After some worry about who if anyone would be streaming this thing, it’s finally here, the Azur Lane anime, and I’m going to be taking a look at each of the episodes as they come out, either Thursday evenings or Friday until the show is done. This week, we get a war started and find out what the anime is going to feel like.

Before really diving in, I feel I should link my pre-anime lore roundup. You can find it here: https://harperanimereviews.com/how-much-lore-does-it-take-to-justify-cute-ship-girls-a-prelude-to-azur-lane/

You can also probably set it largely to the side, because the anime is (clearly and in production natter repeated since the lore roundup post) telling its own story, fairly independent of the story the game weaves. For instance, compared to “Story 1” we’re clearly taking a looser approach to history; the first episode depicts a carrier-based attack by the Sakura Empire against a major base, but it doesn’t bear a lot of resemblance to the Pearl Harbor attack.

Before I get into the battle, I’d like to talk about the getting there. There are some high and low notes in how the story is set up. The opening narration and quick spill of backstory? Not terrible. It sets up the Sirens well enough, but doesn’t really explain where the Kansen came from or what they are. Even as a fan of the game, I’ve got to admit I’m in the dark here. I don’t think this show wants to be an ontological mystery or explore deeper psychological ramifications of what the Kansen truly are… at least, that’s not the sense I got from the tone of the first episode. The sense I got is that the show wants to be an exercise in cute girls and flashy fighting. Fair enough, I like cute girls and I like good action, so I’m game to see where this goes.

We get to the home port in quick order, and everything there is pretty, well, cute. I will credit the anime this; while many adaptations worry about leaving something out, the scenes at port seem determined to show us if not every Eagle Union and Royal Navy character in the game (that would be insane) at least as big a chunk of the ones a new player would be more likely to see. In fact I think fanservice (and I don’t mean the panty shots) is part of what the show does best in this episode. If you know Azur Lane and you like Azur Lane it will be at least a little gratifying to see some of these scenes, even if they’re really quick cuts. Cygnet has a plate of fish and chips like she’s always talking about? Great! Fletcher and her mob of sisters walking around (or later, fighting) together? Adorable! Laffey is introduced obviously drunk? That’s just like the game! San Diego, one of the game’s biggest memes, has maybe two or three seconds of screen time but she totally owns them, showing you something a little new and totally fitting with her character, doing a little song and dance on a soapbox. I appreciate that a lot.

But… I feel like if you don’t already play the game, you wouldn’t feel a lot of connection to these moments. You don’t know who these girls are and while some of them (like Cleveland and San Diego) quickly make an impression, most of them are just background extras with nothing but their admittedly spot-on visual design to carry any investment. At least, though, the show knows better than to use a character as a pivotal piece in a scene without giving that character a presence. Cleveland does most of the talking throughout the first part of the episode, and her mannerisms (both in terms of speech and animation) are distinctive and characterful enough that I think I’d be attached to her by the time she leaps into battle even if I was watching for the first time as a non-player. Interacting with Illustrious and Prince of Wales, we hear that all is not well for the human factions. O…kay. In terms of the other heavy lifters this episode we have Javelin, Laffey (kind of) and Unicorn on the side of the Azur Lane. Watching their material in the first half is pretty much like watching an episode out of the “Slow Ahead” 4-koma, only with poor Z23 left out, as they go around base looking for Unicorn’s plushie, U-chan, who has gone missing. They find the little thing with Ayanami and briefly try to thank her for finding the stuffed animal, after which Ayanami disappears, thanks to being a Sakura spy. That’s, um, nice? As an aside, Ayanami wears an insanely conspicuous black cloak the likes of which nobody else wears while on her infiltration mission. It’s a very traditional stupid, but it’s still notably goofy.

