Kantai Collection: The Anime!

[Emi]

Episode 11:

Spoiler: show

This episode has been a greatly mixed episode in my eyes. On one hand, what it did, it did really well. It feels a lot more like a continuation of Episode 9, which was one of the better episodes, than Episode 10 (which was, in my opinion, one of the worst episodes). The beginning is really, in my opinion, one of the highlights of the entire series. Here we see Akagi remembering some sort of battle before she asks to be scuttled and a large ship appears with torpedos coming towards it. This is, in my opinion, her memories of the Battle of Midway in WWII, but they are fragmented so she really only remembers the last bit with clarity. The other parts are substituted with the kanmasu as her brain tries to patch up these memories. It's very cool to see that the shipgirl's previous memories do have an affect on them. It's pretty clear in my eyes that Akagi is having some sort of traumatic effect from her memories of Midway. It soothes me a little because one of the things that's not well known is how the experiences of the war affect the shipgirls. Sometimes its rather obvious: some boats hate submarines, some remember notable achievements or kills they made, and Nagato in particular has a fuzzy memory of Operation Crossroads. But Nagato shows no real trauma of it other than a few brief mentions and its not known what her opinion is of the Americans who did it to her and to her country. I'd imagine Nagato would hate Americans because of the way they won World War II and what they did to her in Operation Crossroads.

Which brings us to Akagi. I'm not going to lie, Akagi so far has been a 95% forgettable character. The only really memorable points are that she's Fubuki's role model and that she's the Bauxite Queen and she eats a ton. Her personality otherwise is really pretty forgettable, and yet, I love what Akagi does at the beginning. Remember my complaints about Episode 9, about the kanmasu having basically completely obedience to the Admiral? Akagi shatters that. Her memories, and the trauma of them, convinces her that she needs to change MI operation's battle order. In particular, Maikaze and the other destroyers are removed from the list. This is notable because Maikaze was one of the four destroyers who scuttled Akagi in the real life Battle of Midway. She, in a sense, "changed history". Which I'll go on about in a minute. But I loved this. The kanmasu end up changing their minds about what their Admiral has planned and going with something different. This was great.

So the battle itself is fairly entertaining. We start off with a lone Airfield Princess (who, btw, has absolutely no relation to Midway or MI at all and seriously confuses me as to why she's here, since her event was based off of Ironbottom Sound, not Midway) and things initially look up until things go shitty and suddenly its Midway all over again. We are left with a cliffhanger and the sudden appearance of Fubuki.

Alright, let me say this right now, this fighting against fate element is bad. It's bad because it pops up during the last two episodes and its bad because either ending is going to be shitty. Either Akagi and the other carriers sink and we are left with the melancholic ending of not being able to fight fate and the realization that, in the end, this war cannot be won, because fate is directing them to repeat history and lose "World War II" again. Which is really shitty because you don't want to ending to an anime based off of a game to be they lost. The other ending is that the four carriers don't sink, but its not through Akagi's own actions but through MC-san Fubuki who miraculously saves the day. Which is also a shitty ending because it completely nullifies Akagi's actions and makes them unimportant and is entirely too predictable. It confirms the idiotic idea the Admiral has that "omg fubuki is ma waifu she is the best ever put her in ALL THE FLEETS" and denies any other one of the ships their own merit. One ship cannot win a war, and yet, this is exactly what the anime, in my opinion, is leading up to. Instead of giving the idea that its the fleet who win, and the teamwork and dedication each individual has, we get the idea that Fubuki is Number #1 and its by her efforts alone that we fight fate. Which. Is. Stupid.

I like the episode for what its did, but I hate the implications.

[big bad birtha]

Watched last week's episode not long after it aired, but didn't post because......yeah. I didn't want to rain on anyone's parade, but it looks like I wouldn't have even if I posted.

On a more positive note, I watched episode 11!

Episode 11 spoilers:

Spoiler: show

I kind of enjoyed this episode. It wasn't one of the best episodes in the show or anything, but it did kind of warm me up to some of the things in the show that annoyed me/was meh to.

One was Kitagami/Ooichi. Let's be honest, the thing they had was probably the single most annoying thing in the show, and for the longest time, I didn't even know why the show even kept including them as strongly as it did. They were actually pretty nice this episode.

