アズールレーン

AZUR LANE

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
12
RELEASE
March 20, 2020
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

Azur Lane, a combination of all the different Camps in the world, was once successful in repelling the underwater menace, the Siren. Now splintered, they must face a new threat in Red Axis, former allies who crave to wield this otherworldly Siren technology for their own nefarious desires! Who will be victorious in the never-ending war between these battleship girls!?

(Source: Funimation)

CAST

Enterprise
Yui Ishikawa
Laffey
Maria Naganawa
Belfast
Yui Horie
Akagi
Mai Nakahara
Ayanami
You Taichi
Kaga
Ai Kayano
Javelin
Nozomi Yamane
Shoukaku
Risa Taneda
Zuikaku
Risa Taneda
Prinz Eugen
Ayane Sakura
Atago
Ai Kayano
Unicorn
Ai Kakuma
Illustrious
Sora Amamiya
Z23
Rika Abe
Takao
Ai Kakuma
Cleveland
Saya Horigome
Akashi
Sumire Uesaka
St. Louis
Youko Hikasa
Warspite
Sumire Uesaka
Hood
Atsuko Tanaka
Yamashiro
Ami Koshimizu
Sheffield
Konomi Kohara
Nagato
Hornet
Nozomi Yamamoto
Queen Elizabeth
Sumire Uesaka

EPISODES

Dubbed

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RELATED TO AZUR LANE

REVIEWS

superp2222
60/100
They had everything they needed, they didn't use anything
Let's be honest. If you're here, you're one of three things.
1. You played Azur Lane and heard they had an anime adaptation
2. You're a history fanatic who wanted to see anthropomorphized ships interact with each other
3. You're both
Azur Lane brought about a very fine second wind to the shipgirl subgenre. Continuing the legacy of Kantai Collection and giving it a modern twist that has attracted millions of players on its app. However, many fans, including myself, were dismayed at the anime adaptation. As a very new person to this community, who hasn't even accumulated 5 hours on the game and only heard about this entire franchise through a chance encounter during Spring, even I was disappointed at the overall effect of this adaptation.

Story

As I said earlier, I'm an extremely new addition to the Azur Lane community, as of such, I have no idea what the general game plot is. However, I was aware of the general gist. Humanity was attacked by alien vessels sorta like that Battleship Movie, and in response they turned their most famous battle vessels into cute anime girls. The Anime adaptation helps newer players like me clear up a lot of specifics of the system. How do these girls control these ships? Are they gijinkas of ships? Or actual humans possessed with the spirit of these ships? No, they're ships, that, through the mental cubes that were the bane of my gacha luck, become human, and they're able to convert their ship bodies into battle armor to use. Alright, understandable, frankly, that's actually a very comprehensible explanation, and I have no complaints with it.
But that's where it sorta all goes downhill. Following generic anime timelines, they yada yada the background information so they can capitalize on it later for plot convenient flashback scenes. Suddenly, ~~Japan~~ the Sakura Empire attacks! That's where the first issues I noticed came in. Most importantly, I realized that the anime really loves their Deus Ex Machinas. Belfast saving Enterprise, Enterprise saving Ayanami, we get it, animes love to flaunt their character's speed but if it gets repetitive it really takes out of the main feeling. Second is the overall spread of the story. 6 episodes for Enterprise to figure out that she's not invincible, 3 episodes to figure out the Sakura Empire is up to something, 2 dramatic action scenes, and of which one is completely backstory fodder, and whatever's left is thrown to the fanservice machine. Anyone who's watched any show before knows that this isn't good pacing. the 6 episodes of Belfast vs Enterprise eventually feels like it drags on and on and on, while they did try to amend this by having other character interactions, like Kaga and Akagi, the Shokaku sisters, Ayanami vs Javelin and Laffey, etc. But that doesn't curb the dragging feeling. Meanwhile, the last 3 episodes are super rushed. Barely any explanations are made about Akagi's motives, Enterprise is still the Deus Ex Machina Queen, and hell, it honestly feels like we're members of the Sakura Empire in that last battle, just as confused as everyone else.

