Story:
The story kicks off with much tension sucking one into the story with some interesting naval facts intertwined in it. Tidbits like supplies, naval armaments, the boilers as well as the observational language used will be most interesting to ww1 - ww2 naval warfare fans. Some notable warships would make their appearances, so famous that they also appear in World of Warships. More fanservice for naval historian fans. Yet the tension is lost halfway through the series in slice of life episodes which were unpleasant to stomach. It picks up the pace at the end making the trudge through the slice of episodes well worth it.
Art:
Character movements are fluid and expressive, which is palatable. That is to say the art is enjoyable. But that’s not the main focus isn’t it? It’s the warships. They are gorgeous, the rigging, armaments and overall design is bloody gorgeous. Looks of focus is put into it, the attention to detail is amazing. It makes you just go woah looking at the ships.
Sound:
The voice actors convey the character’s emotions well, their personalities working well with the voices given. But the best part was the sound of the naval armaments! It sounded really realistic and was very good asmr to relax to. The fscchhww of the torpedoes, the BOOM of the naval guns. And the it sounded different, the bigger the guns, the louder the sound gets and different the sound gets. I can’t put it into words but it just sounds like a bigger gun. The sound of the torpedoes travelling in the sea just sounds so right and realistic. So yeah sound is great.
Character:
Characters brought nothing new to the table. Individually, they can be found in other animes, the pairing up of the characters together was nothing refreshing and could also be found in other animes. The anime just dumps like 30 over characters in your face and you are expected to familiarise yourself with them. Some of them stood out with some development through the series, but the rest were left to linger in the back and be forgotten. The anime will pull off some drama between some characters that you are supposed to be familiar with but you will be lost and wonder where did that came from? But those are once in a blue moon occurrences. The characters are nothing special, but the thing that made them unique is the reason why they chose to serve in the navy instead of doing something else. That would be one of the few things that made the characters stand out. Characters? Meh.
Enjoyment:
As mentioned in the story section of the review, the first few episodes caught my interest. But the slice of life blew my enjoyment out of the water. But as soon as that was done with, the payoff with the ending made this anime pretty memorable. One can derive pleasure from viewing this anime, but if one seeks to focus on the action, skipping the slice of life episodes would be great.
Overall:
As a naval warfare nerd, it was a fun watch seeing the warships duke it out with one another. Facts about naval warfare also intertwined really well with the story. It’s a fun watch.
