The Magnificent Kotobuki: Initial Impressions (One Step Forward, Two Steps Back)

In my last post, I wrote down some of the most significant differences between Girls und Panzer and High School Fleet. After I was done watching High School Fleet, I saw various posts asking if there was a aerial counterpart to these two shows. Turns out there is. Called The Magnificent Kotobuki (the Japanese title of the show oddly enough roughly translates to "Kotobuki Squadron in the Wilderness"), the show premiered on January 13, 2019. At first glance, this show looks like... well you guessed it... Girls und Panzer but with planes! With this in mind, once more I went into the breach and binged on the show, making it the third anime series I've watched thus far. The following post will talk about my initial impressions.

Like its land and naval counterparts, The Magnificent Kotobuki has a female main cast that utilize authentic looking World War II vehicles in an alternate reality. Once again, don't expect a show that is an accurate simulation of how planes perform. Planes go "at the speed of plot", have improved maneuverability, and fly higher and further than they did in real life.

Before carrying on, let me drop my two cents on what is perhaps the most controversial talking point of the show: the use of 3D characters alongside 2D characters. Since I'm not an anime fan, I must say that while it wasn't outstanding, its not terrible either... just serviceable. Perhaps they could have made certain scenes less jarring to ease the transition and make it less weird for 2D anime purists.

Speaking of graphics, the action is superb. With dogfights that would even make Star Wars fans pay attention. The sound design is excellent as well (as to how accurate the sounds are for specific planes though, you better ask a die hard combat aviation aficionado), heightening the experience of watching the planes fly and getting into combat situations. These two elements are perhaps the highlight of the show and its greatest strength.

The spice of life

One shortcoming that High School Fleet had was the lack of visual variety among its characters. The Magnificent Kotobuki took this to heart and ensured that it had visually distinct characters. Not just the major ones, but all the characters that show up for more than one episode.

Another deficiency that affected High School Fleet was the number of military equipment variants being shown. For The Magnificent Kotobuki utilizes a good number of World War II aircraft types, although they are all Japanese planes... with the exception of a noteworthy plane in the final episode.

Compared to High School Fleet, the musical score was much more noticeable in The Magnificent Kotobuki. The Indiana Jones sounding flourishes helped a lot. Regrettably though, it doesn't match the quality of Girls und Panzer's soundtrack. Despite having Shiro Hamaguchi on board (the same guy who composed Girls und Panzer's score), there was a lack of distinct musical themes for at least the main characters. Heck, a fighter squadron calling themselves "Elite Industries" has a prominent song that plays whenever they fly into the picture, so why couldn't the girls of Kotobuki Squadron have their own leitmotifs that stand out? Speaking of music, playing tracks made by John Williams for Star Wars while watching the dogfights helped tremendously in dialing up the action to eleven.

Buildup and Worldbuilding... or lack thereof

If you thought that Girls und Panzer and High School Fleet needed more worldbuilding, The Magnificent Kotobuki has it worse... much worse. How bad is it? For starters, a major bombshell is dropped in the fifth episode. As one viewer noted:

"The oceans are gone" Are they just going to casually throw a bomb like that, and not explain it at all...How does 70% of the world suddenly just disappear, and how does the world continue on despite that? This is a pretty big deal, don't just casually throw it out, and dismiss it.

Which brings us to this particular observation:

Have we ever seen any of them fly over anything other than desert and towns/cities? Has there ever been even a hint of farmland? How is anyone on this world still alive?

Another viewer summed up the show's worldbuilding problem:

What I have a problem with is how this anime seems to be trying to explain its setting, but isn't making any sense. If they hadn't tried to explain the setting I could have just taken it at the value of "the story is just set in a world like this" and I wouldn't have questioned it. However now they're trying to explain things, and it's incoherent.

This anime is trying to explain itself though, and falling short, when in reality if they hadn't bothered to try and explain things I would have no problems.  

