High School Fleet

A hundred years after catastrophic shifts in tectonic plates caused most of its area to submerge, Japan now thrives as a maritime nation. High functioning cities line the coasts of Japan, and well developed sea routes are defended by specialized naval ships. The marine industry is flourishing, and young girls are eager to join the Blue Mermaids—highly skilled women who devote their lives to protecting the seas.

After some time apart, childhood friends Akeno Misaki and Moeka China are reunited at Yokosuka Girls' Marine High School. Here they are joined by others who share their dream of becoming Blue Mermaids. Soon, training exercises commence, with Akeno and Moeka being put in charge of their own ships and crew. Everything is progressing smoothly for Akeno as she settles into her role as captain and builds camaraderie between her fellow crew members aboard the Harekaze, a destroyer ship. However, unexpected engine and navigation failures soon leave their ship stranded and the crew in danger.

High School Fleet follows the Harekaze's valiant crew as they navigate treacherous waters and other obstacles on their quest to become fully fledged Blue Mermaids.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Misaki, Akeno Main

Natsukawa, Shiina Japanese

Braunschweig Ingenohl Friedeburg, Wilhelmina Main

Igarashi, Hiromi Japanese

Munetani, Mashiro Main

Lynn Japanese

Irizaki, Mei Main

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Nosa, Kouko Main

Kurose, Yuuko Japanese

Tateishi, Shima Main

Furuki, Nozomi Japanese

Shiretoko, Rin Main

Kubo, Yurika Japanese

China, Moeka Supporting

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Kreutzer, Thea Supporting

Morinaga, Chitose Japanese

Kaburagi, Minami Supporting

Asumi, Kana Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Ougi, Jiyuu Producer

Kashiwada, Shinichirou Producer

Ootsuka, Norikazu Producer

Reviews

Jun 26, 2016

PettankoFTW

Recommended

Haifuri, one of the WORST promoted anime of all time. Okay that might be exaggerating, but not a lot of promotion is of this anime I have to say this season and to be absolutely frank (not Dave, we don’t talk about Dave), it was infuriating. Why? Because it’s completely the opposite to what people think it is and it was in my opinion absolutely fantastic.
Okay, short rant over, let’s get down to it since I’ve been itching to write a review but I wanted to finish the anime first and now that’s happened let’s get going with the review.

Story: 8
Unlike some people’s first ... impression of “this anime is a slice of life, loli anime with no plot (in both senses) at all”, Haifuri actually has an over arcing plot and story and it is introduced to the audience in the most dramatic way possible in the first episode. Now what is interesting about the story is the fact that it’s a semi-mysterious-esque plot line which is fairly fresh compared to say Girls und Panzer (I recommend that anime as well) which was a tournament based anime or KanColle, which has the generic story of “fight the bad guys because the narrator said so at the beginning”. Now there’s obviously the ideas of friendship power and team work in this anime as well which isn’t surprising but it’s not intrusive to the plot but rather helps the characters to overcome certain problems, which most of the time they can't overcome regardless of the friendship power and it’s these plot twists and subtle differences that make the story unique and interesting. However, I have to mention the fact that there are a two “filler” episodes in that there’s not really too much naval action and breaks the tension generated by the other episodes but they weren’t intrusive and helped to develop the characters so can’t complain too much.

Art and Animation: 9
The ships are really well animated and they do feel like the girls are on board a real ship with all of its related equipment and weapons. Explosions are also eye candy and pairs well with the sound effects. The ships move realistically, shakes and rides the waves like a ship would. The water animation is of note as well and makes you feel like they are at sea. If you just came for the battles and fights, you’ll be pleased as the weapons are also fairly well animated (torpedoes especially). If you came for the cute girls then you won’t be disappointed either. 31 cuties each with a different style to match their persona and all of them will leave at least some impressionable image in your mind. Although for some reason, it might just be me, but the ships seems to be in a higher resolution than the characters sometimes. However, it’s nothing too significant that can affect the enjoyment of the show.

Sounds: 9
OP is catchy and gets stuck in your head, ED is soft and calming. Both fits the theme of the sea very well. The sound track during the anime isn’t used to fill the silence but rather used to great effect adding lots of tension to the scenes. Those sound tracks can really get your heart racing during the fight scenes and your heart throbbing in some of the more emotional scenes, and trust me, the feels will hit you like a truck. Other sounds worth mentioning is the sound effects which are pretty good. You can hear the whistle of the shell getting louder as it get nearer to the ship, the heavy explosion during impact, the creaking of the ship under stress, the echo of detonations of torpedoes in the water and the list just goes on. All these sound effect adds more excitement, tension and action to the scenes and boy they feel satisfying.

Characters: 7
Now you might be asking why the low score with characters after the praises I’ve sung for in previous categories? Well it’s simple, the problem with casting 31 girls is the fact that there is definitely no way every single one will get developed to a significant degree that you can remember their names and their personas in a 12 episode season (hence this needs a second season please!). So some the supporting cast had very little to say and aren’t presented to us fully which is a downer. However it’s understandable and unavoidable with such a huge cast, but credit to where credit’s due, they did at least try to make every member of the crew memorable in the second to last episode. Now the positives is the fact that those characters that we do see often and remember more are developed very well. The MC, Mike-chan, goes through a series of transformations from slightly clumsy airhead at the start to full blown determined captain by the end, whilst the also uncovering some of the back stories behind her which was “interesting” (used “interesting” to avoid spoiling the feeling, go watch to find out). Shiro-chan, the deputy-captain, started off strict and harsh, but we all knew she was a soft person inside and eventually she shows it as the relationships between the characters grew. To name but a few more; Tama-chan, Rin-chan, Maron-chan, Mei-chan, all these had much differing personalities and each developed and grew in their own way as the story progressed and it really made the series lovable. Also there are two cats. (Personal favourite: Tama-chan)

Enjoyment: 10
The entire series was enjoyable to me. Each episode made me yearn for more. The tension was brilliant and the story flowed nicely. The action scenes and battles were the highlights for me and was full of excitement and a joy to watch. The characters are definitely lovable and undoubtedly cute. The series was definitely the highlight of the season for me and I want a second season so bad!

Overall: 9
If you like cute girls, this anime will be your piece of cake whilst also be surprising.
If you like military and battles, this anime will still be your cup of tea since that is the anime’s focus which is different from say GirlPan.
If you like moe, give it a shot, but it won’t be the main focus, but I think you’ll enjoy some parts of it at least.
If you like suspense, well I wouldn’t say it’s very suspenseful but there are elements of it.
If you don’t like cute girls, then turn around and leave via the door behind you because there’s no way I can convince you.
If you are looking for FANSERVICE, this anime WILL DISAPPOINT you to no end! So follow the cute girl haters out as well and go watch Strike Witches instead.

Full speed ahead! Steady as she goes!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 5, 2018

Person012345

Mixed Feelings

I largely knew what I was getting into when I watched this and I knew it wasn't going to be anything great, but a friend wanted to try it. It was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be, and it's probably exactly what you expect it to be as well. So lets get into this.

Story: Whatever, the plot is stupid, who cares, it just serves as a vehicle for having the ship and crew do things. There are many major plot conveniences that don't really make sense, a number of threads and implications that go nowhere and ultimately the plot is kinda silly ... and not well explained. But we know who's going to win from the start anyway. The plot does it's job just about, it's not so horrendous as to particularly offend me but it doesn't really stand up to much scrutiny and it's ultimately not that interesting. It makes the girls go places and do things in their ship and get into fights.

Art: The character designs are all very cute, I just wish they'd had more chance to shine but we'll get to that later. The animation is pretty good and the 3D for the ships doesn't look bad. All in all the show looks pretty nice and is well presented with some nice details. On the other hand we're not talking really exceptional art on par with the best, but I think the show looks very solid. It's never really ugly and the main point, the cute girls, are very cute.

