The hype is real!
Impression
This was… this was everything I could have wanted from a Kongou episode. I feel so fulfilled. If the aim of the episode was to convert people into devout Kongoufags, they did a brilliant job of it.
As such, the rest of this post will consist of me expressing my love for both Kongou and Shimakaze.
But seriously, how is Kancolle still doing so well? And by that, I mean that it’s still as entertaining as it was a couple of weeks ago, if not even more – my past experience dictates that slice-of-life shows usually start losing steam right around now. Of course, for Kancolle, this episode was equivalent to pulling out the big guns – Kongou and Shimakaze are pretty much the biggest guns around, at least in my books. Actually, I think they managed to gather all of my favourite kanmusu in one room! That is, Shimakaze, Mutsu and the Kongou sisters, although Sendai and Fubuki are rising fast. I quite like Amatsukaze too, but it doesn’t seem like she’ll be making an appearance in this adaptation. My quasi-knowledge of Kancolle means that ‘favourite’ to me essentially means best character design, with the odd recurring pattern of being voiced by either Touyama Nao or Ayane Sakura. Not that there’s too much beyond that, given that in-game character development is limited to the certain lines you can prompt them to say. Though after this episode, I think I’d still come to like Kongou regardless of whether I’d read lots of porn of her beforehand or not. She’s just how I always imagined her to be! I don’t know what sort of dream Fubuki had, because the Kongou in front of her is the dream! And I fucking lost it at the song, as well as when Shimakaze turned up to afternoon tea. I replayed that scene three times.
With regards to Kongou and Shimakaze, you’re either a Nagato or a Mutsu. I’m a Mutsu, and I hope many of you are too. Both Kongou and Shimakaze are very free-spirited and genki, and that’s the type of kanmusu I’m into – I think they both really suit the overall tone and spirit of the show. It was mostly Kongou actually, with Bukki and Zekamashi being the side acts – Shimakaze spent a lot of the episode being a sort of bouncy mascot, and I’m oddly okay with that. Her bunny hair ribbon thing is too adorable.
Touyama Nao must have had a lot of fun doing the recording for this episode. There were moments where I genuinely forgot that she was doing all four of the Kongou sisters – I remember listening to her in “Hiei’s Curry” and being amazed at how she was able to do them all at the same time, and with such consistency. When you think Touyama Nao, you think Kirisaki Chitoge, Nakagawa Kanon, Yuigahama Yui or Kujou Karen – Kirishima in particular is totally different from what I’m used to from her, and I’m not confident I could have identified her were that her only role in Kancolle. The awkward realization is that, in all these scenes she’s basically talking to herself, although it’s much less noticeable when it’s all animated. I love how all the sisters absolutely revere Kongou onee-sama, it’s too hilarious – and I think they’re perfect as the comedic idiots they are, especially with Fubuki being their unimpressed foil. There aren’t any sexual undertones with it either, and it’s genuine admiration from all except maybe Hiei – though I too would go straight for a ‘seductive Kongou photo album’. Meanwhile, Ooi is hitting on Kitakami harder than I do on Shiburin.
The major mood whiplash to all this is the long-awaited fallout from Kisaragi’s death. Thinking about it, they’ve made the right decision in not dwelling on it for the entire episode – life goes on, even if morale has dropped considerably. Yuubari and Nagato were both upset in their own ways, and pretty much everyone was walking on eggshells around Mutsuki – but it didn’t completely consume their lives, or at least what we saw of their lives. This was true of the older kanmusu in particular – it’s nothing they haven’t experienced before, as sad as it might be. The resolution to it all came quickly at the end, although it was very fitting in light of the very, very close shave Fubuki had – the feels were fresh for us too, especially as it genuinely crossed my mind, albeit briefly that Fubuki might be killed off. Still, I suppose I was expecting a sombre and perhaps even angsty tone to the episode in general, and it was a nice surprise to find out that they’d decided to cheer us up through a good, healthy dose of Kongou.
Given what happened last week, my main concern with the formation of a fleet like this was that someone might end up dying. Arguably, this particular fleet was too high-profile to kill off – I would have attempted murder had Shimakaze gotten herself sunk after going too fast or something. That being said, they did a great job with Fubuki this battle. She was clearly the odd one out in terms of both strength and experience, and the cost of that was realistic indeed. But after based onee-sama punched a projectile with her bare hands, I came to a realization.
Of course no-one’s gonna die. They’re the fucking Kongou sisters.
10/10
This episode did an excellent job handling the fallout from the previous episode. The emotions were subtle enough to not be overwhelming, but still powerful enough to make me tear up more than once.
