Review of KanColle

Kancolle is probably more a guilty pleasure of mine, to be honest. As a new fan of the game (and occasional Azur Lane player) I still find "War stuff, but moe" quite original (even if it's anything but). I'll make a quick summary of the anime, as I see it personally. Story: 5 Not very good. Jumps around a lot, but kept me interested enough to hang around (though let's face it. The story isn't why we're here). The Abyssals are taking over the world (more specifically the oceans) and it's up to the shipgirls to stop them. There's a message about fighting fate in there,but that's spoiler territory.

Art: 7
Very good blend of all the characters. They all have a cohesive style (unlike the game). CG is pretty jarring in combat, but not too bad (especially when you're used to it). Actual animation deserves an 8, really, but knocking off one for the mid-tier CG.

Sound: 8
Not a very memorable OST, but the OP and ED are some of my all-time favourites. The actual SFX are surprisingly good, and can keep you engaged in longer battles. The VAs did very good jobs - I was able to feel the emotion they tried to convey very well and apparently some of them voiced lots of characters. I never noticed, so kudos to those VAs especially!

Character: 6
Obviously not much time to make good on most of them, but the ones who do get development get enough to cause at least a bit of emotion (I found myself with a smile on my face for lots of the show, but that's more the SoL that does that). The cast is quite simple yet diverse, and I think it works well in this show. I'd give it a 7, personally. I just really don't like how much of a self-insert the Admiral is (he never talks, nor appears on screen). He knocks one off, because of how damn unnatural it is.

Enjoyment: 9
If there's one good thing about Kancolle, it's that Cute Girls Doing Cute Things is always something I can get behind. The curry episode (total filler, don't worry) was a bit much for me with how jarring it was from the story, and the *goddamn admiral* exists, but besides that I really enjoyed the antics of the diverse cast.

Overall: 8
It's a good show. Not a masterpiece, but I'd recommend it to someone fairly new to the medium (not so new as to find basic fanservice strange though. If I recall correctly this show has quite a bit, but not as much as other similar shows).

Lots of the reviews on this anime are very critical, and while criticism is a good thing, I wanted to throw my own thoughts out there (because really, I think this anime should be rated like, 7.5. Even accounting for my own bias). I hope you take the time to give it a shot - it's not great but it's good enough to waste some time (and maybe find a favourite shipgirl. Who knows?)