While I can't say I am overly fond of Fubuki's fondness for Akagi, it has been growing on me. One moment is Fubuki's gushing over Akagi complementing her a few episodes ago, and another is her little scene with Akagi at the bridge......thing. Low blood sugar kills vocabulary. Anyway, I thought it was a nice scene, since while it was your usual "role reversal" scenes, it was still in the sense that Akagi is still above Fubuki.

[Emi]

Episode 12:

Spoiler: show

In a lot of ways I'm just not quite sure what to think of this episode. It had a lot of good singular moments to it, and the beginning nine minutes or so actually isn't too bad and I found myself enjoying it. Some Skype logs because its easier to collect my thoughts that way:

oh okay I like badass smiling kaga
[12:17:00 PM] Emilia: and fubuki asspull wasn't as awful as I expected
oh hey cavalry arrives
[12:18:42 PM] Emilia: not totally okay with this but alright
I can't exactly complain about more Zuikaku
oh god fucking dammit they pulled the fubuki is the only one who can fight fate shit
Yamato vs Airfield Princess go
KIRISHIMA YOU FUCKING LEGEND
[12:23:39 PM] Emilia: i'll admit that was pretty badass
OOICHI FLYING KICK
[12:24:36 PM] Spark: OOI YOU FUCKING LEGENDDD
[12:24:47 PM] Emilia: IT GOT BETTER OMFG
[12:24:54 PM] Spark: YEAH THAT'S THE GOOD SCENE
[12:24:55 PM] Emilia: SHE JUST THREW AN I-CLASS
[12:25:01 PM] Emilia: SHE JUST FUCKING THREW AN I-CLASS
[12:25:03 PM] Spark: GET SUNK LIKE THE MOON BITCH
[12:26:07 PM] Emilia: MOE
[12:26:08 PM] Emilia: MOE
[12:26:12 PM] Emilia: OMFG OOI
[12:26:48 PM | Edited 12:26:56 PM] Spark: idk the moe part felt a tad forced to me, but OOI 4 MVP
[12:27:27 PM] Emilia: it kinda was
[12:27:31 PM | Edited 12:27:32 PM] Emilia: but I didn't
[12:27:33 PM] Emilia: mind it
[12:27:43 PM] Emilia: because it was so hilarious how out of place she was
[12:27:48 PM] Spark: Yep, I was too high on hype to care really
[12:27:50 PM] Emilia: and felt so Ooi anyways
[12:27:59 PM] Spark: It's Ooi she's a goof
[12:28:09 PM] Spark: BUT TWIRLING TORPEDO ATTACK THOUGH
[12:28:52 PM] Emilia: that was pretty epic

And then from here, things start to go down the shitter.

• The entire fleet arrives. Normally this would have been a cool scene except once again, the fucking notebook appears. ALL OF THIS WAS PLANNED GUYS BY THE ADMIRAL
• Airfield Princess turns into Midway Princess?????
• She regenerates. Okay this would be cool if she actually did anything and wasn't just a big ass target
• Taihou appears and despite looking forward to this since she showed up for all of 2 seconds in episode 11 she is completely and totally unimportant and could have been anyone else. Could have Musashi, and it would have made no difference
• More fate stuff. We have to reverse Midway apparently
• THE ADMIRAL RETURNS HE IS ALIVE AND WELL AND WE ARE GIVEN ABSOLUTELY NO EXPLANATION ON WHY OR HOW OR ANYTHING. HE'S JUST BACK.

Ultimately, the latter half just tries to be dramatic and fails. It's not boring but its not exciting and there are sparse bits (Nagato admittedly was pretty cool and omg Mutsu marry me) that were good, but it was so disappointing. The ED was pretty cool though but I don't want to say that because that's going to force you to watch all the shit parts.

Oh yeah and apparently Kisaragi was that Carrier. :V



Probably my favorite part imo. That was just adorable.

And now for a review!

Plot: 2/10. Sorry, but the plot here was just pretty awful. I feel it could have been better, it just suffered from so much issues. Things were poorly explained, the latter three episodes felt rushed, there was asspulls and then you have TTK who was just a completely embarrassment the entire way through. It was so poorly handled I'm not sure I have anything to compare it to. It's why I felt, and still feel, that unless you are going to focus on the glaring holes, you are just better off with a moeblob anime, and I would have preferred that.

