I can say, in that, it was a good deal better than it had to be, or even then it might have appeared to be. This show really could have coasted with some CG action and cute ship girls and found an audience, it didn't really need to reach for anything resembling quality. But it did. The writers took it seriously and for that at least I must give the show my respect.
The story is, in a sense, fairly basic. The entire running time is dedicated to a single mission (albeit a very harrowing one with a lot of roadblocks along the way): In a world where the seas have been taken over by hyper-advanced AI entities based on the templates of WWII warships (just go with it) called the Fleet of Fog, Japan needs to send the prototype of a new weapon that could change humanity's fortunes in the ongoing conflict across the Pacific to America, since the Japanese don't have the industrial capacity to mass-produce it. The team that will be pulling this massive blockade run has a very singular advantage: Iona, aka I-401, a submarine who has defected from the Fog to serve a particular human (just go with that too, it's never explained).
The human characters are also pretty bare bones. I-401's crew has some distinctive visual designs, but one personality trait each at best and no real characterization. Aside from Gunzo, the male lead, I don't know what they like or dislike or what really motivates them as people. They're just there to crew the ship and look kind of cool doing it. Honestly, given Iona's own capabilities I'm not sure they couldn't have been cut entirely from the story without losing anything.
The ship characters, on the other hand, are pretty interesting and well studied. Each of them has at least one good note of personality and a distinct identity, while they also grapple to lesser or greater degrees with the nonhuman nature of their psychology, an issue that actually gets addressed with far more grace than I would have expected.
Because, when you get down to it, the conflict that carries Arpeggio of Blue Steel, that makes the show worth watching rather than automatically worth forgetting, is not the conflict between landlocked humanity and the Fleet of Fog – it's the conflict of the members of the Fleet of Fog against their own changing natures. We understand, fairly shortly into the show, that the Fog ships used to just be ships, operating under the poorly defined Admiralty Code that dictated their actions. However, something in the fog acknowledged their weakness – an inability to innovate, especially tactically, the way humans do – and some Fog ships spawned human avatars and more individual consciousnesses in order to hopefully gain that. But, in becoming more like humans, they've also increasingly become prey to human foibles, things that didn't affect them or cloud their judgment before they began their evolution.
Every Fog character reacts differently to the, for lack of a better word, humanity growing in them and the other members of the Fog. Iona, Takao, Haruna, Kirishima, Hyuuga, Kongou, I-400, and I-402 all have responses that differ on fundamental levels, and what they choose to do with their possibly free will as opposed to the dictates of the Admiralty Code is a nearly constant question.
For a sci-fi nerd, the questions that Arpeggio raises on the growth and evolution of intellect and ego make the show more than worth its running time, especially since they're handled in a subtle way without a hamfisted answer being rammed down the viewer's throat. More casual viewers will also probably appreciate the fact that Arpeggio doesn't make this theme and a resolution to it blindingly obvious from frame 1, because let's face it, nobody likes it when we get dull message fiction.
And no matter what side of that divide you come down on, it helps that the show is held together with some straightforward goals and, frequently, some good action. For the most part, the ship battles in this show are great, displays of both visual wonder as ultra-tech weaponry fires everywhere and cat-and-mouse games as Gunzo and his opponents attempt to outmaneuver each other. It's not exactly realistic, so hardcore military buffs could be put off, but for most viewers that's not going to matter when it's all presented and sold well.
The show also has some occasional moments of goofy comedy (especially once Hyuuga enters the picture) and they're pretty welcome. This isn't an all serious all the time sort of work with a dark tone or oppressive atmosphere, it's mostly optimistic and adventurous. And when it does go for a serious moment, it's given the buildup and payoff that's needed, so neither comedy nor tragedy spoil each other in this one.
That said, keeping a middle-of-the-road stand may ensure that Arpeggio remains watchable for everybody, but it is also probably what keeps the show from hitting true greatness. Like I said at the start, it's not amazingly memorable. For me, at least, Arpeggio of Blue Steel passed through without leaving much of an impact, despite both its strengths and its faults. It does cut corners in a lot of areas, like the overarching plot or the human characters, and it doesn't exactly go all the way with either the craziness of its theme or the high concept of its ideas... it strives to maintain a broad appeal, and I think it does, but it does it at least somewhat at the cost of depth.
SCORE BREAKDOWN
Story: 6
Character: 8
Art: 7
Sound: 7
Enjoyment: 8
Total: 7 (7.2)
Verdict: If you want some naval/sci-fi action with themes that are far smarter in concept and more intelligently addressed than they have any right to be, Arpeggio of Blue Steel is the show for you. Just don't expect it to do more than entertain you for its running time, because while it will pass that bar, it won't do so by a whole lot.
