Board Thread:Anime/@comment-25730832-20150224105829/@comment-222.128.255.2-20150302181526

Again, the characters in the anime are game characters with fanon elements implemented WHEN THEY DON'T CONTRADICT THE BASE CHARACTER TEMPLATE. There is nothing about Nagato's liking cute things that contradicts her official in game personality. In fact, the hidden cute side's funny voice Nagato is canon from her kai version secretary line. Akagi's gluttonous personality is also canon, especially given what her secretary idle line is. Tenryuu's kindergarten is BTW, canon according to the 4-koma and the simple fact that it's exactly how her game mechanic works based on her low consumption. Some of the things mentioned in comments but not shown (because the characters get little to no exposition) like Reporter Aoba knows everything (actually suggested in her second sec line when she wants to share gossip with us), Kuma as Kuma (accidentally revealed in secretary idle line despite protestations in 3rd sec line), Tama as nyaa (every single sec line) are actually canon. Mama Houshou (intro line and her referring to kanmusu as children in new ship line) has already been teased in ep. 4, and Mutsu's 3rd turret (well, duh! But also mentioned in night attack line) might show up eventually. Both are of course canon. Some people just confuse fanon exaggerations of canon elements for fanon innovations.

The elements that do contradict their in-game personalities in fanon but are really popular nevertheless are things like:

- Akagi eating her own planes (and occasionally other kanmusu)

- Nagato actively hunting and molesting DDs.

- Mutsu beam/snail.

- Purazuma (Plasma) -chan / nanodeath

- Tenryuu being actually a chuuni introvert.

- Shiranui as nuinui.

The first two elements, although extremely popular, don't show up in the anime because they clearly contradict the original image of Akagi being a responsible warrior despite her gluttony and Nagato being a very serious flagship despite her hidden cute side. Mutsu beam is just absurdist nonsense, as is the snail thing, so they don't make it into the anime. Plasma-chan is so far off left field that there's no way in heck she'll ever make it to the anime - besides, the meme is almost dead by now in Japan. The foreign fandom caught wind of her a lot later than the peak in Japan and we've kept her alive, much like Miku's Zatsune incarnation - all but forgotten in Japan but still alive outside. Tenryuu and Shiranui are just not shown in the anime, so we'll never know.

Basically the producers have done their best to accomodate fan input while sticking to the original design script. What more can we ask?

As for complaining about kancolle anime's content, in THREE INTERVIEWS before the anime even STARTED, the producers, cast, and even animators already mentioned again and again that Kancolle would be mostly (70% according to producers) slice of life. Everyone who bothered to listen back then doesn't have a right to complain now. They already explained ahead of time that this is exactly what we were going to get, and that's exactly what we got. If you don't like it just don't watch, and stop acting like you've been tricked or betrayed or demanding things from the producers when it's already clear from the very beginning what kind of anime they were planning to make, and especially given that they've stuck exactly to plan. The mainstream can decide what they like on their own, thank you very much, and so far they've shown exactly the reaction we can expect from them (meaning a lot of confusion and maybe a little hostility). It's been clear since ep 1 that this anime is mainly geared for fans, when all the catchphrases dropped like cluster bombs, so we should just accept that the production committe has taken steps to make an anime that would alienate the general public while simultaneously not satisfying the entire fandom. Maybe that's the wrong thing to do, maybe it's the right thing but we still haven't seen the positive impact. Who knows at this stage? Even the sinking of Kisaragi only produced a transient dip in bluray preorders, so at least the Japanese fandom are willing to forgive.

In general, it can be said that this kind of fan/mainstream reception proves that the people who made Touhou and Vocaloid have a point when they decided not to make official anime of their IP. An anime has always been a big gamble for franchises like these, because it will tend to divide the fandom while alienating the mainstream. Still, the kancolle anime producers have at least been frank of their intentions, and we should respect the decisions they made. Also, note that the majority of the Japanese fandom (who outnumber us by thousands to one) have only made a major complaint about the sinking of Kisaragi. For the rest of the anime, they've been mostly silent. The curry operation episode so hated by English language reviewers and many in our board for its pointlessness seems to rank highly in the Japanese fandom, as does the Hotel Yamato ep. Basically, the producers know what their audience wants and they cater to those needs. Our mileage may vary, but kancolle belongs to everyone, and the majority seems to like those aspects of the anime that many here complain about.

Personally, my biggest complaint so far has been the cliched - bad, even - delivery of jokes, especially in the Kongou sisters' intro in ep.4. IMO producers can probably learn some deadpanning from Kyoani. It gets to be painful to watch some of them. It's not that I think kancolle anime is perfect. It's actually not that good at all. It's just that I don't like how some of us complain about the anime versions of our kanmusu behaving exactly the way their in-game personality templates suggest they SHOULD behave. The complaints have largely been, "They don't behave like X's fanon interpretation enough!" Well, who the fuck is X, and why shouldn't we follow Y's perfectly valid fanon interpretation instead? How about Z's? Certainly his version of Akagi is the best? Do you not see where this is going and why producers have kept fan input within set boundaries? Plus, what's popular in fanon is often transient, like Plasma-chan. To demonstrate this point, who here has heard of Oboroboro? Or school monitor Taihou? Or Zekamashi the cheat? These were very popular fan interpretations too, but now all but forgotten.

There is simply no way to satisfy every subset of fans, and the lowest common denominator must be used to avoid even more divisiveness in the ranks. That LCD is the design script, so that's exactly what we got, maybe with some fan input when they don't stray too far and have endured the test of time.