Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Ardee_Uchiha
Introduction:
An engrossing anime called Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova skillfully combines science fiction and naval combat. This series has a fascinating idea that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world where mankind is under the influence of a mysterious fleet of advanced sentient warships known as the "Fleet of Fog."
Animations and Visuals:
The amazing animations and visuals in Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova are one of its most notable aspects. The battleships' elaborate patterns, flashing blue lights, and svelte shapes give off a strong, enigmatic air. The battle scenes are well coordinated and display fierce naval combat using a special combination of CGI and conventional animation. The people' and the nautical env…
Read at the sourceThatAnimeSnobRE
Arpeggio is one of those shows which will forever be remembered as “that bad CGI anime with the battleships turning to girls”. Well, there obviously are far more things going on in it but who cares; you will remember it just for that, since it is ensnared in the middle of the uncanny valley effect. This is what it boils down to; and in case it went over your head the first time, allow me to repeat it once again: A show with bad CGI and battleships that are in fact cute girls. We live in the post Avatar era, fed up with schools and moe and THIS is what some create in an attempt to make us give a damn? What were the creators trying to do; spend money for the heck of it? Burning them in a fireplace would have the same effect and would also keep some poor orphans warm. It sure as hell ain’t en…
Read at the sourceAtaccot
Arpeggio of Blue Steel -Ars Nova- surprised me. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would like it given its very apparent use of CGI which I’m generally not a fan of. However my worries were quickly cast aside as the show offers a lot beneath its exterior.
The series opens in the year 2039, in which humanity makes its last stand against the mysterious Fleet of Fog. The Fog demonstrates a tremendous advantage in naval warfare and dominates human forces on the sea. This ultimately leads to a severe restriction in communications and commerce by sea, effectively isolating nations on an international level. Some years later, the vessel I-401 and its crew embark on operations to change the tide of battle. The I-401 crew, referred to as Blue Steel, consists of captain Gunzou Chihaya and his friends, al…
Read at the sourceJakuTheSloth
Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova
Arpeggio: the sounding of the notes of a chord in rapid succession instead of simultaneously.
Ars Nova: refers to a musical style which flourished in France and the Burgundian Low Countries in the late Middle Ages
First let me disclaim that I haven't consumed any of the other media around Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova (if there is any), this review is solely aimed at the anime itself. Overall I'd say this anime is above average overall, but isn't really special in any department. The show is visually average, I'd never describe it as gorgeous but for a show heavily CGI it's not grotesque either. For a show with musical terms in it's title I'm happy to say that the soundtrack was one of the show's stronger points imo. The battle themes used were reall…
Read at the sourcemouthpiece
Arpeggio is one of those shows which will forever be remembered as “that bad CGI anime with the battleships turning to girls”. Well, there obviously are far more things going on in it but who cares; you will remember it just for that, since it is ensnared in the middle of the uncanny valley effect. This is what it boils down to; and in case it went over your head the first time, allow me to repeat it once again: A show with bad CGI and battleships that are in fact cute girls. We live in the post Avatar era, fed up with schools and moe and THIS is what some create in an attempt to make us give a damn? What were the creators trying to do; spend money for the heck of it? Burning them in a fireplace would have the same effect and would also keep some poor orphans warm. Because as sure as hell…
Read at the sourceTevishSzat
Arpeggio of Blue Steel is a hard one to review, in part because it weighs out to being a fairly average series. It doesn't have a ton of strengths, nor does it have any really notable failure. It shows up, does its thing, and then departs, so it's really more a question of whether or not that 'thing' will be up your alley.
I can say, in that, it was a good deal better than it had to be, or even then it might have appeared to be. This show really could have coasted with some CG action and cute ship girls and found an audience, it didn't really need to reach for anything resembling quality. But it did. The writers took it seriously and for that at least I must give the show my respect.
The story is, in a sense, fairly basic. The entire running time is dedicated to a single mission (albeit…
Read at the sourcekorzzz
D@mn, this series was sweet! It has something for everyone:
- I cannot think of a subject matter better suited for CG than battle with large naval vessels (see "The Red Star" comic books for the parallel of this in print). And the naval tactics are very clever and entertaining. I was reminded of how I feel watching Hunt for Red October!
- Meanwhile, like the deft and crafty maneuvers of Captain Gunzou, this series effortlessly laces in some shameless and saucy fan service and sexual humor in a way that does not detract at all from the overall story. Some of the more sympathetic of fans might even say it is integral to the story, helping us feel the awakening of these new female warship AI's.
