D’awww.
Impression
Things are beginning to escalate! This marks the first time a Kancolle episode has featured no standalone slice-of-life scenes, instead focusing on the war effort and the relationships between the kanmusu – it’s a worrying prospect for the notion of future suffering, but equally it’s quite an exciting one too. I don’t think there’s ever been this much of a focus on taking damage in an episode before, and it’s like they’re trying to emphasize to us that the risk of sinking is very possible and very real. It wasn’t fun imagining Shouhou severely damaged and burning to death, and it’s good that they didn’t depict her for too long or too graphically. Before that, I was also horrified that they might have just killed off Kaga just like that, and near the end I was praying that Shoukaku wouldn’t do a Kisaragi. I don’t know much about either her or Zuikaku, but it seemed plausible that they might go down the feels route, with the intentional sacrifice prompting Zuikaku to grow stronger. It’s also not helpful that Wo-Class Abyssals have started appearing, who look more like silver-haired girls wearing Abyssals on their head rather than Abyssals themselves. It’s harder to recognize them as the latter, and when Fubuki shot out an eye of a Wo-Class I had mixed reactions – on one hand it was ‘Ouch, that must have hurt’ and on the other it was ‘Bukki, I’m so proud of you!’ Kongou understands. If Fubuki was running in an election, onee-sama would be the best seconder ever.
I’m not sure whether Kancolle will be going on for more than one-cour, so I have no idea whether we’ve passed the halfway point or not – it’d have implications for the plot in the long term, although I have no doubt that there remain enough kanmusu for them to make an adaptation where they go around just spending time with them all. I’m still waiting for that Atago episode. But yeah, it seems like the war has now become a greater concern as the Abyssals have somehow successfully tapped into the channels linking Chinjufu with the kanmusu, and are monitoring their comms. That is… quite concerning, and I’m not sure I want to know the answer as to how exactly they’re doing that, because I have a feeling it’s related to salvaging parts off all the kanmusu on the ocean floor. And that’s far too morbid for a fluffy show like this. They’re becoming cleverer, and setting traps that the kanmusu are actually falling into – the result of the support fleet splitting up was that four of the girls encountered one lone carrier, and Zuikaku and Shoukaku ended up barraged by most of the enemy.
The other primary achievement of the episode was that it improved the bonds between what was otherwise still a precarious Mobile Unit Five. It was better with Fubuki in the lead, but the rift between Kaga and Zuikaku was clearly too deep to be fixed by a bunny-shaped towel. It was one filled with hate, jealousy and disguised sexual tension! At least that’s what I’d like to believe. I mean, there’s something underneath it all, and despite all the rivalry on the surface it’s deep enough for Kaga to risk her life for her, and for Zuikaku to have Kaga on her mind all the time, be it involving a bunny-shaped towel or her advice. Now that the episode’s over, I’ve formed this messy love polygon in my head between the various kanmusu. Kaga x Zuikaku is the crack pairing that’s becoming less crack with each episode, but the traditional stuff is nice as well – Kaga x Akagi is just solid, as is Zuikaku x Shoukaku. I don’t think I ship Fubuki with anyone just yet. Fubuki x Akagi feels like something platonic, and she probably wouldn’t be able to keep up with Kongou’s burning love. Meanwhile, Kitakami x Ooi is essentially canon! As is Kisaragi x Ocean Floor.
…Too soon?
I totaly ship Fubuki x Kongou.
As for the communications tapping, that’s another WWII reference: the Allies got a hold of the IJN’s communcation codes, allowing them to maneuver Japan into numerous defeats. Except Earth history tells us that Japan never suspected their codes could be broken so they fell for it all pretty completely, while the Kanmusu appear to have already worked it out and are adapting to prevent it from causing casualties.
Aha, the references have stopped being prophetic! Hopefully this means we can avoid the ultimate bad end where everyone dies. Good to know.
Well… What happened to Shouhou and Shoukaku matches what happened to their historical counterparts, so we aren’t exactly free of the chains of history just yet. The original Shouhou was sunk during the battle of the Coral Sea (learning whether or not her Kanmusu counterpart survived will go a long way to telling us what sort of future we can expect), and the original Shoukaku was severely damaged.
Woah! That was a great bit of trivia! 😮 Thanks for sharing that! On the site that I watch Kantai Collection there’s someone who usually posts trivia mainly from the game, but also puts in what history from the game they’ve verified as accurate. This, however, was not among the facts.
Okay, so, I’m had a heck of a reaction recorded in text form because this was the best episode yet! It had the best balance of all the previous elements we’ve seen in the show.
I was going to do this in chronological order, but I think praising a specific improvement that I saw is more important, so firstly…
–18:40 “Surprise! Aircraftcarrier!” (I’m paraphrasing from something else)–
I’m really SO glad that they made the surprise aerial attack more convincing this time. Kisaragi’s assailant didn’t have much of a place to hide, but Wo-class’s were hiding in the coming storm! (Y)
On that note… Wo-class is REALLY intimidating moving about the water like that, Ri-class, too! I hope that’s a sign to come of more high-speed maneuvering in contrast to the more slow and direct movements of the other Shinkaisei-kan thus far!
