Characters / Azur Lane Sakura Empire Aircraft Carriers

Azur Lane (Main Character Index)
Major Nations
Eagle Union (Destroyers (DD) | Light Cruisers (CL) | Heavy Cruisers (CA) | Large/Battlecruisers (CB/BC) | Battleships (BB) | Light Aircraft Carriers (CVL) | Aircraft Carriers (CV) | Submarines (SS) | Repair Ships (AR))
Royal Navy (Destroyers (DD) | Light Cruisers (CL) | Heavy Cruisers (CA) | Battleships (BB) | Light Aircraft Carriers (CVL) | Aircraft Carriers (CV))
Sakura Empire (Destroyers (DD) | Light Cruisers (CL) | Heavy Cruisers (CA) | Battlecruisers and Battleships (BB and BC) | Aircraft Carriers (CV/L))
Ironblood (Vanguard Ships (Destroyers, Light & Heavy Cruisers) | Main Fleet ships (Battlecruisers, Battleships, Light & Fleet Carriers) | Submarines)
Other Nations
Dragon Empery | North Union | Iris Libre | Vichya Dominion | Sardegna Empire
Other Characters
META | Ashes | Others | Sirens

Light Aircraft Carrier (CVL)

The Houshou-class

Houshou

Artist: Sky-FreeDom

Voiced by: Chiaki Takahashi

Ahh, it’s the Commander……my name is Houshou, I’ll be in your care from now on~ Hoho, please leave the kids in the fleet in my care. Don’t worry, I won’t disappoint you~

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Houshou has a light cruiser gun mount, which no other carrier or light carrier had until Zeppy was introduced (a handful of other light carriers have destroyer or anti-air gun mounts), which seems pretty awesome, as it could give her a useful niche in stopping bomb ships with such a weapon's superior per-shot damage and range compared to destroyer main gun mounts, especially in all-carrier or carrier and battlecruiser (or USN battleship) backlines. However, it is made utterly impractical by the fact that her firepower stat is literally non-existent.
• Big Damn Heroes: Houshou's fighters save Amagi and Kaga from a drawn-out death at the hands of Siren aircraft during the Crimson Echoes event.
• Cool Big Sis: Tries to act like this to the other carriers, but as you progress in the affection she admits she's more a mother figure.
• High-Class Call Girl: One of her lines refers to her as an Oiran (a high-class courtesan), and even acts like one for the Commander.
• Historical In-Joke: One of her secretary lines mentions having "a high center of mass". While it can be inferred as D-Cup Distress, it actually refers to the "Fourth Fleet Incident" where Houshou almost capsized in a typhoon and had to be extensively rebuilt to correct the stability issues.
• Support Party Member: Besides the carrier experience boosting skill, she also has that boots other carriers' aviation when she launches an airstrike.
• Team Mom: To the other carriers.

The Zuihou-class

Shouhou

Artist: Mzt

Voiced by: Hiromi Konno

^{Shouhou (Retrofit)}

Commander, Shouhou's the name. I don't have lotta firepower or planes like those regular carriers, but there's plenty o' stuff I can do that they can't! A real pleasure to meet ya!

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• Combat Medic: Her Support Carrier skill lets her heal the vanguard by up to 8% of their maximum health whenever she uses an airstrike, so offense and defense go hand-in-hand.
• Covert Pervert: Her reaction to being groped in her base skin is to object, but only because she feels such things should be saved for nighttime. Post-retrofit, her reaction is to ask if the Commander feels she's grown up.
• Crutch Character: Tying into her Disc-One Nuke status, she's strongest early before the need for Unicorn herself shows up as competition. Even post-retrofit with upgrades where she's distinct enough from Unicorn to not stand in her shadow, she's less universally useful: Unicorn remains sturdier with her valuable Reload Command skill for the entire vanguard, while Shouhou has higher Aviation (relative to a CVL, but worse than any CV besides the low-rarity Wasp) and gets the situational Air Support skill to buff other CV/Ls (but it can be impractical to do so in places and Nagato does buffing carriers better). Her lack of fighters (while Unicorn focues in them) will be a liability late game.
• Disc-One Nuke: She's often regarded as a discount Unicorn pre-retrofit. Like Unicorn, she has the amazing Support Carrier skill to heal the vanguard and nullify inevitable scratch damage. Shouhou is weaker all-around, a rarity lower, and an oil cheaper, but can be farmed much earlier and easily (Shouhou will often be picked up on a casual clear of World 2, since she's in the latter three maps, while Unicorn shows up earliest in 4-4 and 5-4). For longer-term play, she's also relatively cheap to upgrade to Elite rarity via a retrofit. Post refit makes her a good choice for many earlier worlds.
• Genki Girl: She's as chipper as her namesake^note It can be transliterated as "Auspicious Phoenix" or "Happy Phoenix" even when talking about the Battle of the Coral Sea where she was sunk.
• Glass Cannon: her plane loadout means she can do damage (especially post refit), but will have trouble against enemy planes.
• Jack of All Trades: Post-retrofit, she's this compared to Unicorn — she has a more offensive loadout (trading a fighter for a torpedo bomber while retaining a dive bomber + AA gun) with higher individual aircraft proficiency and Aviation stat. Of course, trying to juggle healing duty and damage isn't always a good thing, especially since torpedo bombers generally have longer cooldowns: Since her healing is tied to airstrikes, she is often optimized for airstrike speed to the detriment of her damage.
• Support Party Member: Both of her skills are in the Support category: Support Carrier, which heals the vanguard every time she launches her planes, and Air Support to buff other CV/Ls.

