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Now this anime is exactly what the original anime Azur Lane should have been! Let's look at the categories and why I chose what I did.

Story: 10/10. The best thing about Azur Lane: Bisoku Zenshin! is it has NO story. The best story is no story in a short series like this. With each episode being about 8ish minutes long, there's nothing better than not having to worry about a story and the plotlines. Each episode is its own story, and that brings its own charm, by including different characters each episode, aside from our 4 main girls, Laffey, Ayanami, Javelin and Z23 (Niimi-chan). It ... shows all the factions hanging out and having a good time, just like it should be. No wars, no battles, no hatred and animosity amongst them. Just friends, sleepovers, videogames and struggles with schoolwork.

Art: 9/10. This could easily be a 10/10 with how good the artwork has been done in terms of adapting it from the game to an anime standpoint. I only made it a 9/10 because I felt in some places their cheeks were just a little too rosey-shiny but that's not a huge issue. Some coloring looked a little off in some places as well but that may have just been from my eyes binging the entire series without a break. Either way, a 9 or 10 is a good fit for the artwork. It's got smooth animation and great voice acting. It's not written in a cringy way at all, like it's predecessor, nor is the artwork clunky with an unfinished feeling to it.

Sound: 8/10. I didn't have any issues with the soundtrack or music they used for the show. It was quite fitting but me being my biased self, I would have liked at least a mini intro clip aside from the "Azur Lane: Bisoku Zenshin!" It's nice because it jumps right into the show, and it's expected to be absent because each episode is different. Intros usually show a preview of what to expect during the series as a whole, and while this is entirely of shorts, I can understand not having an intro clip. Doesn't mean I'm not a little bummed out about it but it is what it is.

Character: 9/10. The only reason this isn't a 10/10 is because while I like the character diversity and the focus on the main 4 destroyer girls, I'm a little bummed at the lack of focus on other characters who are very prevalent to the game itself. While this isn't an adaptation of the game, I personally would have liked some more inclusion of other characters like Akagi, Kaga, Hood, and San Diego, but I'm glad to see Taihou, Rodney and Honolulu got some attention, so I suppose it evens out. Giving focus to characters who are traditionally second-focus and only noticed during events in the game, like Baltimore, Formidable and Bismarck, was surprising and very refreshing. Character development isn't an issue here because the show is set with the characters already being developed as they are, and instead focuses on their daily adventures. And that's totally fine. I wouldn't want to see any attempt at major character development in a short like this. The closest thing we get to development is with Ayanami, and if you watch the show, you'll know exactly what I mean by this.

Enjoyment: 10/10. It's very hard to not smile and laugh out loud while watching this show. The antics, the art, the writing. Everything about it brings a smile to your face. Whether it be from Ayanami being a slouch, Niimi-chan for scolding her, Laffey falling asleep everywhere or Javelin being a klutz, you can really see the personalities of the characters in each episode. Despite some being present for only a minute or two, like Graf Spee, it's still heartwarming when you see them interact with each other and talk about being friends instead of enemies. The show is an absolute delight to watch, and with each episode being 8 minutes, it's very easy to get through. Though it may leave you wanting more, but that's what the manga is for!

Overall: 9/10. The show is a fantastic little spin-off from the game showing how things are when there's no threat of Sirens blowing the ports up. The characters all have personality, they interact with each other in the exact way you'd expect them to based off that personality and they're all friendly with each other, despite being enemies in the past. It's just an all-around enjoyable show. You'll laugh and shake your head and feel slightly fuzzy inside at how close of friends all the characters are. So go ahead and watch an episode or two. If you have time to watch a normal 20ish minute long episode of one show, you've got the time to watch two episodes of this wonderfully goofy show.

Alright, let's just keep it a $1.50 here. I love the game, I don't love the anime.

It's an anime adaptation of a popular mobile game. While the mobile game itself has been done splendidly, the anime adaptation was done in a less than splendid way (and that's an understatement to say the least). As an anime, it's alright. We get some characters to look at to form fanservice theories about, to find a "best girl" and to wonder who will experience the most development over the course of the show. Sadly, with Azur Lane being a mobile game, this anime was nowhere near to showing ... enough characters for fans and anime watchers alike. No one is able to really connect to the characters if they've never played the game. 12 episodes of random fights and nonsensical "feel-good" moments made it very hard to develop any real connection or fondness to any of the characters. It made it even harder to sit through and watch both the English and Japanese versions, which I had done many times prior to this review. While I felt a sense of pride knowing that Enterprise was the focus of the show, I feel an even more sense of embarrassment from how badly she was written and portrayed, along with all the other characters they included.

To put it out there, there are over 600 characters in the mobile game, not including the Siren characters. There's no anime out there that will ever be able to cover 600+ characters and keep the story as linear as possible. It's just not going to happen. It could've taken the direction Azur Lane: Bisoku Zenshin! took and gave us 20 minute long episodes of daily life with the characters, introducing different characters each episode who have no impact on the previous episode. They could have even given us mini arcs with the characters based on the events in the game. Alas they did neither of those things.

While the anime does it's best to introduce characters, unless you've played the game, you're not going to know who 85% of them even are. They don't get named at all in the series. The ones who do get named aren't even the most popular, OP or memorable from the game. Not to say Unicorn, Cleveland and Prince of Wales aren't memorable, but including Nevada and Oklahoma and Koln as opposed to including Nelson, North Carolina or Dido as forefront characters just for the fanservice is beyond me. They had literally hundreds of characters to pull from, as well as the main 4 characters from the game to focus on, but they chose lesser-known characters? I still can't figure out why they thought it was a great idea to focus on Enterprise instead of the Big 4. What's even worse is they took one of the Big 4 (Z23) and gave her very minimal screen time just because she was a secondary character on the Crimson Axis side. It felt Prinz Eugen got more screen time than Z23 did. Ball dropped, if you ask me. But that's not the main issue with the show.

The music isn't memorable, the English voice acting was very cringy and the lack of character focus (except for Enterprise and Belfast, because the studio thought they were better main characters than the original 4 starter characters from the game for some reason) are just a few major issues with the show as it stands. These still aren't the main issues with the show.

The main issue is the show didn't have a solid plot. They wanted to take it in a bit of a different direction than the mobile game, but for the most part, it was the same. Azur Lane vs. Crimsons Axis vs Sirens. Nothing really new here, it was just done so badly. The game literally has an entire introduction storyline explaining all of it and they still managed to mess it up. While it did open a clear path to Azur Lane: Bisoku Zenshin! with having all the girls from all the factions spending time together, it did a very poor job establishing a dynamic relationship between all the factions and characters to begin with.

The biggest takeaway from this is for an anime? It's meh. Really average. Not terrible by any means. The animation isn't the greatest, but it's not the worst. The story is a very popular theme, so it's quite dull, and the entire cast is quite predictable and hard to grow attached to. The music doesn't really stand out in the entire show, so that's not going to be a redeeming quality. None of that makes it the show worth a 1. Not even a 2. I'd say it's really a hard 3, soft 4 in terms of an anime.

Now, for it being an anime based on a popular game that's rich with lore, characters and detail... Yeah. It's a 2, but not a 1. If they had followed the original storyline or even branched off into the events the game experiences, the show would be leagues better than what it is. Watch it with caution, as you may lose interest after the first few episodes when nothing of note really happens. Do yourself a favor, and go play the game, watch Azur Lane: Bisoku Zenshin! and read the manga adaptation. All of that is much better than this anime adaptation. If you're a glutton for bad story tropes, uninteresting characters and short, pointless battle scenes, then by all means, watch this show. Don't say I didn't warn you.