Character: 6.5/10. I'm not sure if I'm biased but I felt that there were quite a few good characters here. Ooi, Kongou, Yamato, Nagato, Kaga, Zuikaku...I feel that there were good characters, but the anime decided to focus on the rather poor or otherwise forgettable ones. Mutsuki, Kisaragi, Fubuki, Akagi...there was just too much focus on them. They kinda dragged things down.

Animation: 8/10. When it was animated, it was done pretty damn good. There were a few flaws here and there but nothing to ever really nitpack about. The CGI on the other hand wasn't great and kinda kept this from scoring any higher. For me, a 10/10 just has to receive no complaints from me, and this basically did outside of the CGI.

Music: 5/10. The OP and ED were nice. Can't remember a single other track.

How it Measured Up to My Expectations: 4/10. I feel like it failed in a lot of aspects. I feel it should have been longer. I feel that it should have had a more defined plot. I feel like it should have, you know, had my favorites. No Tenryuu and we get a 2 second cameo of Ryuujou's back. Thank you, you might as well not have shown us at all.

At least I think it was her back.

Replay Value: None. I have no intentions of watching this again. Even for all of its cute parts, I don't think I could. Maybe if [REDACTED] ends up being good.

Overall: 5/10. I think the animation and the characters that were good ended up saving this one from just being trash. This doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it (because I did!) I just can't enjoy this like I did Fate/Stay Night, where its amazing and makes me want to talk about it to people and get them into it. I wouldn't introduce anyone into KanColle using this. Overall, it was a guilty pleasure being able to see the kanmasu animated, but that's all it was.

Waiting for moeblob anime.

[Sparkbeat]

Episode 12 (And kinda the entire thing with a solid enough amount of exceptions):

Spoiler: show

[big bad birtha]

If I were to name episode 12, I would name it

Spoiler: show

"Reinforcement Scene Spam: The Movie". How many times can you do the same kind of scene over and over again? I mean, reinforcement scenes are a cliche, but I never thought of them as a terrible one. They make little sense, and I wish they didn't always come in during an enemy attack. The one good thing about them is that they're supposed to introduce a cool new character in the heat of battle. In this episode....EVERYONE GETS A GO! Even people no-one gives a fuck about. I'd say Nagato was the only one it should have been reserved for. Anyway, that's not my complaint (surprising, huh?). My complaint is how many god damn times they used them. I mean, seriously. They used the reinforcement scenes like 5 god damn times in one episode. Probably more. Using a cliche that many times in one episode is so damn ridiculous.

Actually, I felt bad for the freaking abyssals. They just kept getting gangbanged by a constant swarm of ship girls. They made out regeneration to be a threat, but when there's so many damn characters to instantly gun her down, it doesn't seem that bad. Actually, it reminded me of this scene from Robot Chicken.

We have Fubuki being "awesome" by.....doing nothing? She makes a generic "don't give up" speech, and she says "Attack the one that's not regenerating!". Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....WHY AM I NOT TEITOKU'S WAIFU?! I COULD TOTALLY DO THAT!

Such a freaking shame. The show started off crappy, but picked up at episode 4 and stayed that way for a while, then quickly went back to crap at around episode 10. From 4-9, the show had so many good things going for it. Kongou was an excellent character, Fubuki was....well generic, but she had enough moments to make her interesting, Yamato SHOULD have been a great thing in the last episode, but nothing made her stand out. Overall, I guess I give Kantai Collection a 6. Probably being a bit generous, but I did enjoy a fair portion of the show.

[Talon87]

Episode 10:

Spoiler: show

I suppose it's a testament to how forgettable this episode was that I actually forgot that I hadn't yet written a post for it. And I suppose that it's a further testament to the episode's forgettability that, when one morning last week while I prepared to take my shower and I tried to remember what all happened in Episode 10, I could not for the life of me remember what happens after Fubuki's unimpressive evolution.

It didn't occur to me at the time that the reason I could not remember what came next was because there was practically nothing that came next! I was so certain that the episode could not have been eighteen minutes of Fubuki wanting to evolve and only four minutes of her evolution + what comes next that I didn't even imagine that, no indeed, Talon, almost the entire episode had been spent on working towards Fubuki's inevitable upgrade.

Since you all watched this episode two weeks ago, since many of you are putting Kantai Collection: the Anime behind you already in the wake of its season/series finale, and since I admit myself to not particularly caring that strongly about this episode, let's keep it short, shall we?

The pilots have always been cute. Here: have a pilot.

Hey, look: it's Fubuki evolving.

