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
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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.
Apr 5, 2018
High School Fleet
(Anime)
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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 ... 
Mar 30, 2018
Nana Maru San Batsu
(Anime)
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I was not expecting Nana Maru San Batsu to be good. Going into it, I though I was probably going to end up dropping it and giving it a 5 or possibly a 6. Though as I watched each episode, I just kept wanting to watch more until I'd finished all 12 episodes and thoroughly enjoyed it.
You might notice a marked difference in reviews on this site between those who watched 4 episodes and declared it to be cliched, and those who actually bothered to watch the whole show before giving it a full review. Not just in term of score, which we'd expect to ... |
