Azur Lane 05
アズールレーン episode 05

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Royal light cruisers Sheffield and Edinburgh along with Sakura repair ship Akashi are trapped on a ruined city that is also a series of islands. The Sakura have numerous ships and Siren-tech ships surrounding the islands. They are also using planes to scout for the Royal ship-girls. Meanwhile on an outer island, Iron Blood destroyers Z1 and Z23, light cruiser Köln, and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen assist in the blockade.

Azur Lane sends a massive number of ships from the Royal and Union fleets to this island to rescue Sheffield and Edinburgh. Royal light cruiser Belfast is with Union carrier Enterprise, where they discuss the situation. Enterprise has a hard time accepting the Royal Navy’s idea of ship-girls basically being fully human rather than weapons of war.

Back at the Sakura fleet, heavy cruiser Atago notices destroyer Ayanami’s discomfort over the upcoming fight and comforts her. Meanwhile, Sakura planes have discovered Sheffield and Edinburgh’s hiding place and forced them away. The Iron ships ready themselves to stop the Royal ship-girls from escaping.

Royal battlecruiser Repulse opens fire on the blockade, followed by broadsides from the other Azur Lane ships. They primarily target Siren-tech ships. Belfast and Union light cruiser Cleveland attempt to sneak into the island, but are intercepted by Sakura heavy cruiser Takao. She’s backed up by Atago. Union destroyer Laffey and Royal destroyer Javelin also attempt a penetration, but are intercepted by Ayanami.

The Iron fleet intercept Sheffield and Edinburgh while Akashi hides. Meanwhile, Cleveland takes on Takao and Atago, allowing Belfast to assist her fellow maid-ships. Elsewhere, Ayanami is frustrated that Javelin and Laffey won’t engage her. However, she comes to realize that the two have the same feelings about being friends that she has.

In the meantime, Sakura carriers Shoukaku and Zuikaku are fooled into coming for Union carrier Hornet. At the same time, Enterprise reveals herself to the Iron forces. Prinz Eugen orders their retreat.

Thoughts/Review

I honestly didn’t expect Azur Lane 05 to continue the story of Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Akashi’s escape from the Sakura Empire base. But I’m really glad it did.

Episode Suspense

Opening up Azur Lane 05 with the Sakura ships hunting for Sheffield and Edinburgh while the Iron Blood ships was a very good move on the part of Bibury Animation Studio. To be honest, at the end of the previous episode, I thought Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Akashi had escaped. I fully expected that at the start of episode 5, the Azur Lane folks would be pondering the Black Box Siren tech.

While there haven’t been any deaths in Azur Lane, I still felt the anxiety of the moment as the Royal ship-girls are hunted. Further to that was the general feeling of suspense as the Iron forces trapped their prey, or as the Azur Lane forces attempted to rescue their comrades. I liked this aspect a lot.

That said, I felt there were moments of inopportune comedy. I have no problem with comedy being used to break up the tension. However, some of these moments in this episode went a bit too far.

Timid Ship-Girls

One weird element in Azur Lane is the fact that some ship-girls are so timid. In Azur Lane 05, the warrior-like Sheffield is teamed up with the fearful Edinburgh. Rather than make her more human, it made Edinburgh seem more comedic, which was unfortunate. And there were other Azur Lane ship-girls who came off as timid as well.

On the other hand, I could understand why Akashi would be fearful. As a ship-girl, she’s only a repair ship, not a warship. Further, she was nearly killed by a Siren. And she knows she’s really not safe with the Sakura since Akashi saw things she wasn’t meant to see. As such, carrier Akagi might well end her life. So Akashi’s timid nature came off as natural.

Just so I’m clear, I’m not opposed to the ship-girls having different personalities. That includes one or some of them being afraid. But when it is a cliched character trope of timidity, that’s where I have an issue.

Sakura Empire Doubts

I liked that more ship-girls within Sakura are questioning Akagi’s plans to use Siren tech. So when carrier Shoukaku wonders about this, I approved. It helps gives some of the ship-girls more interesting personalities.

Of course, we have Ayanami’s ongoing doubts about fighting Azur Lane. Having spent a bit of time with Laffey and Javelin, she can relate to them. And it would be easy for her to hate them if Laffey and Javelin engaged her in combat. But because they didn’t, Ayanami’s internal conflict increases, which is interesting.

Granted, this is right on the border of being cliched “love and friendship win the day” stuff, but for now, I’m cool with it.

Enterprise Journey

Our character journey with Enterprise continued in Azur Lane 05. I’m really enjoying this story thread. Enterprise’s notion of self is pretty literal. She may appear to be a young, human woman, but in reality, she was made to be a tool, specifically a weapon of war. Thus I understood her finding the Royal Navy’s structure of having a queen, maids, etc. so odd.

Even though it was a cliched “I’ve got the high ground” moment, I loved Enterprise getting that heroic moment. And then when Z23 thought about making a move, the glare from Enterprise was just awesomeness for me. 😍

As an aside, I rather enjoyed how Hornet referred to Enterprise as her older sister (Nee-chan) when she fooled Shoukaku and Zuikaku into coming after her.

Ship Girl List

The sheer number of ship-girls in this series is insane. Normally, I would complain about having so many characters, but in this case, I understand why the series has to do this. So in part for my own future reference, and for others interested, I will compose a list of ships named or with speaking parts in each episode from here on out. For Azur Lane 05, they were as follows:

• Royal Navy: light cruisers Belfast, Sheffield and Edinburgh; heavy cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk; battlecruiser Repulse; battleship Prince of Wales; and the destroyer Javelin.
• Eagle Union: battleship Oklahoma; light cruisers Helena, San Diego, and Cleveland; carriers Enterprise and Hornet; and the destroyer Laffey.
• Sakura Empire: battleships Fusou and Yamashiro; repair ship Akashi; carriers Shoukaku and Zuikaku; heavy cruisers Takao, Atago, Kako and Furutaka; and the destroyer Ayanami.
• Iron Blood: destroyers Z1 and Z23; light cruiser Köln; and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.

If I missed anyone, let me know in the comments.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Azur Lane 05 ended up being very good, mainly because I didn’t expect the series to have an episode on Sheffield and Edinburgh attempting to escape. I’m rather looking forward to the next episode.

What did you think of this episode? I’d love to hear your thoughts!