Part of the "Girls in combat machines" genre is that the weapon systems they use should be accurate and based on existing equipment (unless it's mechas, in which case blah).

So the tanks in Girls und Panzer are actual tanks which fought in WWII or were deployed but didn't see combat. And in High School Fleet the ships we see are all actual designs from the era (or modern ships).

Haifuri is an alternate timeline. For one thing, Japan didn't participate in WWII. For another, in that timeline heavier-than-air aircraft were never developed. There are blimps, but no airplanes and no helicopters. Which leads in some cases to anachronisms (like why Musashi has anti-aircraft batteries) but let that pass.

A lot of the ships in the series actually did exist. Harekaze is completely fictional; there never was such a ship. But it's based on the Kagerou-class which really did exist, and were excellent ships. Like most destroyers their best weapon was their torpedoes, and like most Japanese destroyers the Kagerou's carried the Long Lance, the best torpedo of the early war.

The Blue Mermaids use ships which are based on the American Independence-class littoral combat ships. Modern Japan doesn't have anything like that, but they look really cool and really modern so I'm not surprised that the director decided to poach them. Trimarans are awesome.

And there's these things, which they call "skippers". I want to call them "water motorcycles" but of course they aren't. I don't recognize them. It looks like they're hydrofoils, and it looks like they're propelled by a pair of baby jet engines. Given that everything else in the show is realistic, are these based on something real?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 12:13 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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