Anime Revue: Kantai Collection

"She loved the sea. She liked the sharp salty smell of the air, and the vastness of the horizons bounded only by a vault of azure sky above."
~George R.R. Martin, A Storm Of Swords

Kantai Collection A.K.A. KanColle (2015)

Studio: Diomedea

Licensed By: Madman Entertainment (AUS)

Director: Keizo Kusakawa

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Military, Comedy

Main Cast:

We've got a crowd on our hands with this one, so I'm just putting in who I think are the more important characters, with the exception of Shimakaze. However, Shimakaze is an overwhelming fan favorite, so I left her in. You're welcome.

Fubuki - voiced by Sumire Uesaka

Left: Yudachi - voiced by Yumi Tanibe
Right: Mutsuki - voiced by Rina Hidaka

Foreground: Kaga - voiced by Yuka Iguchi
Background: Akagi - voiced by Saki Fujita

Kongou - voiced by Nao Toyama

Left to Right: Mutsu and Nagato - both voiced by Ayane Sakura

Left: Kitakami Right: Oi, aka. Lesbo-Tron - both voiced by Yuka Otsubo

Yamato - voiced by Ayana Taketatsu

Why, yes. That is my very own Yamato figurine. #OtakuCred

Shimakaze - voiced by Ayane Sakura

Based on the game by Kadokawa Games

For those of you scratching your heads wondering why these girls have guns sticking out every which-way and assorted whatnot, allow me to explain the concept of "gijinka"; or "humanization". See, otaku love personifying inanimate objects and to oblige them, the Japanese anime industry personifies just about anything they can get their grubby little hands on; often in the form of really cute fanboy/fangirl bait. Series featuring gijinka include: Uppote!!, in which the cast are personifications of assault rifles, Hetalia: Axis Powers, in which the cast are campy* personifications of countries, and Kantai Collection; in which the cast are personifications of, as you've undoubtedly guessed by now thanks to the artwork, World War II-era warships.

So, for the not-so-casual anime fans in the audience: unless you've been living under a rock for the past several years, you'll know that KanColle is kind of a big deal. As a rule of thumb, I think that any title from any media that has spawned as much hentai doujinshi as KanColle has is impressive if only for that.

Then again, ecchi doujin ideas come easily when you're target audience is... Well... Yeah...

Naturally, when an anime adaptation was announced, as well as a second season at the end of the first one, otaku the world over flipped their collective shit; myself included. Lots and lots of cars on this hype train, lemme tell ya.

A dramatic re-enactment of D.K.'s reaction to the announcement of the anime adaptation.

So yeah; no pressure, Diomedea. You're only under my microscope already this year because of the massive heaping pile of cliché "irregular at a magic high school" story that was Unlimited Fafnir... On with the review!

The world is under threat from the marauding Abyssal Fleet. These deathly gray and emotionless alien/mutant/warship hybrid things want nothing more than to conquer the high seas.

They would also say "HA! Try to pull THIS one off, cosplayers!" but they have no spoken lines.

The only ones who can stop the Abyssal's advance are the Kanmusu, or "fleet girls" according to many translations. These girls wear special battle gear and are imbued with the spirit of ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The story mainly centers around the destroyer Fubuki and her everyday life training in the barracks and going out on missions.

Being as this is based on a game with not much of a story element to it, the writers undoubtedly had to work hard to come up with a plot that could at least last half a season. Given such parameters, I think the writers cranked out as good of a story as one could have expected. It's a solid effort, but in the end it's somewhat predictable and nothing to write home about. Then again, this series is way more about the spectacle of living warships doing battle. Don't expect any Shakespearean quality of writing.

The characters are your standard grab bag of "private girl's school" archetypes. You've got your Plain Janes in characters like Fubuki, hyperactive types like Kongou, "Kooky Spice", as my idol "Yahtzee" Croshaw would call Shimakaze, the classic senpai that Fubuki wants to notice her in Akagi, and so forth.

The animation is a well balanced blend of both hand drawn and CGI making for slick and smooth action sequences and well executed visual gags. As per my personal policy, let's sit back, relax, maybe pop open a cold one, and let the animation speak for itself.

<RANT>

I just have to ask...

WHO THE HELL DECIDED TO GIVE YUUDACHI THAT VOCAL TICK?

Then again, it did give birth to the greatest Flava Flav reference in history...

See for yourself. You'll find Yuudachi's voice samples on the second page of characters, bottom right hand corner. You'll also find that Yumi Tanibe, who also does Yuudachi's voice in the game, doesn't say "poi" after every sentence!

</RANT>

That aside, holy crap the voice acting work on this was... What do the kids say nowadays? Totes amazeballs? Meh. Anywho, the game's original cast was brought back for the anime and what a cast it is!

KanColle was a nice break from all the slice-of-life, teenage melodrama anime that The Jake ~~forces me at gunpoint~~ asks me very politely to watch with him. I, for one, am very much looking forward to the upcoming second season.