Characters / Development : 6.3
Its going to be very hard to explain this without contradicting myself over and over. Its a area that had so much more potential than was actually taken advantage of. They characters themselves were pretty strong, but only until you limited their spotlight for a few minutes or none at all for most. I feel like they could have concentrated more on the characters if they didn't have so many fan service episodes and scenes.
Animation / Art : 6
A mixed bag. The characters and armament art are both really good but I feel like what feel short was the actual ship and the water. In a anime about ships, you would expect great water right? Much to be desired. There was one scene that drove me insane. In the scene they said they only had one depth charge to use on the ship, and a few frames later there was literally two massive rows of them. All I can think is the script and art departments did not communicate on this one. People who know a little something about ships would notice.
Sound (Music/Voice/Effects) : 9.5
The strongest aspect to the show I think. High School Fleet has the same writer as Girls und Panzer and I will touch on this in the story more however I would have expected that the music would have the same person in charge, to my surprise, no. The music is fantastically timed to the action and pulls out feeling of excitement in the best cheesiest way.
Story / Writing : 4.5
Without spoils all I can say is the choices made for the core motivation for the show are pretty dumb... out of all the things they could have done. In the first few episodes you think "wow, my mind is blown, where can this go?" and only to epic fail in the next reveal episode. Not what I expected from the writer (Yoshida Reiko) from Girls und Panzer, I expected something more down to earth.
Enjoyment : 9
Out of all the bad things I have said about this show, all I can say is I feel like my time was worth it. When I found out about this anime and its ties to the writer who did Girls und Panzer I expected something cheesy but exciting, and I was not let down in that regard. Cute girls in doing battle will always get my blood pumping!
Final Score : 7.06
Final Recommendation : If you seen Girls und Panzer you will like this show and I recommend giving it a go. If you have not however I will give you a cautionary warning that its certainly not for everyone and unless you like cute girls doing battle or ship warfare you might want to give it a pass.
