Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai (The Magnificent Kotobuki)

So it might be a little late, but I'm still making a thread about this.

Kotobuki Squadron in the Wasteland is a half-CG/half-2D anime that follows a squadron of six girls escorting airships and hunting down air pirates for a living, in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. We follow their missions and learn a bit more about them in the process.

Expect lightning-fast dialogue and impressive but (probably) realistic dog fights!

Oh, there's a mobile game based on the series… or the other way round?

Edited by Lyendith on Mar 21st 2019 at 6:48:17 PM

Episode 9! …I guess those◊ four◊ lines◊ at the end◊ sum it up quite nicely.

The bits of worldbuilding and political intrigue we had in the early episodes are now coming together, it's pretty interesting.

I still wonder where people in this world get their water when there are no traces of rivers or lakes, let alone seas.

Edit: Episode 10… So it's those holes that dried up the oceans, huh? Quite the big vacuum cleaners. >.> Meanwhile, Rahama's mayor finally grows a spine and Kylie's mysterious nemesis turns out to be another former disciple of the Old Sab. I already like their relationship.

Edited by Lyendith on Mar 22nd 2019 at 11:00:54 AM

Episode 11 has Isao evolve from slightly annoying clown to complete piece of shit. And we get some reveals… or half-reveals?

The episode was nice and tense, but then it just kinda… ends. It was weird.

It's still in the middle of the skirmish, they simply retreat because unlike tanks and ships, planes usually only have fuel for several hours even in cruising speed. Planes would take off, get in the furball before they retreat or shot down. One air battle usually consists of several air skirmishes and we only see one from each of two battlegrounds, so the episode ending here makes sense given the circumstances with the zeppelins.

What made me scratch my head wasn't ending the episode mid-retreat but literally mid-dialogue. "Hey, are you the one who shot down Allen?" "Yeah, why?" "Kþxbye".

Anyway, episode 12… are you fucking kidding me, this is the end already?? I was sure it was gonna be two-cour… as AlaAlba said in the Winter thread, this world is so rich it feels like we have barely scratched the surface of it, and half of the main characters barely had any backstory explained. Like, I wanna know what's the deal between Leona and Zara…

Regarding the fight and animation though, my god this episode was breathtaking. It helps that the setting (a Skyscraper City with a lake and bridges) is so different from the barren landscapes we had until now. And it once and for all justifies was they chose 3D animation for this show − there's no way they could have achieved that experience with 2D only.

Anyway, it was really an enjoyable series. It had a great take-off, almost crashed and burned in episode 2 and 3, but then rectified its course and steadily gained altitude as it went on. Too bad there isn't really a landing to speak off…

Watch the Harukaze Squadron short here.

First chapter of the manga here.