Characters

Arguably the most anticipated part of the series, everyone, including newcomers like me knows that Azur Lane's selling point is its vast diversity of shipgirls and their quirky personalities. The Anime adaptation literally didn't do anything on it. Sure, they made sure to include cameos for the minor ships like Cleveland, but even with their main cast they struggled to make sure every character was well rounded and at least presentable as somewhat human. With their rushed attitude most of the characters were forced to stick to one central theme and crank it to 1000, which overall is a detriment to their personality and sets them as way more dull versions of their in game counterparts. On top of that, even if they spent 6 episodes fixing Enterprise's personality it overall still feels bland. All she did was realize that the ocean was scary. That's literally it, sure she's eating normal food a lot more, but in the grand scheme of things it was a very minor change.

Even with these flaws I still found myself gradually able to like a few characters. Even if the screentime isn't representative of how well they build as a character, it still is noticeable enough for certain characters to stick out. People will most likely love the Starter Squad for their quirky personalities, the two floofy tailed carriers will still be ara ara AF, and I personally loved the Shokaku sisters. At least not all of the personalities were sunk with the adaptation

Animation

The thing about converting big badass ironclad warships into cute anime girls is that you deliberately sacrifice many great opportunities for killer animation by opting for the more conventional approach. The main appeal of warships is that they're intimidating, they kick ass, and they are the most alpha way for nations to flex their biceps. It would've been great seeing these iron giant duke it out with shells and torpedoes, but now that they're kawaii anime girls, we really just get to see them use peashooters and swords... really? Meanwhile, the CGI. It's good in some places, but bad in others, especially when these human avatars are riding on their ships in ship form and not battle body form. The animations of the ship's turrets turning and firing is really chunky and looks like something straight out of Super Mario 64.

In all cases, the anime was a good watch. Not a great watch, but at least it isn't absolute bullcrap like others. Watch it if you're bored, watch it if you want to see shipfus, but don't watch it expecting to get something cool.
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Fusionaceblus
60/100
You want good fan service or a good story? This ain't it. Watch Slow Ahead instead.
I watched this when it it was airing, and I've been playing since it came out in the west. If you're wondering, that's over 6 years ago since the game got a global server, and little over 4 years since the anime came out.

If you couldn't tell by my pfp (at least at time of typing this review), I adore Sheffield. She's brutally honest, but cute and always does her best for her master. Now, I'm one of the lucky ones that can say their favorite showed up in the anime in more than a cameo. Unfortunately for some people's favorites (at least at the time of the anime's release, because over 200 have been added since), they get shafted.

I had high hopes for this anime, and unfortunately it reeks of compromise or lack of understanding. If you watch the anime, you expect a great deal of fan service, like showing off it's massive cast, or an engaging and interesting story. The anime tries to do both, but fails.

The story itself is a huge mess, and I can tell you it's not much better in the actual game. And for fanservice, hope you like Sakura, Royal Navy, or Eagle Union shipgirls, because you aren't getting diddly squat from Ironblood. Sure, you have a few choice characters, but they don't even do anything in the anime besides Prinz Eugen roundhouse kicking a Siren. Their leader, doesn't even show up until the last FIVE MINUTES of the last episode. Sure, maybe they don't have much point in the story being told, since its more about Eagle Union vs Sakura Empire, you should at least have a duty as the first real anime project for the game to show off it's massive cast and have them do something. I don't know if its because they wanted to stay away from nazi imagery, but if they can do it in the game and distance themselves from that kind of junk, why can't the anime?

The starter ships get their own storyline that is infinitely better than the main story with the warring factions, but Z23 (Ironblood) gets nothing. Sure, she's not a starter ship on JPs server, she still is massively important to the squad, even then.

The animation was also a big deal when this came out. It was so bad, they actually paused the development of the last few episodes until the fixed episodes aired. They also uncensored the bathhouse episode which is more like it in terms of fan service, but it was hilariously censored because of convenient fog.

Thankfully there are better projects that they came out with that are much better fitting for the game, like Slow Ahead or the Queen's Orders OVAs, which just have the girls... do stuff, which is all you need for them to do.

The anime itself is painfully outdated from the game's current state, with such a huge cast and more focus on ships introduced afterwards (like New Jersey, Shinano, Musashi, etc.) trying to watch this as a fan and getting anything out of it isn't really possible, in my opinion.
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