The rise of military moe anime has been one of the most baffling media trends of the past decade. The direct collision of an increasingly militaristic political shift in the country colliding headlong into history buff and anime fandoms led to an explosion of shows about tweenage girls piloting WW2 war machines into battle.
One of the more recent of these shows is High School Fleet, about a flooded world where rival naval schools battle using WW2-era ships. Not to let a marketing opporunity slip by, Wargaming have crammed as much anime is as possible into World of Warships this week, in an official crossover event with some very silly rewards.
Players need to opt in to receive missions related to this event, and will find themselves rewarded for consistently good play above Tier 5 with various High School Fleet themed goodies, including character portraits, flags from the anime and commander characters, voiced by their original Japanese cast.
The event is skewed heavily towards players using the official Japanese High School Fleet Harekaze, the ship so heavily featured in the anime series itself. Not only does captaining it increase the rate at which you earn HSF-related rewards, but the ship has been blessed with a variety of unique camo skins, including the absurd ‘cat-mouflage’ seen above, which I’d imagine will make you the biggest, juiciest target on the seven seas.
There are some other ships that get you accelerated rewards as well. German players can pick up an HSF-themed version of the Tier-6 Graf Spee which takes an antagonistic role in the anime. Both HSF-themed ships are available in bundles including either just the ship and its anime-appropriate commander, or a fully tricked out edition with a sack of currency, a 10-slot commander and a barrel full of flag buffs.
It’s a potentially very expensive event, but if you want to fly your moe freak flag on the high seas, you’ve not exactly got many options. You can play World of Warships for free here, get involved with this crossover event here, and watch the High School Fleet anime series over on Crunchyroll here.