![\"ArpeggioManga\"](\"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ArpeggioManga.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt also didn’t give us gorgeous two-page spreads like this one, but I digress.<\/em><\/p>\n For those who\u2019ve neither read nor watched, Arpeggio of Blue Steel<\/i> doubles down on apocalyptic scenarios.\u00a0 Rising sea levels have displaced large portions of humanity and thrown a wrench into the global economy.\u00a0 To make matters worse, a mysterious fleet of AI-controlled warships has blockaded every continent, cutting nations off from one another.\u00a0 Each ship in the \u201cFleet of Fog\u201d is controlled by a Mental Model, a physical manifestation of its artificial intelligence in the form of (what else?) an attractive woman.\u00a0 When Fog submarine I-401 defects to humanity\u2019s side, it shifts the balance of power and sets all manner of changes in motion.\u00a0 Existential quandaries, geopolitical power struggles, and kickass sea battles ensue.<\/p>\n On paper, this should have made for one heck of an anime series, but Arpeggio of Blue Steel<\/i> suffered from having to cram a complex plot and setting into just twelve episodes.\u00a0 As a result, entire elements of the series\u2019 world had to be dropped completely, while others were simplified into irrelevance.\u00a0 At the same time, character development was kept to a minimum for a significant portion of the cast.\u00a0 What remained were some solid action sequences, a handful of quirky AI girls, and some interesting ideas.\u00a0 These alone couldn\u2019t carry the show, and I abandoned ship several episodes early.<\/p>\n Around a month after the anime adaptation of Arpeggio<\/i> wrapped up, Crunchyroll added the original manga to its catalog of online titles.\u00a0 One lazy night, I tried out the first few chapters.\u00a0 One thing led to another, and \u201cthe first few chapters\u201d quickly became \u201cthe first twenty-four chapters.\u201d\u00a0 At around 3:45 AM, it became obvious that the manga version of Arpeggio of Blue Steel<\/i> had everything the anime lacked.<\/p>\n I guess ship girls are the new airplane girls.<\/i><\/p>\n The most immediately apparent difference lies in the depth and complexity of the series\u2019 world.\u00a0 The anime essentially boiled down to a series of fights between I-401 and around half a dozen Fog ships.\u00a0 There were suggestions that human politics were also an issue for the heroes, but this mostly just served as an excuse to have a Mental Model take on some special forces soldiers.\u00a0 The manga presents a much more detailed look at all sides of the conflict, an approach that makes it far more interesting.\u00a0 We see power struggles within the Japanese government, rivalries amongst an expanded cast of Fog characters, and the efforts of human militaries to take on the more powerful Fog ships.\u00a0 As a result, the Arpeggio<\/i> manga has a living world to exist in, rather than just a sequence of events to follow.<\/p>\n It takes longer to notice, but the manga also devotes more effort to developing its characters.\u00a0 To its credit, the anime did a respectable job with several of the Mental Models, examining their varied reactions to direct contact with humans.\u00a0 Sadly, the same wasn\u2019t true for the show\u2019s human characters.\u00a0 There was little in the way of backstory for the I-401\u2019s crew, and they spent most of their screen time shouting expository dialogue.\u00a0 The original work takes the time to develop the crew, their allies, and their enemies.\u00a0 We learn more about Gunzou\u2019s military past and his family\u2019s connection with the Fog.\u00a0 Seeing Kongou under pressure from other high-ranking Fog ships makes her more than just a standard \u201cDestroy All Humans\u201d villain.\u00a0 Outside of combat, the sub crew gets a chance to evolve beyond their roles on the ship.\u00a0 We get a better sense of where everyone is coming from, and this deeper connection with the cast causes us to be more emotionally invested in the battle scenes.<\/p>\n Exciting combat sequences can make a series like Arpeggio of Blue Steel<\/i> good, but it\u2019s the more subtle touches that can make it great.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve had such wildly divergent opinions on two versions of the same story, and it\u2019s a testament to the quality of the manga that it so outshines a perfectly decent anime series.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad I gave this franchise a second chance, and look forward to seeing the manga\u2019s print release later this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You can pre-order Volume 1 of <\/em>Arpeggio of Blue Steel\u00a0from RightStuf.com<\/em> here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Kawaii Overthink is written by Paul Jensen. You can follow his ramblings about anime on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back in the fall of 2013, an anime series called Arpeggio of Blue Steel premiered in a season filled with big-name titles.\u00a0 A sci-fi series boasting some impressive naval combat sequences, Arpeggio faced stiff competition and was quickly torpedoed by fan-favorite shows from a variety of genres, including\u00a0Non Non Biyori and Kill la Kill.\u00a0 With [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":965,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions\/965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n