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EP. REVIEW: KanColle [2015-01-14]


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Via_01



Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:33 pm Reply with quote
I've never played the game, but I'm still quite enjoying the series with my basic knowledge of the girls and how the gameplay works.

The problem is that now I really want to play the game. And I know that unless you use VPN magic, you can't play it from outside of Japan. And that makes me sad.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:38 pm Reply with quote
So at this point it's clear the anime is going leave the Admiral completely ungendered and is going well out of its way to do so. A shame the subtitles decided to go against that decision. While I can understand the the desire to go with "natural sounding" dialogue, the rest of the show is going out of its way to avoid it, not only not showing so much as a distinguishable shadow of the admiral but going full Chrono Trigger mute protagonist with him and having a spot that clearly had something spoken and another character reacting to it, but with no audible line for the audience to hear. At this point, I don't think the "but it sounds unnatural" justification really works.

On a completely different note, if non-game players struggled with the cast in episode 1, I think it's likely to be much less of an issue in episode 2 as there is a very clear core cast with a handful of secondaries/tertiaries that you clearly don't need to remember the names of yet.

As a game player, the timer/bucket scene was just about the greatest adaption touch ever. And yes, carriers (and battleships) really do take *at least* that long to repair once they hit moderately high levels.

Quote:
Fans of the original work already know everything about the setting and backstory, while everyone else is coming in blind.


Actually, this stuff is pretty much non-existent in the game. The explanation of the girls in episode 1 is more than the game gives.

(Oh cool, a thread that actually links back to the article)
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Enner



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 91
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:50 pm Reply with quote
As a player of the browser game, the show is hitting all the right buttons. It is a shame that those unfamiliar with the game have little to grab on to so far. Then again, the browser game only mentions the history of ships in an easily ignored (and Japanese) codex and in short voice quips. I had to dive in to the wikis anyway to learn.

Via_01 wrote:
The problem is that now I really want to play the game. And I know that unless you use VPN magic, you can't play it from outside of Japan. And that makes me sad.


The regional lock as of now can be circumvented with an edited browser cookie. You can try to do it yourself, or take the easy way with the English-language version of the Kancolle Viewer.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 7:14 pm Reply with quote
I haven't played the game myself, but I've seen videos of the action, follow the doujinshi, and I know enough about ship history to get by. I disagree that something always has to be accessible to the max number of viewers, KanColle is super popular and it will do well enough alone with the established fanbase. They're not aiming for casuals and they don't care.
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yurihellsing





PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:10 pm Reply with quote
Wait Wait hold the phone this turnpike filter crap's source material is region locked???
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Plasmaeclipse



Joined: 11 Apr 2014
Posts: 153
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:28 pm Reply with quote
I went into this completely blind (I only started wiki-ing stuff and reading doujinshi after) and for the most part I understand this series well enough. The in jokes can be easily reasoned out with simple logic.
Sendai likes night battle so her namesake was probably well known for participating in night battles. Akagi's appetite is because of the high need for resources on an aircraft carrier. Really the only ones that would be kinda confusing would be Ooi and Kitakami's relationship, and Simakaze's love of racing (though that one could also be reasoned out with knowledge of ships which I don't have I'm more of an aircraft guy). Maybe the repair/bucket joke too, though that one's kinda self explanatory.

With the level they are going out of their way to avoid depicting the admiral you know the animators would use a T-Head for the admiral JUST to eff with us
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Izanagi009



Joined: 20 Oct 2014
Posts: 464
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:19 pm Reply with quote
Oh, i'm on the fence about this one

On the one hand, I do need to start watching more happy or light hearted shows for personal reasons and I enjoyed "When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace" a lot

On the other hand, the military history thing is daunting and i'm not sure if I will be able to enjoy the show or if I will just be going back and forth with the Kancolle wiki.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:38 pm Reply with quote
yurihellsing wrote:
Wait Wait hold the phone this turnpike filter crap's source material is region locked???


I'm not sure why this is so surprising. But yes, it is. It's not terribly hard to circumvent though, and you only even need to use the VPN when starting and when you need to refresh your API. The much bigger pain in the ass is the lottery to get in, if they're still doing that.

Izanagi009 wrote:

On the other hand, the military history thing is daunting and i'm not sure if I will be able to enjoy the show or if I will just be going back and forth with the Kancolle wiki.


You shouldn't need to be familiar with the history to follow the show. The history should mostly be relevant to some of the jokes, but even that shouldn't be something you need to look up regularly. That's stuff like Sendai being obsessed with night battles and sometimes it relates to their character designs (like Musashi's dark skin or Zuikaku's change in clothing color for her remodel).
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konqueror



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 129
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 10:41 pm Reply with quote
So, this is the bastard child of Strike Witches and Arpeggio?

