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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 9 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:3647#1552] |
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The Magnificent Kotobuki involves the titular all-female squadron of mercenaries contracted to protect cargo against air pirates. Much of the series is divided into single episode or multi-part story arcs where the girls take on a contract and/or some sort of focus is provided on each of the girls making up the squadron. The focus in question helps to flesh out the girls a bit, but they largely retain the same personalities they start with to stick with whatever character type they personify. While earlier episodes may have you assume the missions in question are episodic, they actually foreshadow to a larger plot that the series dabbles into in its final four episodes, which I won't spoil. The main selling point of the series is the animated aerial dogfight scenes which are nicely animated and elaborate in terms of movement and maneuvers, with all characters, planes, and scenery rendered in CG animation. Planes and technologies are inspired from real-life World War II designs from what I gather, which appears authentic to the time period from what I could tell. In short, The Magnificent Kotobuki largely sells itself on its well-animated plane dogfight scenes with a story that offers enough meat to give them purpose, but not necessarily having the most engaging plot developments or great depth with characters. I'd at least say the series is worth a rental or single stream before you decide on whether or not to buy it.
Last updated Thursday, January 27 2022. Created Thursday, January 27 2022. | ||||||||
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[series:3647#628] | ||||||
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(Nine episodes watched): I had to use the ANN synopsis above, because episode one of Kouya tells us very little about what's going on. It's mostly a matter of what we see rather than what any character tells us: a Zeppelin, the 'Hagaromo', which serves as a flying aircraft carrier (it must be filled with helium rather than hydrogen like the Hindenburg); WWII vintage Japanese fighter planes launching from it, to engage 'pirates', who fly yet another sort of Japanese WWII fighter; a squadron of female pilots who distinctly outperform a squadron of stuck-up male ones; a lackadaisical captain for the airship who actually serves some powerful woman named 'Madame'; and a pet dodo. Most of the episode consists of dogfighting with the pirates. How do they steal--pirate--stuff when they are flying around? Are these girls mercenaries, or what? Basically, we know so little after the first episode that it's impossible to judge whether the show will be much good or not. Episode two doesn't tell us all that much more about the background. These six girls quarrel about whether each is doing their part to maintain teamwork and maximize success and minimize risk. Risk actually seems pretty small, as they are so good that they are seldom if ever likely to be shot down, even when heavily outnumbered. When planes get shot down they invariably trail smoke and drop out of sight; we never see a situation in which the pilot was undoubtably killed. A scene in episode three where a man basically leaps from one plane to another in midair shows you how much this show worries about what is really possible and what isn't. The dogfights, however, are fairly fluid and fun if not truly exciting (due to the low risk factor quickly becoming clear). It's almost like playing a video game. A longtime fan of WWII era aircraft (like me) can enjoy the detailed scenes which reveal just what cockpit switch or lever fires the guns or lowers the flaps or whatever. But the six girls are slow to develop personality and it was hard for me to keep track of who's who (except perhaps for the two rambunctious ones). The animation of the characters faces has a distinctly computer animated feel to it. After three episodes I still had only a vague idea what this Kotobuki corps is about; sort of aerial security guards, or mercenaries, that can be hired, I guess. Clearly, they never engage in crime themselves. With time, the show grew on me. Don't expect it to be plausible, just enjoy it as the farce that it is (and was intended to be). I liked touches like the scene where a strange and suspicious group of planes lands, and they have their own theme song playing which includes the line 'we are not pirates'. Episode eight, in which the Hagaromo is briefly hijacked, had a plot which could never have happened in a million years, yet I got a laugh out of the gunslinging skills of the bartender. I couldn't help noticing that we still had no explanation how the world wound up like this (is this another planet?), why Zeppelins are in use again, how Madame came to own one, how the Kotobuki Corps was formed, etc, etc. In episode nine something called a 'gate' or a 'hole' (I forget) is mentioned, but again we are told next to nothing about what exactly it is, why it matters, etc. And who or what is 'Zufang'? Some sort of political dispute is forming, but it was so confusing and uninteresting that I didn't bother to keep track of it. I don't really care what the different factions are arguing about, since I had little idea who was right and wrong. Indeed, as the signs began to appear that this political nonsense would drive the remainder of the show, I lost much of my interest and decided there was no need to watch the remainder of this anime at all. The basic problem seems to be that it never makes any serious attempt to make the premise or the plot understandable to us and isn't all that exciting anyhow. Last updated Saturday, April 27 2019. Created Monday, January 28 2019. | ||||||||
