First Impressions / Hai-Furi

「ミーナでピンチ！」 (Mina de Pinchi!)
“Mina in a Pinch!”

Ah, finally, an Admiral Graf Spee episode. While Hai-Furi had not forgotten the German exchange ship, diligently making sure to drop a mention now and again (not to mention Mina’s continued existence on the bridge of the Harekaze), I wasn’t sure whether they were going to devote an entire episode to it, since the Harekaze does have a lot on its plate already, saving the world from the zombie apocalypse, and perhaps doing it one ship at a time would be too slow. So I wouldn’t have exactly blamed Hai-Furi for leaving the Germans hanging for a bit longer, or perhaps even resolving their subplot off-screen.

It’s good to see Hai-Furi dedicated to tying off the potential loose ends before they knot into a messy ball of plot holes—if there’s one thing I can unreservedly praise about Hai-Furi‘s writing, it’s the planned pacing. It’s also good to see that Hai-Furi is continuing to mix in the genres, this time turning into a surprisingly well-choreographed action flick. If somebody had told me, in the first episode of Hai-Furi, that it’ll eventually involve fighting zombies with gun-fu, I would have condemned that man as a liar and a scoundrel. Now that I’ve actually seen it, it’s still all pretty silly, but I don’t particularly mind because Hai-Furi has shown itself willing to do all sorts of off-beat things in the name of entertainment. As long as I’m entertained, everything is permitted. And as the stakes are raised, we should be expecting any number of characters to start getting dangerous anyway, just like when Sulu breaks out the katana in that Star Trek reboot. There’s certainly more in the pot this episode as the Harekaze suffers the most grievous wounds it has to date. Sure, it’s still too idealistic a setting for anyone to actually die, but it still looks pretty bad (blame the acting captain and her low Luck stat). In that light, though, I would quibble about the final boss being such a pushover. I suppose Hai-Furi had decided it had hit its action quota for the week and preferred to switch to sentimental. I’m still not sure if I’m amused or disappointed; after all the talk about her I expected the German captain to be a more dignified presence, as opposed to… this.

All in all, an enjoyable episode, managing to differentiate its action from last week’s battle as well as getting in some character development along the way—this time the captain running off on a skipper was not an unilateral, reckless decision, but a plan respected by her crew. I do wonder, though, what they’re going to do about the Musashi, though; I was expecting Hai-Furi to enact a climatic boarding mission against the battleship, but now they’ve already done it against the Graf Spee that sort of rules it out (since, of course, it would be unbecoming to enact the same plan twice). Perhaps it just means Hai-Furi has something even bigger up its sleeve. In any case, I don’t expect this to be the last we see of the Germans. Despite the teary farewell for the fellow samurai drama fan, I won’t be surprised if Mi-chan pops up again as reinforcements or otherwise. She’s still in the OP/ED, right? If so, they can’t ship her off quite so easily.

30 Comments

  1. I certainly did not expect Mi-chan to be shipped off, no matter how realistic it would be for her to return to her original ship. Was half expecting her to jump onto Harekaze or chase after it on a skipper. I guess this enables her to show up dramatically to aid the Harekaze later on… or maybe even next episode, if they’re tieing up the loose ends quickly.

    As for the Harekaze’s damage… I wonder if this means it’s time for them to get an upgrade. Or will they just sail off to the next mission on a damaged ship? Man, if this was some other anime (that’s not so cutesy) they probably would’ve taken over and upgraded to the Admiral Spee 😛

    Jyazen
    Reply

      1. More Speed, they could build in the IJN Steam Engines they have. But Spee has an nice speed of her own, so my idea is useless

        Speed:
        28.5 knots (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph)

        Propulsion:
        Eight MAN diesel engines
        Two propellers
        52,050 shp (38,810 kW)

        Also she had 8 Torpedos tubes, and could use Smoke screen to hide herself

        Worldwidedepp
        Reply

  4. https://randomc.net/image/Hai-Furi/Hai-Furi%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
    Princess Leia Minna: This here is the exhaust port to the Death Star’s core reactor exposed steam pipe used to heat the fuel buffer tank. Hit it and it’ll destroy Death Star disable Graf Spee and bring her to a grinding halt.

    https://randomc.net/image/Hai-Furi/Hai-Furi%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2016.jpg
    Noma: Red One going in

    https://randomc.net/image/Hai-Furi/Hai-Furi%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
    Ghostly voice: Use the Force Noma

    Frankly speaking, the moment when Princess Leia Minna mentioned about that exposed steam pipe, I had to take out my 1/700 Graf Spee to verify it. And yes there were exposed pipes though I’m not entirely sure what they’re used for. But those pipes are there. I really don’t think Deutschland class designers would put such a weak feature out in the open like that.