- The story itself isn't groundbreaking, but it all fits together and keeps moving well enough t…
Read at the sourceHydroAstral
What is Aoki Hagane No Arpeggio?
It's anime about ships, existential crisis, and how awesome naval combat is.
The story is is really unique,well, it might be a bit simillar to that of Strike Witches,but nontheless, the overall theme is different.
A really good point about the story is how the villains get just as much, or if not, more deep development than the MC.Hell, you could say that the villains of this anime are the main characters.
The art is honestly not that bad.It's more than acceptable, and it really works in it's favour when it comes to action scenes.
The character development is really good.Takao's special moment(that i will not spoil) was just bloody beautiful and will make you cry at least on the inside.
The music is pretty decent.Nothing to extravagant, but the sounds of th…
Read at the sourceCrimsonScythe
WARNING: Watching this anime will cause most other anime looks pale in comparison. Do not watch this anime until you're ready to set a new rival on your top 10 best anime list.
Aoki Hagane, or sometimes just called as Arpeggio, is a whole new level of anime, simply because of the daring, unique concept. Even in hindsight, it set difference among many other anime, also because of that difference. And that difference itself... is from the heart of anime itself; on its animation. Hence, anime is an animation.
Arpeggio of Blue Steel choose a risky yet audacious decision to uses 3D instead of conventional 2D animation. At first, you might ask... Why it's that good? The visual isn't even that smooth? Definitely not as smooth as some next-gen video games or more high budget Hollywood animation…
Read at the sourceDualsaga184
Overall - 8: I went into this anime with no expectations, and I was pleasantly surprised. When I watched it a second time I enjoyed it even more.
Story - 6:
The story is probably the worst thing about this anime, that being said it's not bad, just nothing special. The main character has to deliver some sort of ship part to america or something, I honestly forget because it's not really that important. They don't exactly do a good job explaining why this is important, but I'm fine with just accepting that it is.
The world building is decent, I like the flooded dystopia they made, but the viewer is expected to just accept that super advanced sentient ships just kina appeared. One of the things I like is how this show explains some of the details of the world. Questions like "Why are all th…
Read at the sourcellIRaveNlll
O que falar sobre Aoki Hagane? Se ele já é um anime magnífico por si só Hagane é o tipo de anime que você não dá nada, por tratar-se de embarcações/submarinos. Porém, ele tem um diferencial. Além das embarcações terem “sentimentos” e meio que serem “pessoas”, ele aborda uma temática, bastante peculiar. O anime em si, passa-se no futuro. Quase não existindo mais terra, superfície. Então, as forças armadas de maior poder, é a marinha. O personagem principal, como capitão de sua tripulação. Realiza certos serviços, para a marinha, e o anime, vai desenrolando-se basicamente nisso. Mas, por quê, Hagane consegue ser tão bom? Primeiro: o personagem principal, é um gênio estrategista. E personagens do tipo “inteligentes” sempre são bem vistos. Segundo: o anime se baseia em um futuro meio que pós a…
Read at the sourceS4LT
Arpeggio of Blue Steel is a pretty awful show that scammed me into watching it through all the way with a promise on a supernatural-political plot that was barely advanced over the course of the whole season.
Story
The promise of an interesting plot is the best reason to watch this show. Good hooks are established, such as "What is the Fog?", "What happened to the world", "What is the government hiding?". At the risk of spoilers, you never get to find out because these concepts are all hucked out the window promptly to facilitate a cringe-worthy harem fantasy. All events are more or less created to prop up this circus act and have no actual pertinence to the larger questions of the world. It's tempting to give the story a 2 or 3, since it did establish some intrigue for me, but honestly,…
Read at the source7Odyssey
After my Hiatus from anime, Aoki Hagane was a welcoming gem. The battles are what kept me watching it, because I know even though it is CGI, the graviton animations were lit.
Aoki Hagane tried a few things and failed at it, like trying to be seinen. This show is not seinen. It tried to introduce complex factors (like psychology and long debates over what constitutes human logic) and frankly, failed terribly. But that's not the reason I started watching this show.
What it does best is what Kantai Collection failed at. Yes, actual ships fighting each other. The reason I upped my rating for this anime from a 6 to a 8 is because the beginning of the final battle left that good of an impression on me.
