Shachibato! President, It's Time for Battle! (Episode 4) - Treasure Hunt

Shachibato President it's time for battle Title

Yutoria bursts into the Guild office with a juicy find. It’s a treasure map that a young wizard has brought to her in the hopes that they would help her find the treasure and split the bounty. Something seems familiar to Minato though!

What happened?

Marika, a twelve-year-old wizard who graduated from Adventurer School early has sought out the help of the Kibou Company with a treasure hunt. She’s loud and pushy, but they need the money so that they can pay the inheritance and recover Minato’s father’s things from the museum. They agree to help Marika, although only Minato and Yutoria are able to go with her. Soon, they find themselves in the middle of a dense forest known as a maze. They meet a local boy, who Minato met before, that can help them with the clues. They find the location of the treasure, but it’s a clue to another location. Something about this seems odd to Minato and it brings up some happy memories of him and Yutoria going on a treasure hunt when they were younger.

Shachibato President it's time for battle Episode 4 Marika

What did you think?

This series is fine to look at and has some nice world-building ideas, however, it really is the epitome of boring. I don’t know if this episode was meant to be a twist, but it was signposted a little too much. I realised what was going on as soon as she said that she found the map in her grandfather’s possessions after he had died. Then, after they found the next clue it confirmed my suspicions. Basically, the treasure hunt was a set up by her late grandfather in an attempt to make her make friends. Then, of course, the treasure hunt that Minato and Yutoria went on when they were younger was basically the same thing. It was nice enough, but it was just too easy.

Shachibato President it's time for battle Episode 4 Akari threatening Makoto

What have you learnt?

What can I say about this one then? Well, it was nice that the new treasure hunt had symmetry with the old one and helped them realise what Minato’s father had been up to, but it could have been done far better. That said, it really didn’t warrant much more time as there were no stakes and none of it really mattered. I’m going to compare this series to Bofuri again because they both have the same easy-going atmosphere only Bofuri was a million times better. The big difference is that we’re not really discovering anything with the characters in Shachibato or seeing them grow. We’re four episodes in and they are all the exact same characters we met in the first episode. There’s nothing for you to really attach to at this stage.