This was a pleasant surprise. The series concept is two girls who attend a maritime academy hoping to become "Blue Mermaids". We've seen that before, haven't we?

Well, no. It wasn't at all what I thought it would be. For one thing, the MC "Mike" (pronounced mee-keh) seems initially to be a ditz but turns out not to be. I think it was an attempt to avoid making Mike a Mary-Sue, actually.

She and her friend Moka pledged to each other when they were in grade school that they'd both attend the academy, and after a time skip they both enter in the same class. The first thing that happens to new cadets is that they're assigned to operate ships -- and there isn't anyone else on the ship besides cadets.

This is Mike (lower right corner) and her crew.

Moka and Mike both get assigned as ship captains. Moka gets the Musashi, and Mike gets command of the destroyer Harekaze, which historically never existed. There was, however, a Harukaze built in the 1920's. But this isn't it; for one thing its engines are turbines. For another thing, it's got radar.

So it's kind of a mishmash. The fleet, consisting of a battleship and eight destroyers, sets off and are supposed to meet at a certain island.

Harekaze is late because the helm made a mistake and they steamed in the wrong direction for quite a long time. Mike radios about the mistake and apologizes.

And then they start taking fire, with live shells. Which isn't supposed to happen. A modern warship, with the instructor in command, is firing on them with a modern gun and making near misses. Mike tries three or four ways of communicating and gets ignored.

So she decides to return fire. And then it gets exciting.

I have no idea what's going on. The instructor is a complete enigma. Does she hate Mike for some reason? Or is it the exact opposite? Trial by fire to bring out Mike's best capability?

Mike actually comes off as pretty impressive in this. She doesn't freak. She takes her position as captain seriously. She is thinking. She issues orders, even when it's hard. Given that she just took her very first command a few hours ago, it's pretty good stuff.

But things are going to get worse in the next episode. I'm not sure whether it'll be possible to easily straighten out this mess. The ED suggests that they're going to have more "adventures" before it's over.

Girls on ships are big now, and clearly this is trying to cash in on that. But they're not doing the mecha-musume fetish, or some sort of fantasy setting. They're real girls on a plausible ship using realistic weapons. And the show isn't trying sell ship-porn. There's a lot of that but the concentration is on the girls. Also, it's not fan service (except one very brief scene).

I can see myself getting hooked on this show.

UPDATE: I think the short way to describe this show is "Girls und Destroyers."

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 11:52 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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