Girly Airforce

Alright, I just recently finished this anime and I have some thing to say about it. If you don't know what Girly Airforce is, here's the synopsis of it:

"Mysterious flying creatures known as Zai suddenly appear, and in order to fight the creatures, mankind creates fighter aircraft called "Daughters," as well as the automatic fighting mechanism "Anima," which are shaped like human girls. The story centers on a young man named Kei Narutani, who yearns to fly in the sky, and an Anima considered to be humanity's trump card, a girl name Gripen."

Having watched the first episode, I'm going to say this: Is this a crossover between Darling In The Franxx and Arpeggio really? Because the protagonist, Kei, almost reminds me of Hiro from Di TF minus the melancholicness and add more of his stubborness into becoming a pilot of JSDF and we got a girl named Gripen that almost looks like Zero-Two but a little bit stoic. The Girly Airforce team, known as The Daughters are fighting against the evil aircraft known as Zai or Xi which has a pretty cool planes if you ask me. So far, the episode is okay I guess... But I'm not sure on how this is going. Do you guys wanted to watch this anime or not?

Got hooked the moment it was revealed that the female MC is a Antropomorphic Personification of a swedish jet fighter.

Yes, I will.

Edited by TitanJump on Jan 18th 2019 at 1:26:29 PM

First episode was fine and had some promise.

Second one sure....existed. I don't think I've seen a more nothing of an episode in what is ostensibly an action series in recent memory.

LN adaptations tend to be weird in the first place but I feel like if the second episode is any indication we're gonna be in for some weird pacing issues.

This is without getting into the use of the whole "she needs him to help her fly!!" shtick.

On the other hand at least Kei has a personality, which is more than can be said for plenty of LN protagonists. Also he's Chinese, which is rare in anime, hopefully the show will actually do something with that.

Episode 2:

Actually, the episode isn't that bad. We saw some of the personality of one of the planes, Gripen, and her relationship with Kei began to grow as they hang out with each other. And we also saw Kei's reasoning why he truly had a contempt with Xi—Basically her mother was killed by them so he wants to avenge his mother's death—and its a bit understandable on why he wants to be a pilot. And man, I feel pity with Gripen's condition but hopefully she can get better soon.

Well, the Saab Gripen is one of my all-time favorite fighters, so that's something.

@Larkmarn Interesting, btw... Do you follow the franchise especially the L Ns? Wonder how was it though?

No, not in the slightest. I hadn't heard of this until I happened to click on the thread and was all "oh huh, the Gripen, huh? That's a grossly underutilized plane compared to is contemporaries like the Rafale or Typhoon."

Ah! Alright... That's something interesting to learn haha... Not a plane enthusiast myself but I'm cool with that

Episode 3:

Some montages regarding on how military and the Anima works a bit and we get a bit of a wham moment when it was revealed that Gripen was made from the remnants of Xi. Speaking of Xi... They're a nasty bastards alright, decimating a city for no purpose. Also, Gripen seems having a hard time during her test and we got introduced to a new character, a blonde named Eagle so yeah...

Episode 03:

So Let Me Get This Straight... Zai are basically the aerial equivalent of the Abyssal Fleet? And the Anima (a.k.a.: Jetgirls) are created from recovered Zai cores?

Man, Girly Air Force just went full Kantai Collection: The Movie with that spoiler.

Also...impressive flying Eagle-chan, but can you fly with a solo wing like Larry "Pixy" Foulke?

Eagle's going to die or be retired and replaced by Raptor.

Is there any particular reason humans insist on using those easily-fooled missiles? Besides Macross Missile Massacre looking impressive, that is. Massed high-caliber fragmentation shells with mechanical timer detonators will be way more effective. Cheaper too.

Anyway, Gripen is back in the air, now protected by Plot Armor of our Protagonist being her Guy in Back.

I'm guessing bigger(?) explosive punch and range, though yeah, guns seem to work just as well.

