Manga adaptation by Sanzigen
Simulcast on Crunchyroll

Marlin’s Verdict: Promising concept, horrible design decision

Arpeggio of Blue Steel may have been trying to show the legitimacy of 3d animation as a way of telling a story. It failed. To its credit, in stills sometimes the 3d can hardly be noticed and it is leagues ahead of Kingdom and other shows in similar company. Unfortunately, Arpeggio still just can’t overcome that unnatural feeling when watching 3d models in motion. I didn’t fall in love with the story, but I thought it was pretty well set out for your average war tale. The world has been overpowered and our heroes are the only means of attack left, using an old WW2 submarine inexplicably enhanced with alien technology. I love WW2 and would actually probably love watching this concept in execution, but I don’t think I can get past that art style.

Lifesong’s Verdict: Ugly as Sin

I was just starting to warm up to the idea of seeing more 3D CG characters in my anime, but this might have just pushed me back to zero. If the characters didn’t move at all and it was just voice over still images this anime be better off for it. Hell, I think even rotoscoping might look better than this. At least the backgrounds are pretty I guess. I wanted to like this, I may even give it another shot, but I seriously hope the future episodes involve less… character movement. It’s probably not a good sign when you want your anime to stop moving.