Somehow I am supposed to be piecing together the names of places, the politics, what the factions are, the history of the world, the state of the world and so forth. However they're only giving off hand remarks for most of this. 

And seriously "your people came through a hole and brought factories and planes, then you left and the hole closed" is supposed to explain the technological state of this world? What? 

So this alternate version of WWII Japan rocked up in this world through a wormhole or something? Tried to colonize the place and then left because the wormhole was closing or something? I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief to accept that kind of explanation for why they're all using planes. It's totally unneeded.

It took until episode nine when the lore surrounding the show finally began to coalesce into something tangible. Even after twelve episodes, the show seems to raise more questions than answers. One fan wrote down:

I wonder why people have Japanese and Western names...what was this world like before the Empire of Japan flew into it? What is the missing history here? Why is there no trace of an indigenous culture beyond the pseudo English written language, and everywhere we see only a replication of 1930s-era modernity? It suggests some kind of colonization and imposing of 'civilization' occurred, but this probable conflict is never mentioned despite being something that happened in living memory of at least some of the world's residents. Was this a world that was similar to ours in history but at a different point of technological development?

[The show] has the opportunity, and practically the obligation, to consider the implications of dropping Imperial aircraft on another world without such technology, but it takes about half of its episodes to merely set up a war. For me, this prevents it from having the kind of longevity it might have had otherwise.

Besides worldbuilding, another problem is that the show isn't interested in properly setting up things such as the politics & economics of the world, the motivations behind the corporations & characters, and the like. Regarding the characters, one reviewer noted:

Next up the characters, our cast of... eccentric pilots have great chemistry, but as characters, we know quite literally zilch about any of them except for one of them. We don't even really get satisfying interactions, development, motivations, conclusions, again there is just nothing to show for.

In hindsight, one of the key strengths of Girls und Panzer was setting it at a school where everyone but the protagonist didn't know anything about tankery. Like the audience, the students of Ooarai Girls Academy were fishes out of water and had to learn about the sport from square one. Audiences grew alongside those characters as they got better in tankery. For The Magnificent Kotobuki, the only noticeable growth among the major characters is our protagonist Kylie getting along with her squadmate Chika.

After nine episodes, the showrunners decided to suddenly shift the direction the show was going by turning one of the characters into the main villain (as if to alleviate the seemingly repetitive nature of most of the previous episodes, to shake up things for more drama, and to further distance the show from Girls und Panzer and High School Fleet)... even though there is this one other character who seems more devious than our actual big bad.

MOAR action!

In my High School Fleet post, I commented that the addition of more dramatic elements to the story wasn't necessary to hold my interest. Well, it appears I could consider myself a part of a vocal minority on the web because the creators of The Magnificent Kotobuki decided to cater primarily to action lovers and those with attention deficit disorder. Because my God, the action in the show, while good, is unrelenting in the first half of the season. As if to facilitate the rush to get to the action, how the characters talk in Japanese feel a bit too fast at times. To quote one fan:

The dialogue cadence is really, really tough to get used to. The pacing is just much faster than most anime, which has a lot of established rhythm to it. You really have to pay attention to catch everything being said, and sometimes it can get a bit confusing. I think this was both a strength and a weakness of the show, because it was hard to deal with and I'm sure put some people off.

With this in mind, the show is in a dire need of a slower paced English dub. In what feels like an effort to stand apart from Girls und Panzer, the show creators thought it was a good idea to follow in the footsteps of High School Fleet by having more drama (of higher stakes, and there's a main villain now!) and funnier jokes than the tank based show. And oh, lets completely ditch the high school setting!

The show's first few episodes might come across for some as unintentionally sexist. To quote one viewer:

Sure, cute girls doing cool things can be cool, but only in moderation. Literally this show IN THE FIRST EPISODE has already shown every male fumbling over himself, or being worried, while every single female character has been the only competent and rational voice throughout.

