The Spring 2016 Anime Preview Guide

Haifuri

In a world that's become more flotsam and jetsam than terra and forma (thanks to tectonic plate subductions and a rising ocean), Akeno Misaki wants to become a protector of the sea! The Blue Mermaids, an elite squad of naval women tasked with keeping the ocean safe, have accepted Misaki and her best friend Moeka China as trainee captains on two of their trainee ships. Unfortunately, this means they'll be separated, leaving Misaki with the grouchy Mashiro Munetani as her deputy captain instead. But before their motley crew can start working together as a team, their teacher's ship falls to mutiny, and the girls find themselves caught in the crossfire over troubled waters! Haifuri is an original anime work and can be found streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation, Saturdays at 12:30 PM EST.

Theron Martin

Rating: 3

Review: We've had series about cute girls doing just about everything else, so why not a series about an all-girl trainee staff for a nautical warship?

And that's really about all you actually need to know about this original production to know whether or not it's going to suit you. It's got loads of cute girls who cover a wide array of common moe archetypes, both in appearance and behavior. (For instance, surely I can't be the only one who thought of Mio from K-ON! when we started seeing Mashiro's antics?) It also heaps on warship-related fan service, as it devotes meticulous detail to their CG designs, movement, and operations but has almost nothing for sexy fan service. (That is somewhat surprising given that this comes from the same studio which animated Testament of Sister New Devil and Date A Live II.)  In other words, the series is basically a nautical version of Girls und Panzer.

Or at least that's what the series seems like at first. Things start getting a little weird once Akeno's ship starts getting fired upon by the ship of the trainee's overall commander. At first it seems like they just may be getting tested, but when they defend themselves they soon find themselves labeled as traitors? This is definitely a plot development that I did not even consider as a possibility, and one which may speak to a bigger and broader story than what the first episode let on about up to that point. Is it still just a very elaborate test, or has someone mutinied on the other ship? Or is there a bigger plot afoot that, for some reason, sees Akeno's ship as a threat? That out-of-the-blue development raises so many questions and seems so out of character for this kind of series, but the prospect of a bigger story does provide at least some additional enticement to watch more.

Even with that factored in, though, the appeal here still comes down to the moe factor, which is supported well enough by the series’ technical merits. Basically, whether or not you liked Girls und Panzer will still be a good predictor for whether or not this one is going to be a waste of your time.

Nick Creamer

Rating: 3.5

Signing in as this season's representation of one more renowned anime subgenre, Haifuri offers cute girls piloting classic warships, as opposed to Kancolle's “cute girls who are classic warships” and Girls und Panzer's “cute girls piloting classic tanks.” So how does it compare to the competition?

Well, so far it looks to be a fair amount of fun. I consider Girls und Panzer pretty close to a modern classic - that show nailed a combined sports drama/action/slice of life tone that made for thrilling entertainment all the way through, staying funny and upbeat while also offering consistent dramatic hooks. Haifuri seems to be following very specifically in that show's footsteps, and if you're going to copy something, it makes sense to copy from the best.

The show's premise is similarly based on high school girls who just so happen to also be seafaring crewmen, and it's already featured one dramatic confrontation that's made fun use of its massive ensemble cast. As opposed to Girls und Panzer's slow early episodes, where the cast not only had to learn how to pilot tanks, but also find their tanks in the first place, Haifuri flies out the gate by assuming its cast have already been trained on their positions. And by the end, the show's already arrived at a cliffhanger that implies the existing premise may well already be turned on its head.

Haifuri supplements that propulsive narrative with generally competent visual execution. The show honestly doesn't have that much visual personality, and the character designs feel a little too samey and conservative, but the animation is fine. The first episode's major fight sequence is also paced well, building tension while simultaneously leaning into the absurdity of the situation (high school girls under cannon fire trying desperately to apologize about being late for class). Overall, while the first half of this week's episode was a little slow, the overall production seems like it could turn out to be one of the more consistently entertaining shows of the season. I like how much of this premise was just assumed here - this world exists, and these characters are already accustomed to their roles within it. With the show already having establishing all of that, it seems reasonable to hope things will continue to move fast from here out. And upbeat battleship wars sounds like a pretty fun time.

