This will be another off-topic post detailing the anime I’m watching. For this post, I will be mentioning some of the upcoming anime I’m interested in, as well as talking about one of the anime I’m watching for this season. For more information on my grading scale, please see my second anime post.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
If you don’t want to see spoilers, do not proceed any further.
Upcoming Anime
With the current anime season coming to a close, I’ve had a look at the anime which are upcoming. Admittedly, my interests are fairly narrow (in fact, the narrowness of my interests led me to begin Innocence Seekers in the first place), meaning I’ll only watch a few anime each season. To clarify my interests, I prefer having cute, young girls as main characters, but I hate harems (this also ties in to my desire for a female protagonist, not only in anime, but also video games and literature). In addition, I don’t like excessive fanservice, so if I see, (for example) large breasts on every character, or excessive amounts of panty shots, I’ll be turned off (I actually have an aversion to big breasts, and seeing young girls in fanservice scenes makes me uncomfortable).
The anime I’m looking forward to in the Summer 2016 season are Love Live! Sunshine!!, which is a part of the Love Live! franchise, and set in a different school; and New Game!, a Manga Time Kirara Carat entry authored by Shōtarō Tokunō, and focusing on a group of girls in a video game company.
For the Autumn/Fall 2016 season, I’m looking forward to Magic of Stella, a Manga Time Kirara MAX entry authored by cloba.U which follows a group of high school girls in a dōjin game club, and the second season of Sound! Euphonium (if I get time to watch the first season).
These anime are not the only anime I’m interested in; rather, they are the anime I’m guaranteed to watch. As for other anime, if I take an interest in it, I may pick it up.
Spring 2016 Anime
For this post I will be talking about High School Fleet (which I originally referred to as Haifuri). This is an original anime (although its companion manga, illustrated by Kanari Abe, was first published before the first episode aired), which focuses on high school girls operating naval ships (hence the name). The anime follows Akeno Misaki, who becomes the captain of the Harekaze (which is a fictional ship of the Kagerou-class), while her childhood friend Moeka China is the captain of the Musashi (a Yamato-class ship). The anime starts well enough; however, things take a turn for the worse when the Harekaze is fired upon by an instructor ship, the Sarushima, whose crew and captain didn’t seem to respond to messages. The resulting act of self-defence by the crew of the Harekaze resulted in them being branded as mutineers.
Overall, I found the anime to be good. However, there are some points I found which don’t fit in as well as I’d like. In particular, mind-controlling rodents? A virus which disrupts electronics? While I don’t personally mind, I can see why people would be detracted by these developments; they expected a realistic naval action story, not science fiction (even though this is speculative fiction, being part of the “alternate history” sub-genre, in general, alt history fans tend not to prefer sci-fi and fantasy elements). Some have said “fantasy”; however, I disagree on that point, instead referring to these bits as “science fiction”.
As for the background, it is mentioned that methane hydrate mining caused Japan’s land mass to drop, and that heavier-than-air flight was never looked into as a practical line of research. To me, both these things strike me as a tad unrealistic, especially the former. For the latter, it was hard for some fans to see why heavier-than-air flight would not exist, but my thought was that blimps and dirigibles predominate in this setting (and unlike what many people believe, even hydrogen-filled airships can be safe). The consequence is that aircraft carriers were never developed; has anyone tried to land a dirigible on a ship?
Another think which irked me was that Akeno kept leaving the ship (to the point where comparisons with Captain Kirk of Star Trek were made). As a captain of a ship you are never supposed to leave the ship, until you are the last one and you are sure it will sink.
As for the naval battles, they are somewhat played realistically. For starters, captains of destroyers never put the ship above cruising speed unless it is an emergency, and for good reason. If the engine had to sustain full speed for long periods, there will be a failure (read: explosions). I liked the part where Wilhelmina told everyone to turn off the lights in battle; since leaving them on is basically putting a big red target onto your ship. The use of paravanes to help disable the submarine was an actual tactic used in real life (although it is a risky tactic). At one point, a plan was put to disable a ship by grounding it at low tide, which succeeded (although why the guns weren’t firing, I don’t know).
One last thing, it’s the Kinesaki sisters’ birthday today. Happy birthday to Homare and Akane!
My rating is an A
Trivia:
- All three members of TrySail, who sing the opening, have roles. Shiina Natsukawa voices Akeno Misaki, Sora Amamiya voices Moeka China, and Momo Asakura voices Mikan Irako.
- Once again, Kana Asumi voices a short character in Minami Kaburagi, who is the shortest of the Harekaze crew (at 143 cm). On a side note, Minami is actually 12 years old (yeah, she skipped a lot of grades).
- Comparisons have been made between Haifuri and other anime. This includes, but is not limited to, Girls und Panzer (high school girls handling military equipment) and Kantai Collection (based on naval ships). Other comparisons include with Yuki Yuna is a Hero (subverting expectations in the first episode), School-Live! (ditto), and there was even one fanart crossing Haifuri with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (possibly because Akeno and Nanoha are somewhat similar).
And that’s all I will say for this post.
P.S. Happy birthday to Himawari Furutani of YuruYuri!