Another viewer had similar concerns:

Also it's complaint-worthy that all these girls that are 2x younger have 4x more skill than them lol. Unless they're special people(like genetically enhanced or something like that), there's no reason for them to be THAT much better when they're that much younger. You can tell by that 1 bearded serious guy that he only fights to live another day, meaning it's SUPPOSED to be tough out there. But then there are these girls that do whatever the fuck they want.

Despite this, the show thankfully hasn't been turned into a battleground between pro and anti-SJWs.

With the show's emphasis on action, one might feel fatigued half way through the series. As one viewer wrote:

It doesn’t take long to realize how skilled the main characters are when the first episode shows their abilities to take down hordes of enemy aircraft.... Throughout the series, they participate in many dogfights that first came as exciting but soon became very predictable. Let’s face it, this anime sells the Kotobuki squad as the aces in the sky. Their feats are easily noticeable for their complex aerial maneuvers. Some episodes even consists of its squad members chasing down their foes in what seems like near impossible scenarios. But if you guessed it, they make it look easy. Now I don’t want to designate the characters as “overpowered” as they certainly do find themselves struggling on occasions. Still, it’s not very fun when the whole show make others look bad after each episode. I’m not going to lie, after watching a good portion of this series convinced me that the Kotobuki squadron is like an end boss video game; only that the they are badass girls.

While having a lot of action isn't necessarily a bad thing, allowing some interesting subplots to be left underdeveloped to accommodate the action is. In my opinion, the biggest wasted opportunity in the show was a particular subplot introduced in the fifth episode. Over the radio, a pivotal character muses:

Well, is one really free with freedom? It's hard to do anything when you are free to do everything. Plus we still have limits and responsibilities. You'd be surprised how many people can't keep up with those. In the end, people just go on about all they want to do, and it gets out of hand.

Later on, this same character would unify several cities into a coalition called the Brotherhood of Freedom Union. The ultimate goal of the alliance? To quote the show:

The Brotherhood of Freedom Union is the only path to world peace! Because only the Brotherhood of Freedom Union has the power to make it a reality! The Brotherhood of Freedom Union is the best!

What's this? A thematic backbone that the show could use to elevate itself from its peers? Wherein the Brotherhood can claim "that 'freedom' caused chaos and upheaval, and ultimately threatens the fabric of civilization itself.... that order, purpose and direction are key in the construction of a perfect world.... to save humanity from itself... free will needs to be controlled or even eliminated... and transform the world and humanity as a whole into an eternally peaceful utopia." Whereas their opponents are in all likelihood adherents to the notion that "free will is an inherent quality and right for all humankind... as it allows for the progression of new ideas and the growth of individuality." Here was a remarkable foundation for an Assassins vs. Templars like conflict that could have been the driving force behind the show. One of the good guys would claim that the villain's true plan was:

He goes around preaching of brotherhood this, and freedom that. But it's all just fancy talk. All he's after is consolidating all power into his own hands!

I was hoping that the show would conclusively prove or disprove this accusation. Was all the talk about bringing world peace and giving "more [jobs] than they could ever hope for" merely lies to justify a cruel & oppressive dictatorship under the Brotherhood? Alas, it got lost amidst the epic dogfights in the last episodes as we never get to see how the Brotherhood treats the people under its rule. Instead, what gets clearly shown in the end is the villain's obsession with controlling the wormholes that appear in the sky. As one viewer remarked:

It just seemed like [the antagonist] was made to be a black-and-white bad guy with shallow motivations “IT’S MINE! MINE TO MANAGE! MINE TO CONTROL!” so none of them would have to consider the ethics of their actions.

Yep, a character who had potentially strong motivations ended up being little more than a "power-hungry manchild."

Final thoughts

Two contrasting views can sum up if whether or not The Magnificent Kotobuki is for you. On the one hand we have:

This anime perfectly knows what it wants to be. A good looking aircraft battle. It wont waste time on character development, nor on a storyline, it just delivers what it wants to: Some good looking aircraft battles [with] a bit of reasoning.