Watched 2 episodes and looks boring, unlike the other two mentioned above.
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Teitoku



Joined: 01 Jan 2015
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:58 am Reply with quote
It is a shocker that a Japanese produced series based on a Japanese browser game pays attention to it's Japanese audience and not the international one. yare yare

Plasmaeclipse wrote:

Sendai likes night battle so her namesake was probably well known for participating in night battles. Akagi's appetite is because of the high need for resources on an aircraft carrier. Really the only ones that would be kinda confusing would be Ooi and Kitakami's relationship, and Simakaze's love of racing (though that one could also be reasoned out with knowledge of ships which I don't have I'm more of an aircraft guy). Maybe the repair/bucket joke too, though that one's kinda self explanatory.

With the level they are going out of their way to avoid depicting the admiral you know the animators would use a T-Head for the admiral JUST to eff with us


What the review calls "insider jokes" are less game related and grounded in history more than anything. Sendai was build for night battle and you are correct that the carriers appetite is based on fuel consumption. Shimakaze was the fastest destroyer of WW2, hence her need for speed Razz And this type of thing goes on and on. There is a 4-koma that feeds you everything from jokes based on training exercise mishaps, how the ships where constructed, how they were sunk (sub trauma victims haha) to a shipgirl take on Japanese traditions. Ooi and Kitakami are a popular doujins pair so their relationship in the series is probably service for that.
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Plasmaeclipse



Joined: 11 Apr 2014
Posts: 153
PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 1:31 am Reply with quote
Teitoku wrote:
It is a shocker that a Japanese produced series based on a Japanese browser game pays attention to it's Japanese audience and not the international one. yare yare

Plasmaeclipse wrote:

Sendai likes night battle so her namesake was probably well known for participating in night battles. Akagi's appetite is because of the high need for resources on an aircraft carrier. Really the only ones that would be kinda confusing would be Ooi and Kitakami's relationship, and Simakaze's love of racing (though that one could also be reasoned out with knowledge of ships which I don't have I'm more of an aircraft guy). Maybe the repair/bucket joke too, though that one's kinda self explanatory.

With the level they are going out of their way to avoid depicting the admiral you know the animators would use a T-Head for the admiral JUST to eff with us


What the review calls "insider jokes" are less game related and grounded in history more than anything. Sendai was build for night battle and you are correct that the carriers appetite is based on fuel consumption. Shimakaze was the fastest destroyer of WW2, hence her need for speed Razz And this type of thing goes on and on. There is a 4-koma that feeds you everything from jokes based on training exercise mishaps, how the ships where constructed, how they were sunk (sub trauma victims haha) to a shipgirl take on Japanese traditions. Ooi and Kitakami are a popular doujins pair so their relationship in the series is probably service for that.


Yeah I was able to piece most of that together, and Shimakaze after some wiki diving. Coincidentally I read this comment right after finishing the 4koma. With all carriers being part of the focus I wonder how long it'll take for us to get a Kaga temperature joke
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 1:41 am Reply with quote
Enner wrote:
The regional lock as of now can be circumvented with an edited browser cookie. You can try to do it yourself, or take the easy way with the English-language version of the Kancolle Viewer.


Why is the game even region-locked to begin with? Is the development team expecting to find companies to localize it and is afraid of competing with itself when that happens? Then again, considering the lottery to be able to play this game, I'm guessing it's more related to their capacity to handle players and, for some reason, not using the money earned to expand further.
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Posts: 3679
PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 2:38 am Reply with quote
I came to the show with pretty much 0 prior knowledge (just a very rough idea based on checking out a page or two of some of the mangas, at best), and I found the show to be pretty understandable, albeit still somewhat confusing at times.
Overall, I'm enjoying the show.


Last edited by Hameyadea on Thu Jan 15, 2015 9:54 am; edited 1 time in total
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Clarste



Joined: 06 Feb 2012
Posts: 424
PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 4:33 am Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
Enner wrote:
The regional lock as of now can be circumvented with an edited browser cookie. You can try to do it yourself, or take the easy way with the English-language version of the Kancolle Viewer.


Why is the game even region-locked to begin with? Is the development team expecting to find companies to localize it and is afraid of competing with itself when that happens? Then again, considering the lottery to be able to play this game, I'm guessing it's more related to their capacity to handle players and, for some reason, not using the money earned to expand further.


Generally it's a measure to limit DDOS attacks.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 9:47 am Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
Enner wrote:
The regional lock as of now can be circumvented with an edited browser cookie. You can try to do it yourself, or take the easy way with the English-language version of the Kancolle Viewer.


Why is the game even region-locked to begin with? Is the development team expecting to find companies to localize it and is afraid of competing with itself when that happens? Then again, considering the lottery to be able to play this game, I'm guessing it's more related to their capacity to handle players and, for some reason, not using the money earned to expand further.


The region lock seems to just be because of the site that hosts it, DMM.com. Basically the entire site is region locked. From what I hear, the developers of the game don't actually care.
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