Hey, look: it's Akagi. When I watched this episode, it was the week 11 had already aired. A friend was so excited to discuss "the Midway Island episode" that when I watched 10 I knew to watch for Akagi. Haven't seen 11 yet, haven't been spoiled on it, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Internet excitement + Midway Island + the in-episode mission being referred to as "MI" probably means that something bad is going to happen to Akagi next episode.

Also: the entire series has been building up to this point. :p

OMG IS THAT MUH HIKOUJOUKI? Fuck yeah! MUH ABYSSALS! Shit is gonna rock!

[KamenAeons]

A fair bit delayed, but what the hey.

Episode 12 and final thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Somehow I was expecting this type of ending. Calling ALL OF THE CAVALRY wasn't something that surprised me too much, but it saddened me greatly to see something just end really poorly like this. I was bracing myself for someone to sink, even if I really didn't want anyone to sink.

The damn notebook was a silly addition to be completely honest. And to have that be pretty much what makes the whole ending happen made me flip really. Sure we got the 6thDesDiv to pop in because why the hell not, I like me some adorable destroyers, but the fact that Midway Hime pretty much got bombarded without really counter-attacking brutally makes this all too unsatisfying for me. Others in the chat will agree that there was a lot of things that were poor with it, but I guess the one redeeming factor was the end credit sequence. Mutsu remains lovely as usual. Kisaragi's hairpin leaves much to be answered, but I guess I'll leave it to you at that point.

That said, let's get down to the ratings.

Plot(s): I would say there were many plots but that would have me be slapped many times. As for storyline, not so much. It was poorly sequenced in my opinion, with the whole "serious tone, then character-focused tone" shuffling sort of making it hard to keep momentum with the drama and tension. I really do wish that they had just stuck with one type of genre rather than blend many together. Either a full season of Episode 6-like episodes (like Fubuki Ganbarimasu, the 4koma which I guess led to Fubuki becoming the protagonist in this), or a more tension filled one that sort of had girls sinking like flies, because that was how WWII sort of ended up for the IJN. I'll say this will be rated fairly low for me, a 3.

Characters: I'm terribly biased when I say that the 6thDesDiv were the best characters (don't lie to yourself, you know it's true nanodesu.), but the trio that we were given were indeed odd. Yuudachi and Fubuki are rather popular as is, with the former having the Kai Ni and the poi, while the latter is a starter ship in-game. Mutsuki was just out of the blue. Then again, I have like three Mutsuki in my game, don't judge me. The way she was portrayed irked many people, being rather whiny and sort of shafted out of the picture as the anime progressed, but I guess she was primarily the little anchor to which we had Kisaragi come in. Nagato and Mutsu along with Yamato and the 6thDesDiv probably saved the show *shot*

*holds up a 6*

Music: I'm still trying to learn how to sing Miiro and Fubuki. The soundtrack wasn't too notable otherwise. 8 for the OP and ED, 3 for the soundtrack.

Animation: When it wasn't CGI, it was pretty damn good. You could tell the studio got lazy later on what with Kirishima's cannons in the final episode, but episode 6 alone made everything so much better. I'd give the anime an 8.

Replay?
Episode 6? Definitely.
Poi? Probably.
The season all in one sitting? Most likely not.

Overall, I'll rate this a 6. I wish they had done better with the storyline, and stuck with a good flow between episodes. Carnival Phantasm!KanColle would have been glorious.

[SW!FT]

Guys, don't beat me up here...but I LIKED the anime, even the ending with all the cheese. I felt like though it lacked a lot of characterization, it did well with what it had by developing side characters like Zuikaku and Mutsu. Even though they didn't get a lot of screen time, the audience is still able to get a firm hold on their personalities. The plot was rather linear and I

Spoiler: show

probably got more nervous than I should have during episode 11, but I was bracing myself for a Madoka - esque ending and I honestly couldn't take that again. So shoot me, I was...let's say relieved...when the cavalry rolled in, even if it was a TOTAL ASSPULL GOD DAMMIT.

Anyway, in conclusion, haters gonna hate. I liked it. But that's just like, my opinion man.

[Sparkbeat]

Eh, I'm pretty sure most of us liked it. It was much more just disappointment than dislike.

[KamenAeons]

It was more disappointment. Reminds me of how we were all excited about Mekakucity Actors, but...

