User blog:SerialConvort/Kantai Collection Anime Review on CrunchyRoll by http://www.crunchyroll.com/user/Anonymooo

[quote][user]Anonymooo[/user] [link url="/forumtopic-892219/kancolle?fpid=49447103" title="View quoted post"]wrote[/link]: In an unusual alternate timeline, humanity has lost control of the oceans to a mysterious enemy. The only hope are... a bunch of cute girls possessing the spirits and powers of Japanese warships, because military otaku and moe otaku are a terrifying and profitable combination. [crimg]Anonymooo:67709909[/crimg] __________ by [user]moonhawk81[/user] [i]KanColle[/i] was a highly anticipated addition to CR's lineup, and has lived up to its hype specifically by not living up to its hype. And, no, I'm not contradicting myself. Coming so soon on the heels of [i]Arpeggio of Blue Steel[/i], and also offering a cute girl/naval ship combination, I couldn't help but fear for [i]KanColle[/i]'s sense of self. Alternately, the overexposure (pun intended) of oh-so-slightly-clad Shimakaze in advertising the franchise led me to very different concerns regarding the show. All that is now laid to rest! [i]KanColle[/i] is acutely aware of and devoted to its own story, which it tells in a surprisingly subdued manner, considering its premise of war. Each girl is the [spiritual] personification of a WWII warship and experiences situations reflecting both sides of her existence, both as a young woman and a vessel. Characters eat, sleep, and play at base, but then sail out to engage the enemy, seemingly skating across the water. But who is this enemy? The Abyssals, an alien power who seek to control the seas. (Bet you didn't see that one coming, Iona!)  [crimg]moonhawk81:67808057[/crimg]   As with [i]Strike Witches[/i], the story's alternate timeline still manages to evoke a sense of its bygone era despite the introduction of advanced alien technology and the use of women in combat. Elements of humor and yuri also contribute to the storyline without ever hijacking it. The artwork generally seems rather soft, especially in port, giving the show an overall relaxed feeling which almost belies its wartime setting. And--because this [i]is[/i] war--there are the inevitable moments of pathos. But the real focus of the show is on the girls' interactions with each other as they develop friendships and hone teamwork, thus flying in the face of all the hype about moe, action, and revealing uniforms. (All of which are, incidentally, present.)  Ultimately, this show has real heart(!) to go along with all its borrowed plot devices. And so, despite inviting valid comparisons to other shows, [i]KanColle[/i] indeed tells its own story [b]and[/b] does a good job of it! This time, the hype was right because it was wrong--so come watch the real show that somehow got quietly overlooked amidst all the shouting. by [user]Dai_Loli[/user] I’m going to go right out and say it: I didn’t get into [i]KanColle[/i] as much as I expected to. Probably because I had inflated expectations from seeing all that fan art on the Internet and thinking “Just what [i]is[/i] [i]KanColle[/i], really?” without ever really digging into it, I was content with just watching Shimakaze’s thong drawn in various angles. When the anime was announced, I went “Yes! HYPE! I’ll finally get to see what the fuss is about!” and jumped in blind. Expecting something much more action-packed, I was disappointed, but you can be different, because knowledge is power! [i]KanColle[/i] is based off of a free-to-play web browser game where you command “fleet girls” (moe anthropomorphisms of World War II naval warships) into battle against a faceless enemy force that took over the seas out of nowhere à-la [i]Sky Girls, Strike Witches, Vividred Operation[/i], you name it. My first warning: Be extremely prepared to suspend your disbelief with this one. It’s one thing to see girls wearing no pants and strapping propellers to their legs, it’s a whole new ball game when they are literally considered boats in human form. They don’t die, they “sink”. They don’t get hospitalized, they are sent to a “repair dock” which is actually them sitting in hot water for days until they are “repaired”. The aircraft carrier girls actually shoot arrows from their bows that magically transform into little fighter planes with chibi pilots inside them. It's all fine when it's tongue-in-cheek like with [i]Upotte!![/i], but [i]KanColle[/i] pays it no mind at all, like it's just good ol' routine. [crimg]Dai_Loli:67880059[/crimg] [i]You're a boat.[/i] My second warning: Don’t expect an action anime, [i]KanColle[/i] is in my opinion a lot closer to slice-of-life. It focuses much more on the relationships between the girls, their training and how they overcome personal challenges with battles often serving as mere proof that “Hey, look how far we’ve come with our teamwork/training!” With that said, it actually handles itself well as a slice-of-life, with a large collection of varied characters with their own quirks (based on the ships they represent, of course) and a lot of comedy, drama and character development to go around. If all that seems like it’d float your boat ([b]OH![/b]), go right ahead and I’m sure you’ll be glad you gave it a shot… [b]poi[/b]! by [user]iblessall[/user] In all honesty, I was pretty strongly anchored down in my preconceptions about [i]KanColle[/i] at the start of the season, enough so that I didn't intend even to try out the first episode. "Ah, it's just a show for people play the game. It won't be interesting or even much of a comfy watch