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Chitose

Artist: yuui

Voiced by: Hitomi Sekine

I am Chitose, light carrier of the Sakura Empire. Commander, I look forward to receiving your guidance. By the way, is it true that Chiyoda is also here? ...Don't worry, I was merely inquiring.

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• Historical In-Joke: Hopes that she is never again part of a decoy fleet, referencing her participation in Ozawa's Northern Force
• Jump Scare: She startles when you normal touch her thinking it is Saratoga pranking her.
• Lap Pillow: Offers the Commander one in her love line.
• Sit Com Arch Nemesis: Her references to a certain Pink Haired Union Girl imply this relationship with Saratoga.

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Chiyoda

Artist: yuui

Voiced by: Hitomi Sekine

Hehe, looks like I've kept you waiting! I am the renowned seaplane carrier– err, I mean, aircraft carrier, Chiyoda! In any case, I'll be staying here! Right, right, is my sister Chitose here as well?

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The Ryuuhou-class

Ryuuhou

Artist: Tony Taka

Voiced by: Juri Nagatsuma

Remodeled Taigei-class Submarine Tender, Zuihou-class Light Carrier Ryuuhou, reporting for duty. I will strive to bring you victory, Commander! Yes, this time, I won't be held back by failures on my path to victory!

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• Artistic License – History:
  • Weirdly, she self-identifies as a Zuihou-class vessel (as seen above). However, the converted Ryuuhou (which she also explicitly identies herself as and behaves like, with reference to her old sub tender history) had less in common with both the Zuihou ships than would be obvious, despite their outward similarities (all of them being being tender-to-CVL conversions) and she is typically considered her own distinct class of one ship in most fleet lists.
  • Also, to be frank, her Super Rare designation and overall power level is not entirely in keeping with her actual war record; while Azur Lane can go back and forth a bit on matching a kansen's rarity and "power level" to their historical performance, Ryuuhou does feel particularly egregious^*egregious?! even compared to a few other arguable cases like Nagato. To lay out the real world ship's history...^note To start, her mere conversion into a CV was a two-year welding ordeal rather than the planned three-month cakewalk, meaning she missed the entire first year of the war against the U.S. rather than be available from the off as planned; her very first time out of port, she was torpedoed by a sub and had to turn around for more repair work; she spent the next year and change in routine plane-ferrying missions; she finally fought as a carrier for the first time in the First Battle of the Phillipine Sea (alongside, admittedly, Nagato, Mogami, Hiyou, and Junyou, and against no less than the Enterprise herself) in which she scored no hits and lost virtually her entire air wing, and narrowly avoided getting torpedoed back by Enty's crews; she then made a couple trips to Taiwan, shooting down a single plane on the last one (this being the last time any of her crew would use weaponry in anger); and then, when back in Kure (having ignomiously become the last IJN carrier of the war to venture outside of Japanese home waters), she got shot to bits by Bunker Hill's air wing, becoming the main ship loss in what was otherwise considered a failed raid. With a record like this, one might expect her to be a grey or maybe blue-quality ship with unremarkable skills (which is, more or less, the route Azur Lane's distinguished competition chose to take); she is instead one of the game's best healers, has unique interactions with submarines, and in certain conditions or use cases absolutely clobbers just about every other healer in the game for effectiveness. She's easily one of the best ships to come out of "Swirling Cherry Blossoms" and her heal even shares the name of the event!
  • There are hints that her manifestation was strengthened by the Watasumi relic, something hat would be done with Shinano.
• Combat Medic: Both of her skill functions as this. Her Swirling Cherry Blossoms skill can only heal 3 times per battle and will heal only a single target at a time, but like Fumiruiru she can target any ship, not just vanguard. (And, being a non-collab ship, she'll be rerun and put into the general pool some day unlike poor Fumi and she's the only character on the English server who works this way, since EN seems unlikely to get the Uta collab.) Her second skill, Dancing Waves, is a heal skill for submarines, referencing to pre-conversion role as submarine tender Taigei.
• Crutch Character: A funny example — in general, healers in AL only fit into certain kinds of content at high level (mostly challenge mode and certain kinds of high-end main chapter farming), and are left out of other kinds of content due to not being very useful. Well, that's true for Ryuuhou as well... unless you are trying to level a low level vanguard character in high level content. In that case, she becomes a titanium crutch because her heal scales off of her health pool; she's capable of rocketing low level characters back to nearly full HP with just a single airstrike. This makes her incredibly useful for leveling content in general, and can help solve the frustrations that come with trying to level new vanguarders.
• A Day in the Limelight: She is more or less the closest thing "Swirling Cherry Blossoms" has to a main character alongside Suruga; the event is still more of an ensemble piece, but she features prominently throughout the storyline. It's telling that her healing skill shares a name with the event itself.
• The Glomp: She's a victim of one if sortied with a submarine.
• Going Commando: One look at her artwork and it gets clear that she's not wearing any sort of underwear beneath that dangerously short and slit jacket of hers.
• Leg Focus: Given that she's designed by Tony Taka, this is an aspect no one saw coming. In her L2D New Year skin, the animations put a significant emphasis on her legs.
• Situational Sword:
  • Her heal. Because it's based on her own HP pool, not the recipient's (like every other heal in the game), its effectiveness can vary wildly depending on who it gets used on. Used on battleships, it likely won't be very hot; used on a Destroyer, it's likely to heal them for a huge chunk of their health pool, because a destroyer's relative health is so much lower than Ryuuhou's.
  • Also, her entire submarine tender gimmick. If you aren't using subs at all, that aspect is worthless. If you are able to make use of subs, she increases their endurance significantly and the subs make her stronger.
• Support Party Member: As noted in Combat Medic, both of her skills are healing skills. Dancing Waves also helps reduce damage done by enemy submarines to your vanguard fleet.