Spoiler: show

It ended up being disappointed in some respects because not enough blood / despair / sadness.

The anime just didn't do the serious aspects of the show as well as we would have liked.

[Talon87]

While I still have yet to watch the final two episodes of the series, I did happen upon this old release which for most of you is probably going to be new: Hiei Makes Curry, a drama CD episode released last summer in which the four Kongou sisters discuss and react to curry that Hiei prepared for the Admiral.

Spoiler: show

That "Maybe ..." @ 3m53s. X3

Also, didn't want to give it away but there are more than just the four Kongou sisters: as the skit continues, more girls are introduced. The focus is definitely on Hiei's learning how to make curry, though.

Spoiler-trivia that may affect how you perceive various ones of the girls! Click at your own risk! :o

Spoiler: show

Every single girl in this drama CD special is voiced in both the games and the special by Touyama Nao. Did not know that! She voices all four of the Kongou sisters! As well as Atago and Takao! Crazy!

[Emi]

Something you might be interested in.

Spoiler: show

She not only voices Takao and Atago, but the entire Takao class, including Maya and Choukai. Ayanami and Shikinami are also voiced by her

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Emi

Spoiler: show

She not only voices Takao and Atago, but the entire Takao class, including Maya and Choukai.

Yes, thanks, but I already knew this at the time I posted.

Spoiler: show

I did state, "Every single girl in this drama CD special is voiced in both the games and the special by Touyama Nao." Which includes Maya, Choukai, etc. Who appear in the special. When I identified six specific girls voiced by Touyama who made appearances, it was because I was keeping my list short. I didn't want to have to list off eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevery single girl who had made an appearance in the special.

Didn't use you KanColle Wikia link though. Used the official Wikipedia article. Yours is nicer for linking to the shipgirls rather than the historical vessels, I'll give you that.

[Senjur]

Just watched all the available Kantai Collection Anime episodes. It was actually better than I was expecting.

[Talon87]

Episode 11: So ... I'm late. Yes, I know, I'm incredibly late to this party. But KanColle got pushed to the back burner for a long while there, in part owing to me taking an unexpected break from a lot of anime watching in favor of playing or replaying some Phoenix Wright games, and so yeah ... here I am. ^^; A month and a half, possibly two entire months late to the party, ready to discuss the second to last episode of Kantai Collection: the Anime.

Spoiler: show

Minutes into this episode, I felt that it was pretty obvious that Episode 11 would be the "Akagi dies in order to save Fubuki/someone else, trying to cheat the 'fate' that she perceives in her recurring nightmares" episode. This hypothesis is bolstered by the opening scene in which Akagi suffers a recurring nightmare of her previous life -- or more specifically, of her death at the Battle of Midway.

But rather than directly die because she was trying to save somebody else, it turns out that it was more of an indirect thing: Akagi asks Nagato to change the plans for the battle because she perceives the tug of Fate's strings and she wants to cheat/outmaneuver that fate. Then it turns out that despite the change in plans everything appears to be more or less playing out exactly as she feared it might. So my hypothesis was wrong: in the end, Akagi doesn't die heroically trying to rescue someone else (at least not directly) but instead dies in a rout similar to the one she experienced in a previous life.

... Or so I want to say! But the episode ends on a cliffhanger immediately before Akagi would be destroyed. This implies that Fubuki will show up at the very last second and tackle her out of harm's way. We'll have to see! (Or I guess you all have already seen, so I'll have to see! )

lol @ the part where Nagato announces the first fleet, it contains Kitakami but not Ooi, and then we get to see Ooi's reaction.

Whoa though at what appears to have been Kitakami's onscreen death. O.o

HOORAY, HIKOUJOUKI! \o/

It was interesting to see the rage, the ferocity of the Abyssals in shots like this one. I absolutely loved seeing her roar in shrieking rage here, as if she was using Hyper Voice to destroy the incoming aircraft. But I guess I do have to wonder about the author's interpretation of the Abyssals. Would he ever depict a KanMusu behaving the way he has Hikoujouki behaving here? If not, then why Hikoujouki? Is it just her in her lunacy? Or do all Abyssals behave this way when cornered? No matter: it was exhilarating to see. Muh Abyssals. :3

The airplane pilots continue to be friggin' adorable.

In closing, this episode was okay, it had its entertaining moments, it was a lot better than 10, and hrnnnnngh Akagi is so gorgeous. (Alternate shot.)