Okay, now for some chronology!
–5:46 “Hey, hey, everybody,” says Kongou all smooth and cool. Loved it!–
–7:46 “You did your best! Both Yuudachi-chan and I know that. I’m sure the girls in Force Five know that way better than us.”–
Initially I thought that was too simple. I mean for me as a viewer. I know that from a friend even the simplest encouragement can mean the WORLD! Then Yuudachi backs it up with how they’re “weirdos” who “would’ve all split up immediately!”
As a viewer I then actually felt that was really solid encouragement. ALL the other girls in Force Five have some kind of preference. Kaga’s preferential to CG1, Zuikaku to CG5 and on top of that there’s a rivalry. Ooi’s ready to be with Kitikami and Kitikami alone at any given time and while the latter is more or less neutral, she’ll get dragged around by Ooi easily. Kongou is also more or less neutral, but she’d have every right to want to be with her sisters again if teamwork was truly poor.
So with all that could pull Force Five apart, I really think Yuudachi made a good point and I’m glad 🙂
–10:28 “Third Fleet Flagship, Yuubari, heading out!”–
😀 Yuubari’s a Flagship! My sweet, sweet (no pun intended) Yuubari’s a Flagship! My heavy-weapon-melon-otaku-mechanic favourite girl is a Flagship ⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
–22:00 NO! KUU! MY DEAR KUU-CHAN!–
Wait. Wrong story… woopise, ehehe.
–22:18 NO! JURI! MY SWEET JULIE-CHAN!–
Wait. Wrong story again… But it’s the RIGHT time to introduce: SHINKAISEI-KAN COLLECTION! By Man Arihred (I know MangaBlog’s already seen this, but in case anyone else reads this comment…)
Join a new admiral on his quest to conquer the seas through the care he shows for his fleet! He’s an admiral just like YOU… except he’s commanding the Abyssals with none other than Ri-class Heavy Crusier as Secretary!
Link: danbooru.donmai.us/pools/9478 <3
—
And, yes… too soon man ;_; But perhaps the same could be said about me, ehe.
All right, I know that was a lot to read, but this whole chunk got cut out of the original comment when I clicked ‘Post Comment’ 🙁 Is there a word cap? I mean, I shouldn’t be hitting it anyway, but…
⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
Wait… I get it now. Something about the text symbols messed with it all… Apologies for all the trouble! :/ This is the actual part that got cut out:
<3 What's one more reason to love her? How about the '30 YEAR-OLD YUUBARI-SAN' by Yano Toshinori? Link: danbooru.donmai.us/pools/8415
19:16 "I can't do that!"
I was wondering earlier if we'd ever see the girls hold onto each other and help each other while on the water. Some people said no on the basis of them basically being on their own when it comes to keeping afloat in the game. So I was quite pleased to see Zuikaku "being allowed" to help Shoukaku!
21:43 "…"
I think Kongou just got one-upped in coolness. Seriously, that was the equivalent of a plane putting on shades:
22:00 NO! KUU! MY DEAR KUU-CHAN!
Wait. Wrong story… woopise, ehehe.
22:18 NO! JURI! MY SWEET JULIE-CHAN!
Wait. Wrong story again… But it's the RIGHT time to introduce: SHINKAISEI-KAN COLLECTION! By Man Arihred (I know MangaBlog's already seen this, but in case anyone else reads this comment…)
Join a new admiral on his quest to conquer the seas through the care he shows for his fleet! He's an admiral just like YOU… except he's commanding the Abyssals with none other than Ri-class Heavy Crusier as Secretary!
Link: danbooru.donmai.us/pools/9478 <3
Clearly you’re a Yuubari person! No kanmusu will be cooler to me than Kongou though! Every time she gave a thumbs-up or flashed a brilliant smile I was swooning inside. Onee-sama is the best.
Is that… Shincolle?! I didn’t even know that was a thing! Why are they so moe… you’re making me feel sorry for them now!
Now I offer my second thanks to you for today, for reading such a messy comment, ugh 😛 So thank you, Vantage!
Yes, yes, yes! I just love her design, class as a prototype weapons ship and character traits! Hehe, I won’t deny that Kongou is the best Onee-sama! She’s pretty much the Onee-sama of every Kancolle player, who’s not married to her or unfortunately bothered by her voice! 😀
Yup, yup. There are other doujin that take that approach, like ‘This Is The Enemy Waters’ and ‘The Abyssal Naval Base’. Both are fantastic, but the first one takes a more mellow, fun-loving, slice-of-life approach, and the other has them at the Kanmusu base as allied Abyssals since they stole the Admiral thinking he was an Abyssal, but now he’s brought them back. Plus they both feature an experienced Admiral and there’s just something more special to me about seeing a new admiral growing his force and his care for them 🙂
As for the comment, I did have it pasted in a notepad and when it failed the second time, I confirmed that the emoticons literally ate a portion of the comment once it was posted ._.
Not that I know of. Do copy and paste any lengthy comments somewhere else though just in case. I’ve started to do that with posts just in case WordPress glitches and I lose my work!