The Sakura Empire attacks the new naval base of the Royal Navy and Eagle Union. Season Premiere.
episode 01 – “ACTIVATION – The Girls Who Soar on the Sea”
First Thoughts.
Nice boats, it’s all about nice boats. I wondered how Azur Lane, the seeming Chinese clone of the Kantai Collection game, would tell a story about ship girls for anime. I’ve seen the character pages and dialog screen shares, and I’ve enjoyed the fan art, but I haven’t actually played the game. Comparisons to Kantai Collection are easy to make, but there are quite a few titles where cute magical girls, inspired by military craft, battle aliens from another dimension. Azur Lane is closer to Strike Witches and Arpeggio of Blue Steel for how the ship girls’ powers work, and the Sirens enemy is like a cross between Kantai Collection and Strike Witches. The theme of being corrupted by using an enemy’s power to defeat that enemy is much older and has been used in many stories, so we’re on familiar ground here. What matters will be the execution of how Azur Lane tells its story.
So far, I see strains of a story involving friendship developing on opposite sides of a war, a broken heart that needs mending, and a lesson to be taught about whether victory won through becoming like the enemy is authentic success. There’s plenty of space inside these themes for Azur Lane to put cute girls in cute situations, ogle at dress breaking in battles, and to look forward to special outfits for the obligatory relaxation episode.
Hmm.
I watched the Kantai Collection anime from a few years ago and I was disappointed at how the tone whipsawed between really serious and really goofy. Since we’re looking at another anime based on a ship girl game, I worried about what Azur Lane would try to accomplish for its own season. Apparently, its goal is fan service. And I mean real fan service. Sure, the producers Bibury Animation Studio chose certain boat girls to be the main characters, but almost every boat in the Royal Navy and Eagle Union got some screen time, even in the battle scenes. Their cameos also referenced the Azur Lane game artwork. I appreciate how much the production cares about its already baked-in audience. Perhaps this kind of service will be just for the first few episodes, but I’m curious to see how long this kind of fan service will continue as the season progresses.
Let’s not forget about the more important fanservice in Azur Lane. The girls looked great. Their personalities and voices were distinct. The colors were bright. The action scenes were fluid. I got hung up a bit by one of the characters repeating information from the prologue to the whole battle zone, but villains have to spout off megalomaniacally. I won’t begrudge Akagi taking her time to shine.
Heh.
The prologue establishes Azur Lane‘s setting and the players. There are four groups — Eagle Union (America), Royal Navy (Britain), Iron Blood (Germany), and Sakura Empire (Japan). The Azur Lane alliance has techno magical girls using the power of WW2 battleships to defeat aliens from the sea called Sirens.
The anime picks up after the Sirens have been defeated or pushed back. Also, Enterprise has issues that her companion Vestal worries about. Enterprise likes to say, “Warfare never changes, no matter what era we are in.” Somebody played a lot of Fallout. That closing shot in the opening credits makes me think the Iron Blood people will abandon the Axis Powers.
This is a real fan service. All the girls from the Azur Lane game are getting a little bit of screen time. I suppose the ones getting name placards will actually have speaking roles. Why that little boat girl doesn’t look like an Eagle or Royal. That is quite the difference in, uh, stature between Illustrious and Unicorn. Obviously, it’s Azur Lane Academy. They couldn’t just call it a barracks.
We’ll be following the adventures of these little sister types, Javelin, Unicorn, Laffey, and Ayanami as they grow stronger through the power of friendship. Or something like that. Aw. Unicorn is a good artist, but U-chan doesn’t look like that. Ha. Even Laffey recognizes skills in her drowsy state.
Oh? A Chinese game made Japan the bad guys? What a surprise! Akagi is relishing her dragon lady role, but she’s many-tailed fox spirits like her sister Kaga. Boo. Kaga’s a cold fish. She should enjoy her sister’s tender ministrations. Ah. This is why Azur Lane split between Allies and Axis — the Sakura Empire wanted to use the Siren technology for research and development. Because that always ends well in anime!
Cleveland has nice socks. I like the metallic sound effects during these transformations scenes. All the ship girls are getting a chance to reference the game’s artwork. More fan service! I’ve already picked out Pensacola and Atlanta as my non-speaking favorites.
NO BULLY! Ah, betrayal! Ayanami was so friendly to U-chan, but enemies are enemies. And suddenly Kurama wearing an aircraft carrier shows up. Was this in the Azur Lane game? Can all the boats do that, or just Kaga and the Sakura Empire? We are all Cleveland shouting, “ehhh?!”
No! Unicorn is getting bullied badly. Real bad! Bullying interrupted. Yeah! ‘Murica! Enterprise, engage! I suppose Enterprise will be the one having more serious character development. Kaga appears to be the type to lose sight of her goals. Oh ho. Kaga’s body belongs to Akagi. Nice to know.
Uh oh. Reinforcements. On both sides. Zuikaku, the younger aircraft carrier tells the big girls that it’s time to go. Akagi’s purple energy cube seems to be what this whole operation is about. Isn’t it just purple because they mixed the red Siren energy with the blue Azur Lane energy? Akagi’s dramatic narration refers to the Red Axis crushing the Allies’ deception. Ooh, plot!
