Review of KanColle

tl;dr great characters cannot save a shallow and uninspired plot I should preface this with the fact that I have not played the game, but I do understand the mechanics and other concepts. This has spoilers. KanColle has extremely likeable characters, which is probably to be expected from a game that focuses on the likeability of its cast. Cliche at times, but you don't go into this anime looking for anything much more than a slice-of-life. See, that's where the problem lies. There's enough characters and enough interaction that it would have done well as a slice-of-life, or something with a less ambitious plot at the very least. Iwould've watched a show of MC doing MC things slowly fitting into the community of the base.

Instead, the story attempts to be much darker, dealing with a monstrous enemy with the threat of permadeath looming since episode three. And unfortunately, it comes up short. I won't go into the accuracy of the very clearly historically-based events, but I will mention that while ships sinking permanently is part of history and the game itself, there is not enough buildup to make it impactful the viewer, not enough threat to make action sequences truly suspenseful, and simply not enough plot to justify 12 episodes.

In attempting an odd mix between slice-of-life and story-based anime, it excels at neither. This despite the likeability of its cast.