So yeah, that “season 2 which it’s actually not a second season” of the Kancolle anime did happen, i wasn’t able to re/write any of my old pieces on the first season and the follow-up movie, but we can actually do that next year, since this – let’s make it EXTRA clear – this ain’t the continuation/second season, but a completely different Kancolle anime project that had been years in the works without any info or proof it wasn’t scrapped… until it resurfaced in early 2022 as Kancolle 1944: Itsuka Ano Umi De, translated/localized “Kancolle 1944: See You Again On Another Quiet Blue Sea”.
And by “years in the works” i mean that there was enough time for rival series Azur Lane to make its own anime series with Azur Lane: The Animation, and then adapt a spin-off 4 panel manga into animation with Azur Lane: Slow Ahead… so much time that i did review that!
Look, i’m sure Kancolle still has its fans (me included) and a decent player base in its original browser game iteration, but even when this new anime series eventually surfaced… it did so to a dead fanbase, as the franchise was basically “dead” in terms of international appeal, with most people moving on to either Azur Lane, give Arpeggio Of Blue Steel a rewatch, or moving on to other gacha (or gacha adjacent) games with a similar theme, a healthy playerbase or some other anime-multimedia franchise that had content and had become popular, like Umamusume Pretty Derby, with the anime series and its seasons managing to keep interest even when the main product (a F2P smarthphone game) was delayed for 3 years before even just Japanese players could get their hands on it, alongside the spin-offs, related projects, even a brand new feature film.
Sometimes there’s taking so long that the fanbase dies in the meantime in terms of “being late”, as Kancolle 1944 demonstrates, but let’s get to it!
As you could ascertain from the new title, this new iteration goes for a more serious tone, i mean, fuck’s sake, it has “1944” in the title, and the series itself features WWII ships.
So in the first episode it starts with killing off characters, setting up death flags like it’s a UN meeting, or showing injured fleet girls in a straightfaced manner, doomy dialogues about the battles ahed, melancholic military songs about coming back home, the story starts with the Fleet Girls losing the war and being forced to a desperate formation of their forces, and a general whilstful, sour tone, which obviously it’s a big ask when the designs for the characters doing the military salute are so ridiculous or out-there.
Not a huge “ask”, but still, it requires you to buy in the ridiculous concept first, as in the Fleet Girls (the “kanmusu”) exists, being girls that received the soul of WWII ships (mostly Japanese ones) and use their powers (via elaborate ship rigs they carry around in battle with cannons and such) to fight off mysterious invaders from the sea called Abyssals, also most completely humanoid girl shaped monsters standing as the “evil and skankier looking” counterparts to the Fleet Girls.
As i was saying, it’s immediatly kinda depressing, especially compared to the 2015 anime series (and its movie sequel), but it’s already a more convincing and stronger narration, showing some effort put into the idea and the premise already, there’s some vision and desire to make the themes work, instead of just representing the source material in such a milquetoast, toothless way so it can serve only as marketing material.
Curiosly it also sets up Shigure as the main protagonist (as where the 2015 series had Fubuki… not that one), still opting for a more regular/normal character but not completely defined by her “i will mah best” attitude- wait, you may be asking, who IS Shigure?
Yeah, this Kancolle anime series ain’t gonna take time (and realistically it couldn’t anwyay, due to its lenght, we’ll get to that soon) to introduce every single character in any detail, it does assume you’re already fairly familiar with the series and its depictions of WWII ships, and i’ll definitely please fans to see how many kanmusus are present here, even in a passing cameo, they definitely wanted to make sure most peoples’ favourites were in there… despite the series being quite short.
Surprisingly short, just 8 episodes. Heck, even the Suicide Squad Isekai anime got 10 episodes!
On the flipside, it does manage to do a lot in this limited runtime, avoiding some of the clumsy choices the previous Kancolle anime series did in order to try and represent every facet of the experience, like inserting game mechanics (like them needing repairs because they’re technically ships despite not being cyborgs or whatever) just to say “it’s like the game” even if it makes no sense or it’s never explained for anyone that isn’t familiar with the series.
Despite it premise and source material, it stick for a more realistic take, so the shipgirls bleed and get recovered in hospital bed and not put into the shop or something.
And it does work, while mostly focusing on the battles themselves, which in the old series were quick and played second fiddle to very mediocre slice of life cut rare fluff, so it does feel like Kancolle 1944 sets out to correct and do the material a bit more justice… which it does, the battles are pretty cool, the direction is solid, the animation pretty good, and there’s actual stakes and drama, even if – as i said- it fully expects you to already know who these character are, it ain’t gonna waste time for most of them.
