Arpeggio of Blue Steel

Yeah, if you can build one, space elevators are (long term) a more efficient way of getting into orbit than anything else.

Happy 100th chapter, "Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio"!

And... What the hell is going on? The tree of life for Mental Models has grown under the facility #4 and its appearance might have been what caused the fire in the first place.

Lexi is the best girl. Even if she abuses her powers for hacking retroactive submission of documents into human databases.

Also, U-chan is currently allowed to have her Mental Model out. It's been so long since we last saw that cute little girl.

Oh, and how can we forget Kongou-Mama! She even calls herself that.

Edited by NHunter on Nov 8th 2018 at 5:38:32 AM

So there's a Blue Steel gacha game.

Hopefully characters from the manga also appear.

It's been.... awhile...

Anyway, it seem that chapters 133 - 139 finally found they way online and we finally see the power of a carrier assault and suppression ship. And, damn, Shinano kicks ass. Not only she blocked a shot from Bismark's supergraviton cannon (meant for Musashi) without any notable damage, but also made Bismark do a strategic withdrawal.

We also finally get some answers about Shouzou. He was killed by Musashi and his current body is indeed a kind-of Mental Model. His mind, apparently, was preserved and cloned/uploaded into a spare core. He's the only one like that, though: Musashi's human crew was indeed (unmodified?) humans and Musashi made sure to keep them safe during her showdown with Bismark.

And now we also have a second Mental Model of Kongou running around. A little loli mama Kongou. And she's adorable!

Finally, Vampire continue to be one big badass. Even if she need a lot of support from Repulse and Yamato. Still, it's no small feat for a destroyer to take on a freakin' battleship one on one and come out alive. Though, definitely, not in one piece.

Edited by NHunter on Oct 6th 2022 at 2:27:19 PM

Been a while, indeed.

But somehow, despite not having read it for several years, picking it back up felt surprisingly comfortable. I've read tons of mangas where just picking them up after just a few months break leaves me at a bit of a loss as to what's happened and who's who, and those have fewer plot threads and far fewer characters than this. But here, very little stood out as details I didn't remember. I remember almost all characters, maybe not exact names (ships aside), but certainly roles. They're all so colourful, and the plot is unique (at least as far as what I've read).

Did we actually see or hear anything of Shinano before, or did she just appear out of nowhere? That's one part I might've forgotten about. Since as it was, it felt like a bit of an Ass Pull, but I'm not sure about it. And it's not like they don't pull out new stuff from time to time anyway. Well, carriers. Sucks to be Bismarck.

Kongou mini-version is indeed cute.

Yes to Vampire. All of it. She's in my top three favourite characters. In particular the part where she offered to switch her personality back to her previous slightly more socially incompetent version.

In other not-news, Kirishima is a nut-job (even relative to other shipgirls), but still doesn't compare to side-story Ashigara, and Shoukaku does things you shouldn't try at home.

The one thing I don't like is the assertion that "humanity is all about conflict, therefore humanity is all about violence", despite even giving examples of where it isn't the case. All I get from that is that if it's true (in-story), it's not a fictional humanity I can relate to.

Other than that, still enjoy all the various interactions. And the plot isn't too bad either.

I think Shinano was mentioned offhandedly by Yamato back when she had Atago infiltrating the naval academy (around chapter 100-ish). Don't think it explicitly spelled Shinano's mission to protect Musashi, though.