    Since we’re on the topic on it, I pretty much traced the raiding party’s move from the quarter deck, past the aft super structure, into the fore super structure and up on to the deck just fore off the main bridge.

    Other things to note…

    https://randomc.net/image/Hai-Furi/Hai-Furi%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2007.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Hai-Furi/Hai-Furi%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2013.jpg

    Those shell hits really look devastating and morbid it may sound…

    https://randomc.net/image/Hai-Furi/Hai-Furi%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
    The safety measures put in place are rather cute.

    Coincidentally, I watched this episode right after I logged off from WoWs playing Fubuki… Any again by a strange twist of fate, I had my guns taken out and some hits to the midsections and floodings as well

    All in all, these few hashtags pretty much summed up the episode for me

    #DestroyDeathStarI
    #WoWsDDproblems

    Velvet Scarlantina
    Reply

  6. Hmm… Faulty warheads? OK, so I get that they’re trying to disable the Graf Spee, but whenever I think of faulty torpedo warheads back in WWII, its usually the Americans who had that problem and not the Japanese. (At least that problem would be resolved later on.) Also, does the Harekaze use the Long Lance torpedoes? Pretty sure those leave a reduced bubble trail…

    A daring rescue and…it’s time for German Niku Mina to depart? I sure hope that won’t be the last we see of her… Odds are good that the Graf Spee will be performing a “Big Damn Heroes” moment when the Harekaze takes on the Musashi in the finale (though it could still be Jossed).

    And on a strange tangent, I noticed that one of the infected crew members on the Graf Spee resembles pre-remodel Poi Yuudachi…

    Incognito
    Reply

    1. Pretty sure it’s not a Faulty Warhead but a mistake in judging the displacement of the ship. From the pics it looks like they ran under the ship, rather than hitting the hull. This might be because they fired as it was a battleship, a ship which displaces much more water and also runs deeper underwater.

      Considering they made a point to mention Battleship but Cruiser size…it’s plausible the girls simply fired in a wrong setting or something.

      Serjio Dragonis
      Reply

    2. no, they run under the Ship on purpose. they where there to force them to turn their ship, so they can shoot at her weakness. but they do not react, the first ones was about to hit them, but harekaze “self destruct” them with their main guns to prevent them to hit the Ship. So this Torpedos was from the start just “fake” one to force them to turn, at the 2nd wave they play save

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

    3. @Incognito, Serjio Dragonis & Worldwidedepp:

      I think Worldwidedepp has it right. They fired the first salvo and expected Graf Spee to successfully evade in the direction they wanted. However, Graf Spee didn’t change course so they used magic gunnery to destroy the first torp salvo rather than risk damage to Graf Spee. After that, while not expressly stated, what makes sense is that they set the running depth for 2nd salvo deeper than Graf Spee’s 7.34 m/24 ft. draft (FYI – wiki has default running depth for Type 93 torps as 5m). That and possibly turn off the magnetic arming switch (not sure if Type 93 has those or just contact switches) which, if there and working properly, still should have triggered as the torps passed under Graf Spee (unless potentially they degaussed the thing but lets not go there).

      That being said, there are still issues/questions with the first salvo. If you don’t want to hurt Graf Spee, then just disarm the torps entirely – the first time. Problem solved.

      daikama
      Reply

  8. This was a really good episode, but it kind of annoyed me too because this is more like what I wanted Hai-furi to be like in the fist place. Slow paced mostly comedic episodes where nothing much is happening are fine once in a while but I don’t think they should have been almost half the show. Ahh well, at least the last couple eps have been good and the next couple, as we come up on the finale should be too.

    Jetman
    Reply

  10. In one sense better than last episode because (surprisingly) Harekaze took some direct hits which gave the battle a bit more illusion of some stakes and tension. The fact that no one was seriously injured thanks to carbon fiber lining giant airbags didn’t bother me. No one’s getting seriously hurt let alone killed in this show (someone dying would be truly shocking) which is fine. GuP TV had IMO some very exciting & fun battles with the same premise (i.e. no one really gets hurt).

    So IMO the battle was one of the better ones (if not the best so far). I also liked the fact that we didn’t get another “Oh no! The engines!” moment. Let’s keep it that way, please. I was worried when they initially brought up the Death Star Exhaust Port plan to take down Graf Spee (i.e. destroy/damage the exposed steam pipe on deck that’s used to heat the fuel buffer tank). I assume that’s an actual potential flaw in the RL design (military advisor for the show has credibility with me) so props on noticing that, but still much too close to Star Wars. No way I can’t mentally shout “Use the Force!” when they target that thing though given the Harekaze crew’s miraculous gunnery, the Force wouldn’t be needed.