The characters are clique in a way, but there are some irregularities in their behavior tha…
Read at the sourceTheUnluckyDrunk
Updating this review to reflect my current feelings.
While I definitely oversold this the first time around I feel as though it's still an anime deserving of a fair amount of praise. The story is very interesting and engaging. While it's not exactly a philosophical deep dive or an intense character study, I did still enjoy it a ton. So for that it gets an 8 from me, purely for being as engaging as it is.
The art is full 3D animation. Now though that turns off a lot of people I can confidently say that, once you push aside the gut reaction the visuals are very good. I think there's certainly room for improvement, but it still stands as one of the only examples of amazing 3D animation in anime.
The sound design, especially for the warships themselves is very well done. It's hard to ask fo…
Read at the sourcePunisher_1
Watched the complete series and thought it had a good plot but it suddenly get a bit too odd and nonsensical. There was some draw considering they use Historical and Modern Naval ships but then the sci-fi factor hits and reality goes out the window. It open more questions about the logic of why ships instead of aircraft or why an advanced alien race would replicate world war two ships then make the Captains all females that are a weabos wet dream.
Pros: Decent amount of battles, hot chicks, a different story line, above average art
Cons: Super silly girl crap, defies logic, large holes in story.
It is not the worst anime out there but not worth spending too much time on.
Read at the sourcerougepanzer
Alright. If you are going to watch this anime, you also have to watch BOTH movies after you finish the series. You see all the people complaining about unanswered questions? The movies answer them.
Alright, now for my review.
Art style is great. While people complain about CGI in anime, the CGI in here is great. It is not like some anime where CGI kills it. The amount of detail is amazing. Since the show takes place mostly at sea, not much detail to see in the background. However, the foreground has lots of detail. For instance, the ships seen in the story are based off real ships. Every detail is there from a ladder to the anti-aircraft armament. to a chip in the paint. Even when it shows characters in the foreground and lets say an information panel is the background, you can clearly r…
Read at the sourceMidway-Madness
Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova is set in a future where most of the world is buried under water. Humanity's last hope is to trade with each other via sea and air. But one day a mysterious force via the name Fleet of Fog appears and blocks off all the sea and air routs. Now humanity's last hope lies in the hand of a boy named Chihaya Gunzou and the fleet of fog submarine I-401.
I don't have much against this anime, the story is pretty striaght forward from the beginning and the sound and animation is solid. The action scenes are great, they're filled with bright lasers and missiles flying across your screen and sometimes it gets really intense and sometimes I found myself inching forward in my chair and almost jumping up and down because not only am I a huge history and military nerd I…
Read at the sourcekampfwagenvon
I've enjoyed watching this anime. it's fun and awesome, warships are well designed it's like a real revived IJN Warships. The art is kinda cheaper but i've enjoy it. and the story is kinda OK but it has a lot of tactical battles and boo... don't mind the last one and of course the characters are well designed too specially Takao, Gonzou and Iona its like kancolle but in the adult faces unlike 12 years all girls and they are so beautiful (Except Gonzou because he's handsome) its like a real Marine class worker's dream and I like how they are made. anyways its worth it to watch, recommended.
Read at the sourcechetrhcp
There are a fair share of Anime that revolve around ships, and this one is no exception. However, unlike most any other, the battles in this anime are done almost exclusively on futuristic Star Wars-esque battleships. And that's really pretty much all this anime has going for it. Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova, also known in English as Arpeggio of Blue Steel, is a very unique show, at least from a first glance.
Story 6/10
I'm not going to lie, the story in and of itself is very interesting. However, the way the plot unfolded was absolutely ridiculous. Twelve episodes was simply not enough time to properly let the plot run it's course. There are so many things left unexplained at the end of the series that I felt almost no compassion despite the very well put-together final episode. An…
Read at the sourceDalek_of_Skaro
Some shows are just so great and well done in every aspect that they open themselves up for what I refer to as 'cloning'. Basically, a show that's done amazingly and has a huge following is taken, altered every so slightly, and spit out by another person as their own. In some situations, it's blatantly obvious when a show is being copied. However, when done right, two shows can have very similar concepts and plot lines, yet still be vastly different. As is the case with Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: ARS Nova, or as it may be more commonly known, Arpeggio of Blue Steel.
I mentioned how this show was similar to another show I watched. In fact, it had only been a month or so since I finished that show that I began Arpeggio of Blue Steel. The show in question is one you may have heard of known as…
Read at the source
