English Dub Review: AZUR LANE “DEADLINE – For Determination, For Love”

Overview

All factions ready themselves for war. However, Akagi harnesses the power of siren technology and sends every fleet to another realm. Here, they duel on her terms. When Enterprise is on death’s door, a force overtakes her and reignites her. She kills both Kaga and Akagi while coming to terms with her fear of the ocean and war.

Our Take

Hold up…is this the endgame? Don’t we have a few episodes left?

The pacing to get to this point seemed really rushed. The content itself was good and brought a lot of pieces together (with Akagi’s sister, Enterprise’s vision, etc.) but it still seemed as though the buildup wasn’t there. Despite this, though, the vocal performance from pretty much everyone involved (Akagi and Enterprise, specifically) was pure quality. The raw emotion brought by Akagi when she attempts to finally kill Enterprise is chilling, and the tone of all these characters really made it feel like the series’ wrap-up.

That being said, there’s still so much that needs to be explained, and it’s hard to do that without killing the momentum with exposition. The full-on appearance of sirens (and the lore of other, lesser-known characters, such as Enterprise’s and Akagi’s sisters) seems like it was “spillover” information from a previous story. They don’t take the time to address these plot threads well. That — in addition to the fact that the general, overarching story is just flat out confusing and weird — doesn’t really make AZUR LANE a series that anyone can get into.

Still, despite all the faults, this was one of the best episodes in the series — even though it was a bit confusing. Dramatic and compelling! But still confusing as all hell. Maybe now that we’re in the “falling action” phase of the story, things’ll become clearer as the show ends.