Azur Lane (Season One)

When the Sirens attacked Earth, we stole their technology and used it to bring our Navy to life. Now that the Sirens have been defeated, these ships are unsure of what to do. Are they humans or ships? With no war, what is their purpose?

Azur Lane (Season One)

What did you watch?

I recently cleaned up my watch list and discovered that I had a small number of shows that I never finished. It’s incredibly rare for me to not finish a show so I decided that I would go back and revisit them. My undying need to complete everything I do has definitely gotten the better of me in this regard. Anyhow, the first show I decided to tick off was Azur Lane. I started watching it back in October 2019 when it originally aired and got three episodes in before I lost interest and drifted away. Now that I’ve finished it, I feel like I can finally have my say. So, let’s get into it.

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What happened?

When the Sirens were pushed back, the four largest naval forces on the planet disagreed on how to progress together. As a result, they split into two factions Azur Lane, consisting of Eagle Union (USA) and Royal Navy (Great Britain), and Red Axis, Sakura Empire (Japan) and Iron Blood (Germany). Without a common enemy, these two factions began to fight for supremacy. The Sirens jumped on this and exploited the fears and losses of one of the Sakura Empire’s high-ranking officials, Akagi. She helps the Sirens gather data on the other ships in the hopes of creating the Orochi, a massive ship that would turn the battle in their favour and revive her dead sister Amagi.

Meanwhile, Enterprise, an aircraft carrier from Eagle Union leads the battle for Azur Lane although she has no will to live as a human, focusing entirely on her duty to fight. She is assigned Belfast from Royal Navy as her maid in the hopes of breaking through her harsh demeanour and helping her find the will to live for herself. She may be their only hope of stopping Akagi and the Sirens, but will she survive that long if she doesn’t start to look after herself better?

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What did you think?

Knowing that I don’t abandon many shows, there must have been something that made me stop. I knew what it was back then, but somehow I managed to power through and finish the season. I’m not sure why I felt the need to finish. Maybe, I was hoping for a big finish that would redeem the season. Maybe, I thought that it wouldn’t be fair to the show to not give it the time it needed to tell the complete story. Well, that didn’t happen. This series was boring from start to finish. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. The series is about anthropomorphic battleships. They had some nice designs, especially the girls from Sakura Empire, but that was it. The action was non-existent. There was no tension whatsoever. The story was a mess of slice-of-life moments interspersed with an attempt to investigate existentialism through Enterprise. Nothing seemed to matter and as a result, you just seem to drift through each episode waiting for something to happen… anything… What a missed opportunity!

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What was your favourite moment?

I’m completely at a loss! I don’t even know how I finished this season as there wasn’t anything that stood out apart from some of the character designs. How did they take girls who were really battleships and not deliver a single decent fight? It’s not like there aren’t any great movies with intense naval battles to draw inspiration from. This really wasn’t a very good series.

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What was your least favourite moment?

One thing that will stick in my head for some time to come is the accents the VAs used for the different factions. Eagle Union and Sakura Empire sounded like standard anime voices whereas Royal Navy were like extras from Downton Abbey if the entire cast were Americans trying to sound like Dickensian characters. I’m English and I can’t say that I’ve ever heard anyone speak like that. Then we had Iron Blood who had the most over-the-top German accents that would have felt like too much if they were used in classic World War movies such as The Great Escape. It was all too forced and too fake.

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Who was your favourite character?

There really wasn’t much presence to any of the characters so I’m going to mention the designs instead. Enterprise looked cool and Belfast had an interesting look. However, I think Akagi and Kaga were the two most interesting designs as they were human forms of aircraft carriers but all nine-tailed foxes. In fact, a lot of the Sakura Empire characters had animal ears and tails to go with their human forms. In truth, however, there were just too many characters vying for the spotlight and as a result, no one took command of the series.

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Who was your least favourite character?

Amazingly, no one really stood out here either, although the focus on the slice-of-life side of things with Laffey, Javelin, Unicorn, and Ayanami really wore me down. They were boring and flat and of that group, I felt like Laffey was the least interesting. There were lots of annoying characters who seemed to burst onto the screen for a second and then disappear again so it’s hard to really single anyone out.

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Would you like some more?

I certainly couldn’t watch this again and as a result, I have no desire to watch anything else in the Azur Lane universe. I don’t even want to play the mobile game either. This feels like the complete opposite of what they were trying to achieve. If I’m going to watch anything with anthropomorphic battleships it’s going to be Arpeggio of Blue Steel which already has a more interesting cast and story in the one volume of the manga that I’ve read.

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What have you learned?

It’s not the best start to clearing off my unfinished list and it doesn’t make me want to dive into another show that I stepped away from. Clearly, I need to trust my instincts and accept that I can’t finish everything I watch. Sometimes, it will come down to my schedule, such as Ragna Crimson where I was too busy and had to put it on hold. That decision was much easier considering that I’d read the manga and loved it. I will finish the anime for that one at some point, but I have to learn to accept that sometimes, it is best to walk away and let it go. You can’t win them all!

Series Information

English Title	Azur Lane
Japanese Title	Azur Lane
Medium	Anime
Released	Fall 2019
Episodes	12
Animation Studios	Bibury Animation Studios
Genres	Action, Military, Science Fiction

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