Episode 04:

• Damn, Eagle is so loud, it's a mystery how agents who were supposed to keep her on the base premises didn't hear her loud voice while she was talking to Kei. (Also, well-developed teenage body...mind of a kid.) Hopefully, Phantom will be the "refined onee-san" type.
• Hearing those brevity codes takes me back to playing the "Golden Trilogy" of Ace Combat games on the PS2—at the time when PS3 units were starting to proliferate. But I digress. That spelling for "bogey", though...
• Isn't there a training regimen for fighter pilots in order to handle high Gs? Because Kei better start doing that A-S-A-damn-P if he wants to keep flying with Gripen. It's one thing to fly civilian planes, but flying a fighter aircraft is another thing.
• Upon seeing Gripen and Kei down that Zai cruiser, only one quote came to mind:

Episode 4:

Lol... Eagle is a decent character I guess and seems that Minghua feels jealous on her In the meantime, Gripen had a bit of an issue when it comes to flying thanks to Zai/Xi and seemingly give up. But she then got her hopes up a little bit with Kei on her side and they manage to defeat the Zai together. But this came with a bit of a sacrifice that Kei ended up getting injured. I'm hoping and crossing my fingers that Gripen will become a lot better and able to fight the Zai in next episode.

More like fill the skies with enough supersonic metal that Xi's super-maneuverability is useless as it is nowhere safe they could move into - it's not like they can teleport. Yet, anyway.

Also, Gripen and Eagle aren't your normal jet fighters either. They sure can redout/blackout even trained military pilots in no time. That said, I agree that Kei needs to toughen up ASAP: I bet being bruised all over after each flight isn't fun.

Now that you mention it...a rapid-firing EML? (aka: A railgun.)

Also, it was nice that they remembered that Gripen can launch from a regular highway. Reminded me of Yellow Squadron's makeshift airbase in San Salvacion, too.

And double post...

Episode 05:

• Your wingman (and in this case, mock battle opponent) having a better plane while you're stuck with a smaller aircraft with limited capability? That's exactly the same feeling I get when starting a new game of Ace Combat Zero (never mind that a Gripen isn't exactly a starter-level aircraft in that game).
• Gripen playing up the Innocent Fanservice Girl angle, eh?
• So Phantom is not an onee-san, but has the air of a sheltered rich girl? OK then... (*shows hints of a Yandere side*) Uh oh...
• Why would an old Cold War-era fighter—the predecessor to the F-15—be upgraded with captured Zai tech? And then the mock battle shows why—electronic warfare. I'm also reminded of Jack "Heartbreak One" Bartlett and Zero's Dietrich Kellerman (aka: Silber 1) who both flew F-4 Phantom IIs in their respective games.

Edited by IncognitoNinja on Feb 8th 2019 at 12:57:57 AM

Well, guess that blew my expectations regarding Phantom away out of the expectations.

Her being basically a demeaning bitch and all...

Even so, she's a bit of a hypocrite for claiming that she's strong, considering that she had to rely on underhanded trickery and not actual strength to win, making her claims of the others very much hollow.

I should be ashamed over smiling when Eagle got her childish pride shot down, because even if I don't mind her as a character, the character type itself tend to grate me since I have a saying of "spoiled children molds into rotten adults". In this regard, I agree with how Phantom handled her, since spoiled children are the absolute worst to deal with, especially if they're self-entitled brats like Eagle. They need a good psychological beating in order to start growing up. Since if nobody ever corrects them, they would just remain the same for the rest of their lives, potentially with disastrous results following. (Not going to point at a certain real life example.)

Regarding the doctor's metaphor of "the acrobat and the egg", my mind immediatly went to a scenario where the acrobat would be able to do their acrobatics just fine. Just take the egg and the spoon, and put it in their mouth, behind the teeth, and bite down on the spoon's neck. Then, just do the tricks as usual without opening the mouth. That's the safest place the egg can be at that point, so I just considered it as "Just let Gripen become one with the wingman in-flight.". (Also, no clue how that would look like...)

After all this, I'm still a bit puzzled regarding the relation between the daughters and their anima. Are they the Anthropomorphic Personification of the planes the Xi-tech got integrated into, or are the girls themselves the xi-tech, (grown artificially,) who got melded into their planes by letting them sit in the cockpit and assigned the plane names as their own?

Could someone please explain this part to me please?

