, also known as , is a Japanese anime produced by Production IMS. Yuu Nobuta directed the anime and Reiko Yoshida handled the series composition, with character designs by Naoto Nakamura and original character designs by Atto. The series aired in Japan from April to June 2016. A manga adaptation illustrated by Kanari Abe began serialization in Media Factory's seinen manga magazine Monthly Comic Alives December 2015 issue released the same year on October 27. An anime film produced by A-1 Pictures premiered on January 18, 2020.
Plot
The anime follows a girl named Akeno Misaki who enrolls into in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, to become one of the highly regarded Blue Mermaids. As she and her classmates set off aboard the fictional KagerÃ
Â-class destroyer , an incident with their instructor suddenly leads them to be accused of mutiny. Therefore, Akeno must lead her crewmates in sailing the Harekaze as they try to find the truth about what is happening while also avoiding pursuit.
Characters
Bridge
Akeno is the main heroine and captain of the Harekaze treats her crew as family. Despite not being particularly bright or talented, she is good at remembering people's names and shows good judgement under pressure. She is also known to have a fear of lightning because of her past that caused her parents to go missing on a cruise during a storm.
Shiro is the deputy captain of the Harekaze who wishes to follow her mother and sisters' footsteps as a Blue Mermaid. She constantly develops her bad luck and seems to have ailurophobia, but later overcomes it upon taking ownership of a cat after rescuing it from a stranded ship that had its original owners on it. She also likes stuffed animals and she places them in her cabin.
The artillery officer of the Harekaze. She is usually quiet, speaks in bursts and likes curry, but her gunnery skills are to a extent where her shots that she calculates are mostly accurate and spot on.
Mei is the torpedo officer of the Harekaze. She enjoys battle where she is eager to fire the weapons onboard at enemy vessels.
KÃ
Âko is the secretary of the Harekaze who tends to speak her mind in a dramatic way, including theories and what others may be thinking. She feels that fiction is more real than non-fiction and often lets her tongue and imagination get out of hand. She always gets information out of the tablet she carries whenever they are in a battle and relays it to the bridge crew.
Rin is the Chief Navigator of the Harekaze. She is easily scared and always wanting to run away whenever battle draws near, but never does so and uses her abilities to steer the ship to an extent where the crew recognizes her own efforts.
Combat
Hikari is an artillery officer assigned to the firing command post of the ship.
Michiru is an artillery officer assigned to the firing command post of the ship.
Junko is an artillery officer assigned to the firing command post of the ship.
Ritsuko is an artillery officer assigned to one of the Harekazes torpedo tubes.
Kayoko is an artillery officer assigned to one of the Harekazes torpedo tubes.
Sonar Personnel as well as the Bugler of the ship, MarikÃ
Âji is surprisingly skilled with naginata techniques.
Navigation
Satoko is a navigation officer and the interim helmsman of the Harekaze. She is often candid and unafraid to be straightforward, and tends to end her sentences with "zona".
Hideko is a navigation officer assigned to the port-side of the ship. She's always seen with her eyes closed.
Mayumi is a navigation officer assigned to the Starboard-side of the ship.
Sonar technician of the ship, Tsugumi is quite skilled in communication.
Machiko is the look-out of the Harekaze with hyperopia, thus wears glasses. She is quite skilled at shooting squirt guns.
Engineering
Chief of engineering of the Harekaze, Maron the shortest among her staff.
Hiromi is the assistant engineer of the Harekaze and Maron's best friend. She is one of the more mature-looking members of the crew. Hiromi is quite skilled in sumo wrestling.
Reo is one of the Harekazes engineer who likes to play cards and gossiping.
Sakura is one of the Harekaze<nowiki>'s</nowiki> engineer who likes to play cards and talk rumors.
Runa is of the Harekazes engineer who likes to play cards and gossiping.
Sora is of the Harekazes engineer who likes to play cards and spread rumors.
Hime is an engineering officer assigned to check for ship damage and supplies.
Momo is an engineering officer assigned to check for ship damage and supplies.
Logistics
Mimi is head of Logistics with an affection for the ship's look-out Matchy.
Mikan is the head cook of the Harekaze.
Homare is one of the Harekazes chefs and Akane's twin sister.
Akane is one of the Harekazes chefs and Homare's twin sister.
Kaburagi is the medic of the Harekaze. Known as the first genius graduating from the Marine medical university, she is on board to complete her sea training. Her investigation on the virus-carrying creature that infected the Chief artillery officer and causing the other ships to go astray led her to develop an antibody to solve the virus problem. She usually gives Akeno advice and likes to say Chinese proverbs and idioms.
Others
Akeno's childhood friend and captain of the Musashi.
Wilhelmina is a student of Wilhelmshaven Maritime High School and deputy captain of the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. She is rescued by Akeno after she fled from her ship and joins her on the Harekaze but the real reason was that her captain ordered her to escape in order not to fall victim to the virus infection that spread to the whole ship. An expert on anti-submarine warfare, she later becomes Mashiro's roommate and an assistant to the bridge crew in their journey.
Kaoru is captain of the Sarushima who teaches the students of the Harekaze. At the start of sea training, she attacked them but is unable to remember why after coming to her senses. It was later found out that it was due to a virus-infected rodent-like creature.
The principal of Naval Academy and Mashiro's mother.
Mashiro's older sister and a member of the Blue Mermaids.
Isoroku is a cat who lives on the Harekazes bridge. He is seemingly immune to the effects of the virus, therefore handling infected rodent-like creatures without problems.
Media
Anime
The anime series, produced by Production IMS, was broadcast in Japan from April 9 to June 25, 2016, and was simulcast by Crunchyroll, Daisuki, and Funimation. The series was directed by Yuu Nobuta and written by Reiko Yoshida, with original character designs by and character designs by Naoto Nakamura. The opening theme is "High Free Spirits" by TrySail while the ending theme is "Ripple Effect" by Luna Haruna. A character song single titled performed by Shiina Natsukawa and Sora Amamiya was released on April 6, 2016. The series is licensed in North America by Aniplex of America. The anime has been licensed in the UK by Anime Limited. A two-part original video animation project was released between March 31 and May 24, 2017. In 2017, scholar Takayoshi Yamamura noted that the series was produced in the collaboration with the JMSDF. Yamamura further explained that the series worked with the Kanagawa Provincial Cooperation Office to make a recruiting poster for JSDF members and noted that the JMSDF used their official Twitter account to emphasize their active collaboration, with criticism of them for being "too outspoken."
Episode list
Video game
A smartphone game for iOS and Android devices titled has been announced for release in 2018. It was later pushed back to Spring 2019 due to the need for refinement. Pre-registration began at the same time as the initial announcement. The video game was officially released on March 27, 2019. An announcement was made on February 26, 2020, that the game would be ending service on March 25 at 2:00pm JST.
Aniplex partnered with Wargaming to bring the world and characters of High School Fleet to the online video game World of Warships
Film
The official website announced the production of an anime film on April 7, 2018. The film is produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Jun Nakagawa, with Yuu Nobuta serving as chief director. Takaaki Suzuki and Kunihiko Okada are credited as the film's scriptwriters. The rest of the main staff and cast from the anime series are returning to reprise their roles. It was released in Japan on January 18, 2020.
References
External links