Chained Soldier Feels Very Old-School, and This is a Good Thing

Summary:

• Chained Soldier started airing this January.
• The way the ecchi genre is handled in the series gives off old-school vibes.
• The art style and character design do that, too.

Chained Soldier (Mato Seihei no Slave) is another new series that is entertaining us this January. The first episode aired on January 4, and the series already has all the chances to become one of the most discussed anime this season.

Chained Soldier is set in the world where dimensions called Mato exist. Shuuki monsters come from these dimensions and attack people, who can only be protected by skilled female warriors with supernatural abilities.

When Yuuki finds himself in Mato, Kyouka is the one who can save him. But there’s an issue, and to defeat all the monsters and survive, Yuuki has to become Kyouka’s slave.

The anime is giving old-school vibes

The entire premise sounds like something from the 00s or early 10s. Back when anime used to be a male-dominated medium, there were a lot of harem anime or series with sexual innuendos in them, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Sex sells well, after all, and we can’t deny that.

The fact that only women can possess supernatural abilities in the Chained Soldier world makes it a female-dominated one. Having a male protagonist in such a world already makes it more appealing for male audience.

The anime gives off these old-school horny vibes when a boy is surrounded by pretty girls, and all of them find the boy interesting. Chained Soldier is just like that.

We don’t know if it will become a harem show, but the way all the girls are talking about Yuuki makes it obvious: he will often be the center of attention. The female characters admitted that they had rarely seen or interacted with a boy, so it’s peculiar to them.

This vibe was extremely common for older anime when a lot of boys and men watched series for self-insertion and associated themselves with the main protagonist, who has a lot of girls around him.

Don’t get us wrong, we do root for strong female characters who are not sexualized or created solely to attract the male audience. But this approach makes you feel somewhat nostalgic.

The art style and character design also remind a lot of older anime, and fans think that the Chained Soldier animation studio is to be thanked for that. Seven Arcs is nowhere near as big as the current industry giants, so it’s natural that their project might feel a little old.