The Hiyou-class

• Rare Random Drop: Both sisters only drop in select world 12 and 13 stages

Hiyou

Artist: MusyneXSK

Voiced by: Seiko Yoshida

Light aircraft carrier Hiyou reporting in—— Commander, don't underestimate us sisters just because we're light aircraft carriers.

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• Eyepatch of Power: Covers her left eye.

Junyou

Artist: MusyneXSK

Voiced by: Seiko Yoshida

Uhoh, Commander~ Why so late? Junyou can't wait any longer~ Now, let's also go home together today.

• Childhood Friend Romance: She treats her relationship with the commander like this. She attempts to help the commander recover their promise with increasing higher affection level. ^note Some fans theorized that the reason why Junyou turned out like this is because of her history: After the Battle of Philippines Sea (in which Hiyou - her sister - was sunk), she managed to reach the port and remained hulking there, without aircraft. Lack of material prevented her from being repaired until the end of war, after that, she was deemed totally constructive loss and got broken up. Her last captain killed himself during an air raid and thus never came back to commandeer her (this needs to be confirmed, however).
• I Reject Your Reality: Insists that she's not crazy and everyone else is being tricked into forgetting her being the Commander's childhood friend and girlfriend, and outright denies that she lost if the fleet she's in is defeated.
• Yandere: Continuously insists that she's the Commander's childhood friend (which isn't possible), threatens to kill anyone who comes between her and the Commander, and her Love line has her insist that she's not sick, and that everyone else is sick and being tricked by the world, which she claims is why nobody remembers the commander's relationship with her. This makes her quite dangerous even compared to the likes of Akagi, Taihou, etc. And her sister remarks on it in her lines.

The Ryuujou-class

Ryuujou

Artist: tsliuyixin

Voiced by: Aya Suzaki

Commander, I am Ryuujou, a warrior from the land of the Rising Sun! I swear my loyalty to you from this forth, would that I have seven lives to give to you!

• Art Evolution: She got an art upgrade upon being able to be acquired, improving on the original art quite a bit.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She's been present in the game for a while (she's on the torpedo training banner), but not as a playable ship.
• Historical In-Joke: She referenced an "incident at Iwate" that stunted her growth, which refers to the Fourth Fleet Incident where she was caught in a typhoon and suffered damage to her flight deck and superstructure as well as having her hangar section flooded.
• Little Bit Beastly: She has dragon horns and a dragon tail.
• Monster Girl: Of the Dragon-type.
• Shout-Out: Answers the question "What would happen if we showed a carrier as many Kamen Rider Series as possible?" Many of her lines reference different rider quotes, most of her poses in the game and in Slow Ahead mimic the Riders, even her introduction in her sidequest is complete explosions and special effects as if she just debuted on her own show.
• Support Party Member: Her first skill on top of having a chance to buff her own aviation damage, also buffs all carrier's reload and reduces their damage taken. Her second adds a bombing run to her allies' airstrikes (twice per battle)
• Trademark Favorite Food: Is a big fan of wagashi.

Aircraft Carrier (CV)

The Akagi-class

Akagi

Artist: Hao

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (Japanese), Amber Lee Connors (English), Mariana Ortiz (Latin American Spanish)

We meet at last, Commander. But… there seems to be quite the number of "eyesores" here… Firstly, some cleaning is in order, then we can take our time to deepen our friendship. (Giggles)

