Chained Soldier: Season 1 Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Chained Soldier: Season 1 Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Chained Soldier: Season 1 offers thrills and adventure in the action-packed fantasy series. Created by Takahiro and Yōhei Takemura, Chained Soldier: Season 1 features animation production by Seven Arcs (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Sekirei: Pure Engagement). Produced by Emi Kashimura (Ascendance of a Bookworm, Knight's & Magic), Hirofumi Itō (Love and Lies, Tokyo Mew Mew New), Jing Lei Huang (Do It Yourself!!), Shota Watase (The Eminence in Shadow, Laid-Back Camp), and Yuki Watanabe (Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Warlords of Sigrdrifa), Chained Soldier: Season 1 features theme performances by Akari Kitō (opening) and Maaya Uchida (ending). Chained Soldier: Season 1 has voice performances by Yūya Hirose, Akari Kitō, Hina Tachibana, Mari Hino, and Yume Miyamoto.

Society developed “Demon Cities” and these popular spots became go-to spaces all across Japan. Visitors to the Demon Cities can eat special peaches and gain incredible skills and rare abilities. There’s only one catch: only girls who eat these legendary peaches get special abilities and skills; boys are left in the wind. Women are destined to be the leaders now in this new-age world where men are subordinate slaves to the whims of women.

Yūki Wakura (Yūya Hirose) finds himself drawn to a Demon City only to become a slave himself. Kyōka Uzen (Akari Kitō) becomes Yūki’s master. Be a good boy, slave boy – Yūki’s put to the task of being her slave boy, servant, and personal maid. These slave boys will be contained and chained. Can Yūki be a good pet-slave for his master Kyōka?

Chained Soldier: Season 1 delves into the darkness of the central protagonists. The characters play a significant role. As such, the designs of the characters are relevant, too. The character designs for the series are by Hiroyuki Yoshii (Just Because!, Tawawa on Monday) and are effective. A strong component of the anime series aesthetic. The character designs help to bring the characters to life for the series and its gothic-dark tones. The end result is a series with more effective BDSM-leaning animation and character designs. These aspects of the design approach certainly play well into the series and its undeniably kinky style.

The animation is one of the strong points of the production. Chained Soldier: Season 1 features solid animation direction and art direction for the series. The animation style is bold and impressive in spades. There is plenty to appreciate about the robust animation and the way it helps to show everything the team of animators brought to the table. The animators clearly wanted a series production with a dark and gritty aesthetic and the style is achieved with the series. The animation production team pushed the tempo and brought something interesting for a BDSM crowd.

The score composed by Kohta Yamamoto (The Girl in Twilight, The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord's Army was a Human) is solid and a decent backdrop for the production. The score adds some effective action-packed undercurrents for the series. The music is a solid aspect of the action and enhances it.

The cinematography by Fumiaki Nimura (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin) is one of the visual highlights. The animation is well showcased by the series art style and cinematography. The cinematographer understood the visual language and delivered on it.

Written by Yasuhiro Nakanishi (Kaguya-sama: Love is War, My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999), Chained Soldier: Season 1 is a offbeat action anime series with some kinky themes. The series has a decent enough concept and it will surely appeal to BDSM fans, especially women who enjoy men becoming their slaves. The master-slave dynamic between a female master and male slave is a fundamental. These aspects are essential to the series and the approach of the screenwriting.

Featuring chief direction by Junji Nishimura (Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Space Warrior Baldios) and direction by Gorō Kuji (Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise, Action Heroine Cheer Fruits), Chained Soldier: Season 1 delves into kinky BDSM relationships and the master-slave dynamics so popular with BDSM practitioners. The series emphasis is on women as masters and men as slaves and the director explores the kinkiness of the anime with the chained-slaves aspect being focal to the production. For kinky anime fans, Chained Soldier: Season 1 may be worth checking out. 

Chained Soldier: Season 1 Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released on Blu-ray by Sentai Filmworks, Chained Soldier Season 1 is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The presentation features bold and crisp animation. The background animation and line art looks quite compelling on the release. The art is a highlight with visuals that enhance the production and make a solid impression with the good encoding by Sentai Filmworks. The encoding capably handles action scenes and helps build on this part of the series.

One of the Blu-ray format strengths is the superior encoding option on physical media compared to streaming. Sometimes, especially with anime or television series, the encoding might only be a bit better, perhaps offering a few mbps improvement – but nonetheless it still remains improved in comparison to streaming counterparts – which provide more variables and more compression. Enthusiasts wanting to eek out every last bit of data possible will be pleased with Blu-ray and physical media providing a distinct advantage.

Chained Soldier: Season 1 Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with English subtitles). The release capably preserves the soundstage and sound direction by Chikako Yokota (Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls, My Girlfriend is Shobitch). The lossless audio encoding is one of the highlights of the release. Dialogue is crisp and clear. The soundtrack and score is well reproduced. The music is well-done and essential to the production. A solid encode by Sentai Filmworks.

Audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts alike will appreciate the extra refinement provided by the lossless audio encoding. Lossless audio provides a deeper and more robust soundstage with clear dynamics that are more immersive than streaming options. Streaming offers lossy audio, a detractor that home theater enthusiasts with good gear – from a quality soundbar to a full-fledged A/V receiver or other high-end gear – will notice. Good home theater audio gear sometimes can cost thousands or more and it is understandable why those with expensive audio equipment prefer physical media significantly in regards to audio reproduction.

Chained Soldier: Season 1 Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Clean Opening Animation (HD, 1:32)

Clean Closing Animation (HD, 1:32)

Alas, the supplemental package is the weakest part of the entire release. The bonus features are lackluster and there is nothing special to note. The bonus features could have used some audio commentaries, making-of featurettes, behind-the-scenes documentaries, cast/crew interviews, photo galleries, art galleries, and more. Unfortunately, the clean opening/ending credits seem to provide an almost barebones extras package with no real substance. A good bonus features package can often be important to fans and audiences weighing the pros and cons of a potential purchase. Fewer extras of value can be a significant factor considered by some fans and physical media enthusiasts – when the package has nothing of note, a one-and-done stream is sometimes still preferable.

Chained Soldier: Season 1 Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Chained Soldier Season 1 offers BDSM kinks and action-adventure for audiences. The master-slave dynamic is front and center. Bring a chain and grab a pet slave, kinksters. Chained Soldier: Season 1 provides noteworthy animation and production values.

Chained Soldier features a solid high-definition video presentation and lossless audio encoding. Alas, the release also sports a mediocre supplemental package and this is a downside to the box-set. Series fans may want to opt for a purchase for the permanent ownership of the series – then you can be the "master" of your own physical media collection.

A major drawback of streaming is you don't actually own anything and are expected to be happy no matter what happens down the road (when that movie or series is mysteriously pulled in the dead of night without your permission. After all, you subscribe to a streaming service. Streaming is not a portal to your own personal possessions or your own film/television archive).