Become a Kisaragi fan, they said. It will be fun, they said.
Impression
Why… why would you do that?! You people are evil! The day was already supposed to be saved! I went and ignored the death flags! And then you killed her!
In all honesty, I saw this coming a mile off. Even if you’re familiar with neither Kisaragi nor the historical naval battle of WWII that took place at Wake Island, the death flags were clearly running rampant. Kisaragi wasn’t a particularly prominent kanmusu before this episode, yet all of a sudden they’ve decided to make her connection to Mutsuki very clear – alongside a number of flashbacks and an adorably worried Fubuki to set the mood. And there was a different atmosphere in Chinjufu, in part brought about by the fact that a naval operation was imminent – you could really see the contrast between this and the light-hearted training we had last week. Above all, Akagi’s solemn advice should have immediately set off alarm bells, despite the fact that Fubuki and Mutsuki took her words surprisingly positively – because she was essentially saying that, as kanmusu fighting in a war, there will be casualties and not everyone will survive. The shock was that, while I had anticipated the possibility that Kisaragi might be sunk, I didn’t think it would happen in the way it did. The episode was nearly over, the lovely Kongou sisters had saved the day and all the kanmusu were heading back victorious, despite losing the element of surprise and having to ad lib. I was thinking to myself that death flags could be red herrings in the end, and that I would benefit from not being so cynical and pessimistic in a cute slice-of-life show like this with friendship, love and lolis. I needed to lighten up, I told myself.
And then Kisaragi was blown up.
Sadly, we haven’t even gotten to the fallout. I’m not sure I would have told Mutsuki myself, were I in that position – I wouldn’t have had the heart to crush that smile. The only sadder thing than this was that there was no screen time for Shimakaze. And I never got to see Sendai in a night battle. I don’t know much about Mutsuki, so I have absolutely no idea how she’ll react – she might resolve to work even harder, or she might lose her way and fall into depression for a while. The very wise and hungry Akagi might help her up again, as might Fubuki and Yuudachi. Clearly, Kisaragi remembered none of her historical past, which ended up foretelling her demise instead of preventing it – this is only a single example though, and it might not be true of all kanmusu. Interestingly, Wake Island was fought between Japan and the USA, which ended with a Japanese victory at the cost of a couple of destroyers including Kisaragi. If the kanmusu are Japanese, do the Abyssals represent America?
Ultimately, being sunk is a far more depressing end for a kanmusu than being dismantled – because with the latter, they just go back to being a normal girl, and live a normal life. The point is, they’re still alive. With cases like what happened to Kisaragi, they couldn’t even find a body. The assumption is that she drowned, which is a terrible end to meet. Even though I wasn’t particularly crazy for Kisaragi, I did like her. And there are mixed emotions, really – on one hand it’s sad to see a slice-of-life turn serious, and on the other it’s going to get really exciting seeing what they can do with this immense freedom. They can do whatever the hell they want, and I’m looking forward to finding out what. In a sense, it’s like the shock beheading scene in Madoka Magica all over again, except on a far lesser scale – they’re informing you that death happens, and that this will not be what you’re used to from this genre. I’ve been hoping for something like this, and it brings optimism to the notion that Kancolle could become worthy of standing on its own, independent of the mass popularity its franchise already enjoys.
At any rate, next Wednesday can’t come fast enough. They’ve tended to stay away from the more popular kanmusu save for Kaga and Akagi so far, but that’s about to change.
That’s right, get hyped. It’s Kongou time.
makes a note “Break some anime story-writers’ kneecaps.”
I will join you ;_; Making little girls suffer has definitely become a thing now, and if they’ve done it once they can do it again. It would be very bad if my pre-episode musings started becoming, “I wonder who will die this time?”
This episode has me wondering about two things mainly:
a) Are they slowly upscaling the violence?
I don’t recall it in episode 1, but in this we see one of the Shinkaisei-ken bleed when Hiei shells them. Kisaragi was also reported to have caught fire, but we didn’t actually see anything burnt or showing sings of extreme heat. That combination of introducing one element, yet lacking another really makes me wonder how the depictions of the battles will change. It’s not that I want to see the “moe” suffer, but with a WWII backing they could easily upscale the depictions and no one could say it was done unjustly. That’s a bittersweet thought… but it’s just a thought for now.
b) Did they make Kisaragi’s death so abrupt for the sake of another twist?
I don’t mean it was meaningless. There are three distinct reasons I could list for why it was meaningful to many and one for why it wouldn’t mean much at all to some, especially with Mustuki’s fallout left for next episode. But it was very abrupt, both the attack and the sinking. I wonder if they weren’t just moving us through the motions quickly in order to do this later – safebooru.donmai.us/data/sample/sample-900478acc1ec633203f1ed7ede75d1d4.jpg (wrong character though)
The fluid was blue, and I think it was meant to demonstrate the high-speed impact (and Hiei’s awesomeness) more than anything else. If they really wanted to emphasise this and make it a new staple, there’d be much more of it and it’d be bright red. They will most likely stick to depicting ‘damaged’ states for the kanmusu, both out of policy and in fear of the fanbase rebelling once their favourite waifus start being depicted with blood everywhere and first-degree burns. It’s a horrible enough notion to imagine. I don’t want to see severe suffering, least of all from the lolis – is that Hibiki?