• Adaptational Heroism: In Crosswave, instead of the cackling villain, we have a rather strait-laced acting leader of the Sakura Empire and a good if strict mentor to Nagato. It stems from her hearing Amagi's dying wish for peace and the far lower amounts of Siren manipulation in the time. She also appears to be rather civil with Enterprise.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Because of the lack of commander in the anime adaptation to speak of, her Yandere tendencies are instead directed towards Kaga, strongly suggesting that she is a lesbian in the adaptation.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: She and Kaga are very proud of their status as carriers from the 1st Division.
• Asian Fox Spirit: Much like Kaga, she is much more obviously patterned off of a classic Japanese fox spirit than many other Sakura shipgirls. She's got proper fox ears, nine large tails, and has flaming will-o-wisps which orbit around her (another common kitsune visual motif). Furthermore, her personality and relationship to the Commander seem inspired by traditional depictions of Tamamo-no-mae.
• The Atoner: "Red Spider Lily's Love" shows that the player version of Akagi is very much fighting to atone for the possibility of the suffering she may have caused in a different timeline.
• Ax-Crazy: It's rare to find her not threatening the "eyesores" around her, whether they be other girls in the Commander's fleet or her actual enemies in the story. At least her playable version downplays this trope, especially within her character quest; in the end, she does have the sense to recognize allies versus enemies, even with her unhealthy mental state. But then again, one of her lines outright indicates that she's only holding herself back from killing everyone for the sake of the Commander. So, atleast she can be professional but only when the Commander is present.
  Akagi: Ah, welcome back... Commander, if you had taken any more of your sweet time, I would have turned this place into a sea of fire~.
• Berserk Button: The story version of Akagi hates Enterprise. While the playable version obviously tolerates her enough to fight alongside her, the one has seen in "Visitors Dyed in Red" decides to try and finish off Zuikaku for daring to even talk about the "Grey Ghost".
• Blasphemous Boast: In her MVP line, Akagi boasts that she would even kill a god for her commander.
• Cleavage Window: Part of her outfit, which is featured prominently in art and more pronounced compared to Kaga's.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She constantly demands the commander's attention and is quickly jealous if he so much as looks at another girl during her character quest — she outright clings to him when they go shopping together!
• Color Motif: Red, taken from her name, which translates to "Red Castle".
• Cryptic Conversation: In Akagi's questline, Playable Akagi spills the beans to Graff Zeppelin that she hasn't told the Commander about Sanctuary, their soul, the nature of Kansens and the "Original" from which all derive from.
• Cunning Like a Fox: Though it's overshadowed by her more obsessive and impulsive tendencies, Akagi is intelligent and observant, and she can compose some fairly devious stratagems when she puts her mind to it. Unfortunately for her, her impulsive, obsessive, and prideful nature frequently comes back to bite her, preventing her from becoming the full-blown Chessmaster that her sister Amagi is. (Of course, Amagi sets a rather high bar to clear...)
• Cuteness Proximity: To herself. Patting her head in her Lunar New Year Live2D skin will have her bury her face into one of her tails and snuggle it.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Amagi's death really affected her, and is likely the reason why she's unhinged. It's even more pronounced in the anime.
• Despair Event Horizon: The end of Crimson Echoes heavily implies the death of Amagi caused her mental state to take a catastrophic nosedive and played a major part in becoming the violent, possessive woman she is in the present day. Kaga even notes her personality is like night and day compared to back then and Amagi's mildly shocked by the development.
• Disney Death: "Crimson Echoes" implies she survived the Battle of Midway, and "Visitors Dyed in Red" confirms it, to Zuikaku's surprise.
• Does Not Like Spam: A number of things highlight her absolute hatred of coffee. In the original Polaris Juustagram posts, Akagi's seen objecting to anyone liking that "coal water". In Crosswave, an incident is referred to with her spitting out coffee, and in Slow Ahead, she's sees trying to drink a coffee milk, hoping it'll be better.
• The Dragon: In the story of the main levels and events, Akagi appears to be the second in command of "The Master" (highly implied to be related to the Sirens) and doing things on their behalf. He is to Story Akagi what You (The commander) is to Playable Akagi.
• Enemy Mine: Playable Akagi absolutely despises the shipgirls from the Union Navy, especially Enterprise, but is willing to fight alongside them for the Commander's sake. ^note Justified with Enterprise as Enterprise's SBD Dauntlesses sunk Akagi at Midway.
• Foil: She and Kaga are this to Atago and Takao, the other pair of Sakura Empire sisters with dog adjacent animal ears. Both involve Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic, with the Red Oni (Akagi and Atago) being obsessed with the Commander while Kaga and Takao (the Blue Onis) are more professional towards him and exasperated at their sister's obsession with him. Akagi however is a Yandere that smothers the Commander with warnings as much as affection while Atago is prone to using a more mellow method of flirting. Both are still The Tease and Shameless Fanservice Girl with the Commander, and frequently make passes at him. Not to mention, Atago is a heavy cruiser vanguard fleet ship while Akagi is a aircraft carrier. Finally, while marrying the commander, Atago and Akagi wear somewhat revealing dresses while their sisters Kaga and Takao wear conservative traditional robes.
• Friend to All Children: Interestingly enough, she is shown to have a rather caring attitude towards the destroyers of the Sakura Empire, both implied in her own questline, and she is explicitly shown to comfort Uzuki after accidentally she bumps into Kaga in the anime, giving the entire Mutsuki class a bag of candy to share after accepting their apology.
• Giggling Villain: Not a villain (well, the playable version isn't), but being a Yandere, she giggles... a lot. Even when threatening to kill other girls who are coming near the Commander (You). The storyline version is most definitely a villain, working for the Sirens, and turning her fellow ships into hollow shells that exist solely to serve "The Master", with the implication that the process might actually remove their souls as a sacrifice.
• Headbutting Heroes: Out of all Sakura ship girls, she is one that displays the most hostility towards the Eagle ship girls, especially Enterprise and even threatening to frag them while on the same fleet.
• The Heavy: If an event involves the Sakura Empire it's usually a safe bet that Akagi's Crimson Axis self will be in some way responsible for the conflict, will find a way to benefit her own agenda, or manage to do both.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: In the event-driven story. Even without knowing the exact details it's increasingly clear to the Reborn Combined Fleet that Akagi has some secret personal agenda no matter how much she insists that everything she does is for the good of the Sakura Empire. Once Shinano awakens Akagi becomes one of her primary concerns, knowing that she must be stopped before she dooms the entire Sakura Empire with her secrets.
• If I Can't Have You…: Her threats of being the only one for the Commander are just as much directed to him as the other ship girls. Kaga is the only exception, but of course she will be expected to share the Commander with her.
• Inconsistent Coloring: Her eye color seems to fluctuate between red and orange depending on the skin. Her base skin and oath skin have obviously red eyes, while her bikini skin from early in the game's life tends more towards orange. Then her later New Year's and Party Dress skins went back to pure red, and most recently her Lunar New Year skin is very obviously orange instead of red, leading some players to wonder if her red eyes were linked to her yandere tendencies, making her LNY skin an example of Character Development wherein she overcame those tendencies like she does in her Secretary quest. The release of the skin showed that her yandere traits are downplayed, but still present.
• Interservice Rivalry: More like "Internal Rivalry." There is bad blood between the 1st and the 5th Carrier Division. And in Akagi's character quest, she is seen venting some frustrations by running them ragged.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: In her oath and new-year skin.
• Irony: She's basically the Azur Lane equivalent of Hideki Tojo… who was in the Imperial Japanese Army, which had an Interservice Rivalry with the Imperial Japanese Navy so intense that the main political factions in Imperial Japan eventually became "Army" and "Navy". Extra ironic considering that the real life IJN Akagi was under the direct command of Isoroku Yamamoto at one point, who was actually opposed to the real life tripartite pact and a vocal opponent of Tojo, and always held the Akagi as one of his most cherished command posts in his service career. That said, The Social Darwinist aspect of Tojo and the rest of World War II Japan is given to her sister Kaga instead, and neither appear to be racial supremacists like the rest of the watered down Axis.
