At a first glance, the premise looks very similar with ship girls fighting a common enemy. However, there are some clear differences.
As expected, the premise for Azur Lane seems very similar to Kantai Collection, but it’s not the same. It involves ship girls fighting against an enemy called sirens. They drive the human driven away from the sea. With that, they form an alliance called Azur Lane, which consists of four major camps. They were able to drive away the sirens, until now. More on that later.
Prince of Wales and Illustrious from the Royal Navy met with Cleveland from the Union at the main base. The Royal Navy is arriving to prepare for a possible threat from the Sakura Empire. Illustrious brought along the shy, but adorable Unicorn. It’s not too surprising to see why she is a popular character besides several others given her cuteness. Still, Prince of Wales and Illustrious look gorgeous and of course, Enterprise is badass. She even has an eagle because freedom!
We are also introduced to what may be the main trio. Apparently, Unicorn lost her plush that she carries around. Javelin meets her for the first time and decides to help her find it. She also asks Laffey, who is part of the Union fleet. Still I feel a potential ship for Javelin and Laffey or Javelin and Unicorn.
When I heard her voice, she sounds very familiar. In fact, her voice sounds very similar to Kanna and Kamuri, all in which almost have the same hair color. As you would expect, Naganawa Maria voices these three characters.
They eventually find Unicorn’s plush as Ayanami who is wearing a cloak found it. When they tried to befriend her, she disappeared. It’s quite obvious that she is a spy who is part of the alliance that opposes Azur Lane. It becomes obvious when Ayanami faces off Javelin. Of course, inside, Ayanami probably wants to be friends with them.
Shortly after, Sirens started to appear. Prince of Wales, Illustrious, and Cleveland along with the rest of the ship girls prepare to fight. This is where things differ as actual large ships transforms into equipment such as mini canons that the girls equip. Akagi and Kaga who is the enemy of the Sakura Empire unleashes their planes. They are infused with the technology from the Sirens. This makes it obvious that the Sakura Empire made the deal with the devil to try to probably take over the world maybe.
As expected, they are close, well more like an intimate relationship, but more villainy. They also summon a fox spirit with air craft runways that almost eats Unicorn. Thankfully, the Enterprise came in and defeat the fox spirit and almost defeats Kaga. Akagi eventually calls off their attack since they finally got what they needed.
With that, this makes me wonder what they stole. I have a feeling that this is something important that they need to get back. We’ll find out next time.
Do you think you’ll keep watching this? I’m still on the fence. On the one hand, the battle was dynamic and fun to watch. On the other, too much of the fan service came from kids. Not young women — kids. Had it been from Illustrious or Enterprise, well, this might be a net positive. But from Norfolk? Not cool.
I have seen Kantai Collection before and after watching two episodes, I think it’s enjoyable enough to keep watching. While there is some fanservice, there are other shows that have way more in comparison.