KanColle—Fleet Girls Collection: The Complete Series

A strong fan base seems to be attached to the Kantai series of properties based on a hit video game that appears to ask the question, what if the girls of Sailor Moon really were sailors? In KanColle (short for "Kantai Collection"), Earth’s oceans are taken over by "Abyssals"—a mystery aquatic race that dominates the oceans with bad-girl troops and biomechanical warcraft (bearing strong resemblance to Pinocchio‘s Monstro the Whale). Japan’s solution: outfit sailor-suited schoolgirls with wearable battleship bits and cannons and then send them skimming over the waves to fight as "cruisers," "destroyers," etc. The story arc follows new recruit Fubuki as she enlists and learns bravery under battle, endures the loss of comrades, and tries on swimsuits (one "Fleet Girl" is also a lingerie model). Meanwhile, members of the admiralty exhibit bosoms large enough to be flotation devices. Some have criticized the series as revisionist glorification of Japan’s WWII militarism, but really it’s the dork factor that goes off the deep end—unless the whole thing is a subversive spoof of war propaganda or a metaphor for the Japanese can-do spirit, in which case I am badly misinterpreting. Compiling all 12 episodes from 2015 in a dual-language Blu-ray edition, rated TV-14, extras include promo videos. Optional. (C. Cassady)