• It's All About Me: Akagi is ultimately an extremely selfish and controlling woman who only wants the Commander to be hers (whether you like or not). Everyone else be damned, especially Enterprise.
• Jerkass: The playable Akagi acts this way towards other ships in your fleet, especially Enterprise. She just loves to threaten them, seeing them as mere obstacles between her and her love. In her character quest where she serves as the commander's secretary, she does manage to reign in her insults for the sake of professionalism and is almost polite to Enterprise, but as soon as they go shopping she's back to insults and clinginess. Double so in one of her lines where she really doesn't care for the other girls in your fleet and will not bat an eyelash if they die in battle. That would be convenient for her.
  Akagi: I was hoping that they wouldn’t have come back at all... Commander, I’ve already confirmed the completion of the commission. No more than a glance should be needed from you.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Even with the above in mind, the playable Akagi does occasionally show signs of softness, for instance, for all her vocal threats, she never actually delivers on them, and can actually be pretty jovial and helpful on occasion. For a specific example, she does show genuine care for the less experienced ships of her fleet in her own sidequest while getting drunk with Graf Zeppelin, and seems to be the one side of Akagi that is shown without even the slightest hint of maliciousness or contempt.
  Akagi: I came on a whim. Besides, someone has to look after the kids. That's why you're here, no?
  • As a testament to how much she cares for her sister, Kaga is the only one that Akagi is welling to share the Commander with, as she'll otherwise threaten every other ship girl that looks at him funny.
• Laughing Mad: Her mind is not really in the right place, and she loves to laugh like this. a lot.
• Living Emotional Crutch: The questline "Red Spider Lily's Love" implies the Commander is this to her.
  I wanted to save the Sakura Empire. For the sake of everyone, I failed to protect, as well as overcoming my own memories. For that purpose, even if I had to rely on the power of the gods...However, that too is past... for I've found my soulmate.
• The Man Behind the Man: Story Akagi manipulated Nagato into declaring war on the Azur Lane faction. She also works closely with the Sirens.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: She has obsessive feelings for the Commander, to the point of warning him/her that she would kill anybody who got in the way.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Almost to the point of being her Verbal Tic. Though it frequently evolves into something more psychotic and less refined midway.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Her Oath skin does not include the traditional tsunokakushi headwear, which would be worn to signify a bride's resolve to be gentle and obedient. You do the math.
• Odd Friendship: She seems to get along very well with Graf Zeppelin, as shown in her own questline, referring to her as "another Akagi". Might be a reference to the fact Graf Zepplin's design had taken reference from Akagi. That said, the two in certain adptations will butt heads over control of the Commander.
• Out-Gambitted: Main Fleet ships (Battlecruisers, Battleships, Light & Fleet Carriers) Friedrich Der Große plays her like a fiddle in the Rondo at Rainbow's End event. By having Akagi and her faction present at Scapa Flow for when the Ironblood, now again under Bismarck's leadership and re-allied with Azur Lane, launch their assault to destroy Compiler, Friedrich strongarms her into assisting with the operation. With the Sirens now seeing her as an enemy and Mikasa & Nagato's anti-Siren faction gaining power in the Sakura Empire, Akagi's power has all but vanished.
• Paper Master: Her planes are paper figures, which she infuses with crimson flames when launching.
• Pet the Dog: Or rather pet the fox, but it is nice for her to care about her sister Kaga to the point where she's willing to share the Commander with her. Considering that she's a yandere that will threaten any ship girl or even the Commander himself if she's not getting his attention, it must take a lot of love for her to consider this thought.
• Playing with Fire: She launches her planes magically, and her magic is based on fire.
• Psychotic Smirk: Two of her other official skins have her with these. In particular, her "Swimsuit" version which has her sporting a very open-mouthed grin in a psychotic manner that would probably make a Yukianesa-influenced Jin Kisaragi proud.
• Rare Random Drop: As noted in more detail on the game's main page, she's one of the game's biggest examples - you get her from one fight in one stage (3-4) and that's it. No gacha construction, no item trade. You grind for her and her sister or do without.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Most of her outfits have this colour scheme, and her story version is the one who pushed the Sakura Empire into war, while the playable one is openly psychotic in her obsession with the Commander.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Akagi is the passionate and extroverted Red Oni to Kaga's stoic and traditional Blue Oni. She also has red eyes and mostly red and black outfits except for her wedding dress which is white. The anime, however, does throw a few curveballs to this dynamic by showing that Akagi becomes the more levelheaded one once Kaga's Blood Knight nature is activated.
  • Also has this with Amagi. Amagi is the calm, cool-headed tactician whereas, as Kaga points out, Akagi could not be any more different than her older sister.
• Rescue Romance: Red Spider Lily's Love reveals that she fell in love with the Commander after he saved her from the Sirens.
• Sadist: On a bit of a lesser level than Ajax, but it's there. There's even one instance where she threatens the Commander into cutting him up into little pieces so that he will always stay by her side in her upset line.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Befitting of her nature as a yandere in order to make the Commander want her as much as possible, though notably less so than Atago who is full on The Tease. A noteworthy example of this trope is when the Commander marries Akagi, whose wedding dress she wears loose on purpose or seems to have modified in order to give him a good view of her cleavage.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: TWICE. Both with Amagi and Kaga. See Red Oni, Blue Oni.
• The Starscream: The story Akagi. Despite working with the Sirens, she's also seeking the power to destroy them as well.
• The Unfettered: Akagi's sole goal, as shown in Violet Tempest, Blooming Lycoris is to bring her sister Amagi back to life. She doesn't care what she has to do to reach that goal- work with the Sirens (and plan to eventually backstab them), fracture the Sakura Empire, use dangerous artifacts of unknown origin... If it means one step closer to resurrecting her sister, Akagi will do it.
• Third-Person Person: In her character quest, Akagi picks up the habit of referring to herself in the third person (and she has to stop herself from doing it in the very first part of her quest in favor of "I").
• Threesome Subtext: In Akagi's character quest, she's quick to call other girls pests or insects, but is perfectly fine with sharing the commander's attention with Kaga.
  Akagi: Now, now, don't worry about [being a third wheel]. I'm fine sharing the Commander with you.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: With Amagi.
• Unwitting Pawn: In the present day of the game it's pretty clear that she's being manipulated extremely easily by the Sirens through her desire to revive Amagi.
• Visual Innuendo: Much like Zara before her, she has a quite suggestive animation in her Live2D skin, wherein she strokes a paintbrush vigorously between her toes.
• Visual Pun: Like many other Sakura shipgirls, she wears a metal band around her waist - a literal armored belt.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: She tries to present her using the Siren technology as having the Sakura Empire's best interests at heart but after Visitors Dyed in Red, Ink-Stained Steel Sakura, and Swirling Cherry Blossoms there's a sizable number of her countrymen who know she's full of it even if they're not sure what her endgame is and are unable to act against her yet. Shinano, however, understands that Akagi's love for the Sakura Empire is in fact genuine. That said, Shinano also understands that this passion is also extremely dangerous, that Akagi will go to any lengths if she believes it will save the Sakura Empire, and that even if her love is genuine that she will have to somehow stop Akagi from unwittingly using it to pave the road leading to calamity.
• Yandere:
  • Akagi is violently possessive of the Commander and will threaten both the Commander and the rest of the fleet over smelling someone else on her Commander. If given an Oath Ring, Akagi will literally chain her Commander in the bedroom so they can't run away. Still, most of the time her attitude borders that of a parody, with other ships not wanting to bother anymore and just letting Akagi be Akagi.
  • Eventually Subverted at the end of the questline "Red Spider Lily's Love", in which it is highly implied that she has managed to grow past her violently possessive nature towards the Commander.
    If Commander were to say he would not only look at Akagi, that's fine... If he were to say he would not only belong to Akagi... That's also fine. Akagi only wishes that Akagi's love for Commander be engraved upon Commander's heart...

Akagi-chan

Artist: Alisa

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara

So you're the best this fleet has to offer? Well then, to please Amagi I'm going to have to start by dominating you. Hehehe... How blessed you are. From this day forward, you're Akagi's number one slave.

• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: She thinks very highly of herself and Amagi.
• Bully Hunter: She makes it pretty clear that she fights the Sirens to stop them from "bullying" the Commander.
• Big Sister Worship: She clearly has a lot of affection towards Amagi, even more blatantly so than her normal version, which is justified because Amagi wasn't introduced until long after the normal version of Akagi.
• Bratty Half-Pint: For starters, her introduction to the fleet includes naming the Commander as her number one slave.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: If she's the flagship she will keep insisting that she's the only one allowed to bully the commander, and vows to take anyone daring to bully him down themselves.
• Mythology Gag: Battleship!Kaga refers to younger Akagi as annoying in Crimson Echoes. When she's properly introduced, she's revealed to be an arrogant little brat.
• Ojou: Seems fond of acting like one towards the Commander, calling him her underling. Though it is implied that she may just be teasing him.
• Remembered I Could Fly: Starts by introducing herself as a Battlecruiser before realizing her mistake and correcting herself.
• Sleep-Mode Size: Considering she's a younger version of Akagi, this definitely applies just as much as the rest of the child form ships. However, she's manifested as a carrier and not a battlecruiser like a normal young Akagi would be.
• Smug Smiler: Her default face has her with a very smug-looking grin on her face, and most of her other faces also apply to various degrees aside from her disappointed face.
• Yandere: Downplayed, she does not blatantly threaten other ships as normal Akagi does, but she definitely shows some signs of jealousy in her affection lines. And her pledge line implies she's awakening to this aspect of herself.

Akagi (Muse)

Artist:

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara

The version of Akagi augmented by Muse Weapon technology. She's Polaris' bassist.

---

• Support Party Member: Inverted; she gets buffs from other Muse ships.
• Yandere: A bit downplayed from her normal self: she's still the same Akagi, but the difference is that she's willing to get along with her bandmates, as long as the Commander looks at her and only her.

The Kaga-class

Kaga

Artist: Hao

Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese, -2022), Yuka Iguchi (Japanese, 2022-), Dawn M. Bennett (English), María José Guerrero (Latin American Spanish)

Will I be able to find a worthy foe here? Very well. I'm yours. Perhaps this, too, is destiny.

• Aesop Amnesia: Amagi tried to get her to stop or tone down her Social Darwinist ways when she was younger, but apparently didn't take until later. Downplayed in that she's not quite as bad as her younger self.
• A Day in the Limelight: Crimson Echoes focuses around her younger days, and how she ultimately became an Aircraft Carrier. See also Kaga under Tosa-class Battleships.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: She and Akagi are very proud of their status as carriers from the 1st Division.
• Asian Fox Spirit: Along with Akagi, her design is inspired by the kitsune; she has fox ears and nine fox tails, along with a spiritual aura. She also wears a fox mask to further enforce this.
• Big Sister Worship: To Akagi, whom she's generally willing to follow.
• Blood Knight: Zig-Zagging Trope. Kaga's acquisition line indicates that she joins your fleet in hopes of finding a Worthy Opponent to crush, but her self-introduction screen has her say it's out of duty, not fun.
  • In the anime adaptation, this aspect of her gets shown in way more detail than in the game, not wanting to back down from a fight against Enterprise when it starts to get challenging while Akagi tries to persuade her to retreat.
  • In Slow Ahead, she's seen making a challenge of who can stay in the sauna the most and after the first round, she's still eager for another round.
• Cleavage Window: As part of her outfit, which is featured prominently in art. It still shows less than Akagi's take on the outfit.
• Death from Above: Unlike Akagi who uses all of her planes equally well at 125% efficiency, Kaga is much more focused on her torpedo bombers at the expense of her fighters and dive bombers with the former having an impressive 150% efficiency but only 110% efficiency on the others. In practice this tends to be a net gain for her due to the sheer power of available torpedo bombers such as the boss-killing Ryuusei or the generally overpowered Wyvern.
• Disney Death: Crimson Echoes implies she survived the Battle of Midway, while Visitors Dyed in Red confirms it, stating that it was due to the Sirens.
• The Dragon: Story Kaga is this to Akagi, constantly going along with Akagi in her schemes.
• Dub Personality Change: Playable Kaga is much more visibly annoyed with Akagi's fawning over the commander in the English translation. In both Zuikaku's and Akagi's character questlines, she stops just short of calling Akagi a bootlicker. One interpretation of this is that she holds some antagonism towards Akagi from her battleship days that she does not show in the original script, jealousy or simply to show she's different from Story Kaga, who despite appearing to have reservations still goes along with Story Akagi's plans.
• Face–Heel Turn: She went from wanting to go down fighting Sirens in Crimson Echoes, to willingly and openly serving them in the story. However, some of Story Kaga's lines imply that she does have reservations about Akagi's plans.
• Familiar: In the anime adaptation, her ship transforms into a giant nine-tailed fox during the Sakura Empire's attack on Azur Lane's home port. It defeats and nearly eats Unicorn before it was repelled by Enterprise.
• Fanservice Pack: Kaga's breasts became noticeably larger starting with her party dress skin to the point that she now surpasses Akagi in that department. Her 2022 Lunar New Year's skin continues the trend.
• Going Commando: With how much of her waist is visible and the slight upskirt of the angle Kaga is blatantly not wearing panties in her party dress.
• Historical In-Joke: Her ability to easily endure the Sauna in Slow Ahead is a nod to how hot the actual ship ran in some places so she's used to such heat. In contrast, Akagi's practically fainted.
• I Did What I Had to Do: At the end of "Ink-Stained Steel Sakura", when Leaning on the Fourth Wall, Story Kaga ponders what others would do, and does so in a way that implies that she's going along with Akagi in her quest for power, for the sake of the Sakura Empire.
• Interservice Rivalry: There is bad blood between the 1st and the 5th Carrier Division, though unlike Akagi, she doesn't seem to antagonize the other pair in their shared appareances.
• Irony: Her Big Sister Worship. Back when she was a battleship, she hated Akagi. As well, Amagi asked her to look after Akagi in her place, but after becoming an aircraft carrier, she ended up being the one who looks up to Akagi as a big sister, rather than vice versa. And similar to Akagi above, she seems to be partially based off Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, as Yamamoto tended to be against Hideki Tojo's policies and decisions during the war, but decided to go with them out of duty to his country.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: She unexpectedly does this at the end of "Ink-Stained Steel Sakura", when after her dialogue with Akagi ends and the screen fades to black, we suddenly get Kaga again, pondering what others would do in her situation. Whether she's asking the player directly, or just wondering how Amagi would handle this situation in her place is left ambiguous.
• Might Makes Right: She pairs this with The Social Darwinist in that justice is only for the strong.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: After the Sauna in Slow Ahead, she's seen wearing just a skirt and top draped over her chest showing quite some cleavage and midriff.
• Pet the Dog: While she coldly states that the Commander would be too weak to persevere should they fall in battle, she also points out that she would still avenge you should it happen, assuming her affection towards you is at least friendly.
• Paper Master: Her planes are paper figures, which she infuses with blue flames when launching.
• Playing with Fire: Like Akagi, she uses fire magic to launch her planes, though her flames are blue.
• Rare Random Drop: Just like Akagi. From the exact same fight and drop table slot as Akagi, too, which can make getting them both for maximum synergy a bit of a nightmare.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Kaga is the stoic and traditional Blue Oni to Akagi's passionate and extroverted Red Oni. Likewise, she has Icy Blue Eyes and all of her outfits have a blue and white color scheme. Her wedding dress in particular also does not show off any cleavage as she has a more traditional wedding with the Commander, while Akagi wears a dress that gives him a good view of her figure while she is barely being able to restrain her emotions and desire to ensare him. She's overall serious with the Commander and especially in the English version, is exasperated by Akagi's constant attempts to control him and his affections.
  • She's also this to her younger battleship self, having some of her bloodthirsty aspects toned down.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: See Red Oni, Blue Oni.
• The Social Darwinist: While she believes in the superiority of the strong still, her matter of the weak dying is more passive than in the past.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In the anime, she is shown on several occasions that she doesn't trust Prinz Eugen and the Ironbloods, only barely containing her contempt for Akagi's sake.
• Undying Loyalty: See Big Sister Worship and The Dragon above. In the anime adaptation, she threatens Souryuu and Nagato for their abandonment of the missing Akagi and the subsequent order to postpone Project Orochi, which itself holds deep meaning to Akagi. When she reaches the conclusion that she never even had a place at Akagi's side, Kaga still swears to carry out her wishes at any cost, even taking it upon herself to launch the Siren warship, the Orochi.
• Visual Pun: Like many other Sakura shipgirls, she wears a metal band around her waist - a literal armored belt, though as a carrier, her belt is definitely thinner than it was as a battleship.