Then we get the real meat of the episode when Akagi and Kaga, our villains apparent, arrive on scene and after some incestuous(? They’re ships, and while they call themselves sisters they historically really wouldn’t have been. Both were converted to aircraft carriers under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, but Akagi’s hull started as an Amagi-class battlecruiser and Kaga as a Tosa-class battleship…. I’m thinking too much about this, aren’t I?) flirting between our two kitsune carriers, they begin the attack. From here on, it’s a mix of what you wanted to see and what you didn’t know you wanted to see. The girls transform and roll out – absorbing full-sized ships via magical transformation scene to become the water-skating fighting force they’re supposed to be – and the action is actually pretty well-shot and well choreographed. Unicorn shows up and her little animate plushie turns itself into a full sized plush unicorn pegasus that Unicorn can ride into the skies to launch phantasmal planes from the air itself? Not at all what I was expecting, but still cool. Kaga conjures a warship-sized fox spirit with articulated flight decks to fight back?! Well that’s simultaneously the silliest and most awesome thing I’ve seen lately. Azur Lane anime gets a point for that.

In the middle of the combat, Ayanami faces down against Laffey and Javelin, over the safety of Unicorn. The show feels like it’s trying to push a friendship between the three destroyers that they don’t want to break, despite Ayanami’s insistence on following through with her mission. This kind of falls flat because they shared the screen for a minute, did nothing of interest together (Ayanami finding U-chan was pure happenstance), and the Azur Lane ships didn’t even catch Ayanami’s name. Still, episode 1, maybe they’ll form a bond over time and multiple somewhat hesitant clashes.

All seems lost until suddenly the very built up Enterprise appears and starts kicking ass. Again, here in episode 1 I cannot fault the fight choreography in the least – it looks amazing. It’s fast and punchy, but also colorful and clear, so you can see what’s going on and appreciate the intricacies of the battle, while also being even bigger and more showy than I would have possibly imagined. It could always go down hill, but right now the action is the one box I tick as “completely satisfied.”

This does bring me to a worry coming out of this episode, though… Enterprise needs to have a personality. The vast majority of the ships we see, even for a moment, do or say something that reminds me of the personality they have in game, and starts to build it for those watching without a background in Azur Lane. Enterprise, though, gets a lot of hype as being the Eagle Union’s strongest carrier, something of a living legend, but when she shows herself… she’s all business, a dour face and simple declarations of combative intent. There are people who find her to be super bland in the game and I respectfully disagree. In game, her lines show a somewhat reserved champion with a lot of hidden sorrow and even a little vulnerability. She’s confident about her performance in battle, but not so sure how to ‘win the peace’ so to speak, asking what she could do when the war is over, and how many enemies she’d have to sink to get there (which I read as not in the cocky way, but regretful and questioning whether there even is such a number). It’s enough to work with, at the very least, but the way Enterprise is being treated in the anime? She’s being put on a pedestal. We haven’t seen her out of combat, so it’s hard to know how much of that will hold once we get more time with her, but the worst thing this show could possibly do is have Enterprise, the main character apparent, be a generic invincible warrior. Episode 2 will be critical to how we’re going to approach this show, because it will show us whether or not we have a persona for this Enterprise.

She also has a smile in her default in-game art. Please don’t make her one of those characters who has to be 110% serious all the time and never smiles.

Other than that elephant in the room, the other big deal out of this episode is the establishment of the conflict. The Azur Lane shipgirls serve to protect humanity from the Sirens. The Red Axis (… I still think Crimson Axis, the in-game translation, is better) factions want to use Siren technology… also to fight the Sirens and protect humanity. And in the name of this goal, the Red Axis is now declaring war against the Azur Lane. I really hope there’s more to it. In the game, at least depending on what sort of timeline you’re looking at, the Red Axis factions are more or less puppet states working for the Sirens, which is why they have access to Siren ultratech and why they’re opposed to the ‘pure’ human factions of the Azur Lane. That makes sense. Here, we haven’t gotten the hint of Siren manipulation, except in that the actions undertaken by the Axis don’t make sense if their goal is (as stated) to defeat the Sirens. It might make sense if the Azur Lane, the faction that doesn’t use Siren tech for what we can presume to be some sort of moral/ethical/anti-corruption reason, were attacking the faction breaking their code of conduct, but that’s not how the aggression goes. We need at least a better explanation of the Axis thinking, if not a twist regarding their goals and allegiances.

All in all, as a fan of the game I liked the first episode of the show well enough. Trying to think critically… I can’t say I thought it was really great or that I have high expectations for the rest of the series, but it is at least watchable and the effort put into the fight scenes worth the price of admission, so to speak.

To Be Continued (next week, of course)