I feel like I need to post something light hearted since I find writing too much doom and gloom puts me in a bad place mentally.
So Let’s talk about something fun.
Tits, Ass and real life history.
To be perfectly frank I’ve always been interested in Military equipment, but most of it is infantry based, I had next to no interest in armored warfare, a mild interest in Airforce and absolutely no interest in the Navy.
As far as I know Navy was all about sailors singing and dancing to that incredibly catchy song by the village people.
That was until I saw the most adorable little animu girl phenomenon called Kantai Collection which went out to inspire other similar games like Warship Girls and the main subject of my interest Azur Lane.
Azur Lane is a Mobile Shoot em up RPG gachapon.
Which pretty much means you roll randomly from a pool of characters for your chance to get something good.
Sometimes you walk out with a 5 star elite and sometimes you walk out with a 2 star common.
The thing that Warship Girls, Kantai Collection and Azur Lane have in common is that they are part of a concept called Gijinka.
Gijinka is the act of taking something that isn’t an anime waifu and making it an anime waifu, and the subject of choice for these 3 games?
Warships, mainly warships that were in service during WWII.
The picture I posted in this article for example is of the US Pacific Fleet.
From left to Right we have USS California, USS Tennessee, USS, Arizona, USS Pennsylvania, USS Oklahoma and USS Nevada.
The way Azur lane works is that the designs of the cute girls are based on real historical facts about the warship in question.
For example USS Arizona is often seen crying or on the verge of tears this is a reference to the tears of Arizona being one of the major casualties of Pearl Harbour.
USS Juneau, makes references to the O’Sullivan brothers who were all lost aboard the Atlanta class cruiser.
USS Langley has this adorable look where she a tiny teacher, she looks like a child but acts like a teacher following the trope known as “Sensei-chan” the funny thing is this is true to real life.
The USS Langley was a tiny Aircraft Carrier absolutely tiny when compared to the Yorktown Class Aircraft Carrier and the Lexington Class Aircraft carrier (as for why Saratoga is also tiny girl. well sometimes the artists just aren’t communicating with each other or with the historians for that matter) This was because USS Langley started life as a collier transport vessel before being converted into a Light Aircraft Carrier for experimentation with the concept of Aircraft Carriers performed by the US, her primary function was as a training ship, which is why she dresses and acts like a teacher.
Not only are the characters inspired by the real life aspects of the warships but the story is inspired by real life history.
In the beginning of the game you play as HMS Norfolk and HMS Suffolk scouring the oceans for a mysterious german battleship.
You are thrust into battle as you encounter what you think is said Battleship (in cute anime girl form obviously) when it’s revealed that your escorts HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales (But mostly Hood) had mis-identified your enemy, you were actually fighting the Heavy Cruiser KMS Prinz Eugen, when KMS Bismarck does enter the fray the fight is short lived as much as you try to bombard Bismarck, she will eventually unleash a single battle-ending salvo inflicting HMS Hood with an incurable case of sinking ending your tutorial.
While the game doesn’t reflect real life Naval engagements accurately (I highly doubt anime girls were present in the combat) It is atleast inspired by it and researching my favorite waifus would often end up with me researching the historical context for their various mannerisms, quotes and abilities.
I would also enter a Discord where we would talk about who’s best waifu and also casually discuss real life Naval history with other fans of the game.
This really made me think about how we can use this as a means to teach real life history.
I mean yeah telling a guy to crack open a dusty old tome about history is not going to inspire much interest.
Perhaps it’s an idea to ponder over.
Until then I will see you later.