It turns out the otaku of Japan want to watch high school girls who are also Marines in training forced to become pirates on the high seas.

Summer is heating up for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and for many otaku, that means sitting in an air-conditioned room and watching anime as the heat blazes outside. And what better seasonally appropriate choice of viewing material than anime set in beach towns or involving the sea in some way? Otaku site Akiba Souken polled its readers to see which anime, regardless of genre, they’re in the mood to watch this summer.

1,546 votes were counted over the 15 days of the poll (July 11-25, 2016) and readers could vote up to three times. Of the 20 options listed, the top winner was High School Fleet with 300 votes. The anime, known as Haifuri for short, just finished airing this spring 2016, so it’s not surprising that its lingering popularity led it to victory in the poll.

▼ High School Fleet: Future marines turned pirates stuck on a boat together

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High School Fleet follows a ship full of students from Yokosuka Girls’ Marine High School who were on their way to becoming Blue Mermaids, or female Marines. A series of catastrophes means that they’re stuck on the ocean in a ship together — a ship their instructors report as having mutinied. They must sail the seas while avoiding enemy fire and battling water shortages and storms. The series is set in the real-life location of Yokosuka, Kanagawa, adding it to the list of anime that feature real destinations its fans can visit and geek out over.

▼ Amanchu!: The diving club of a Shizuoka high school

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Taking the #2 spot with 224 votes was summer 2016 anime Amanchu!, which focuses on girls who join the scuba diving club of a high school in Shizuoka, Japan.

▼ Nagi-Asu: Seafloor-born middle schoolers living on the surface for the first time

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Rounding out the top three with 221 votes was third-place finisher Nagi no Asu kara (perhaps better known in English as Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea). The comparatively old series, which aired in 2013, follows the lives of five middle school students who are attending school on land for the first time in their lives. In the world where Nagi-Asu is set, humans have lived on the ocean floor for the history of civilization and only recently begun to live on the surface as well.

Other contenders included the currently airing Love Live! Sunshine!! in 4th place, fishing anime Tsuritama in 10th place, perennial favorite pirate anime One Piece in 12th, Finding Nemo in 13th (I suppose that counts as an anime), Ponyo in 14th, and…actually, here’s the full list of results.

1. High School Fleet (300 votes)
2. Amanchu! (224 votes)
3. Nagi-Asu (221 votes)
4. Love Live! Sunshine!! (130 votes)
5. Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio (98 votes)
6. Air (90 votes)
7. Squid Girl (76 votes)
8. Kantai Collection (74 votes)
9. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (54 votes)
10. Tsuritama (49 votes)
11. Aria (46 votes)
12. One Piece (43 votes)
13. Finding Nemo (31 votes)
14. Ponyo (26 votes)
15. My Bride is a Mermaid (25 votes)
16. Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (23 votes)
17. Muromi-san (11 votes)
18. Tico of the Seven Seas (10 votes)
19. Blue Submarine No. 6 (9 votes)
20. The Silent Service (6 votes)

If you were looking for some new anime to check out this summer that perfectly fit the season, look no further. May I also recommend, however, the woefully excluded infamous swimming anime Free! as well? Considering it’s set in an oceanside town based on the real-life Iwami, Tottori Prefecture, and both seasons take place at least partially during summer, its absence from this list is truly an outrage.

Source: Akiba Souken
Top Image: Flickr/SteFou!