Sound: I don't really remember much in the way of the music and I didn't find the other sounds in the show to be overall very impressive. I don't really remember how the voice acting was, which I assume means it was at least ok, possibly solid. The guns could have done with a little more oomph to them. Realistic or not, they just didn't sound that impressive especially in the big battle where lots of guns are going off.

Characters: Oh boy, the characters. There are a lot of them. And few of them get any character development and for those that do it seems... a little incoherent. Aside from the captain and vice captain, they all really only get handfuls of screentime each and I never felt like I got to know any. It's a shame because I actually think a lot of these girls have potential. Which actually surprised me. But I think if there were some sort of spinoff shows that focused more tightly on sections of the cast (and gave them due respect), that could be a thing that I would actually like. I ended up wanting to like a number of these girls but a total lack of screentime and character exploration meant that I just didn't really end up caring. It says a lot that 7 episodes in to the show my friend and I had this exchange:
17:16 - Person012345: what's the main character's name?
17:16 - [XXXXXXXXXX]: i cant remember

The main characters that really got any development were the captain and her vice captain. I feel like they were trying to show the captain becoming more mature and respectful, by learning that her place is at the bridge and not running off on crazy adventures whilst leaving the crew to handle themselves, but I wasn't really feeling the development, it felt kind of forced and then it also got contradicted by the main person pushing for it towards the end. I suppose that was to show her becoming more relaxed, but overall it felt conflicted and neither of these really felt like natural progressions of the characters. It again may be because they couldn't even explore their characters in any real depth so we didn't feel it. Also, everyone on the ship sort of felt like they bumbled into everything and the only character who was having appropriate reactions to everything happening was the girl who cried about everything (who I came to end up wanting to learn more of, but alas). Everyone else seemed more concerned that they might run out of toilet paper than the fact that they were wanted fugitives who faced god knows how long in prison, or a cold watery death.

For me the characters are the core of any show, but especially one like this that is character focused and I feel like the ball was dropped. They tried to cram too many girls into the picture so that everyone could have a waifu and as a result, really couldn't do anything with any of them in adequate detail despite the characters actually having potential. I also didn't feel like they treated the characters with as much respect as they routinely had them dressing up in swimsuits or other outfits so we could gawp and when coupled with the lack of actual exploration of who they are as people, it leaves them feeling like objects to be fapped to rather than beloved characters who we're meant to care about.

Enjoyment: Well, I mean, I managed to get through it. Though if I had been watching alone I would have dropped it without a doubt. It wasn't absolutely terrible, but I don't really consider it worth watching. Again, the show is what it is and if you're here you probably understand what it is and what it's trying to be.

Overall, I'm feeling a little generous and it did have it's moments, so this show is a low 5 for me. On another day I might give it a high 4 but I think it solidly straddles the 5 line. Not really worth the time, but it also didn't ruin my week.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 14, 2016

archeotech

Not Recommended

Kind of surprised by all the favourable reviews on this....

Ok first off I love ships, lolis and moe so when I initially saw this I was delighted thinking it would be girls und panzer meets Kancolle! But god was it was far from it and a chore to finish....

Basically I loved the ships, and the character designs but the characters themselves were all insanely annoying and the plot was just beyond stupid and so so frustrating at times. I would personally avoid and I'm going to go into some more detail on why.

BEWARE SPOILERS!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok so the story goes that lolis arrive at ... this school where they are to be trained as Blue Mermaids, Japan's naval defence force. In an alternate modern timeline much of Japan has been submerged and has become a major naval nation with a huge and powerful fleet. To assure the rest of the world that their navy is only for peaceful and defensive purposes they have the ships run mostly by young girls.

So straight away the lolis are assigned to WWII ships and sent out to some far off location to commence naval exercises WITHOUT ANY instructors/teachers or anybody older than about 14 on board. While the main lolis are given a destroyer equipped with training and live ammo, another group is given the Musashi! Yes! The Musashi as in one of the most powerful battleships ever made! Again also without anybody older than about 14! Why were they given the Musashi when surely it's a bit dangerous to be letting new recruits who are lolis handle never mind how expensive it was to run??