if I don't know the character already." That's what I thought. But, the tide gradually turned thanks to a link to a translation of one of Nao Toyama's drama CDs as the Kongou sisters and a metric ton of cute [i]KanColle[/i] fanart. Before I knew, the shipgirls of [i]KanColle[/i] had sailed away with my heart, and I hadn't even started watching the show. Avast, [i]KanColle[/i] turned out to be pretty much exactly what I thought it would be—a show designed to dock in the hearts of the franchise's previous fans. Happily, though, Fubuki and company were entertaining enough to keep my fleet attention-span from going adrift until episode four and the Kongou's sisters raucous, hilarious hurricane of an entrance. Thanks to the Nao Toyama-voiced quartet, my attention was fully captured and I sat down in the admiral's chair to watch the rest of the show. [i]KanColle[/i] is certainly best when it sticks to the shores of its slice-of-life formula—shipgirls goofing around, maybe having a standalone fight with the Abyssals. But when the show trawls out into the deeper waters of drama, it seems to lose control of the rudder a little bit. While the characters are certainly fun to watch and spend time with, few of them are truly seaworthy enough to brave the storms of emotion into which the show occasionally tries to steer them. It's an interesting sandbar that [i]KanColle[/i] teases, needing to float on the line between keeping things low-stakes enough to be comfortable but tense enough to be interesting. Fortunately, the show's rarely run aground, and that's enough to keep me watching until the end. [crimg]Anonymooo:67899015[/crimg]  by [user]Dingofist[/user] "They're ships, but of course they're also girls. You can call them shipgirls." was how a friend of mine explained and justified, in a rather matter-of-fact manner, the concept behind [i]KanColle[/i], the brand spankin' new series about girls who are also battleships fighting horrors from the deep known as Abyssals. Anime has certainly gone down stranger roads, but shipgirls were something I was in no way prepared for, and I have to confess it took me two full episodes before I was really able to acclimate to [i]KanColle[/i]'s...unconventional...setting and finally get into the swing of things. When I finally stopped burying my head in my hands, I discovered a quirky, fun little show that, while incredibly conventional at times, manages to do enough right to keep its target audience coming back week after week. High production values and pretty visuals got me through the early going, but as episodes wore on the charm of the different shipgirls and a splash of the stark realities of war made for a surprising and incredibly welcome bit of depth. Fubuki, the protagonist, grew on me quickly, and the Abyssals look pretty cool, too. It isn't a show for everyone, by any means, but for those willing to dive in head first and peer beneath the surface, [i]KanColle[/i] is an enjoyable enough trip out to sea. [crimg]Anonymooo:67899019[/crimg]  by [user]Koda89[/user] Leave it to Japan to turn anything into cute anthropomorphized girls. [i]Kantai Collection[/i], or [i]KanColle[/i] for short, is just the latest in a long tradition in the Land of the Rising Sun. In this series we see massive warships from World War II get the cute girl treatment. Of course this wouldn't be the first time said ships were subjected to this process, as 2013's excellent [i]Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova[/i] would do a similar thing. I honestly don't really know how to react to [i]KanColle[/i], as the series wears many hats throughout its course. It's a comedy slice of life show about cute shipgirls doing cute things, it's a serious war series, and it's an action show. But above all else it is a love letter to the fans of the game the series is based on, working in a lot of references to the game, such as using some of the game mechanics for jokes. Curiously, for a show so clearly aimed at the fans of the game, it also has a rather narrow focus on the characters. There are dozens upon dozens of characters in the game, yet only a small handful have even appeared on screen, let alone been given any form of focus. I think my biggest issue with this anime is how it focuses on Fubuki, who is rather uninteresting to me, both from a design perspective and an overall character perspective. This is further compounded with the fact that my favorite episodes in the show so far have been the ones with very little focus on Fubuki, such as the curry cookoff episode focusing on the Sixth Destroyer Squadron. That's not to say I find the show unwatchable, quite the opposite actually. Between the Sixth Destroyer Squadron, the Kongou sisters, and franchise mascot Shimakaze, there is enough characters I like to keep me interested. On top of that I like the battle scenes and the CGI animation used in them, even if it quickly becomes clear when the show switches between the 2D animation and CGI animation. Lastly I am morbidly curious as to how the series will play out as it is clear the story is following a loose version of early World War II naval engagements in the Pacific, and as such can only mean bad things for Fubuki and friends. [i]KanColle[/i] is a bit of a mixed bag with no stand out strength, but it does just enough things right to keep me coming back week after week. __________ Adorable and armed to the teeth, the [i]KanColle[/i] girls get to business every Wednesday at 10:30am PST, right here on Crunchyroll! Are you watching? Tell us what you think![/quote]