Review of KanColle

Should you watch Kantai Collection? Well, do you like ships? Do you like all girl casts? Do you like WHAP? Do you like shipping girls (pun not intended)? And do you like selecting waifus? If you answered yes to these questions, KanColle is the Anime for you. But let's go deeper. So Waifu Collection, I mean Kantai Collection, was based off a free to play brower game by the same name. The game followed the WW2 Japanese pacific naval campaign and the female analogues of the ships, with the player in charge of maintaining and managing the fleet. In the anime however, the pacific war against theallied powers was dropped in favor of a war against unexplained Davy Jones abortions. In KanColle, there is an abundance of unexplained or questionable adaptiation choices of the source material. Another example is how in the game, the admiral is never shown for the purpose of having the player better picture themselves as the admiral. However, in the anime, the admiral is kept hidden even though there is no reason to project yourself as the admiral (unless Kongou is your waifu).

For plot, I give it a 2/10. The best word I can use to describe the story is unfocused. This anime has so many different plots and themes, that the show has a hard time expressing any of them fully and ends up with a very forgettable storyline. In it's 12 episode series, it manages to include themes of death, survivor's guilt, maturing as a woman, determinism, and friendship, while managing to not go farther than introducing each concept. When watching this, I didnt know what to want or expect from this anime. Was is supposed to be just about Fubuki just becoming a better person? Is it about fitting in? Are the Abyssals going to be significant in any way? Is the Navy sexist for only enlisting girls? We don't know. Without a central plot, it lacks that feeling of satisfaction that the climax is supposed to give you. In most anime, when you see the protagonists finally reach their goal or complete their journey, the definite and conclusive ending is probably the most satisfying moment in the story, being able to either make or break a series. It felt like I was reading a book where I can't tell the difference between the protagonist and antagonist. I couldn't feel committed to any of the characters as the story was so unfocused. While there are shows that handle multiple plots fine, this anime fails as there is no central arc or theme that ties all the subplots together. Shows like Assassination Classroom is an example of how a story can follow the unique plots of multiple characters well by having them all work towards a common goal. Bakemonogatari is an example of how theme can tie plots together, where all the different arcs were unified by the common theme of trying to escape or fix events in your past. KanColle had no way of showing how each episode adds to each other, making the show easily forgettable.

For Art, I give it a 8/10. If thought the 3D animated scenes were well blended into the regular art style of the anime and I liked the visual execution of the aircrafts.

For Sound, I give it a 7/10. The music was pretty mediocre and didn't stand out as particularly poor or particularly good. Poi.

For the Characters, I give it a 4/10. Like the story, it seems as if the anime is more interested in seeing how many characters it can introduce rather than how well they can develop them. Basically the Batman V Superman cameo feeling.

So, should you watch KanColle?

No. Honestly, High School Fleet does a way better job with executing the Naval fleet girl premise.