Rating:

In terms of “didn't go where I was expecting it to,” Hai-Furi, apparently short for “High School Fleet,” is right up there with Shounen Maid. It begins as a pretty by-the-numbers cute girls doing military things show, with our young heroine Mike (a combination of her family and given names, Misaki Akeno) and her friend Moka dreaming of growing up to become Blue Mermaids, an all-female naval organization. Flash forward to Mike showing up at school on the coolest water transport I've ever seen (please tell me that thing is real) and trying to make friends with both the standoffish new girl and the world's largest cat. New girl, whose name turns out to be Mashiro, is having none of it, so of course she's on the same ship as Mike under her as a vice-captain. Then just as I'm getting comfortable and thinking, “Well, at least there are boats,” their teacher attacks them.

Before you write this off as yet another terrible anime teaching tactic, it turns out this isn't a classroom lesson – the woman is actually trying to sink their ship and presumably drown all of the girls aboard. When Mike makes the tough decision to fire back and disables the other vessel, she promptly reports them as mutineers, thereby winning my attention for good. It isn't quite School-Live in its turnaround, but the last few minutes did take this out of the realm of something I could live without to something I'm curious to see more of. Being labeled a mutineer is a serious accusation that can get a sailor into real trouble, so Furushou going to the trouble of singling out this one specific crew is highly suspicious. There are some early hints that things are not quite as they should be with this group – Mashiro (and her attitude problem) is more highly qualified to be captain than Mike, who in turn isn't sure why she's been given command of the vessel. Mashiro makes a comment about being “stuck with the leftovers,” which implies that she may have heard something about their ship, and the crew does appear to be a little ragtag. Then on their way to the training island, their boat suffers engine failure when none of the others do, and suddenly you have to wonder if Furushou disabled the ship previous to getting under way, thereby setting them up for her attack.

For nautical types, there's enough accuracy in the ship-sailing to make this work on a practical level. As someone who grew up on the coast, the opening scenes of Mike and Moka watching for passing ships rang very true, as that was something we did most afternoons to see who was coming into the harbor. Mike herself doesn't have a particularly captainly air about her, but when push comes to shove, she does make the choice that will save her crew, which is one of the major duties of a naval captain, and she also tries everything she can to avoid firing back, which also speaks well of her as the person in charge. The art is detailed for the boats and cute for the girls, which works for the most part, although it makes the scene of the look-out in her crow's nest a little strange, like an anime girl has been painted onto a ship for luck. There's also something disconcerting in how scrawny everyone's limbs are; even on a motor vessel, sailing takes a fair amount of strength, and all of these girls have clearly sailed before.

Hai-Furi could turn out to be more than just another cute military girls show, although it could also backslide on the promise it shows toward the end of this episode. Hopefully it will continue to have surprises in store, because now I'm kind of excited to see a what a ship full of high school girls will do now that they've been branded traitors.

Rating:

Well, Haifuri completely betrayed my low expectations! For one thing, I was expecting a lot more fanservice in the vein of Kancolle or Strike Witches, but Haifuri seems much more interested in exploiting the goofy personalities of its moe cast for light chuckles than exploiting their assets for the camera, which was an extremely welcome surprise. For another thing, I definitely wasn't expecting these maritime maids to start getting shot at in the first episode. Heck, I would have been surprised if they got shot at just a little bit as part of the climax in the final episode, but I was definitely expecting more cutesy battleship trivia and high school hijinks than the mild but enjoyable action-comedy Haifuri actually had in store.

Instead of bonding as a crew through ship maintenance exercises and mock battles, it looks like the cast of Haifuri will have to put their nautical know-how to the ultimate test right from the beginning, as a mysterious sequence of mutinies puts them on the outs with their own instructor. So it's a healing show (the setting) and a comedy (the characters), with mystery elements (the plot) and some wartime action (battleships!). Sure, Haifuri could settle back into cutesy-ootsy snoozeville at any time for anyone who's not really into little girls describing the intricacies of life as a sailor. Still, this first episode moved along at a quick clip and put its best foot forward. There's ship trivia and moe antics galore, but there's also a lot of nice casual world-building, natural conflict amongst the pleasant cast, and a high-stakes plot that I wasn't expecting to arise at all.

It may not look anywhere near as polished as Kancolle, and the basic premise is dime a dozen in today's anime climate, but if you're itching for more ship-girl adventure on the high seas, Haifuri has a surprisingly strong wind under its sails.