Reviews

Mar 27, 2023
Mixed Feelings
As an OLD fan of the Kantai Collection/Kancolle franchise who HAS played the original browser game using a bunch of plugins for non-japanese players, and watched the original anime and movie, this anime is just...baffling from every conceivable angle. Kancolle's popularity has long faded since it's golden years of 2014-2015 or so, and Kadokawa never bothered localizing the game officially, nor did they ever think to reinvigorate the franchise with a rebooted game to compete with the likes of Azur Lane and such, so a "season 2" after so many years is so baffling, and the fact that they decided to do a completely reimagined setting from the original anime, with a much "darker" tone.

The fact that this tries to "recreate" actual naval battles from WWII that Japan historically lost in, and plays it completely straight with a somber tone despite the ridiculousness of "Shipgirls"/Kanmusu and Fairies is just jarring. Many fans like myself have greatly criticized the original anime doing this, while praising the more cutesy slice of life episodes, which is what any Kancolle anime should have been. YET, this anime doubles down on the dark tone, and with the incredibly boring Shigure as the main character.

Speaking of Shigure, I have no idea why she was chosen as the main character; perhaps she was the director or producer's waifu or something. Her incredibly softspoken demeanor works in a supporting role but is soooo boring as the lead. When Battle-Beaver finally shows up (Yukikaze), it becomes painfully obvious how much better she would have been in the MC role.

Bah, sorry for the ranty review, but TL;DR, the animation is decent, albeit with some awkard looking CGI on some of the abyssal fliers, but story, tone, and characters are completely baffling, and at the end of the day, literally, "Who asked for this?!", on top of the ridiculously long delays.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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