Azur Lane. I'm an old-ish EN player of the game and so, back in 2018, lots of us thought an anime for the game would be pretty good. Now, its a long while later and hell, for me, the anime was just not good.
At the start of this year, I started to delve into the game's lore just to get the story of whats goin on. For the anime, lore wise, I'm pretty disapointed.
Some things I thought was bad/not too right for the anime was this:
There was just too much of a focus on Enterprise.
Look, yeah, Enterprise is one of AL's poster girls, but holy shit. There was just too much focus on her and she was made hero 90% of the time, which I didnt enjoy. Yeah, I have a bias against Enterprise, but I wont discredit her for bein a main character. I feel she was too much.
The "ship" of Enterprise and Belfast.
Like, c'mon, why does this exist. The two kept bein attracted to each other like it was gravity.
The premise of Lore
Lore, lore, lore. The anime tries to portrait the lore as the peaceful timeline. (Y'know, interface of the game itself. Dorm, school, ect.) But then they broke up and formed the Crimson Axis. Lore wise, Im pretty troubled, not by this, but by the existance of "Project Orochi", which does not exist in the game's lore. In case you read this, spoiler alert, Project Orochi is what Akagi and Kaga used to bring back Akagi's older sister, Amagi.In the lore, YES, Akagi and Kaga have a goal to bring back Amagi with the help of the Sirens, but thee is no "Project Orochi". With the Sirens, they are more in cahoots with the Iron Blood than the Sakura Empire, as Akagi and Kaga are keeping Siren involvement a secret from the Sakura Empire, while the Iron Blood's involvement with the Sirens are clear (game wise). Bismarck, a big part of lore EU Theatre wise, had pretty much 0 screentime, she was only seen in the anime, AT THE VERY END, aside from the opening. The way Enterprise and Ash (Alter Enterprise/Alterprise as players call her and Code G as Sirens call her) met, in my opinion, a shit way. In game, they met at chance during the event Ashen Simulacrum, an event I see quite important to lore as the Sirens attacked NY City (You'll get what city Im talkin of, but thats what they call it in game) which Ash and Ember (Alter Takao. She was also nowhere in the anime.) show'd that they have some degree of involvement with the sirens and ultimately met Enterprise. In the anime, they portrait Enterprise and Ash's meeting so some kind of ghost meeting/in your mind meeting, which I pretty shit, as that's not what happened in existing lore. the Enterprise and Belfast "shipping" mess doesnt exist either in game. There are other heroes than old Enterprise. As an example, in Aurora Noctis, two heroes were Howe and valiant, as they could defeat Omitter, an "Elite" Siren, you could say.
Honestly, the lore of the anime gives me pain personally, but the anime has a few good things too.
Fan service
Fan service, a thing Azur Lane is pretty good at. The anime, as you could probably tell from my rambling, isnt good in a lore sense, but it's fan service is better. It shows a bunch of your favorite shipfus from the game, yea, sadly not every single one is shown, neither do they really speak, but they exist there in the background. From the start you see your shipfu in their poses and all, like in game, and as the anime geos on, you get to know em a tiny bit more. Like how Sheffield doesnt wear panties. You also get to see em in their swimsuits and even a dedicated bath scene on episode 6 where you can see plenty popular and less popular ships alike takin a nice steamy bath. Not to worry, there is an uncencored version of it soemwhere on the internet. Its also on the Blu-Ray, if I remember correctly.
The soundtracks
I personally really enjoyed the opening, ending and music put into the anime, really nice. I dont know much about music, so this is all I can really say.
Animation
I liked how the anime was, well, animated. Yeah there was background derps, but othersise, pretty good. The studio that made it I dont know, but I feel tehy did a good job at it. Maaybe they should do less background derp, but its okay, we could make memes out of it.
All in all, the anime has its ups and its downs. I personally didnt enjoy it story/lore wise, but the fan service was pretty nice and the style it was made in felt pretty good. The anime's biggest perk I'd say is, that it helps with the longevity of the game, as it gives extra exsposure and it gives Yostar, Yongshi and Manjuu more attention to the game they have worked hard on. Just more noobs to make fun of More people to enjoy the game!