Azur Lane 11
アズールレーン episode 11

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Enterprise attacks Purifier, who survives. However, she and her Siren fleet teleport to safety, having stolen the Black Cube. Purifier joins her fellow Sirens Observer and Tester, who are with Kaga and the giant Siren ship Orochi. Observer activates the cube, which causes Akagi to return. Azur Lane hold an emergency meeting after Orochi launches an attack on a deserted island, basically nuking in. They agree with Enterprise to go hard after the Sirens.

Meanwhile, Prinz Eugen reports on the Orochi to her Iron Blood faction. She fears the Siren may have infiltrated all of the factions, including Iron Blood. Elsewhere, the Sakura fleet is on the move. They decide they are going to grab Kaga from the Sirens and slap some sense into her. Back with Kaga, she senses that someone is inside Akagi. This causes Amagi to reveal herself and Kaga goes unconscious.

Akagi realizes that Amagi is actually the personification of Orochi. In response, Orochi points out that Kaga was retrofitted from Amagi’s parts. Meanwhile, the Azur Lane fleet closes on the Orochi fleet, finding the Sakura have already engaged in combat. Multiple Tester girls attack the Sakura destroyer ships while Kaga attacks the larger Sakura ships. Prinz Eugen arrives with her fleet and attacks. However, she acknowledges that the combined Red Axis fleets are not enough.

Azur Lane launches an attack to support Prinz Eugen. At the same time, Unicorn saves Shoukaku and Zuikaku from an attack by Kaga. Ayanami challenges Kaga while Enterprise prepares to attack, flanked by Belfast. Belfast notices Akagi on the deck of Orochi and points this out to Enterprise. Both are stunned by this, but more stunned when Amagi reveals herself.

Thoughts/Review

It has been ages since I last watched an episode of Azur Lane. Thanks to watching Western Otaku stream the mobile game on Twitch, I was reminded that Azur Lane 11 finally dropped. Now, can I remember all of the names of the ship-girls? 😅

The Enemy of My Enemy

When Azur Lane was formed, all four major factions (and whatever minor factions) were part of it. The purpose was to fight Sirens. I’m still not clear on why Iron Blood and Sakura Empire felt the need to not only break away from Azur Lane, but also to go to war with their former allies, Eagle Union and Royal Navy. I get they were being manipulated by the Sirens, but the reasons used to justify the war still don’t make sense to me.

Nevertheless, with Azur Lane 11, we now see all four factions coming together to fight Kaga and her Siren fleet. After all, at their core, the Sirens are still the main enemy. So I am enjoying seeing the different factions come together to battle their common enemy.

Sirens

I have no idea as to the motivation of the Sirens. On one hand, they do appear powerful enough to wipe out Earth if they really wanted to. On the other hand, they are clearly holding back for whatever reasons. So the question becomes, “Why did the Siren’s need to manipulate Akagi, then Kaga to carry out their mission?”

It seems that the Sirens wanted all four major factions to engage them in combat. And Tester seems to be able to split into multiple copies. So it will be interesting to see what happens from here.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Azur Lane 11 with some final thoughts.

• Normally, I have a section for the ship-girls appearing in episode. However, I have to skip that due to a lack of time. Fate/Grand Order is doing one of their worst events, but I’ve got to grind it.
• And speaking of grinding, there is a part of me that would love to play Azur Lane after watching Western Otaku play it. But it would be impossible to grind both games, so I just won’t bother.
• In the flashbacks, it was interesting to see that Kaga and Akagi used to fight, forcing Amagi to break it up.
• There was a definite improvement in animation. So kudos to Bibury for taking the time to get it right.

In the end, Azur Lane 11 was a good episode, filled with plenty of action. We also got a bit more backstory of Akagi, Kaga, and Amagi. Really looking forward to seeing more.