The first trailer of the wildly popular online card battling game phenomenon has finally been released! After a while, I thought we were gonna have a Sailor Moon Crystal type thing where they just keep pushing the air date further and further back. Thankfully, that’s not gonna be the case as we have an official air date for January 2015.

This trailer shows off some of the action from some of the main types of ships. Here, we see Akagi (CV: Saki Fujita) the aircraft carrier who uses arrows to launch war planes at the enemy, while there’s Kongou (CV: Nao Touyama, presumably) the fast battleship whose weaponry is pretty self-explanatory. Lastly, there’s the main character Fubuki (CV: Sumire Uesaka) the destroyer who uses torpedoes as her main mode of attack.

In terms of the characters that we’re seeing on the site, I’m guessing the anime creators are choosing one ship per voice actress. In the game, some actresses voice around 10 different characters which would get into some interesting logistical and practical issues for the anime adaptation. So far, each ship that has been officially announced has a different seiyuu. If they didn’t, the cast would probably be way too big.

The CG we see here was inevitable in my mind. I’ve never seen Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova, so I don’t know how the CG compares but it doesn’t look half bad here. Sure, I would always prefer old-fashion animation (just look at the new Sailor Moon transformations), but the CG here works for the most part and kinda reminds me of the CG from Girls und Panzer. For both, it’s understandable that they need to use CG to easily replicate accurate depictions of the complex machinery. Not only do they look cool, but they’re also historically accurate!

So if you’ve been wondering what this craze has been about, but haven’t been crazy enough to try playing the game, this anime will be your chance! Us long time fans will just have to hope that the anime doesn’t disappoint…

Check out the KanColle main page here!

B.W.