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| The two shadowy figures are Mikasa and Avora who are World War I battleships |
Years ago, an alien race called the Sirens invaded the ocean of the world and the only way to stand up against them are the powers of the Ship girls who channelled the power of real-life ships. The four major factions of the world -Eagle Union, Royal Navy, Sakura Empire and Iron Blood formed Azur Lane to become the first line of defence against the Sirens and an Island base where the various factions could gather was also established.
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| St Louis (The Blue Hair girl) breast are bigger than in the game. |
Our story begins with Union Repair Ship Vestal telling Aircraft Carrier Enterprise that it is "time" as she held her pet Eagle on her hand. Meanwhile, Union Light Destroyer Cleveland and Royal Navy Battleship Prince of Wales were heading to the dock to welcome Aircraft Carrier Illustrious and Light Carrier Unicorn of Royal Navy not knowing that a spy has already entered the base.
The three older girls were discussing on the strange movement by Sakura Empire and Iron Blood as they declined to join Azur Lane and at the same time, Royal Navy Light Destroyer Javelin help Unicorn to find her lost pet unicorn, U-chan and Fellow Union Destroyer Laffey joined them.
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| Poor San Diego...nobody listens to her songs. |
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| Always have a Cola on hand... |
After some interactions with other ships who informed they did not see U-chan, the little unicorn was found by the spy earlier and the three young girls thank the spy. But before they could ask her name, she vanished and reported her status to Aircraft Carrier Akagi and Kaga of the Sakura Empire.
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| WTF?! |
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| WT DOUBLE F?!! |
The Sirens started attacking the base and Cleveland entered the battle with her fellowships. Akagi and Kaga appeared and claimed that Azur Lane is a lie and they started attacking them. Unicorn joined the battle too and Kaga created a giant fox monster from her carrier and started attacking Unicorn.
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| Enterprise...Engage! |
Javelin tried to help but was distracted by an incoming torpedo. Laffey pushed her out of the way and was hit badly. The spy also appeared as her name is Ayanami and started attacking Javelin. Unicorn was shot down by the fox monster and almost got killed when suddenly Enterprise appeared to her aid.
Enterprise charged her way through the Siren and straight towards Kaga. She fired her arrows point-blank range at Kaga and she was badly damaged. Kaga wanted to continue but Akagi stopped her and claimed their aim has been achieved as she held a sinister-looking black cube. Prince of Wales and Illustrious has also arrived and taken down the remaining Siren forces.
Enterprise tried to stop the two fox girls but a paper plane threw by Aircraft Carrier Zuikaku distracted her and before the Sakura Empire forces retreated, Akagi proclaimed that the Sakura Empire and Iron Blood have joined forces to form the Red Axis and they are now at war with Azur Lane.
As the skies settled, Illustrious commented that Enterprise might be Union's strongest soldier but somehow she sense a sense of sadness on Enterprise...
Wow! This first episode leaves me wanting more since I have been playing the game for seven months and I probably could name out the various ship girls as they appeared on the screen. There were even some fan-service moments like San Diego's singing, Laffey dozing off and her drinking oxy-cola like in the game and U-chan being a real unicorn that could carry her master to battle. (I don't remember seeing that in the game and double WTF moment when Kaga turned her carrier into a giant fox monster which is definitely not in the game! But it will be awesome if that happened)
I know there are a lot of characters in this episode but you just have to remember those who have speech lines and appeared more often are mostly the main characters since Azur Lane has more than 300 over characters which I doubt anyone has the budget to pay all the seiyuus.
Fans of the game will also know that the first episode is basically the first chapter of the game which hold quite true as Akagi and Kaga did attack the base and you, the player managed to drove them off. The characters are also spot-on true to their game counterparts.
However seeing Ayanami attacking Javelin was hard to swallow as at the beginning of the game, you get to choose Ayanami, Javelin and Laffey as your starter ship in Japan sever. (Z23 aka Nimi of Iron Blood is one of the three starters in the Western sever and Ayanami is a lockable character)
I do get a feeling that Ayanami will eventually change sides as if you follow the game, the Red Axis' goals will have several ships questioning their actions and change sides which I hope it does. The battle is all right for a first episode but I hope they don't throw all their budget into this one episode and the rest of the season is sub-par.
I realized that unlike Kancolle which has a voiceless commander, the girls of Azur Lane could take care of themselves and we the viewers are like voiceless commander watching their every move.
Overall, a good start for this season and why Enterprise is behaving like that due to Illustrious' comment is because of that pet Eagle of her which has a sad story behind it for those who played the game. Until then, see you in the next post!
P.S: I will be in Japan next Wednesday for a week. So all future posts will be delayed until then.
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