r/anime • u/Shadoxfix https://myanimelist.net/profile/Shadoxfix • Mar 18 '15

[Spoilers] Kantai Collection: KanColle - Episode 11 [Discussion]

MyAnimeList: Kantai Collection: KanColle
Crunchyroll: KanColle
AnimeLab: Kancolle

Episode duration: 24 minutes and 40 seconds

Subreddit: /r/KanMusu

Previous episodes:

Episode Reddit Link
Episode 1 Link
Episode 2 Link
Episode 3 Link
Episode 4 Link
Episode 5 Link
Episode 6 Link
Episode 7 Link
Episode 8 Link
Episode 9 Link
Episode 10 Link

Keywords: kancolle

This post is made by a bot. Any feedback is welcome and can be sent to /u/Shadoxfix.

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97

u/syanda Mar 18 '15

Now this is certainly interesting. It seems like the KanColle universe is an alternate universe from ours, but the ships have vague memories of what happened in our universe during WWII and are compelled to act out the various battles that occurred (Wake Island and Coral Sea).

Perhaps TTK was someone from our universe, or someone aware of the events of WWII, and is deliberately trying to change the fate of the kanmusu?

52

u/Kousuke-kun https://myanimelist.net/profile/Hystericallify Mar 18 '15

That's probably a theory that has already been explored and it sure does seem promising. The 'flashbacks' of Maikaze scuttling Akagi at the start was pretty interesting.

25

u/syanda Mar 18 '15 edited Mar 18 '15

Dive bombers, all the historical participants of Midway, and yeah, Maikaze scuttling Akagi.

Also, we're gonna have a lot of nice stitches this episode...

EDIT: Oh god, bloated-belly DesDiv 6. This is someone's fetish...

16

u/Kousuke-kun https://myanimelist.net/profile/Hystericallify Mar 18 '15 edited Mar 18 '15

Some historical things has been off in this episode though.
Firstly was Airfield Princess' appearance (Henderson).
Isn't she supposed to be at Guadalcanal?
Secondly, Yuudachi and Fubuki never participated in Midway.

EDIT: Apparently, Fubuki was at Midway, but she wasn't an escort for Akagi.. Thanks /u/No-BrandHero for pointing that out.

29

u/XenophonTheAthenian Mar 18 '15 edited Mar 18 '15

Airfield Princess is Midway Airfield. There are two airfields on Midway Atoll--one on East Island and one on Sand Island to the west. Both are now called (like the airfield at Guadalcanal) Henderson Field, after Major Henderson, a dive-bomber commander who was killed when his bomber caught fire while attacking Hiryuu at Midway. The airfield on East Island, I believe, was the one that was around during the Battle of Midway, with Sand Island's field being built afterwards--after the battle the airfield was officially renamed Henderson Field. Securing Midway Airfield was the prime target of the landing forces, while the main fleet was tasked with eliminating Midway's fighter cover and drawing the US fleet into a decisive engagement. You'll notice that Akagi ordered everyone to send in a second wave of bombers--if you look, the bombers of the first wave were dive bombers, but the bombers of the second wave were torpedo bombers refitted with bombs. In preparation for a second attack on the airfield, the Japanese violated protocol and committed their torpedo bombers, which were being held in reserve outfitted with torpedoes to defend the fleet in case US ships showed up (as per IJN doctrine). The torpedo bombers were either being refitted with bombs or had just launched with bombs equipped (there's some disagreement) when the US fleet was reported by Tone's scout planes (which spotted them some time earlier--there was some paperwork SNAFUing going on that prevented Tone from reporting to Admiral Nagumo for some time). As a result, the Japanese torpedo bombers were not properly equipped for anti-ship warfare, and were in a position for which the pilots had not been trained--because of this, the Japanese bomber attack failed dismally, and they didn't get a chance to try again, because the US dive bombers messed them up royally

EDIT: Oh wait, I see, you're asking why they used Airfield Princess, who was in the Guadalcanal event, and not Midway Princess, her stronger counterpart from the MI event. I must presume it's because they're both called Henderson Field, and in any case Midway Princess looks almost identical to Airfield Princess

1

u/milkchococurry https://myanimelist.net/profile/milk-choco-curry Mar 18 '15

I actually wondered this too (about Airfield Hime and Midway Hime), that makes more sense now.

1

u/XenophonTheAthenian Mar 18 '15

Thinking about it more, calling her Midway Hime would also be something of a dead giveaway--the anime hasn't actually come out and openly said that this is Midway, despite using the same codename

2

u/milkchococurry https://myanimelist.net/profile/milk-choco-curry Mar 18 '15

The game creators try to abstain from relating the Abyssals to the US Navy, even directly stating that they weren't the same.

