Talk:Anime/@comment-0332288-20150119063238

Since there's a lot of people giving reviews in the comment section, I think I'll give one too as a fan who never really played the game but really got into all the fan material.

From a technical standpoint, the anime's quality is decent, and by that I mean the animation quality. It's nothing spectacular, but it's presentable, and there are a few scenes that go above average. For example, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who got chills when 1stCarDiv geared up before the sortie in Ep 1. The artstyle, while I a tad too cutesy for my taste, is also presentable, and at least puts all the characters under a unified artstyle so it looks more consistent.

That said, episode 1 was...kind of a let-down. It's somewhat rushed to fit in everything, and more significantly, the Abyssals were complete PUSHOVERS! Aside from Mogami getting randomly 1-shot by a DD for the sake of fanservice and that one Elite DD, even the Anchorage Princess was literally just target practice for the Fleet Girls! She's a BOSS ffs, and she spent the entire "battle" doing nothing but standing there dealing no more damage than shooting down ONE plane! F*cking disgrace! Even if the combat was rushed so they could cram it into episode 1, at LEAST make her look competent! Have her be accurate enough to hit a plane with every shot instead of 1 in 3 like some scrub! Show her trying to coordinate her little fleet and get mad when they get slaughtered! Show the Fleet Girls desperately dodging the bullet spray when her Fortress Balls open fire! ANYTHING! Come on, give her some credit as a boss!

As for episode 2, it's...again, presentable. It shows the SoL side of life as a Fleet Girl, a little training montage that gives Fubuki some semblance of character development no matter how cliche it is, and gives some of the other characters a little screen time. That said however, their choice of Fleet Girls for the anime and how they're presented is honestly...disappointing. Most of those they did choose are either really generic, or their only notable quirk is a stupid verbal tic. Why have Tone and Chikuma, neither of which have notable quirks, when you could have Chuuni Tenryuu and Troll Tatsuta who could appeal to more than the existing playerbase as characters on their own for example? And the ones they do have, while some are well done like Ooi who shows her clingy lesbian love for Kitakami without crossing the line into full on ero molesting, others don't take it far enough, for example Sendai not being hyped enough at night/exhausted at day and simply coming off as kind of nocturnal. Hibiki's probably one of the WORST portrayed in this, literally sounding like an autist who can only spout two random lines that don't even make sense in context!

For those who say the anime shouldn't go too far into fanon, let's face it, the in-game "canon" characters are incredibly bland, with only hints of traits that the fanbase built upon to make them into truly unique characters, just like with Touhou! Plus, the anime was BUILT to be fanservice to the existing playerbase! It's not exactly designed to appeal to a wide audience in the first place, why not go the full mile and make certain popular fanon traits a reality? A normally elegant Akagi who goes full messy glutton whenever food is involved, Kaga who's passive aggressive to 5thCarDiv and feuds with Zuikaku, Nagato with a hidden goofy side who secretly adores anything cute (like that ninja girl in Angel Beats), Inazuma/Plasma etc etc. Everything's just too downplayed right now. Still, it's only episode 2, maybe there's still chances for SOME quirks to show themselves. At the very least they can't not do Nightmare of Solomon Yuudachi at some point, surely!

So, from a non-Kancolle player's standpoint, though I have a very good idea of its general fanon, the anime is just...meh. It doesn't take itself far enough in ANY direction and just comes off as mediocre so far, with bland characters who are there to be nothing but fanservice, both by spewing in-game lines and being eye candy. However, I will go by the 3 Episode rule and see how the next ep holds. Personally I was hoping for something on the level of Zepher's "A Destroyer's Destiny", but I guess my expectations are just too high...