode 10 is very intense, with a lot that takes place over the course of it. I was happy to be proven right when I saw Toru finally take Fredrica up on her offer to make a contract to become a dragoon cavalier. With how much emphasis had been placed on this idea, it would have been disappointing if he hadn’t. And if Toru hadn’t taken Fredrica up on her offer, I don’t think there would have been any way for him to be able to make it to where Gaz fled to and have a confrontation with him. And becoming a dragoon cavalier seemed to give Toru some much-needed confidence, which he carried with him both in his fight with Shin and in his confrontation with Gaz.

I also liked seeing Red Chaika getting back into the action, and she becomes an important part of a final conflict involving Black Chaika, Black Chaika’s “dolls,” Vivi, and Akari. It was awesome to see these women, who had basically been enemies prior to this, teaming up and kicking butt. But in the end, Chaika ends up becoming the real hero. While I won’t go into much about what she does, all I will say is that my fear of Niva becoming a “deus ex machina” ended up being realized.

Outside of Niva becoming a “deus ex machina,” I did enjoy this episode and thought it was effective in bringing the series to a close. After seeing how this episode ends, I don’t see a good way to continue the story because this is just too “clean” of an ending. There might be more story left to tell from the original source material, but I get the impression that the director of the anime wanted to bring the story to a close here.

Now that I’ve seen both Chaika –The Coffin Princess-and Chaika –The Coffin Princess- AVENGING BATTLE, I can say that I enjoyed the journey that it took me on as a viewer. From Chaika’s introduction and the setup of the series, there were always questions for the viewer to ponder and make the viewer anticipate learning the answers to the questions. I really came to care about many of these characters over the course of both of these series, and in some respects, I’m a little sad to see that their adventures are over.

At such a point that Chaika –The Coffin Princess- becomes available on home video in the United States, it’s a series that I would definitely consider acquiring and adding to my anime home video collection.

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