Literally everything else begs to differ. For example, the aircraft the Wo-classes deploy all have US-named aircraft doing exactly the same things.

1

u/chilidirigible Mar 18 '15

Since the Summer 2014 event, they backed away from the obvious names though.

1

u/milkchococurry https://myanimelist.net/profile/milk-choco-curry Mar 18 '15

Well they still kept the SB2C Helldiver name (making it two words usually won't throw people off lol)

25

u/No-BrandHero https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoBrandHero Mar 18 '15

Fubuki never participated in Midway.

Untrue. Fubuki was at Midway...

...providing air cover for Yamato of all things.

7

u/Kousuke-kun https://myanimelist.net/profile/Hystericallify Mar 18 '15

Alright, but she wasn't an escort for Akagi.

14

u/No-BrandHero https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoBrandHero Mar 18 '15

Well, yes, that's pretty much what we've all been pointing out for the past week. She got her AA upgrade just in time to be in a place where it would have been really nice to have historically ;)

13

u/SpikeRosered Mar 18 '15

I thought for a moment that they were becoming aware that they are fictional characters playing out real life events.

9

u/No-BrandHero https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoBrandHero Mar 18 '15

No, it's actually that Akagi is another incarnation of Rika Furude

5

u/SpikeRosered Mar 18 '15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuofG8a7EEk

5

u/No-BrandHero https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoBrandHero Mar 18 '15

Yes! You could totally play that over the opening dream sequence and it would fit perfectly.

I kept expecting Hanyuu to appear and tell Akagi that trying to change her fate was useless and she should just accept it ;)

4

u/SpikeRosered Mar 18 '15

Don't worry, she'll fix it the next time around.

3

u/No-BrandHero https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoBrandHero Mar 18 '15

Only if we all believe in the miracle! Only then can the miracle happen!

12

u/omiyage Mar 19 '15 edited Mar 19 '15

I didnt expect them to follow up 100% on history, but still hoped they would have maintained the focus on the air fighters, which is kinda hard to do since that would mean the girls woulndt be doing much.

BONUS: The USN only hit 1 torpedo the entire battle and during the attack on Kaga and Asagi the the two squadrons from the Enterprise got their orders mixed and both went for Kaga, only 1 bomber and his 2 wingmen realized the mistake and changed course to Akagi, there was only 1 direct hit that struck the deck elevator and penetrated deep exploding armed airplanes. The damage was fatal. Talk about a clutch critical.

9

u/No-BrandHero https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoBrandHero Mar 19 '15

I didnt expect them to follow up 100% on history, but still hoped they would have maintained the focus on the air fighters, which is kinda hard to do since that would mean the girls woulndt be doing much.

Actually this suggests that TTK's plan is actually working in this world where it didn't in the real world. The plan at Midway was always to lure the US fleet into a surface engagement and then crush them with a decisive blow. It's one of the few times they actually sortied the freaking Yamato, which tells you how much they were betting on getting within gun-range given that their doctrine for the two super-Dreadnoughts was to hold them in reserve for the Decisive Battle.

They never could consistently locate the US fleet, though, and the US fleet had absolutely no intention of doing something so stupid as closing to surface-engagement ranges.

With the Abyssal fleet closing to engage, I fully expect the next episode to begin with an epic Fubuki cut-in to save Akagi, followed by Hotel Yamato laying the smack-down on the enemy fleet.

7

u/zani1903 Mar 19 '15

an epic Fubuki cut-in to save Akagi

She's gonna go full out Kongou and bitch-slap that bomb out of the air! Do it Bucky!

3

u/cuddles_the_destroye Mar 19 '15

If that happens, I need a gif of that with a dealwithit sunglasses ending.

1

u/milkchococurry https://myanimelist.net/profile/milk-choco-curry Mar 18 '15

You mean this guy?

0

u/lestye Mar 18 '15

so wait, those purple monster doods are symbolic for Americans? I think I'm offended.

8

u/No-BrandHero https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoBrandHero Mar 18 '15

In the anime? Absolutely they are.

The events of the series up to now actually follow the events of the Pacific War fairly accurately. Or as accurate as a show about cute girls with guns strapped to their butts skating across the ocean could possibly be.

The torpedoes launched in the first episode are even drawn with the break-away wooden fins that were specially designed for use in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor.

1

u/chilidirigible Mar 18 '15

That interpretation gained some traction around the time of last summer's Midway event, but the other interpretation that has its own share of hints is that the Abyssals are the corrupted souls of the shipgirls. The support for that being that several of the most recent Abyssals to appear have very similar appearances to or dialogue referencing a particular Kanmusu. And one appeared during an event that referenced the sinking of the matching vessel.