Another cute show airing this season is High School Fleet, aka Hai-Furi, the latest in the ongoing “cute moe girls + naval ships” boom. A century in the future, much of Japan has sunk into the sea, forcing the country to create new marine cities and an all-female military force called the Blue Mermaids. Misaki and a group of other kawaii high school girls have joined the Yokosuka Girls’ Marine High School, where they find themselves engaged in (extremely cute) naval combat in their ship, the Harekaze. Like Arpeggio of Blue Steel and KanColle, the show is filled with references to now-familiar Japanese ships, as well as “navy curry” (the curry the sailors ate during WWII, an enduring meme in Japanese pop culture). The characters are entertaining, the military action enjoyable, and the plot is even good (though with the exception of the Wilhelmina, there’s not much of that other kind of “plot”). Anyway, if you like naval battles and cute girls, give Hai-Furi a try!
One thing I like about the medium of animation is its “timeless” nature, the way it lives on forever, never changing. You probably wouldn’t find me watching old re-runs of American TV programs like Happy Days or The Jeffersons, but I’m more than happy to sample classic animation from past eras, like the 80s baseball anime Touch, or the classic A Dog of Flanders, which helped launch the career of Miyazaki Hayao. I recently asked readers on J-List’s Facebook page what their favorite “old school” anime series were, and replies were naturally varied, since our definition of when “old school” starts is subjective. My own definition of the Golden Age of anime would be the early shows like Space Battleship Yamato, Speed Racer or the original Gundam, when everything was basically a “shonen” story created for young male fans. The Silver Age would be the fully developed properties like Macross, Sailor Moon and Zeta Gundam — this last show heralded the era when opening theme songs were usually sung by female singers rather than males — as the industry was finally achieving major success internationally. Finally, the modern period would be defined by the bursting of the licensing-for-broadcast-and-DVD-sales bubble in 2006, the rise of the Internet-based distribution methods, and the move from manual cel animation to digital production.
In addition to that awesome flash sale on anime figures, plush toys, keychains and other toy items which ends Thursday, J-List is having a month-long sale on all personal stress toys for guys and girls, which are great for taking the edge off after a long day. See the new Enjoy Cup toys in “soft” and “tsundere” type!