On the other hand is:

Honestly, this show feels like a flight simulator. The story isn’t very well written despite the immense amount of potential. Characters lack development as the show focuses way too much into the action. It almost feels like playing a video game at times like Battlefield or something when every episode just bites into the action and consumes it without stopping. My impression of the whole show didn’t change at all from the first episode to the end. There’s just so much potential in this anime that eventually became a showcase of mediocrity.

Personally, if all you care about is awesome aerial combat, then I can recommend the show without hesitation. That includes anyone who loved the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter dogfights in Star Wars. However, if you are someone like myself who wanted a show on par with Girls und Panzer, I will advise to check it out but with the major caveat to lower your expectations. Describing The Magnificent Kotobuki as "Girls und Panzer with airplanes" is doing both shows a disservice and sets up the wrong expectations. Perhaps the final blow for me is the fact that this show was directed by none other than Tsutomu Mizushima, the same guy who directed Girls und Panzer (including Der Film and Das Finale)! Whereas I'm lenient to High School Fleet's shortcomings because of that show having a different director, I expected The Magnificent Kotobuki to be at least on par with its tank counterpart, if not better in all aspects... not just the action and sound design. Having a different writer and a different studio might have shot down the show's chances of surpassing its land based precursor. As one viewer remarked:

People who compare this to Girls und Panzer or High School Fleet are fooling themselves as there is no character development or depth to this anime. [And] I very much enjoyed those.

One reviewer commented:

[The show] tried to be a character-driven mystery and/or exploration of ethics on the nature of engagement versus passive neutrality, and in that, it missed the mark. The answers to the questions of Ol' Sab's whereabouts, Isao's motivations, and the resolution [to] Kylie's internal dilemma are all, for lack of a better word, disappointing. Instead of attempting any complexity with Isao, he became an irredeemable antagonist the Kotobuki could fight without thinking too hard about their reasons why.

To quote one fan:

The Magnificent Kotobuki isn't a great anime. It's got tons of flaws and has a ridiculously limited audience. It's not exactly what I would call a diamond in the rough. But it's definitely [a gem], at least. It's got its good parts, its own value, and will make you appreciate the atmosphere behind dogfights.

If you're looking for a touching story full of heartbreak and emotions, this isn't it. But if you want to sit back and relax and see some girls shoot stuff in planes... go ahead.

Another fan wrote:

The Magnificent Kotobuki's greatest enemy is itself, and that's a shame, cause going into this at the start of the season I wanted it to be one of my favorites of the winter 2019 season. Now I'm not sure what to think...

As for what I have said about it's greatest enemy being itself, well pretty much every good thing about this anime, is contradicted by an execution flaw....

You should instead ask yourself, is your interest in well animated dog fighting enough to look past a plethora of small but nagging issues? The same answer to that question should be applied to your previous curiosity of watching this anime. For that, I myself am still disappointed it didn't take just a few minor steps further to become something great.

For those who don't mind the strange mixture of 3D and 2D characters, I suppose The Magnificent Kotobuki's biggest hurdle is the fact that Girls und Panzer and High School Fleet came before it and set the bare minimum we should expect from a show like this. When placed in the context of those two shows, the shortcomings of The Magnificent Kotobuki are made more apparent.

Nonetheless, I still recommend curious bystanders to at least give the show a shot, despite "it wasn't as good as I expected it to be (like Girls und Panzer), but it was a [fun] ride and I want more!" After all, a potential Season 2 would surely feature the iconic World War II fighter planes of other nations such as the P51 Mustang, Supermarine Spitfire, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Yakovlev Yak-9, and the Macchi C.202... right?

So when would The Magnificent Kotobuki, High School Fleet, and Girls und Panzer finally have a crossover (aka War Thunder: The Anime)?