An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Seasonal Selection – Azur Lane Episode 12 (Final)

This was the final episode I expected, but not the one I might have hoped for.

All in all, what happens this episode? Exactly what you would you expect would happen. Orochi fires off its doom rocket (I can’t really call it anything else since it’s kind of nuke-like but not exactly and not given any particular name) and the first act of the episode is the struggle to intercept it before the Azur Lane home port is annihilated. We get, admittedly, a decent action sequence for this show between Purifier and Enterprise on the chase. You know Enty is going to intercept, but it at least tries to sow some doubt the way a good action scene should, and the fighters are a little less static than a lot of the fighting in this episode in particular. Purifier still has a fun personality, too. I’d comment that it’s one hell of a slow rocket but frankly if you watched episode 1 you know to not expect anything to be logically consistent with the real world.

Of course, Enterprise gets the rocket, which goes off and disappears her while giving Purifier membership in the weirdly not so exclusive “talking severed head” club of fiction. She’s having fun, though Orochi isn’t entirely pleased with this turn of events. On the ground (er, surface) Zuikaku and pals fight Kaga and… the emotions are fine. Their expression is a little bit clunky. The actual fighting is bad. I get that neither Kaga nor her opponents actually want to destroy the other, but the motion entirely grinds to a halt for them to talk, before maybe exchanging a blow either way and going back to the talking. It’s not bad talking, but if you’re going to weave dialogue and action, actually weave them. I’ll admit, it was kind of funny to see Zuikaku take a plane to the face and then headbutt Kaga into submission, but that’s about it.

We get another good moment thereafter where Enterprise grapples with her issues in a conversation with Ash (name-dropped as Code G by Orochi), where she comes out with the understanding that her disquiet with the state of the world and of war can be channeled into the resolve to change it. I said this was a good moment, but I should stress that’s a relative term: it would land better if Enterprise’s buildup was stronger and more consistent. In any case, this gives her the strength to return to the regular world, her full-sized aircraft carrier breaching out of the water like a submarine which is at least visually impressive (again, if this is too silly for you, you didn’t make it past the giant fox. Which is a legitimate criticism.)

Both mortal sides join forces triumphantly against the Sirens (including an agreement on the ground and a state agreement that shows up with Queen Elizabeth and Nagato shoulder to shoulder), Enterprise puts a hole in Orochi with a spirit eagle shot, and then it’s onto Akagi.

By this point, it’s been established that the goal is to save Akagi, not destroy her. And that’s fine. That’s fair. But the scene for actually doing it is really scattered. We go into a weird vision space where Enterprise and Akagi confront each other, and it’s kind of implied that this is a past/future like where Code G comes from, but then we cut back and their blocking is the same as in the real world and… honestly? I don’t know what happened in this ending or how. The full combined fleet showed up and started blasting, then Enterprise is holding Akagi’s hand and accepting her redemption and they say goodbye to Amagi who is somehow there instead of Orochi and… Yeah, it really doesn’t work, you just sort of have to accept that we come out with Akagi being nice for those who are still alive and everyone on the same page about fighting the Sirens.

Okay, this could have worked. Maybe, if the writers were very careful and had constructed it extremely artfully. It is, after all, extremely similar to the ending of Arpeggio of Blue Steel where Iona confronts and ultimately redeems Kongou, facing off against her erstwhile antagonist in both the physical and mental realm, bringing about change through her determination and kindness. But the thing is, Arpeggio of Blue Steel both established better and delivered better. The mental realm in Arpeggio was well-defined, as was the conflict between the ships as free-willed individuals and servents of the Admiralty Code, and Kongou’s precarious position on the middle line between them. And the conflict was visually and emotionally satisfying, with Iona physically reaching Kongou through the crumbling death star of her “ship” and struggling in the mental space to reach her. You can see what’s going on, understand the actions through the blocking, and it’s actually visually impressive. In the ending of Azur Lane, there are some shots that would be impressive as stills, but nothing of the same skill in execution.

And, perhaps most damningly, Arpeggio had essentially an entire episode to face down and redeem Kongou. In addition to facing Akagi/Orochi, Azur Lane has to stop the missile, defeat Kaga, and present a significantly longer denouement than did Arpeggio with all the faction followups. This is the kind of plot movement that needs time and respect, and Azur Lane simply didn’t have enough to give to make it stick.

Speaking of the post-script, we get scenes with the various factions reacting to the events of the battle with Orochi. The Sirens (including Purifier’s severed head, still having a ball) think this is great fun and imply that more action is ahead. Nagato doesn’t exactly pardon Akagi and Kaga, and when the two of them interact it seems like they’re cool both with the world and each other. The Ironblood report to Bismarck (finally showing herself outside the intro) and say some ominous things. And finally, there’s an established home port where all the factions can come together as a united front. In essence, the ending of the anime recreates the starting situation in the game (at least the one mentioned in lighter hearted and at-port events) where the factions have recently put aside their differences to face off against their common foe. Except Code G is wandering around like some phantom shadow of Enterprise, and Enterprise herself takes the role of the Commander. Which really doesn’t fit when you get into the actual interesting bits of game lore that depict a strong bond between the Commander and Enterprise and show how Ash might be related to that. So while I guess it’s a passing wrap-up, it doesn’t work as a prequel to the game.

It’s a shame, really. In the months since this started, the game has come out with events that have advanced its lore, building on the truths behind the Sirens, Ash, Ember, the Commander, and so on. It’s a fun, consistent story that, shockingly for a mobile Gacha game, can actually have some intrigue and even psychological play, even if most of the presentation is more on the lovably cheesy end. The anime… falls short of its source material in just about every way. They had a ton of potential gift-wrapped for them, they just needed to connect the dots, and instead they created something with only a fraction of what they should have.

All in all, I think I’m not being too hard on the show to give it a C-. C- isn’t a good grade, but it is a passing grade, and that’s about what the anime deserves as a show on its own merits. If you want cute girls and vaguely naval action, you will get it, just not in a package that makes much sense or manages to be intellectually or emotionally satisfying. If you want that, watch Arpeggio instead, or play the game and follow its lore. Because either way, you’re going to get more out of it than you will out of this anime outing.

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-11/

… and Enterprise didn’t even Owari Da for the eagle hit on Orochi. Come on, that’s like her thing and the only time she says it is the time it backfires? Ugh, I’m done here.


One thought on

  1. As an anime only viewer, I’m glad that someone who is familiar with the game is just as confused as I am. At least it’s not a case of “play the game to understand it”. Just means they screwed up. 😛

    Speaking of confusion, while I do view this show as a silly mahou shoujo of sorts, have to wonder why Enterprise insists on chasing after the missile. She could’ve just sniped it like what she eventually did. Especially when they were just talking about range attacks when the missile launched.

    Really have to wonder what the delay was all about. Expected a bit more because of it. Expected them to at least keep the quality of the first few episodes. Disappointed with how it turned out.

    But if they ever make a sequel, I hope they planed it out right. They’ve been hinting the Germans are up to something and I assume this doesn’t really connect well with the game. If they learned from their mistakes, it might turn out good.

    Finally, thanks for the reviews. Actually made the show less confusing. Have to ask though, do humans still exist? Am under the impression they’ve gone extinct in this world line.

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