Edited by TitanJump on Feb 8th 2019 at 11:47:23 AM

Anima appear to be rather independent of their airframes, so it is likely that both have Xi-tech in them. Normal planes, after all, can't pull maneuvers like that nor are they controlled through neural interface (yet?).

Episode 5:

We now introduced to a new character, Phantom. Yeah...I have to admit that this is not a pretty good first impression for her character. I mean, yes... She will develop later on but her character being a bit of a condescending prick who has no qualms on cheating gave a bit of a bad impression tbh. Anyways, for the best highlights of the episode? I do really like Gripen's interaction with Kei regarding Gripen being an Innocent Fanservice Girl so yeah...

Hm... Between Eagle being confirmed as F-15J and Fantom's comment about the age of Eagle's airframe being only twenty-something years old, we can safely put the show as taking place around mid 2000s.

More surprisingly, Anima are an Anthropomorphic Personification of an aircraft model, not just a single plane. There can't be a second Gripen.

And, it's nice for once to see a show with real-world countries where someone other than Japan (or America) creates the weapon that saves the humankind.

Now then, onto the episode's mission: I still can't understand, where did all unguided munitions of this world disappeared to? Just carpet-bomb that island with "dumb" bombs from a safe altitude, no need (aside from THE PLOT) to do something as fancy as Anima taking over and guiding missiles through EPCM... Or, hell, just use fuel-air burst weapons. I'm sure that one can rig a drop-tank to act as such. /rant

I gotta commend Xi, though, for their Death from Above Cluster Missile SAM thingie. A bit too flashy, but very efficient.

I just love how the female MC is a Swede for a change. Sure, The Anthropomorpic Personification of a Swedish fighter jet, but still, an actual Swede.

So Phantom is actually, (at least mentally) a century old? And considering her upbringing, I wouldn't be surprised if she isn't actually secretly wishing for humanity's destruction rather than its salvation, considering how it has treated her so far.

but sacrificing Japan in exchange for the rest of the world's "possible" salvation is just a really cold machine move, no way how it's spun.

Phantom seriously needs to learn the true value of humanity...seriously.

From how I caught it, the situation with the Xi might be so severe that they can't just carpet bomb the base (seriously, what is up with that thing? it's more like a techno version of "The Thing" judging from how fast it breaks the island down and evolves its base up...) and then again, there is always the ever present danger of Xi-fighters who can just come in and shoot the bombs down.

Priorities first though, Phantom needs to learn some manners...

Edited by TitanJump on Feb 14th 2019 at 7:03:29 PM

Episode 6:

• A powerful force taking over an island and rapidly building a forward operating base? A mention of the Island Chain Strategy? Nope, this doesn't remind me of anything at all... (Though I'll admit a degree of catharsis seeing PLAN warships and PLAAF J-7s get wrecked by the Zai back in episode 1.)
• So if Russia was the first to develop Anima, which planes were chosen for the project? The Fulcrum? Flanker (or any of its derivatives like the "Terminator")? The Berkut or PAK/FA? Or maybe even the Foxhound or Fishbed?
• And if only one plane in a family can be turned into an Anima, does this mean the Americans weren't able to turn the F-16 (modified/license-built by the JASDF into the F-2, which is seen in the opening) into one? Or their own F-15? (Eagle's model is specifically mentioned to be an F-15J—the Japanese license-built version of the F-15.)
• OK, so that explains Phantom's personality somewhat... But I can't help but wonder if that's actually the Zai side of her manifesting.
• With the first sortie of the three ending in a tactical withdrawal and the Zai rapidly expanding their FOB, is it really the time for another training mock battle? Good grief...

Episode 6:

Well... I guess we have a reason on why Phantom's behaviour is like that but I'm not sure that's enough to excuse her condescending behaviour like that. And interestingly enough, Phantom is a centuries years old but isn't a plane like that a bit too modern? But given the Sci-Fi setting is like this, eh... I can excuse that. And we also revealed that Russia was the first one to develop the Anima technology and in the end, both Kai and co are try to attack the Zai's base in an unknown island so yeah...

Mentally.

They put her in a VR-Simulator and had her do a century's worth of war simulations for experience until she eventually snapped and turned indifferent. Her mind is a century old, not the actual plane. Even so, it does not excuse her behavior in the slightest.