    Thus “Plan B” was a better way to go IMO for a number of reasons (not just avoiding “Death Star” comparisons). That being said, given how it all plays out, in retrospect perhaps the last episode was a little better relatively speaking than I thought.

    Positives aside, Hai Furi is as Hai Furi does. As best I can tell they one-shot their first torpedo salvo (4 torpedoes) right before the torps hits Graf Spee from like 15-16km distance. >_> That’s what it looked like to me. But magic gunnery is old news here. There were two things that really stood out to me as let’s say dubious.

    First, FL/Capt. running off to directly participate in Plan B didn’t seem materially different to me than the other times she’s done so to the consternation of some her crew, and officially, rather than informally, transferring command doesn’t change that. She has the “blessing of the crew”? Seriously, that was the problem before rather than abandoning her post/duties as captain, not prioritizing her “family” crew, etc.? Can’t buy into that. This seems just like when she wanted to run off to clear sea mines or head the rescue team in Ep. 07. In Ep. 07, FL’s internal dialog has her wanting to run off again, but then she recalls the problem with doing that. When she asks the Dept. Capt/XO what she should do as Capt., with a pained expression the XO says “Please stay on board Captain.” So how is this any different?

    She’s not even part of the boarding party. She’s just the skipper “taxi driver”. Someone else can’t do that so the captain can remain on board while the ship is under fire!? To me this just undermined what the show spent several episodes on. It’s like all the prior stuff never happened. The only rationale I can think of for doing this is the show wanted the XO to learn that “being Captain is hard”.

    Second, to my surprise, evidently I was prescient rather than being snarky in my Ep. 06 comment when I stated that a critical flaw in FL’s plan to “save” Musashi was not to bring along some “super-soaker” water guns. That and apparently
    a Bat Grappling gun    . Uh, what happened to last episode’s exposition: “I gather that if the elapsed time is short after a person is infected, seawater will negate the virus. However, if more time passes and the virus spreads throughout the person’s body, I believe only administering the antibody will be effective.”? Surely it’s been more than a “short” period of time since Graf Spee was infected.

    Yes, they still needed to administer the antidote, but so while not a cure, one squirt of seawater to the face = instant knockout of infected crew? Really? I guess played as “comedy”, but to me it’s more like show became a parody of itself. O.o. At any rate, they should have brought more super-soaker water guns so this poor girl doesn’t have to “prove her worth” by becoming a meat shield. Lastly, WHY is the doctor who already tested the antidote on herself the “last person” to receive the antidote (around 17:25)? That made no sense to me whatsoever.

    As for best girl (“Mi-cha”/German Girl), it would not surprise me at all if Graf Spee showed up as “cavalry to the rescue” for the final showdown vs. Musashi. Show spent a lot of time on her character for her to just disappear.

    So some positives, but the usual (IMO) dubious parts as well. *sigh* I hope this show can put out a couple solid episodes before it ends, but I can’t say I’m optimistic.

    daikama
    Reply

    1. The problem I have with “one-shot” Harekaze is that if they can take out 4 torpedoes from that distance (not to mention shells from Musashi at point blank range) then why go to all the trouble of the Death Star exhaust port homage? Just shoot out their steering or fire the torps at the stern. Either they turn to avoid or you take out the steering.

      Bear
      Reply

      1. @Bear: Fair point (and yes, “one-shot Harekaze”). Shooting propulsion/steering is what they did the first time – right? For that matter, why didn’t they put up a smoke screen like time? IDK. Don’t want to do the same trick twice ’cause it’s boring?

        Thing is though that with “Death Star Plan A”, Harekaze still has to get close to Graf Spee to board her (since Plan A didn’t seem to involve the “skippers” as far as I know), and stopping Graf Spee from moving does nothing to disable its 2×28cm triple guns, 8×15cm single secondary guns and various other AA type guns as Harekaze approaches. Like I said, IMO “Plan A” has multiple issues.

        daikama
        Reply

      1. i mean, if these Torpedoes can run in this angle under the Ship, then they already had an great view at the Side of Graf Spee 🙂

        But i get it, they wanted to show us only they miss them

        Worldwidedepp
        Reply

  11. I felt the writing was extremely lazy this week, things like the convenient rock in the middle of the ocean to hide their jetski’s behind or the hivemind crew of the Spee giving up when the captain was injected.

    Longhaul
    Reply

  13. Funny Post:

    It’s a shame that Ships can not fly (Well they do, but its not save for their Ships bodies. They can break up in the middle)

    Because this music here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyo4SU7fx4g

    had burn deep into my mind, and now when hearing this i can not get this “awesome” scene out of my mind 🙂 also the “GO PRO” Camera point of view in some scenes was awesome, as if the viewer are part of the scene

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *