Use the tech from those serieseseseses, lump them together, grab a noteworthy vessel or class whose service isn't covered in either show, and use that as a jumping-off point for an OC. If it was up to me, I'd use HMS Seraph as the basis for a deceptive double-agent sort of cove on a deep-cover sabotage mission in Akio's Fleet of Fog assets, but I'm just spitballing. =]

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

To be really historically parallel, said cove would have to be dead, which would not quite be the bar to taking positive action that it was for Major Martin, admittedly. :)

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

"Northern Line services to Morden via Bank are delayed on account of severe repairs. This is due to an angry, possibly undead submarine on the line. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."
"For fuck's sake," thought Devlin to himself, "any excuse..."

I just came across the "singing Kongou sisters" clip on YouTube, and remembered the clip where all four of them introduced themselves to someone (with accompanying heavy artillery punctuation).

"The Kongou sisters! They sing! They dance! They blow stuff up!"

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

"And they'll still slice a tomato!"*

--G.
*DO NOT ask Hiei to slice tomatoes. Or in fact do anything even remotely connected to food in any way.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Hiei is a perfectly competent cook as long as you have the proper appreciation for her culinary talents, as shown here. (Safebooru)

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

As an aside, Toxic Chum is my Beach Boys/Sex Pistols fusion cover band.

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I know, right? It's like being at a buffet where everything's awesome. Not that such things exist in reality. But theoretically.

>Kongo would practically write herself in the hilarious antics department

After the "Kongō class idol singers" scene, I find myself unfortunately afflicted with the persistent mental image of her leading her sisters in a rousing(?) rendition of Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling".

I can't stop this feeling
Deep inside of me
Captain, you don't realize
What you do to me
When you hold me in your arms so tight
You let me know everything's all right
I, I I, I I'm - hooked on a feeling
I'm high on believing
Your BURNING LOVE for meeeee

On the whole, I can't help but suspect that having KC Kongō around would either drive you mad, or be one of those things where you don't mind it, but everyone around you is always asking, "How does that not drive you mad?" :)

>but Mogami would be absolutely adorable with her absurd clumsiness.

In fairness, it's not exactly her fault that heavy cruisers don't handle so good in town. (Also, her collision with Mikuma was totally the latter's fault.)

>That and I have a soft spot for tomboys.

I know! It's the shorts, I think.

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

(observes the day-plus of solid silence)

It's finally happened, hasn't it? I killed everyone with that image. Kongō covering Blue Swede has at last brought the zombie apocalypse to EPU.

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Heh, actually, most of the gang at Saint-Ulrich agree that Yoshika's a lot less likely to bounce off walls now that she and Lynne are officially a Thing. Adds some stability, you know? :)

--G.
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But, he reminded himself aloud, adorable.

For those of you who aren't familiar with them, here is DESRON 6. Clockwise from the Admiral's left arm, we have:

- Hibiki, the quiet one, who - though not yet refitted into her postwar Soviet-spoils-of-war form, Верный (Verniy, "faithful") - has many stereotypically Russian mannerisms, including stoicism, a habit of saying "Хорошо" (Khorosho, "excellent"), and - in a lot of fan art - a high tolerance for distilled spirits.

- Akatsuki, the self-conscious eldest, who is a bit obsessed with growing up to be, and occasionally dips into the delusion that she already is, an Elegant Lady. Actually the phrase she uses is "elephant lady", because she's not really terribly bright. Voted "most likely to stand on her dignity at inopportune times".

- Ikazuchi, the rambunctious one. Probably going to end up in jail someday, but for some epically awesome reason. In a lot of artwork she's depicted with a moéfang. When I was a kid I used to mis-hear one of the lyrics of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" as "some of them want to be of use". That'd be Ikazuchi. Her catchphrase is "Go ahead and rely on me more." She would also appreciate it very much if you did not pronounce her name "Kaminari".

- Inazuma, the sweet, shy, and sensitive one. Hates it when Ikazuchi and Akatsuki fight, which they do basically all the time. Sort of what Ui Hirasawa would be like if she didn't have her confidence. Often depicted in fan art as a glassy-eyed psychopath, a meticulous bureaucrat (since she's one of the available starting ships, and so often ends up being used as the fleet secretary), or sometimes both. (One fan comic I've read involves her everyone-flees-in-terror catchphrase being, "It's time for an audit." :)

The four of them are the personifications of the IJN's Akatsuki-class destroyers, which were an improved version of the Fubuki class (and not actually identified as a separate class in the IJN's official paperwork).

--G.
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-----

"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."

This happens to the Admiral a lot; it's hard out here for a flag officer. But at least he's not the only one it happens to.

:)

--G.
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According to the semi-official 4koma*, Hibiki and Verniy are separate personalities, with the trigger between the two being loneliness, a play on the fact that Hibiki was the only one of her sisters to see the war through to the end.

> - Akatsuki, the self-conscious eldest, who is a bit obsessed with
>growing up to be, and occasionally dips into the delusion that she
>already is, an Elegant Lady. Actually the phrase she uses is
>"elephant lady", because she's not really terribly bright. Voted
>"most likely to stand on her dignity at inopportune times".

The most childish ship of the quartet trying to convince others that she's a first-class lady. Leads to a truly hilarious moment in-game when you (provisionally) marry her:

"To have a meal with the commander, just the two of us, as a lady.... Wait! Why do I have juice? Furthermore, why does the pilaf have a flag in it!"

> - Ikazuchi, the rambunctious one. Probably going to end up in jail
>someday, but for some epically awesome reason. In a lot of artwork
>she's depicted with a moéfang. When I was a kid I used to
>mis-hear one of the lyrics of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made
>of This)" as "some of them want to be of use". That'd be Ikazuchi.
>Her catchphrase is "Go ahead and rely on me more." She would also
>appreciate it very much if you did not pronounce her name "Kaminari".

Her namesake, along with Inazuma's, are also famous for rescuing 442 survivors from British and America ships and treating them with the respect and honor as prisoners, something rare amongst a culture that viewed being taken alive as shameful.

> - Inazuma, the sweet, shy, and sensitive one. Hates it when Ikazuchi
>and Akatsuki fight, which they do basically all the time. Sort of
>what Ui Hirasawa would be like if she didn't have her confidence.
>Often depicted in fan art as a glassy-eyed psychopath, a meticulous
>bureaucrat (since she's one of the available starting ships, and so
>often ends up being used as the fleet secretary), or sometimes both.
>(One fan comic I've read involves her everyone-flees-in-terror
>catchphrase being, "It's time for an audit." :)

The best description I saw for Inazuma came from a comment about the same fan comic, that as wives, Ikazuchi would be the caring and supportive wife, while Inazuma would be a wife who's head of the household.

Also, her verbal tic is to add "nanodesu" (roughly: "it is so") to the end of her sentences, which is supposed to add to her moe cuteness.

*(Specifically Ch 13)

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

Oh... dear, that's a deep hole.

OK, see you guys in a few weeks. :)

>Hibiki and Verniy are separate personalities, with the trigger between
>the two being loneliness, a play on the fact that Hibiki was the only
>one of her sisters to see the war through to the end.

Mm. Doesn't seem to be the case in the TV show, but then they did only have 12 eps to work with, and that's a pretty complicated shtick to explain.

As an aside, man alive, is the fan art for this show ever a minefield because of little facts like that. I mean, on top of all the usual pitfalls of exploring an anime fandom (rape fanart! torture fanart! rape and torture fanart! what the fuck is wrong with Japan), there's a corner of it devoted to obsessively considering the emotional consequences of being reincarnated members of a navy that got completely annihilated in the course of the war. So you stumble across the occasional, sometimes quite-well-constructed, work which concentrates on, for instance, Hibiki being the only survivor of the Akatsuki class and then being handed into the not-particularly-caring hands of the Russians; or Zuikaku being the last fleet carrier standing near the end (and not making it out alive either); or Nagato managing to make it through the war only to be expended as a nuclear test target; or Haruna outliving her sisters only to be scrapped. I mean... shit.

"Well, yeah," the counterargument runs, "but that's what happened," so I suppose it depends on whether you take the view that KanColle is some kind of weirdly metaphorized description of the war that's actually set in the 1940s, or the view that it's a Strange Phenomenon occurring in a near-future semi-sci-fi setting. (Or that it's neither, it's just a cute web browser game featuring personified ships from history. That's a valid view, although it isn't one that leads anywhere interesting.) In the latter case, they don't have to be slaves to what befell their namesakes, which seems to be the approach the TV show takes (after certain of the ships themselves flirt gloomily with the thought that they might be for most of the series). A number of fan writers and artists, though - some of them quite talented - take the former tack, and it's just crushing. Sometimes it's hard to tell where they're going until it's too late not to see, too, which... well. It's hard work, taking an interest in this franchise, that's all I'm saying.

>The most childish ship of the quartet trying to convince others that
>she's a first-class lady. Leads to a truly hilarious moment in-game
>when you (provisionally) marry her:
>
>"To have a meal with the commander, just the two of us, as a lady....
>Wait! Why do I have juice? Furthermore, why does the pilaf have a flag
>in it!"

Heh. (I had to look up the flag part.) Somewhere down that terrifying well there's an adorable one-frame cartoon in which the other three are trying to get her to tell them if the Admiral is any good in the sack, and a deeply flustered Akatsuki insists that she just sleeps with him.

>Her namesake, along with Inazuma's, are also famous for rescuing 442
>survivors from British and America ships and treating them with the
>respect and honor as prisoners, something rare amongst a culture that
>viewed being taken alive as shameful.

Indeed, this was the topic of one of the less depressing "let's apply some realism to this" fan comics I've come across (less depressing in that Ikazuchi-the-WWII-ship sinks in the course of it, but Ikazuchi-the-fleet-girl doesn't).

>The best description I saw for Inazuma came from a comment about the
>same fan comic, that as wives, Ikazuchi would be the caring and
>supportive wife, while Inazuma would be a wife who's head of the
>household.

In fairness to Ikazuchi, I have to speculate that she would also be more fun, albeit less practically helpful. :)

>Also, her verbal tic is to add "nanodesu" (roughly: "it is so") to the
>end of her sentences, which is supposed to add to her moe cuteness.

As fleet girl verbal tics go, that's... not the most annoying one kuma.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Luckily, while it's up to Ch 89, they're usually only 6 pages apiece.

>"Well, yeah," the counterargument runs, "but that's what
>happened," so I suppose it depends on whether you take the view
>that KanColle is some kind of weirdly metaphorized
>description of the war that's actually set in the 1940s, or the
>view that it's a Strange Phenomenon occurring in a near-future
>semi-sci-fi setting. (Or that it's neither, it's just a cute web
>browser game featuring personified ships from history. That's a valid
>view, although it isn't one that leads anywhere interesting.) In the
>latter case, they don't have to be slaves to what befell their
>namesakes, which seems to be the approach the TV show takes (after
>certain of the ships themselves flirt gloomily with the thought that
>they might be for most of the series). A number of fan writers and
>artists, though - some of them quite talented - take the former tack,
>and it's just crushing. Sometimes it's hard to tell where they're
>going until it's too late not to see, too, which... well. It's hard
>work, taking an interest in this franchise, that's all I'm saying.

I like one fan comic I saw, which is set in what is the standard "surprisingly-modern future," where the argument goes that the Abyssal ships are basically all the negative emotions of the souls of the famous ships sunk during the war, while the ship girls who begin to appear are the more positive emotions. The first one dealt with the appearance of the girls who are the starter ships in-game (Fubuki, Inazuma, Sazanami, Murakumo, & Samidare), while the second issue deals with the appearance of Naka.

>Heh. (I had to look up the flag part.)

Yeah, I should probably take a second to explain that to those who don't know. One of the items that's usually in restaurant and even home-cooked meals for kids is a little flag. So the joke is that, even though the admiral has invited Akatsuki to a meal-for-two, he's still treating her to a kid's meal.

>Somewhere down that
>terrifying well there's an adorable one-frame cartoon in which the
>other three are trying to get her to tell them if the Admiral is any
>good in the sack, and a deeply flustered Akatsuki insists that she
>just sleeps with him.

Well, when you get down to it, the (provisional) marriage system is just a game mechanic that allows you to go past the original level ceiling (lvl 99) to a new one (lvl 125) as well as a few other bonuses/trade-offs.

The fandom, of course, takes it as everything from a "promise" by an admiral to marry a girl once the war's over to a way to lay claim to a harem. One of my favorite little 4komas has the admiral that Kongou's been chasing after for awhile end up marrying Tenryū instead, leading to his giving Kongou an apology for not picking her. Her response? She forgives his decision, because she's not interested in a sham marriage, she wants the real thing.

>In fairness to Ikazuchi, I have to speculate that she would also be
>more fun, albeit less practically helpful. :)

Ikazuchi is the wife you love because, even if she can't cook a gourmet meal, she's so much fun to be around, the kind of mother who becomes a friend with her kids rather than an authority figure.

Inazuma is the wife you could depend on to run the house and rule the family finances with an iron fist, but would still be happy and cheerful when you came home...provided you hadn't been spending too much money.

>As fleet girl verbal tics go, that's... not the most annoying one
>kuma.

Of the Kuma girls, I'm most partial to Kiso, especially her Kai Ni refit when she suddenly becomes a swashbuckler who looks like she raided Captain Harlock's closet.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

Well, that would explain why some of the higher-ranking Abyssal ships look like evil versions of known ship girls (Re-class, for instance, is Insane Monster Girl Ikazuchi, leading to at least two adorable costume swap pics that I know of).

Actually, it just occurred to me that with her hoodie and her glowing eyes, Re-class looks like what Ikazuchi would look like if she caught the Green Flu in Left 4 Dead and became a Hunter. :)

>while the second issue deals with the appearance of Naka.

Eventually, we all have to find a way to deal with the appearance of Naka.

:)

>>Somewhere down that
>>terrifying well there's an adorable one-frame cartoon in which the
>>other three are trying to get her to tell them if the Admiral is any
>>good in the sack, and a deeply flustered Akatsuki insists that she
>>just sleeps with him.
>
>Well, when you get down to it, the (provisional) marriage system is
>just a game mechanic that allows you to go past the original level
>ceiling (lvl 99) to a new one (lvl 125) as well as a few other
>bonuses/trade-offs.

Sure, although by that same token, all game mechanics are just game mechanics. The Respec Trial in City of Heroes was just a game mechanic to make screwing around with your power selections a non-trivial undertaking, and so forth. It's all in how you roleplay it. :)

(Besides, based on what I've learned about the way KanColle's mechanics work, the real token of love is the heart-shaped padlock. :)

>She forgives his decision, because she's not interested in a sham
>marriage, she wants the real thing.

Oh, Kongō. Never change.

>>As fleet girl verbal tics go, that's... not the most annoying one
>>kuma.
>
>Of the Kuma girls, I'm most partial to Kiso, especially her Kai Ni
>refit when she suddenly becomes a swashbuckler who looks like she
>raided Captain Harlock's closet.

Arrrr.

--G.
Change the white parts to red, and she's the Bentenmaru's Fogtech Mental Model.
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Except Ikazuchi could only wish she could hit with the power of a single Re-class. The best analogy I've heard for them is it's like fighting the Abyssal version of an 1990s-era Iowa-class battleship.

>Eventually, we all have to find a way to deal with the
>appearance of Naka.
>
>:)

Naka is one of those characters that can either be immensely annoying or endearing, depending upon how she's written. In the case of the comic I mentioned, she actually takes up the whole idol business because of a girl she befriended when she first showed up without any memory or an idea of what she was.

>Sure, although by that same token, all game mechanics are just
>game mechanics. The Respec Trial in City of Heroes was just a
>game mechanic to make screwing around with your power selections a
>non-trivial undertaking, and so forth. It's all in how you roleplay
>it. :)

True, that's really what the (provisional) marriage business is, an item that allows players to roleplay however they like. That it has benefits is just a bonus.

>(Besides, based on what I've learned about the way KanColle's
>mechanics work, the real token of love is the heart-shaped padlock. :)

Yeah, another game mechanic item, this time giving players something they'd been begging for, namely a way to prevent them from scrapping a beloved ship because they were half-awake and the daily quest "Scrap Two Ships" popped up.

>Oh, Kongō. Never change.

The same admiral actually plays a trick on her and Tenyrū in a previous strip, using their rivalry over his affections by declaring that girls who "do their best" are his number one girls. And, well, you have to see it for yourself.

>Arrrr.
>
>--G.
>Change the white parts to red, and she's the
>Bentenmaru's Fogtech Mental Model.

Fogtech, a division of Stark Industries. You too can find out just how much of an ass your ship thinks you are for taking her into that asteroid field.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

Well, Hunters are way stronger than ordinary dudes in hoodies, so... :)

>Naka is one of those characters that can either be immensely annoying
>or endearing, depending upon how she's written.

Sadly, in the anime, she is for the most part the former. Not "ugh, why doesn't someone kill her" annoying, but certainly "look, Naka-chan, I have a lot of work to do, can you please do that somewhere else" annoying. :)

But then the Sendai-class ships are kinda my least favorite fleet girls in the TV show. I don't dislike them, but every second they're on screen is a second stolen from DESRON 6 or Mogami. :)

>>(Besides, based on what I've learned about the way KanColle's
>>mechanics work, the real token of love is the heart-shaped padlock. :)
>
>Yeah, another game mechanic item, this time giving players something
>they'd been begging for, namely a way to prevent them from scrapping a
>beloved ship because they were half-awake and the daily quest "Scrap
>Two Ships" popped up.

It's right there in the ruling on the Supreme Court case Johnny Five v. Newton Crosby et al. - No disassemble.

>>Oh, Kongō. Never change.
>
>The same admiral actually plays a trick on her and Tenyrū in a
>previous strip, using their rivalry over his affections by declaring
>that girls who "do their best" are his number one girls.

That's a dangerous game. I mean, I'm not very familiar with Tenryū, but you push Kongō too far and she eventually goes Death Star on you, whichever universe she's from. Next thing you know she hasn't just taken Enemy Base MI, that grid sector is permanently unsuitable for humanoid habitation. Scorched-earth tactics don't usually work at sea, so that's doubly terrifying. :)

>>Change the white parts to red, and she's the
>>Bentenmaru's Fogtech Mental Model.
>
>Fogtech, a division of Stark Industries. You too can find out just
>how much of an ass your ship thinks you are for taking her into that
>asteroid field.

"You shitty admiral."

--G.
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Yeah, but they can't call the equivalent of cruise missile strikes down on your head.

>Sadly, in the anime, she is for the most part the former. Not "ugh,
>why doesn't someone kill her" annoying, but certainly "look,
>Naka-chan, I have a lot of work to do, can you please do that
>somewhere else" annoying. :)

Sort of stems from her reputation in-game, where the aggravation comes not from her insistence on being seen as the fleet's idol, but because she was so common a drop in construction that admirals would reflexively scrap her. Of course, then the designers tweaked the drop rate and made her kai ni form stronger, and now admirals are not as quick to turn her into 2 fuel, 4 ammo, and 11 steel.

>But then the Sendai-class ships are kinda my least favorite
>fleet girls in the TV show. I don't dislike them, but every
>second they're on screen is a second stolen from DESRON 6 or Mogami.
>:)

I've come to love them in that sort of "embrace the madness" way, though I'm most partial to Jintsū because she's not as...exhausting as her sisters.

>That's a dangerous game. I mean, I'm not very familiar with
>Tenryū, but you push Kongō too far and she eventually goes
>Death Star on you, whichever universe she's from. Next thing
>you know she hasn't just taken Enemy Base MI, that grid sector
>is permanently unsuitable for humanoid habitation. Scorched-earth
>tactics don't usually work at sea, so that's doubly terrifying. :)

Tenryū's one of those "ego writing checks her body can't cash" characters, as she likes to boast about being "scary" despite historically being the IJN's oldest cruiser. Ironically, because she's also the cruiser with the lowest ammo and fuel usage, she's used often by admirals to lead destroyers during expeditions. Hence "Tenryū Kindergarten," with her as the teenage "cool big sis" looking after the child-like destroyers on what's effectively a school trip.

>>Fogtech, a division of Stark Industries. You too can find out just
>>how much of an ass your ship thinks you are for taking her into that
>>asteroid field.
>
>"You shitty admiral."

"Don't worry, we can fix that with the next patch."

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

They can make Francis shoot you in the face trying to dislodge them, which in context is almost as bad. :)

"I was on the bottom of that dogpile, so exactly who did you think you were going to torpedo, Naka-chan?!"

>now admirals are not as
>quick to turn her into 2 fuel, 4 ammo, and 11 steel.

Ah, drop rates. The "war... war never changes" of MMO gaming. :)

>Tenryū's one of those "ego
>writing checks her body can't cash" characters, as she likes to boast
>about being "scary" despite historically being the IJN's oldest
>cruiser.

By extension, that makes me think of what "early ironclad" fleet girls would be like. The original 1870s Fusō, say. Extremely slow-moving, eats like Akagi, chain-smokes unfiltered Lucky Strikes. Lots of "when I was your age" stories. Lazy. Extremely clumsy. Has actual sails, though they don't seem to help much, and likes to brag about her retractable smokestack even though none of the modern fleet girls can even conceive of why anyone would need or want such a thing. Thinks radar is a conspiracy.

>Hence "Tenryū Kindergarten," with her as the
>teenage "cool big sis" looking after the child-like destroyers on
>what's effectively a school trip.

Heh.

I'm amused that the artists can't seem to agree among themselves on how "old" the Akatsuki-class destroyers actually are. In some portrayals they look to be about as old as the actual ships were during the war (they were built around 1930), and in others they're grade-schoolers. Not that I'm advocating a strict consistency in such matters, because that would be dull, and besides, if we were to be really strict about such matters, poor Miyuki wouldn't be in the game at all (since she sank in 1934). :)

>>>Fogtech, a division of Stark Industries. You too can find out just
>>>how much of an ass your ship thinks you are for taking her into that
>>>asteroid field.
>>
>>"You shitty admiral."
>
>"Don't worry, we can fix that with the next patch."

(At this point, you can tell which admirals are the slightly iffy ones, because they're the ones who reply, "No... leave it." :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

"DO I LOOK LIKE ONE OF THEM!?"

>Ah, drop rates. The "war... war never changes" of MMO gaming. :)

Especially "free-to-play" ones that have to have some way of milking you for money.

>By extension, that makes me think of what "early ironclad" fleet girls
>would be like. The original 1870s Fusō, say. Extremely
>slow-moving, eats like Akagi, chain-smokes unfiltered Lucky Strikes.
>Lots of "when I was your age" stories. Lazy. Extremely
>clumsy. Has actual sails, though they don't seem to help much,
>and likes to brag about her retractable smokestack even though none of
>the modern fleet girls can even conceive of why anyone would need or
>want such a thing. Thinks radar is a conspiracy.

More likely they're the (great)grandmothers of the current girls, as we all know the purpose in life of our grandparents is to inspire us or embarrass us, depending on the situation.

>Heh.
>
>I'm amused that the artists can't seem to agree among themselves on
>how "old" the Akatsuki-class destroyers actually are. In some
>portrayals they look to be about as old as the actual ships were
>during the war (they were built around 1930), and in others they're
>grade-schoolers. Not that I'm advocating a strict consistency in such
>matters, because that would be dull, and besides, if we were to be
>really strict about such matters, poor Miyuki wouldn't be in the game
>at all (since she sank in 1934). :)

Well, if we wanted real consistency, then the Kongō girls would be old women, as Kongō herself is so old that she actually served in both world wars. She's actually older than Hōshō, who is usually depicted as the fleet's mother figure.

>(At this point, you can tell which admirals are the slightly iffy
>ones, because they're the ones who reply, "No... leave it." :)

"I like a challenge."

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

Heh. Considering this further, it occurs to me that it wouldn't really fit the motif to have fleet girls of ships that had been sunk or dismantled before WWII began (with the exception of Miyuki, presumably because her class was still in service, that particular ship had just suffered an Unfortunate Accident before the war). Which, in turn, reminded me that the battleship Mikasa, though hopelessly outmoded and long since non-operational, did still exist as a museum ship at the time (and indeed still does today - thanks in no small part, I'm weirdly pleased to learn, to Chester Nimitz).

Which makes me think that, in-setting, she's working at whatever the Japanese equivalent of Whitehall is, kickin' back at Naval Headquarters far from the actual shootin'. Even more old-fashioned than Hōshō; probably in essence the Naval Headquarters office lady, but dropping the occasional strategic insight in with the coffee. :)

>Well, if we wanted real consistency, then the Kongō girls would be
>old women, as Kongō herself is so old that she actually served in
>both world wars. She's actually older than Hōshō, who is usually
>depicted as the fleet's mother figure.

"Old women" is a little harsh; Kongō was commissioned in 1913, which would make her not even 30 when the war began. I suppose it could be argued that that is fairly old for a warship of the period (when battleships, in particular, were evolving so fast that they were occasionally obsolescent before they were finished), but certainly not by human standards. Besides - good bone structure. :)

--G.
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It is unreasonably difficult to determine what the Japanese equivalent of Whitehall is. I can't even figure out from Google and Wikipedia where the Naval JSDF headquarters is, let alone where the IJN headquarters was. Internet, you have failed me.

The current Ministry of Defense building is in Ichigaya, Shinjuku Ward from what I can find.

While this is true, Tenryuu still has an ace up her sleeve (whether or not she likes it)- her sister Tatsuta, who's one of the quiet, smiling serial killer types- Akebono might call you a "Shitty Admiral" for trying to talk to her, but Tatsuta's response in the same situation is "Touching is forbidden, don't blame me when your hand falls off".

Because of her tendencies though, be wary when reading any doujin material with Tatsuta in it, because it's something of a coinflip. Heads, and she solves the Kongou-vs-Tenryuu situation by messing around with the orders when the Admiral isn't looking and reroute Kongou to the worst missions so Tenryuu looks better.

Tails, and she brings Admiral a nice delicious dinner in his office, only there's a familiar piece of radar mast headpiece sticking out of the roast.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Heh. Based on a reading of the "secretary ship" dialogue for various ships, I'm assuming that's a gameplay/cursor placement thing, along the lines of the classic Warcraft "Stop. Poking me!!" ? :)

>Because of her tendencies though, be wary when reading any doujin
>material with Tatsuta in it, because it's something of a coinflip.

Ah. So that's why danbooru has a "God Dammit, Tatsuta" pool. :)

>Heads, and she solves the Kongou-vs-Tenryuu situation by messing
>around with the orders when the Admiral isn't looking and reroute
>Kongou to the worst missions so Tenryuu looks better.
>
>Tails, and she brings Admiral a nice delicious dinner in his office,
>only there's a familiar piece of radar mast headpiece sticking out of
>the roast.

"You tell everybody. Listen to me, Admiral. You've gotta tell them! Modernization is fleet girls! We've gotta stop them somehow!"

--G.
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Soylent Steel?

Yeah, all the girls have a comment about the admiral touching them. Kongō's has become another of her catchphrases:

"Hey! Admiral! I don't mind you touching me, but there's a time and place for everything!"

>Ah. So that's why danbooru has a "God Dammit, Tatsuta" pool. :)

Nah, that pool has to do with Tatsuta being portrayed by fans as a massive troll, with her favorite target being Tenryū. This is in contrast to the competing depiction of her, which is a sadist with a smile.

>"You tell everybody. Listen to me, Admiral. You've gotta tell them!
>Modernization is fleet girls! We've gotta stop them somehow!"

"It's a cookbook!"

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

I'm not entirely sure that's an either/or proposition.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

True, it's more a question of degrees. She settles for making Tenryū uncomfortable or embarrassed, but others who displease her have to sleep with one eye open.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention: Just from that last panel on the righthand side alone, I think I kinda love Tenryū now. It is a special subclass of Tough Girl who will come out and kindasorta ask for, and then actually take, the huggin'. :)

--G.
"shut it."
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It's what makes Nagato also so endearing, that she's the leader, the cornerstone on which the fleet rests...who is still enough of a normal girl to squee over a cute little squirrel coming up to her.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

There's something slightly pathological about Nagamon ("I'm not saying these things because I want to!"), which I attribute to the same causes as the weird psychotic edge Miss Yamanaka in K-On! sometimes displays - she's doing herself harm by being so dang serious all the time when anyone can see her. Needs Mutsu to take her in hand and sort that out. :)

--G.
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---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

No, you posted a suggestion; that second vote is newer.

--G.
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That would have been me. Tried to post who/why, but DC boards decided it hated me last night.

As do I, though I have to ask - what's the deal with the "-in" thing? I've seen it before, often but not always with other girls' names that end in I (Saori in Girls und Panzer calls Yukari "Yukarin" and Miho "Miporin"); assuming it's some kind of abbreviated variant of "-chan", but it's a hard thing to craft search terms for when you're looking for confirmation. :)

>Add in her being a clumsy girl
>(you ever notice there's a number of those in
>Kancolle?) and she's doubly endearing.

I think that's kind of a natural side effect of there having been so many ship-to-ship collisions during the war. You get big enough fleets tooling around long enough and that kind of thing is going to happen just because of statistical factors. Heck, two out of Mogami's three infamous collisions were the other ship's fault!

>She's the sorta
>girl I could see getting along with Utena, perhaps even developing a
>little bit of idol worship.

Hmm.

>- Say what you will about Mutsu, she has an explosive personality
>(that's a joke, son). I really came to like her
>as a character while watching the anime, how she seemed to be such a
>great "big sister" character for the younger girls and yet seemed to
>take pleasure in catching Nagato in embarrassing situations.

Yeah, Mutsu's awesome, that's why she's on the list even though she's kind of the salt to Nagato's pepper shaker. I'll probably save her for a different situation where I'm not limited to a single KanColle character, though, as a direct result.

>- The thing about Kongou is she's a character who works best in small
>doses. Not a bad thing by any means, but she has a tendency to just
>steal any scene she's in. Heaven help whoever she proclaims to be her
>admiral/commander when she does eventually show up in UF.

Again, I like Kongō a lot, but upon reflection, I'd feel bad about breaking up the set. (I like 'em all a lot, but of the four, I think I like Haruna the most. She just seems to need a hug that bit more than the other three. Maybe it's that historical parallel thing again; they do get a lot of mileage out of her saying "Haruna is OK" when she really isn't. I'd want to call her Haruharu even though that's the other one. :)

>- I had to give my vote to Yūdachi, especially in her Kai Ni form.
>She just goes from "cute airhead" to "slayer of men" with a refit,
>even picking up the little hair "ears" to represent how she's become a
>ferocious hound (the artist's words, not mine).

She and Mogami are pretty much the frontrunners for the single storyline slot I have open right now, though the plot structure they'd need to fit into is still taking shape and may wind up suiting one more than the other. Not entirely sure how I feel about her K2 personality change (the new look's a keeper, but I kinda liked that nice-but-dim thing she had going on before), though she does seem to be able to turn the increased aggression off a little when she's not actively shooting at things.

(In the course of stumbling around fearfully clicking too-small comic thumbnails in hopes that I wouldn't see things I couldn't un-see, I stumbled across a page from one I didn't want to read the rest of, but the image on that one page was pretty worth it, since it was Kirishima having a "Limit Break" moment and blasting the holy living shit out of something, accompanied by a user comment to the effect of, "MIC CHECK MOTHERFUCKER." I didn't dig the reason for it, but it's hard to argue with that visual. :)

--G.
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I honestly don't know, I'd always assumed it was a sign of affection, sort of like a pet nickname.

>I think that's kind of a natural side effect of there having been so
>many ship-to-ship collisions during the war. You get big enough
>fleets tooling around long enough and that kind of thing is going to
>happen just because of statistical factors. Heck, two out of
>Mogami's three infamous collisions were the other ship's fault!

True enough.

>Yeah, Mutsu's awesome, that's why she's on the list even though she's
>kind of the salt to Nagato's pepper shaker. I'll probably save her
>for a different situation where I'm not limited to a single
>KanColle character, though, as a direct result.

That's the thing about the Kancolle approach to sister ships, namely putting them into their own little cliques and thus making a lot of the magic dependent on having them together. Having Mutsu without Nagato there would be cute, but the chemistry between the two makes them all the more appealing.

>Again, I like Kongō a lot, but upon reflection, I'd feel bad
>about breaking up the set. (I like 'em all a lot, but of the four, I
>think I like Haruna the most. She just seems to need a hug that bit
>more than the other three. Maybe it's that historical parallel thing
>again; they do get a lot of mileage out of her saying "Haruna is OK"
>when she really isn't. I'd want to call her Haruharu even though
>that's the other one. :)

Like I said about the Nagato sisters, the Kongou sisters just work too well together to be separated. That still has to be one of the funniest moments in the anime, when they make their introductions.

>She and Mogami are pretty much the frontrunners for the single
>storyline slot I have open right now, though the plot structure they'd
>need to fit into is still taking shape and may wind up suiting one
>more than the other. Not entirely sure how I feel about her K2
>personality change (the new look's a keeper, but I kinda liked that
>nice-but-dim thing she had going on before), though she does seem to
>be able to turn the increased aggression off a little when she's not
>actively shooting at things.

The new aggressiveness is indeed something really only seen in combat. She even gets a badass boast ("I'll show you the Nightmare of Solomon.") The rest of the time she still acts childishly, including demands for praise whenever she makes MVP, it's just that she's a little more focused now on getting better and stronger than just acting like a ditz all the time.

>(In the course of stumbling around fearfully clicking too-small comic
>thumbnails in hopes that I wouldn't see things I couldn't un-see, I
>stumbled across a page from one I didn't want to read the rest of, but
>the image on that one page was pretty worth it, since it was Kirishima
>having a "Limit Break" moment and blasting the holy living shit out of
>something, accompanied by a user comment to the effect of, "MIC CHECK
>MOTHERFUCKER." I didn't dig the reason for it, but it's hard to argue
>with that visual. :)

Yeah, that's a popular fan meme, to show Kirishima getting angry enough to smash or blow the bejesus out of the target of her anger while keeping a smile on her face.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

That said, I give points to the animators for using the "Fubuki class was top-heavy and didn't handle well" thing as a plot point without reaching for the obvious gag in re "top-heavy". The problem appears to be with her rig, not the girl herself. (The Mogami class as originally constructed had a similar problem, actually, which is probably also part of why the KanColle version is portrayed as clumsy - although they fixed that in the real ship with the "fake light cruiser to real heavy cruiser" upgrade.)

>That's the thing about the Kancolle approach to sister ships,
>namely putting them into their own little cliques and thus making a
>lot of the magic dependent on having them together. Having Mutsu
>without Nagato there would be cute, but the chemistry between the two
>makes them all the more appealing.

Upon reflection, they remind me more than a little of Karana and Azana. The latter isn't as grimly restrained as Nagato (and, conversely, doesn't really have a "rarely seen goofy-ass" mode :), but Mutsu and Karana are a lot alike, right down to their "god, you can be so damn dense sometimes, woman" moments toward their partners. :)

>Like I said about the Nagato sisters, the Kongou sisters just work too
>well together to be separated.

For what it's worth, Hiei would certainly not argue with you on that point. :)

>That still has to be one of the
>funniest moments in the anime, when they make their introductions.

The moment becomes even slightly funnier if you picture their hypothetical Fog hybrid versions doing that, because while they're in the office doing their shtick, their ships are out in the harbor actually firing colored smoke and presumably scaring the socks off of dockworkers, who have no context for why it's happening. :)

--G.
"Oh! Yodo desu!"

"Ōyodo desu."

... I wuv you, Ōyodo.
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It's an affectionate way of using somebody's given name; like how you'd call a Fred "Freddie", only since most Japanese names already end on a vowel sound, tacking another vowel sound on the back doesn't do anything (or might even turn it into a different name).

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Hee. This combines with the previous note about Girls und Panzer to produce:

INT. DAY. Anglerfish Team's PANZER IV. They're getting thumped around quite a bit in there, and seem to be climbing a slope that is both steep and uneven; it's giving HANA quite a bit of trouble with the gunlaying.

MAJOR WHAT'S-HER-NAME
(on radio)
Anglerfish Team, watch your incline, you're getting close to gimbal lock.

MIHO
(testily, before HANA can interject)
Saorin, inform Central I am well aware of the God damn gimbals.

--G.
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... Thank you for your thoughtful and incisive analysis. I will give the matter all due consideration.

--G.
:)
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"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

edit to add
then again, crossing that way kinda would call for giving her the wave motion rifle from UF-1, and I seem to recall that being a major cringe point for you nowadays.

Nah, heck, the wave motion rifle had an almost-cameo in Code Name Ultra, not that many years ago.

Funnily enough, though, the battleship Yamato in UF is only named after the WWII ship, it's not supposed to be the same one. This is on account of the ship in Space Battleship Yamato does not actually look a damn thing like the battleship Yamato, and so much for animators doing research. :)

So if there is, for instance, a Fog replica of the WWII Yamato, we don't have to worry about anyone mistaking it for one of the WDF or RSN Yamato-class ships. Totally different. As for the actual item itself, it's presumably still at the bottom of the Pacific.

--G.
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IIRC, the way it broke down in the ancient FI tech file was that the WDF ships named after American battleships were Iowa-class (that is, Star Trek-style ships, in-universe products of Zetan shipyards; the Iowa class in UF is what is canonically the Ambassador class, because it didn't have a canonical name at the time), while those named after Japanese battleships are Salusian-built Argo-class vessels (i.e., they look like the Yamato in Space Battleship Yamato).

In neither case do they look very much like the real battleship Yamato, although the Argo class comes closer - it at least looks like some kind of old-timey naval battleship. :)

--G.
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