Opening Songs
OP 1 - Miiro (Akino From Bless4)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Fubuki (Shiena Nishizawa)
Genre: Action, Science Fiction
Episodes: 12
"Kancolle", aka "Kantai Collection", one of the most popular browser games in Japan. Hell, it got so big that even the non-Japanese speaking audiences went out their way to get their hands on the game. I never understood the appeal of "Kantai Collection" that much, its basically a simulation game where you collect girls based on old Japanese warships and they go to battle against alien enemies known as the abyssals. I never really did get to try the game, but of course, the widespread appeal of the girls in "Kantai Collection" eventually reached me, and I did find some of the girls rather attractive (Shimakaze is pure win). An anime adaptation was a perfect way to introduce me to the series. While I can see how this premise sucks people in, and the game MAY be a great way to get into it, but as a newcomer to "Kantai Collection" and as someone who knows close to NOTHING about the franchise, I can say that the anime isn't a great way to start off. If you're going into this one blind, prepare to...not be impressed, to say the least. If you're already into the game, you probably already watched and enjoyed this one though.
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| Kongou-san~~~ |
The opening theme is "Miiro" by Akino From Bless4. I'm pleasantly surprised by this one, because it actually sounds quite serious/epic, in contrast to the overall light hearted feel/theme that's in place for the majority of the anime. Its a good song otherwise. "Fubuki" by Shiena Nishizawa is the ending theme, and this slower tempo-ed song is rather expected for an ending song. Nothing much to talk about here, both songs aren't too memorable.
Rating: 6.5/10
If you're going into this one blind like me, there's a very, very good chance that you won't know who's who....and you are going to get lost quite easily. IMO "Kancolle" suffers from the "Girlfriend Beta" syndrome, where there are too damn many characters and many of them look rather similar, save for a few girls with rather unique character designs. The story is quite uninspiring after the first few episodes and the 3D CG girls with cannons might not appeal to everyone as its not done particularly spectacularly. The main heroine is rather cliche and she gets buried by the overwhelming amount of other characters who attempt to hog the spotlight in other individual episodes. Its ultimately a rather uninspiring experience for a newcomer like myself who hasn't already familiarised myself with the characters, because almost all of them seem to have some kind of special trait to them, but because they aren't focused on, we end up forgetting or just not caring about many of the characters. It does have a good concept, and eventually a strong finish, but at the end of the day, I leave "Kancolle" with the same questions as I did going in. "Who the hell are these girls?"
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| Cannon girls! Lots of cannon girls! |
The show stars destroyer ship Fubuki, a new ship girl who recently got transferred into the Naval District under orders of the admiral. Like every other ship girl she is posted to a new unit and ended up in the same room as 2 fellow destroyers, Mutsuki and Yuudachi. The 3 quickly become friends and the other ship girls start speculating what kind of a powerful destroyer ship she must be. However, its quickly discovered the Fubuki has almost NO talent on the battlefield, and she quickly loses confidence in herself after she is called for her first sortie. In a world where abyssals constantly threaten the seas, she must always be prepared for battle along with the other ship girls if she is ever called in a battle fleet. She swears to train herself to become a proper ship girl in which the other girls can put their trust in during a fight, and thus she is trained under the many different methods of the many different ship girls to become a worthwhile fighter.
"Kancolle" ends up being quite underwhelming and doesn't accomplish a whole lot for a newcomer watcher like myself. As I mentioned earlier, this one is more for the "Kantai Collection" veterans who have already familiarized themselves with all the different characters in the franchise, for newcomers like myself, there's not much to flesh out for us here. Because of the franchise's overwhelming popularity, there's more incoming, including a film that's coming out in 2016. Hopefully what's to come is more interesting than what we have here.
