Azur Lane

When the "Sirens," an alien force with an arsenal far surpassing the limits of current technology, suddenly appeared, a divided humanity stood in complete solidarity for the first time. Four countries—Eagle Union, Royal Navy, Sakura Empire, and Iron Blood—formed Azur Lane, paving the way for the improvement of modern warfare, which led to an initial victory against the common threat. However, this tenuous union was threatened by opposing ideals, dividing the alliance into two. Sakura Empire and Iron Blood broke away and formed the Red Axis, and humanity became fragmented once again.

As a seasoned and experienced fighter, the "Grey Ghost" Enterprise shoulders Azur Lane's hope for ending the war. But behind her stoic persona hides a frail girl, afraid of the ocean. Even so, she continues to fight as she believes that it's the only purpose for her existence. Meanwhile, Javelin, Laffey, and Unicorn—three ships from the union—stumble upon Ayanami, a spy from the Red Axis. Strange as it may seem, they try to befriend her, but as enemies, their efforts are for naught. Still, they persevere in hopes of succeeding one day.

Amidst the neverending conflict within humankind, the keys that could unite a fragmented race might exist: a soldier coming to terms with her mysterious personality and camaraderie between those with different ideals.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Enterprise Main

Ishikawa, Yui Japanese

Laffey Main

Naganawa, Maria Japanese

Belfast Main

Horie, Yui Japanese

Akagi Main

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Kaga Main

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Prinz Eugen Supporting

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Atago Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Ayanami Supporting

Taichi, You Japanese

Cleveland Supporting

Horigome, Saya Japanese

Z23 Supporting

Abe, Rika Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Aida, Tsuyoshi Producer

Tamura, Satoshi Producer

Okamura, Takema Producer

Reviews

Apr 8, 2020

AlexPaulLEWZ

Recommended

Before I start , I want to say that I would try my best in refraining to mention game material in this review so that I would avoid spoilers.

War never changes. Be it any era, wars have only done nothing but chaos towards the people participating it. That fact remains until today. People will always want to gain something other people have: territories, resources—anything. Once the dispute reaches between governments, a lack of communication will always ensue with WAR.

Soon, war moved on from the lands to the seas, and naval warfare became one of the most pivotal battles a side cannot afford to lose ... lest their disadvantage. In this series, however, an alien forces known as the "Sirens" with extremely powerful technology suddenly appeared, spreading threat to humanity.

To combat this situation, all of mankind miraculously stood in unity against the common foe, creating an organization called "Azur Lane," which mainly comprised of four countries: Eagle Union, Royal Navy, Sakura Empire, and Iron Blood. The countries used objects named "Mental Cubes" which let them embed the power of full warships upon female soldiers—a breakthrough in technology. This effort of solidarity gave humans an initial victory against the Sirens.

However, humans will always be humans, and soon, even Azur Lane was broken into two opposing factions. With humanity once again divided alongside the continuing threat of alien enemies, what will be this world's fate? Such is the story of this series. The premise itself reflects how the world was in the past—even how it is today in times of peace. Conflict is the main essence of man, and the anime did a great job portraying that reality.

I love how the story became developed as episodes went by. In some instances, I felt that pacing was too fast, but that also refers how life is, especially in wartime, where one must be vigilant at all times because no one knows what will happen in the future. Next day, you might be already dead—killed by the enemy. That is a part of reality this anime portrays, and the execution was quite nice.

I also like how the art was drawn, especially in scenes where the girls equip their warships and head to the battlefield. Like in the history of war, there were many variations of warships: cruisers, carriers, destroyers, etc. I like how the artists tried their best to draw the actual warship alongside with the character portraying it, for example, you can see Enterprise aboard the runway of the USS Enterprise, and as Enterprise equips her ship, the transformation may be clichéd, but I still like it.

There were some flaws in the character design, especially on the consistency of body statures—especially a part I'd rather not explain here—but I found it kind of nice and made it a game to spot inconsistencies, but I won't dwell on it too much. As an Azur Lane gamer, just seeing the girls move around and alive is already a big thing to me, that's why it has a special place in my favorites.

The character development in the anime also deserves my praise. I like how the main characters change into people who are lone wolves to team fighters, and that in itself is one of the reasons I love this series. Like I have said before, just seeing the girls adapted into anime makes them more appealing. There was also a good amount of fanservice that are just too good to be missed. The personalities each of the girls had were also preserved in this adaptation, which then was used to create an original story—just splendid.

The sound is also noteworthy, especially the opening theme with lyrics that reflect with the protagonists' problems and how they should approach it. When it comes to the credit sequence, the music that accompanied it is very relatable—very peaceful—a situation everyone hopes that the world should be. Looking at it technically, the execution of music were greatly in line in the situations the characters were facing, be it a happy scene, or the spoils of war. I also loved how the anime shipgirls were also portrayed by their respective voice actresses from the game. It puts a smile in my face.

I greatly enjoyed watching this anime. I watched this anime when it was airing, and even though the conclusions of this show was delayed by three months, that only made my excitement go stronger each day that the episodes are nearing to be aired. Once again, I really loved how the anime portrayed its story without straying far from the essence of the game's original premise. Overall, I'd say that it is one of the most memorable anime I have ever watched. That's how I loved it.