Anyway we could probably just go with the flow on this one and move along

So all the ships go out to sea and somehow split up and then some rodents somehow get on board the ships that interfere with electronic devices within a mile radius when convenient and infect the crew with a virus that allows the rodents to exert mind control over them and thus cause them to become aggressive towards other ships and humans....

Anyway my first beef begins when the destroyer with the lolis who are all the misfits and low achievers of the fleet get into their first battle. While being attacked with LIVE ammo they lampoon and try act all comical just like the girls in Girls Und Panzer except in girls und Panzer they establish that it's a sport and somehow safe but here they are in a real battle and having moe banter without the slightest bit of concern for their safety. Mind you I guess they don't have too much to worry about cause nobody in the opposing ships during the entire anime can hit them beyond one or two grazing shots.

So they eventually fire a training torpedo at the ship and hit it damaging it enough to get away. It then transpires that they somehow sink the ship and have been declared a rouge ship! That's the end of the first episode and I was interested bu then next episode they decide to just sail about the place and eventually they start heading towards some port a day or two away without explaining why they wouldn't just contact home base and explain that they were attacked without warning.

So yeah I won't go too much more into the story as I'll be here all day but

The characters are super annoying. The captain routinely leaves the bridge in the middle of battle to personally undertake dangerous missions often on her own while the ship is under attack. Surely the captain should stay on the bridge at all times during combat!? When this is pointed out, we're made to feel bad about it and that somehow the captain was right to do things her way. With a ship full of lolis wouldn't they have a team of girls to do these daring missions maybe led by the 1st officer?? At one point they actually do that when a ships is sinking and they have to perform a rescue mission but some asshole civilian on board the sinking ship tells the girls that there's still a little one lost in the ship without saying it was just a kitten. I love kittens but when a ship is about to sink I don't think it's a good idea to trick a loli rescue worker into risking her life and almost killing her. She seriously almost gets killed and when the loli and the kitten are luckily rescued, the person that told her to rescue the kitten tell her that they no longer want the kitten and dump it on her! >_=

So the deputy captain or first officer is mostly useless and the girl they entrust with steering the ship is terrified of everything. I mean why would she be assigned to steering the ship with she obviously has serious mental problems?? It just gets really really annoying.

But oh yeah conveniently for the lolis on the destroyer they have this genius doctor (who's 12!) on board who eventually figures out about the rodents and makes a vaccine. Why was this doctor there and not with the elite students? Never explained.

So anyway on their way back to base they run low on toilet paper and rather than survive for 24hrs they go shopping on a shopping mall ship where naturally they get caught. Again they make no attempt to contact base let them know all that has happened. Luckily for them they are not shot on the spot and somehow they adults believe that something odd is going on.

So the rest of the anime is the lolis on the destroyer going around to the various battleships under mind control and somehow stopping them and rescuing everybody on board. All the while the adults essentially do nothing the entire anime except get beaten when they do engage the battleships in combat. It's not even like the lolis on the destroyer are clever cause they're shown to be almost clueless.

The one ray of hope is a German loli that joins the ship and seems to have a clue on how to run things but after a while they mostly ignore her and jokes are made about her being a German??

Pretty much all the characters are OTT super happy and it just gets really annoying especially when they're in a dicey situation or just get news that friends are in danger.

The story is just balls and they never fully explain how these rodents infect people or scramble electronic devices within a mile at certain times or why the cats are unaffected, or how they even got onto all the ships in the first place. There's no clever zany tactics like in girls Und panzer and even if there was the lolis are often in situations where if they get one direct hit they will all die and they lack of tension just drives me mad.

Anyway my rant is pretty much over. The story sucks and the characters are too annoying. On the other hand the positives are the lolis look cute, the ships can be fun to watch at times, and it usually has decent animation and sound. For me this the worst anime I've watched in the last 6 months at least and I've seen a lot! This is neither Kancolle nor Girls Und panzer although it does do a poor job trying to be them sometimes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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