I agree they may have just been moving us through the motions. It was abrupt and almost too casual, as if they’re taking steps to slowly normalize things like death. At any rate, it’ll be happening again, and no character save for Fubuki is immune.
“At any rate, it’ll be happening again, and no character save for Fubuki is immune.”
Maybe. Certainly it COULD be setting us up to have these girls die semi-regularly because they can die in the game, or to have them run through a bunch of battles at historical sites and killing them off at the battle where their original was destroyed, but that doesn’t HAVE to be the case. It could simply be a one-off: an event intended to shock the viewers and the characters into realizing that this is a war where girls can die, but afterwards everyone steps up to protect each other so this never happens again, and in the end no one else is lost.
I want them all to be safe as much as you do, and the slice-of-life lover in me would like to agree with you. But if it was an important lesson and a turning point in how they conduct these battles, Kisaragi’s entire death would not have been that casual – it happened due to a stray Abyssal on the way home, instead of due to a gross misdemeanour of some sort. Plus many of the others already knew by the time Fubuki returned, and they certainly didn’t look like it was the first time they’d seen a sinking happen. The two most likely to react the worst are the two who still haven’t been told about it.
I doubt this will be frequent to the point it becomes a death per week or anything, but I don’t think they introduced this for the purpose of subsequently shrinking back from it. At the very least there’s the ominous violent ‘visions’ that Kaga and Akagi are associated with in the OP, which might become a plot point somehow in the future.
The reason I raise the alternate point is because, to me at least, even at the end of the episode the atmosphere still felt wrong for a series that is shifting into serious “anyone can die now” mode. I suppose it could simply have been written poorly and not played the feelings right, but I’d like to think that a series is portraying what it wants to portray until proven otherwise. As such, despite the abruptness of Kisaragi’s sinking, I still don’t get the feeling that we’re in sudden-death-mode for our ship-girls.
They might also be trying to achieve the portrayal of how soldiers can experience heavenly companionship one moment and hellish lost the next. Since they actually have an established base and always return to it if they aren’t sunk, it’s very possible for those two extremes to exist, whereas it’s difficult to realistically have that in a context of being on the run constantly.
That said, it could also be that while the happiness will always reach great heights the younger girls will now experience more serious tones and express them as well, especially since the older girls don’t need to hold back on speaking of such matters as much now that they’ll have experienced loss for the first time since joining. Of course, tones of sadness may also become more present.
It’s a really fine balance, but they have all the elements they need to do it with those extremes. All that remains to be seen is the execution.
That’s a good point about the blue fluid. Although, I’m not sure about Shinkaisei-ken blood being red since they have such a different biology.
I think it’s fine for them to stick with the ‘damaged’ states. I’d just like more details, especially if it’ll cut down on people asking silly questions like “why can’t she just swim back without her gear?” …in the middle of the ocean.
Back to the details, aside from torn clothes it’d be interesting to see in the future: equipment failing, falling off, blowing up (though not enough to hurt the girl more), being overheated (just enough to be a bother, not burning them), melted, etc. Just things to really ground that it isn’t working anymore. I even wonder about trying to see them swim back in like manner to soldiers abandoning ship.
Although those might make it needlessly sad, apparently Kanmusu can make it back even in their damaged states sometimes. So combining those details and then seeing them swim to or be rescued by their sisters would be really sweet! :’) The actual signs of damage afterwards would just be bandages and wrappings, no broken bones or gaping wounds, nuh-uh.
Oh, I almost forgot to answer this but that is, indeed, Hibiki. it’s just the only art I could find to hypothesize Kanmusu becoming those kinds of Shinkaisei-ken.
I am given to understand (this is secondhand information; I have not played the game myself since it seems to have a few barriers to easy entry) that the girls in the game do not display injuries either. Damage is represented via ripped and torn clothing, as it was here, which grows progressively worse until the girl sinks. That would make what we saw here true to source.
Also, similar secondhand information suggests you don’t go expecting the girls to try swimming. Only submarines can go underwater: all other girls will drown.
Yes, that’s exactly how it is. I think states of undress also vary between the kanmusu in the sense that some depictions of damage are more lewd than others. As you might expect. Not only would it be true to source, it’d be true to its slice-of-life label as well. Even if it’s war, showing openly wounded or burnt girls in what’s technically a slice-of-life… you just can’t do that! I don’t remember how damage was depicted in Strike Witches, but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t any blood.
True, very true. I just wonder how people would react to a girl taking damage and sinking fairly close to another one. With all that weight they probably sink pretty fast and if it’s a bigger class sinking next to a smaller class there’s no way that rescue would be possible :T