Episode 05 – “Don’t Compare Me to the Girls in the 5th Carrier Division”

The Admiral, in all of his (or her) wisdom, decided to create one of the most dysfunctional fleets ever, composed of the Torpedo Cruisers Kitakami and Ooi, the Aircraft Carriers Kaga and Zuikaku, the Fast Battleship Kongou, and the Destroyer Fubuki. But it isn’t just their classes that make it a weird composition, their personalities also could not be more different. Between the super yuri forcefield surrounding the Torpedo Cruisers, Kongou’s broken Japanese, and the feud between the carriers, there is really no way this fleet would be functional at first glance.

As promised, we finally see the return of Kaga in this episode, which is nice for two reasons. One is because she’s my favorite ship that’s actually in the anime, and two is because her cool, haughty demeanor actually feels refreshing and is unlike any other personality shown thus far. Actually, I think we’ve actually been introduced to all of the kanmusu planned for the anime except for Yamato, who will presumably will be very pivotal in a later episode given her high stats and rarity. But yeah, I love seeing more of Kaga animated, and it’s hilarious whenever she just shuts down Zuikaku. I can’t takes sides though, since Zuikaku was actually the first carrier I built in the game.

Just when everything seemed hopeless, the fleet decides that it’s best to ask the Admiral to reconsider their composition, and who wouldn’t given how many failed training missions they had. That is, until a surprise attack galvanizes the 5th Mobile Unit in action, resulting in a surprising victory and the decision to assign Fubuki the role of flagship. Honestly, it would make the most sense in-game for Kongou to be the flagship, given that carriers cannot attack at night, but in terms of leadership (haha) capabilities, it makes more sense of Fubuki to lead their unit.

For all intents and purposes, this episode largely felt like a sort of transition period, which is not a bad thing in my opinion but I also have higher patience with these things as well. It’s a changing of the tracks, picking up the tempo left from the previous episode which recovered from the tragedy of episode 3. It seems that we’re moving forward into more of what some may call “slice of life” type scenarios, and I’m fine with this, even though I know there are many people who are critical of this. I’m fine with this because, to me, KanColle is less about having a compelling, coherent story and more about having entertaining moments set in a curiously unique and original setting. If this does not sound appealing to you, then you aren’t going to like the KanColle anime, but this is largely what I love about anime in general. It doesn’t take an earth-shattering plot or social commentary to make an enjoyable or “good” anime.

“I’ve never heard of a Destroyer being a flagship!” ~ Fubuki