Azur Lane 09
アズールレーン episode 09

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Ayanami wakes on the Azur Lane base. The Royal carrier Ark Royal lets her know that she’s officially a prisoner of war. Meanwhile, Javelin and Laffey are brought up for discipline for their actions in combat. They are assigned to Ayanami as “punishment”. Afterward, Hornet, Prince of Wales, Cleveland, and Belfast discuss the Black Mental Cube, which has become more active since the fight.

Elsewhere, Vestal pays a visit to Enterprise, who’s out viewing the sea. Meanwhile, Laffey and Javelin escort Ayanami around the base. Ayanami is surprised at the warm welcome she gets from the Azur Lane ship-girls. Unbeknownst to them, Ark Royal is keeping an eye on the threesome. Eventually, the trio come to the shopping district where Ayanami is surprised to see Akashi running a large store. Akashi briefs Ayanami on what she witnessed that caused her to flee the Sakura.

At the Sakura base, Ayanami’s sisters Yukikaze, Shigure, Yuudachi are depressed over losing her, as is Zuikaku. Elsewhere, Shoukaku briefs their leader, Nagato. Still elsewhere, the Iron Blood ship-girls at the Sakura base also discuss a plan of action. Back at Azur Lane, Queen Elizabeth has an entourage of Royal ship-girls going golfing. They too discuss the situation.

That evening at chow, Ayanami tells the others how life on the Sakura base is similar to life on the Azur Lane base. That night, she goes out for a stroll and encounters Enterprise. Ayanami confesses to not understanding why Azur Lane has been so warm and welcoming to her. Further, she’s not interested in fighting. Enterprise says she feels the same. Enterprise leaves and Javelin and company meet her and re-introduce themselves.

Thoughts/Review

After some recent “go-go-go” episodes, Azur Lane 09 decides to slow down the pace a bit. And I honestly didn’t mind.

The Prisoner of War

As I expected, Ayanami ended up going to the Azur Lane base in Azur Lane 09. I honestly expected Zuikaku and Shoukaku to be taken as well. But the anime skips over why this didn’t happen.

That said, Ayanami has had a character arc throughout the series. As such, I understand why she was captured. I suspect she and Akashi will be the bridge that causes the Sakura Empire and Azur Lane to form an alliance.

Also, as expected, Ayanami becomes friends with Javelin and Laffey in addition to Unicorn.

The Enterprise Story

While Azur Lane 09 did touch on the events that happened to Enterprise, I was kind of surprised at how things seemed to be downplayed. Yes, Azur Lane has concerns about Enterprise after what happened in the battle against the Sakura. But I expected Azur Lane would be running tests on her and trying to determine why her eyes went gold colored like they did.

I did like how Enterprise and Ayanami had a chat. Both have had parallel stories exploring themselves. So it was nice seeing another side of Enterprise. And Enterprise’s words to Ayanami caused Belfast to smile. Maybe that’s why Azur Lane isn’t as concerned.

FUNimation Subs

I’ve remained silent on FUNimation’s subtitles. They ignore all Japanese honorifics because ignoring is a translation choice (or whatever). But this episode had a problem so egregious, I had to say something. For some reason, they decided to call Bogue “Borg” in the subs. There was an actual escort carrier in World War II call the U.S.S. Bogue. So I don’t understand why the subtitles were wrong there.

Ship-girl List

Here’s my list of ship-girls (with speaking parts only as there were an s-ton of non-speaking cameos) that I could identify from Azur Lane 09. (Let me know in the comments if I missed anyone. There were an insane number, as usual.) This anime series seems determined to get all of the ship-girls from the game into the anime, even if only for a cameo.

• Eagle Union: carriers Enterprise, Hornet; light carrier Bogue, Long Island; light cruisers Cleveland; destroyers Laffey; repair ship Vestal.
• Royal Navy: carriers Ark Royal, Illustrious; light carrier Chaser (?-not sure about this since she was in golfing attire and not properly ID’d), Unicorn; battleships Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, Prince of Wales; light cruisers Belfast, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Newcastle; destroyers Javelin, Charles Ausburne, Thatcher, Aulick, Spence, Foote, Glowworm;
• Sakura Empire: carriers Zuikaku, Shoukaku, Kaga; battleships Nagato, Mutsu; destroyers Ayanami, Yukikaze, Shigure, Yuudachi, Kawakaze, Yuugure, Hatsuharu; repair ship Akashi.
• Iron Blood: heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen; heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper; and destroyers Z1 and Z23.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Azur Lane 09 with some final thoughts.

• One would think that Queen Elizabeth and other major ship-girls would meet to discuss the Mental Cube. Instead, she’s out golfing with a large chunk of the Royal Navy, though they do discuss the situation. But only four ship-girls discuss the Mental Cube.
• Ark Royal was introduced in this episode. Initially, she was pretty cool, but then they made her kind of whacked by the end of the episode. 😅
• After being missing for a bit, it was nice to see Iron Blood ship-girls return. Who knows what they are up to though.
• I don’t know what the Sirens have planned for Akagi. Nevertheless, the temptation of Kaga has begun. And whatever the Siren plan is, as the Royal Navy noted, it isn’t an immediate wipe out of everything on Earth.

In the end, Azur Lane 09 was a fun, laid-back episode, mostly dealing with character stuff.