18 June 2016: High School Fleet finally gets something right
The last thing you'll see before Hiromi sumos the fuck out of you.
I've been fairly hostile towards Haifuri (High School Fleet) all season long. The problem is that, as military-otaku bait, it's completely ate up. It sort of tries to cater to that crowd, but it goes about it in a half-assed sort of way. Unfortunately, the season-long plot, mystery, and ongoing crisis are serious enough that I feel Haifuri needed to get its paramilitary parts right.
It turns out Machiko has strong thighs.
At the same time, it's also a failure as a "Cute Girls Doing Cute Thing" show, in that there's not enough levity or enthusiasm to make this "K-On! on Boats" for example. Not being much of a fan of "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" shows to begin with, perhaps I'm not the best judge in this respect, but the constant reminder of the pseudo-serious issues at play sort of kept me from feeling as if the characters enjoyed what they were doing.
This is your time to shine, Maron.
This all changed with episode 10, a straight-up filler episode dedicated to an equator-crossing festival. Nothing of much consequence happened during the course of the episode, but the important part is pretty much every character had a good time. It's tautological, but in order for a "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" show to succeed, it needs (a) cute girls who (b) do cute things. Regardless of how you feel about Haifuri's success or lack thereof with regard to the first point, I think you have to agree it wasn't doing too hot on the second part.
Petticoat service.
Had the show just been about anime girls sailing around doing fuck all, but having a really good time of it, I think High School Fleet would have been a much stronger show. As it it, I don't care about the thing with the mice, and I don't care about the hapless grown ups who spent most the season completely befuddled, and it's too late to get me to care about most of the crew members. I don't even know any of their names; the only ones worth a damn are the two with braids and one with shit for luck. By the time this entry posts, we'll only be a few hours away from the next episode. I wonder if we'll be back to the same old shit again.