Now, I want more especially because of the ending. If there is a second season, I will gladly watch it.

But would that be possible, especially when there were a lot of production issues? I hope so.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Aug 23, 2020

Saikar22

Mixed Feelings

It's not great.

I've played the Azur Lane mobile game since fall 2018 and watched this anime develop with wariness. It always felt like the type of game that wouldn't adapt well into a show. How do you tell a coherent story about a game with five hundred characters that spans 8 or 9 nations and a huge period of time? The answer isn't only that you don't; it's that you don't seriously try, apparently.

I think the biggest failing of the Azur Lane anime is that it tries to be everything at the same time, all smashed awkwardly into twelve episodes. It tries to be a ... character-driven show, focusing on Enterprise, Belfast, and Akagi - but constantly introduces a dozen "hey look its that girl from the gacha!" characters an episode. There's very serious discussions of the ramifications of war and its affect on combatants, but it's after a beach episode with a bunch of young girls running around in swimsuits and making sand castles. There's a reasonably good two-episode arc about infiltrating an enemy nation and a harrowing escape that's followed up by (I kid you not, this actually happens) a big-boobed character being insecure about her body type and finally coming to terms with the fact that breasts of all shapes and sizes are beautiful. I know they wanted to sell uncensored blu-ray copies, but come ON.

There's occasional moments of greatness. A highlight was a tense standoff between two massive navies in and around a flooded, destroyed city. If the show had been willing to tell a serious story it may have worked. But the constant juxtaposition between doom-and-gloom PTSD and borderline softcore porn ruined both sides. It was too slow to be a proper slice-of-life, and too goofball to work as either a serious or an action show. My best guess is that it wanted to tell a serious story but was worried that its audience would want more boobs and slapstick and so we ended up with this mess.

If anyone watched this, or otherwise had a run-in with it, I have two things to say to you:

First, my condolences. Like I said, it's not good.

But second, don't let this... thing... turn you off from the mobile game. It's better written and is ridiculously generous compared to every other gacha I've found, and gets a lot of new content. The idea of characters fighting these large-scale battles is an inherently interesting one, and the game acts it out far better than the show did.

The best thing I can say about this is that the devs know it wasn't good and are working on a totally different, apparently slice-of-life anime. Much like with the game itself they seem to be open to feedback and fan wants, so maybe - just possibly - we'll get a better Azur Lane show out of this mess on some distant day.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 20, 2020

ShinodaChan

Not Recommended

As someone who loves Azur Lane, I'll be honest: This adaptation was terrible.

- Mediocre story featuring a generic plot, awful pacing, an OOC lead (Enterprise), forced yuribait, and an inconsistent setting. If the writers' goal was to sum up the in-game story so far, they failed spectacularly. No in-game events are mentioned or animated, and what context is presented is vague and never expanded upon. Enterprise is reduced to a one-note ration addict without common sense who can only be saved not by her sister (Hornet) or her dedicated repair ship (Vestal), but by Belfast because yuribait. One of the major factions in-game (Ironblood) ... is sidelined with their starter ship only getting ~3 minutes of screentime, and the minor factions are nowhere to be found. Episodes sporadically hop from serious moments to lighthearted ones as if the writers couldn't agree on the atmosphere they wanted to present. There are several more issues I can give (e.g. that one episode where it took ~12 minutes of ships slowly approaching each other before they actually started fighting, Akagi being stuck with the idiot ball for several episodes) but you get the idea.

- Inconsistent animation; compare the first and second halves of Episode 8 and you'll see what I mean. There's a reason Bibury had to delay the last two episodes by three months just to make them serviceable. Speaking of which...

- Terrible 'fight scenes' with no sense of choreography or intensity. Zooming around on planes and dodging bombs is not a fight scene, it's a snooze fest. Some fights were better than others (Enterprise vs Zuikaku), but for the most part they were laughable.

- Forgettable soundtrack outside of the OP/ED outside of one or two tracks.

- Dub was hilariously bad; the German accents were way too thick.

Now this adaptation wasn't garbage at everything, and it's true that viewers had low expectations going in since since Bibury is a freelance studio that normally does in-between animation instead of entire adaptations. However, the only redeemable things about this adaptation (e.g. most character portrayals including voice acting) are done just as well if not better by the game, the manga adaptations of the game, and even Azur Lane Crosswave (regardless of its controversial gameplay). It's disappointing, and I feel bad for both Manjuu and Yostar because they've put their heart and soul into the IP for years, but now they have to deal with the bad reputation of an adaptation that was clearly doomed from Day 1.

If you have not played Azur Lane, please give it a shot. I can guarantee you that the game is much better than this adaptation on all fronts, and that Manjuu & Yostar treat it with plenty of love and care. As for this adaptation...well, at least the Blu-rays remedy some of the animation errors.

March 2021 Edit: Yostar Pictures's adaptation of Azur Lane (Bisoku Zenshin) just finished airing and is far better than this adaptation was, so be sure to give it a look if you were hoping for something else. I've also edited this review for concision.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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