Hm? It’s been a long while, but
episode 11 of Azur Lane is finally here. And to start with, its very
“by the book”, but right now I’ll take the safe execution.
In specific, this episode is basically
dedicated to taking on the escorts for Orochi, at least in terms of
what burns time. At the start we’re in battle with Purifier, but in
classic Azur Lane Anime fashion she excuses herself very quickly to
enable the “First half talk, second half fight” structure for the
episode as a whole, and that is by in large what they do.
So what is the talking about? The
Sirens (Observer, Purifier, and Tester’s zillion bodies) talk about
timey-wimey schemes, still in enigmatic enough terms to not really
reveal what their game is. I kind of allow the show this, not only
has the source material not yet really revealed the greater design of
the Siren plots, but that also isn’t really where the show has
established its stakes and drama.
The Ironblood talk, meanwhile, about
cloak and dagger things – suspecting that it’s not just the Sakura
Empire but all the factions that may have been infiltrated by the
Sirens at high levels. Not that they’re going to refuse to fight
now, they’re just throwing that out there to establish their own
alignment and justify their theme of cloak-and-dagger. On the whole,
I’d say that the anime hasn’t exactly been kind to the Ironblood
faction.
For the Azur Lane, the topic at hand is
fighting back. Orochi demos a superweapon and their choices are
“take up the fight even though it’s probably a trap” or “wait
to die”. So naturally they’re moving forward. Enterprise…
Oh boy, what do I say about Enterprise?
I kind of want to hold off some judgment since there’s still another
episode, and the end seems to be a good place to do breakdown, but
here we go… Throughout the show, Enterprise has been a wreck; a
sad, broken character with self-destructive tendencies due to a low
self worth and a strained reaction to fear. And in some ways, this
could be a good and interesting character, if she wasn’t also needed
to be the shiny hero. I could really get behind a show where we have
to follow the slow, halting ascent out of bitterness and depression
of an individual burdened with ‘hero’ status.
But the thing is that there are two
angles in which that doesn’t work. First of all, Enterprise in the
anime is both the leading hero of an action show that’s not really
heavy in terms of emotion and philosophy. While I think the arc they
set for her could have excellent play, I don’t think the overall
framework of Azur Lane would be the show to execute it. And there’s
nothing wrong with that; not every show has to take or even be able
to take any given path. The critical failing is in not knowing what
works together. Second, Azur Lane is an adaptation. And true,
adapted works should be able to stand on their own, and be viewed as
their own thing, separate from the original version. But all the
same… that’s not Enterprise. It’s someone related to Enterprise,
perhaps; Enty does carry a kind of heavy burden. Recall that in the
game, instead of Yorktown being bedridden, we see her die at Midway
and pass the torch to Enterprise. And Enterprise does question what
it will take to end her war and what she could do after. But there’s
a sharp difference in their mantra. In the Anime, Enterprise
declares that “War never changes”. In the game, she talks about
“until the war ends”. One despairs in the face of her situation,
the other holds onto hope despite her situation. In a sense, those
are opposite characters.
In this episode, Anime Enterprise makes
a big rebound towards being more like Game Enterprise. And I’d be
enjoying it if we hadn’t seen her make progress and then totally
backslide before. Each individual action does make total sense in
context, but the sum doesn’t present well as a written narrative. I
give the writers that it does feel a little different this time, like
she’s making her own choice rather than being dragged kicking and
screaming by Belfast, but this could have been a lot stronger if her
progression made more narrative sense.
Looking back, I think the biggest
missing piece is how Enterprise hit her low starting point. To
really get her “Maladaptive fighter” thing to play right, I think
you’d need to see what turned her into that instead of being a normal
person (like the other ships we see), and thus intimately understand
what’s dragging her down rather than being told that she fears the
ocean.
All that aside, it is a little better
to see Enterprise looking and acting a little more like Enterprise
this episode.
On the other side, Kaga’s world kind of
implodes in the talking phase. The sirens successfully resurrect
Akagi (or close enough to it; it’s unclear both what state she was
really in when Enterprise was done with her and what state she’s in
now, other that she was out then and is more or less active now).
And that was what Kaga wanted, but Akagi also gets what she wanted
when Amagi appears as well. Not long after this “happy reunion”
sours, Kaga seems to recognize she’s being had by the Sirens and
Orochi (who is the currently active ship with Amagi’s likeness), but
then Orochi talks Kaga to death by revealing that she’s a failed
hollow imitation, retrofitted with spare Amagi parts after Amagi’s
demise.
I have to say, the flashbacks here are
kind of interesting. After I went on and on about how Enterprise
isn’t like the game, there’s this material where clearly they went
above and beyond to make Amagi’s flashbacks and the young(er) Akagi
and Kaga exactly like the game, giving motion to cutscenes that
occurred in the Crimson Echoes event. There are still some implicit
differences, but this really does seem like it could be the Akagi and
Kaga who appear in the Sakura Empire events (which, unlike the more
recent events, don’t acknowledge the existence of the Commander
character… yet). In any case, they’re at the end of their cycle
and Kaga.exe stops working.
The Orthodox Sakura, meanwhile, (in an
inversion of the game event take, where Zuikaku and friends are
running against the orthodox leadership of Akagi and Kaga) set off to
fight Orochi, and question what they’ll have to do with Kaga before
resolving to solve her with the power of friendship, bringing her
back without killing her whatever it takes. Which will be quite a
lot, because the battle is joined.
The fighting this episode… I’ve seen
worse. A lot worse. It doesn’t have a great pacing or flow to it,
though. For instance, the show swerves to a ‘comedy’ reaction when
Yuudachi gets pasted fighting brainwashed Kaga, but the swirly eyes
muttering is kind of at odds with the drama of Kaga turning on her
friends in destroyed grief while whatever’s left of Akagi degenerates
in Orochi’s clutches. The Ironblood and then Azur Lane forces come
into the fight as big damn heroes, blowing away Siren ships and
Tester copies, only for Orochi to open up and reveal its unstoppable
superweapon. Cut Episode.
I’ll be honest, letting the anime sit
for three months kind of caused it to sour in my immediate opinion,
but watching this new episode, I think I can see that it’s neither a
great take nor a complete failure; It’s a fanservice-heavy action
anime somewhere in the C to B- range and a fair but ultimately
weaker-than-source attempt to tell a fitting original story within
the framework of Azur Lane’s multiverse. All that’s left now is to
see how they actually end it – if the show stays the course, if it
fumbles, or if it somehow manages to improve itself with its ending.
Game Lore:
https://harperanimereviews.com/how-much-lore-does-it-take-to-justify-cute-ship-girls-a-prelude-to-azur-lane/
Previous Episode:
https://harperanimereviews.com/seasonal-selection-azur-lane-episode-10/