Then there were the Kongou sisters. I admit, although I’ve run across Kongou in some art and the occasional doujin, and did not expect her and her siblings to be THAT crazy. At times it almost felt like too much for me, but I still couldn’t help but enjoy watching them bounce unphased off everything and everyone they ran into.
BURNING LOVE! 😀
Fubuki wouldn’t let go ;_; Kancolle really does seem to be 70% slice-of-life and 30% everything else (war, battles, feels) as some fans surmised.
I see you’ve been converted! Welcome! The Kongou sisters were perfect in providing some much-needed healing after last week, and it was beautiful. So were Fubuki’s reactions. I hope they get involved again later on, as I don’t think I’m familiar with the fleet or kanmusu to be featured next episode. And yes, BURNING LOVE!
OVERVIEW:
I liked it and really appreciated Fubuki’s approach with Mustuki at the end there – that was solid. I think part of it was how Mutsuki gradually said the hug became more painful and then we were shown she wasn’t talking about the pressure of it, but… the overwhelming pressure inside her over Kisaragi’s loss. I thought that really made for a subtle, yet brilliant execution of how she conveyed her feelings.
I also appreciated the insights into each character this episode to varying degrees, but all were pleasant. I always took Kirishima as just a little more serious and Haruna as just a little more subdued. An experienced player informed me they actually are this energetic. I have a feeling that we’ve yet to see Kirishima’s real genius (since she’s the fleet’s “brain”) along with Haruna’s other characteristics, but that’ll probably be when not all the sisters are together.
I only wish that we’d spent a little more time watching the fight with the Abyssals. Now it may just be due to the serious tones surrounding the loss of Kisaragi, but the serious to “silly” ratio felt more balanced, so perhaps we’re starting to see a shift in the general action, while the “silliness” (better said the light-heartedness) will be contained to the specific personalities of each girl and their specific interactions with each other.
In fact, for the general action to become more and more serious, save the moments when the girls are interacting with each other, would be reasonable by now considering this last mission was all about escalating the war effort!
An experienced player informed me that “[t]he damage system in the game is like this:
100% HP = Full Health
<75% HP = Minor Damaged (some scratches)
<50% HP = Half Damaged (damaged clothes)
50% HP, there’s no way she’ll get sunk on that HP”, whereas “[t]hat shot from Ru[-class] probably dealt less than 15 HP so she looks unhurt”. It’s pretty cool to find out that Kongou “officially” wouldn’t have a scratch on her after that attack! However, this also raises more questions about Kisaragi possibly coming back as an Abyssal. In fact, there IS a type of Abyssal that is based on one of the Destroyer girls (not seen in the anime) that is humanoid! Fans have already been making art of an alternate class for it with Kisaragi as the base rather than a certain other Kanmusu.
All in all it was excellent. I just have one question: where did Teitoku go?! If we assume it was some important business, either he’s coming back with someone (maybe Yamato) or maybe he’s getting permission for something to help escalate the war with those resources they were after this episode (possibly a Kai Ni).
I agree with you on Kirishima and Haruna, but I guess they were just too overwhelmed by the radiance of Kongou onee-sama 😀 Hopefully we get more of them. It feels like they’re switching the focus around between the different kanmusu Fubuki interacts with each week, but ships like the Kongou sisters are popular for a reason, and rightly so.
I don’t think there will ever be an episode where the majority of it is taken up by fight scenes, at least for the next few weeks. When Kongou said it was time to ‘have a party with the Abyssals’, I glanced at the timer and was surprised to see so little of the episode left. As you said though, Nagato is taking steps towards escalating the war effort, so we might see operations increasing in size and difficulty in the future. And a Kai Ni would be a great way to boost power levels should things go wrong. I’m expecting a failure of some sort in the future actually, which will end in a retreat and perhaps some lives lost. Kisaragi coming back as an Abyssal would be too painful though. That sort of thing happens?! It’s going to break Mutsuki’s heart ;_;
Teitoku is having an affair with AkagiI’m sorry for the super-late reply, so I’ll only leave you with something quick.
Yes, it may break Mutsuki’s heart, but you’ve got to admit that it makes for some lovely art – http://safebooru.donmai.us/posts?utf8=%E2%9C%93&tags=destroyer_hime+kisaragi_%28kantai_collection%29+ :O
Wow, them Pixiv artists work fast!
No worries, I’m super-late compared to usual with this week’s post as well. I’ll write something up tonight, I haven’t actually seen the episode yet!