For those whom the series focuses on (“the duds suicide platoon”), it does a decent job making you care for them, and it manages to also have some worldbuilding, letting you see what happens outside of these battles and the kanmusu’s specific locales, making you feel like there’s a proper world, set in this faux late WWII period piece setting, for once.
Heck, it even manages to have some tasteful use of slice of life (also little to no fanservice that clashes with the more realistic wartime approach, just a very tiny smidge) sections to avoid it being just a series of naval battles detatched from any reality, with the middle episodes serving as needed downtime before thing get ugly again….and on that regard, it a shame it doesn’t truly commit to the tragic as it hints-says it wants to.
I guess because we don’t want fans to be upset about their favourite dying in action…. hilarious in a military themed fantasy anime take on a fictional WWII scenario where Japan was the “good guy” and this iteration that goes for a more realistic approach to war. Pity.
But then again this is already fictional enough, the real ships really didn’t last this long (as a final sequence recalls the characters alongside the ship year of construction and “demise”), so le’ts give them a happy ending, it won’t hurt anyone doing so.
That said, it’s also a lot less jingoistic than expected for the period piece setting, even if it’s mostly due to the enemies being more “dark reflections” and literally “fallen angel” versions of normal shipgirls, unless of the foe being a real nation’s marine or something, but that’s an issue of the IP that leaves little to do with it and conveniently sidesteps any real historical implications, by design i might add, Kancolle is basically that and there’s nothing that can “fix” that.
It also doesn’t explain lore or elements like the “fairies”, as in small, chibi-sized girls constructing-developing-mantaining-flying the various seaplanes and armors and weapons? Why not? It just is.
Not that there would be any explanation aside from “they’re cute chibis”, i feel, or for how once the squad is being by the “out of da kindergarden” destroyer squad. That’s Kancolle as well.
While the 8 episodes run avoids the thing getting stale or stretched over, given some timeskips in the final episode… i could easily believe the staff was fucked over and at least planned for 10 episodes, but had to cut it down to 8 because they slashed their funds at the last second or some horseshit like that. Wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.
Animation is handled by studio ENGI and while it also uses CG for most of the kanmusu when donning their battleship gear, the CG integration is far better and doesn’t stick out nowhere as much as it did in the 2015 series..until it does stick out like a sore thumb in some of the latter episodes, especially episode 7, especially sticks out because there’s is some incredibly bad blending of CG and traditional 2D animation in shots like the following one (the one with the CG door handle)… that doesn’t really happen in any other episodes.
Some strange musical choices too, like the hair rock song played during episode 7, which clashes with the more whistful main theme and honestly feels so out of place, like what is this, Dynasty Warriors? Not really. It’s more like WWII ships Touken Ranbu, actually.
While it helps a lot the other series was fairly subpar, since it set the standards for a Kancolle anime series on the low side, and despite the not full committal to its more realistic and gritty tone, given the source material in question, Kancolle 1944 makes for a decent anime series, one i honestly think Kancolle fans would have been pleased with… if this was released back in 2018 or something.
It’s the first time i saw in real time a popular series still getting media made about it officially….. to a fanbase that simply petered out, with most people interested in the concept migrating to the pornier Azur Lane, and Kancolle as a whole just becoming one of those niche gaming-anime related series that were very popular for a good while in dedicate subcultures… that aren’t the new hotness anymore. It just happens, not everything can be the “hot new thing” always, forever, after all.
Again, from a global prospective, Kancolle is still popular in Japan and Taiwan, and i mean, C2 and Kadokawa never really made any effort/had intention to localize the original browser game outside of Japan (given it was catered to a very uber niche public), the PS Vita game i had to import, the Kancolle Arcade obviously also never left Japan, so while i don’t think this is a dead franchise…. if i were C2 i’d prepare something for the series 15th anniversary in 2028, as in, either a new smarthphone game entirely or at least a localized Steam friendly version.
I’d prefer they do instead a proper PC/console game instead of a F2P thingie, heck, make it a tactical turn based rpg, a proper one in the FF Tactics-Disgaea vein, it’s so obvious a fit, but in this modern gaming landscape, i don’t see that making any money that investors consider as such, so…
Speculations aside, while i find Kancolle 1944 a pretty decent series that’s notably better compared to the 2015 one…. i do wonder if it will be enough for Kancolle fans still kicking and still into the series at this point, especially if they did like their shipgirls less tragic and more likeable trash.
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