LAST EDITED ON May-21-19 AT 01:57 AM (EDT)
 
You may recall this snippet from Romance of Combined Fleet Record Vol. 2, in the scene where Kaga watches from the window of an Admiralty conference room while a squadron of Einheri kanmusu sortie for patrol:

Fascinated, she watched them go until they went out of sight, tiny dark specks making a hard starboard turn and passing behind the pedestal of the colossal bronze statue that stood near the mouth of New Yokosuka Harbor. (She wondered idly who or what it was meant to depict; from behind, it looked like a woman wearing an ornately modified miko outfit, striking a triumphal you-shall-not-pass sort of pose.)

We've been trying for some time to get an illustration of that item, but for various reasons it hasn't happened...

... until last weekend, when Doc ran it by Adam Withers at Anime Central and he blasted it out in record time.

"You shall not pass, desu!"

That statue, erected in the aftermath of the Ragnarök, is listed in the Valhalla Register of Historic Monuments with the complete, official title of The Colossus of New Yokosuka, or Kongō Holding the Line at the Strait of Miura. It commemorates one of the most widely witnessed of the original "kanmusu incidents", in which the spirit of the battleship Kongō manifested on the vessel's foredeck at the height of the struggle for that particular approach to Rainbow Bay and appeared to repulse a svartelven strike fleet as much with sheer force of personality as with firepower. It's 275 feet tall, weighs 8,500 tons, and is made from solid adamantine.

Special thanks to Phil for cleaning up a bit of a blunder on my part: when specifying this piece for the artist, I included a reference image of Kongō in her kai ni form, but forgot to note that she's not wearing her rigging in the statue, and so, rockstar that he is, Adam included it in the original. I was just going to try and rewrite the scene to reflect it, but Phil jumped in with his Photoshop skills and saved the day. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Oh that is -beautiful-. Kongō just being her fabulous self, beating back the enemy in her own splendid fashion. Doesn't get much better than that, no sir.

Loving this on its own merits, both as a concept and as an artwork. Nicely sourced, and definitely well-executed on the fixing by Phil!

LAST EDITED ON May-21-19 AT 11:20 AM (EDT)
 
Oh, I forgot to mention—the day this picture was drawn, last Saturday, was entirely by chance the anniversary of Kongō's launching (May 18, 1912).

--G.
admittedly those odds are only about 1:365.24, but still
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>"You shall not pass, desu!"

Another interpretation could be that this is what the Argonath looks like in the dimensional variant where LoTR is an anime... <eeeeeeeeeevil grin>

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Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

Nice! After seeing the version with the rigging, I can see why a sculptor might be inclined to leave it out, regardless of whether it's historically accurate or not.

Peter Eng
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Insert humorous comment here.

Knowing Asgard, I'm honestly kind of surprised that the turrets aren't 1.) Present, and 2.) A real and functional part of the harbor defenses.

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Iä! Iä! Moe fthagn!

>Knowing Asgard, I'm honestly kind of surprised that the turrets aren't
>1.) Present, and 2.) A real and functional part of the harbor
>defenses.

Because otherwise, Kaga wouldn't be surprised at the Kanmusu leaving the armory with rigging on if there was a humongous statue towering over the harbor opening with even-bigger-than-normal cannons on it.

(rumors that Kongou and her Teitoku can pilot the Colossus like a massive Daikaiju-class destroid with summoned rigging are totally unfounded.)

Also, the outlying wings of the rigging would cast bad shade over the complex, and nobody wants that.

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

>
>Also, the outlying wings of the rigging would cast bad shade over the
>complex, and nobody wants that.
>
>--- Philip
>
Which would probably be the most compelling reason to not have them, cause... um, asgard!

This is looking awesome.

Considering how many times I've reread this story, it's actually kinda amazing how much trouble I'd been having visualizing the statue. This actually helps me a lot, in addition to just being awesome.

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Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper
Can't defeat Her, so instead I'll have to be Her

"At Rhodes was set up a Colossus of seventy cubits high, representing the Sun. The artist expended as much bronze on it as seemed likely to create a dearth in the mines."
–Philo of Byzantium

I can't help but hear that quoted in Sean Bean's voice, the number of times I've played Civ VI.