Tag: High School Fleet

High School Fleet

High School Fleet

High School Fleet anime series cover art
High School Fleet

Anime Series Overview

High School Fleet (ハイスクール・フリート), also known as Haifuri is an action anime about girls on a destroyer ship. Yes, you read that right. This is an action anime. It’s not a slice of life anime despite how it may appear. I was fooled, too.

Haifuri also isn’t like Azur Lane, the other boat girl anime I’ve seen. You see, in Azur Lane, the girls are the boats. In Haifuri, the girls are the crew on a boat. It’s an important distinction to make considering the number of boat girl anime out there.

I also need to say early on in this review that Haifuri is a good anime. It’s better than I expected it to be. I went into the series assuming I’d rate it as maybe a 5/10. But, I was pleasantly surprised to find out it’s much more than what it seems to be on the surface.

Akeno Misaki and Mashiro Munetani from the anime series High School Fleet
Akeno Misaki and Mashiro Munetani

There are a lot of characters in Haifuri. And a good amount of them don’t matter all that much. But, the characters who do matter are great. They’re unique and interesting characters who grow over the course of the season.

I can’t say I was expecting that when I originally thought this was a cute girls go boating anime. And, I wasn’t ready for there to be a suspenseful plot, either. The action begins right in the first episode, and the episode even ends on a cliffhanger. Haifuri had me hooked from the start.

Oh, and the action and suspense never cease. The girls of the Harekaze (the destroyer they’re the crew of) are always in a pinch. Literally, 11 of the 12 episode titles refer to them being “in a pinch.” I may need to watch more boat girl anime if they’re all like this.

The Best Harekaze Crew Members

So, who are the best crew members aboard the Harekaze? I have my top 3 picked out. But, before I get to them, I should probably mention the two main characters. These are Akeno Misaki and Mashiro Munetani.

Akeno is the protagonist of the series and the captain of the Harekaze. The fact that she’s the captain may sound impressive, and it is to an extent. But, we quickly learn that the Harekaze is the ship where all the students at the bottom of the class were sent. So, she’s the best of the worst.

Mashiro is the XO — or executive officer. That means she’s second-in-command aboard the Harekaze. And when the captain is away, Mashiro is the one in charge. As the daughter of the school president, everyone has high expectations for Mashiro.

Rin Shiretoko steering the Harekaze from the anime series High School Fleet
Rin Shiretoko steering the Harekaze

As you may have figured out from the picture above, Rin Shiretoko is the best character. She’s the Chief Navigator, which means she steers the ship. She’s also afraid of everything, which is exactly what makes her so good. Her reactions to various situations are the most entertaining part of the series.

The next best is Maron Yanagiwara, the Chief Engineer of the Harekaze. She spends most of her time in the engine room continuously repairing things as they break. Maron also has a lot of energy, which always makes characters more fun. But, I’m not sure if she has the most energy of the crew members.

That distinction may go to Mei Irizaki, the Torpedo Officer. If a weapon needs to be fired on the Harekaze, Mei is ready to fire it. And even if weapons aren’t necessary, Mei is still ready and raring to go. She loves nothing more than blowing things up.

Fun, But Not the Best Plot

I enjoyed my time watching High School Fleet. But, I’m not going to pretend like the plot was all that good. In fact, the plot was the weakest part of the anime. It didn’t make much sense.

Basically, the story goes like this. The girls are students at a boat school, and things go wrong on their maiden voyage. They’re supposed to rendezvous with the rest of the class. But, their ship breaks down and they’re multiple hours late. That’s when they’re suddenly attacked by the instructor’s ship.

To protect itself, the Harekaze returns fire and sinks the ship. And because of this, the Harekaze is labeled as a mutinous ship. But, why did the instructor’s ship attack in the first place? You see, it’s all thanks to a bioelectric virus created in a lab that turns people into hivemind zombies.

Shima Tateishi and Mei Irizaki with messy hair from the anime series High School Fleet
Shima Tateishi and Mei Irizaki with messy hair

From what I remember, it’s never explained why the infected go for maximum destruction. It’s not like using a warship to attack other warships helps spread the virus. But, whatever. We don’t have to think too much about what the end goal of the virus is.

Oh, and as far as we can tell, there’s no point at which a person “gets over” the virus. So, does that mean they’re zombies forever? Well, no. There is a cure — seawater. How convenient! If you dowse an infected person in seawater or throw them overboard, they’ll be back to normal.

Why is seawater the solution? Again, we don’t actually know — unless I just wasn’t paying attention when we learned. But, seawater isn’t the only solution. You can also have the virus antibodies injected into your bloodstream. Though, it’s easier to do this to someone post-seawater dowsing so they calm down.

Conclusion

High School Fleet is a solid 7/10. If the plot was better, it could have been an 8. I liked the characters, it had good animation, and it was fun to watch. As I said before, the main issue was that the plot wasn’t that good.

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