The Souryuu-class

Souryuu

Voiced by: Karin Mitarai (Japanese), Samantha Herek (English), Carla Cerda (Latin American Spanish)

^{Souryuu (Retrofit)}

My name is Souryuu. Commander, from now on, please request my permission before doing anything weird.

• Death Dealer: Her attacks are cards.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: She would really like to never hear about Midway again.
• Little Bit Beastly: Bunny girl.
• Only Sane Woman: She's a frequent face in events as the event coordinator or just the simple voice of reason. In the "Lunar New Year Celebration" event, for example, she's one of the voices trying to rein in Akagi.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm analytical blue to Hiryuu's Hot blooded red. This extends to their school outfits with hers being a hall monitor or student council president type outfit.
• Smoking Is Glamorous: Upon retrofit, she's seen using a kiseru.

The Hiryuu-class

Hiryuu

Voiced by: Shizuka Ishigami (Japanese), Alexis Tipton (English), Alma Juárez (Latin American Spanish)

^{Hiryuu (Retrofit)}

Aircraft carrier, Hiryuu, awaiting orders! Leave the missions to me. I'll fight until my dying breath.

• A-Cup Angst: Has a line remarking on not being as developed as others, though it's part of her feeling that she lacks femininity.
• Big Sister Worship: Seems quite reverent of Souryuu and seems particularly fond of her ankles. And her post-refit lines has her trying to act like her, which actually worries Souryuu in one of her own post-refit lines.
• Blood Knight: She's combative and eager to fight, even from her introduction.
• Death Dealer: Her attacks are cards.
• Japanese Delinquents: In her school uniform, she dresses up as a delinquent, though she says she's only playing the part so that her sister, Souryuu has something to do in her role as class rep.
• Little Bit Beastly: Bunny girl.
• Mutual Kill: In the story mode, she and Yorktown kill each other with their final airstrikes. This is actually a minor divergence from history, as while Yorktown's dive bombers did kill Hiryuu, Hiryuu's torpedo bombers didn't quite kill Yorktown, who barely survived and wouldn't die until the submarine I-168 finished her off the next day.
• Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: Her "Final Counter" skill keeps her alive for fifteen seconds after she hits zero hitpoints, immediately launching a skill-based airstrike and likely giving her time to launch one last normal airstrike.
• Playing with Fire: Upon retrofit, her hanafuda cards, and the tips of her coat, are smoldering.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Hot-blooded red to Souryuu's calm analytical blue. Her school outfit is a delinquent toting a plane-bat.
• Taking You with Me: One of her skills allows her to survive lethal damage long enough to launch an extra airstrike. A nod to her fate during Battle of Midway (even in story) where she launches a final attack that successfully takes down Yorktown.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's an obvious tomboy who's always thinking about combat, but she's also immediately concerned with being seen as not feminine and wants to improve, even at "Stranger" affinity.

The Shoukaku-class

• A Day in the Limelight: The sisters are pretty much the proper "protagonists" of the Sakura Empire branch of the extended event storyline (and their branch runs Visitors Dyed in Red -> Return of the War God -> Ink-Stained Steel Sakura -> Swirling Cherry Blossoms). They get the most focus in VDiR (especially Zui) and are then still a major part of the ensemble in ensuring events.
• Animal Motifs: Cranes ^note  Shoukaku translates to "Soaring Crane" and Zuikaku to "Auspicious Crane", mainly in their oufits. The sleeves of their robes are deliberately large and coloured white with black tips, mimicking a crane's wings.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: A case of Historical In-Joke^note The 5th CarDiv was always seen as a bit of a redhead stepchild within the Kido Butai, specially by the 1st CarDiv crews which had the most senior and seasoned airmen in the fleet vis-a-vis the 5th's., but the contempt between 1st CarDiv and 5th CarDiv is pretty palpable, and mutual.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Before the crane girls were made playable in the first iteration of "Visitors Dyed in Red" about four months after the game's Chinese launch, they had completely different art (drawn by Windforcelean, the artist for HMS ''York'' and ''Exeter'') as placeholders^note the two were "in" the game at launch and even now can show up as random final shipgirls in non-boss aviation fleets as early as Chapter 2, and make major appearances in Chapters 4 thru 6, leading to a serious case of You Don't Look Like You once VDiR rolled around. The original art is available on the wiki, for the curious.
• Enemy Mine: Their joining of Azur Lane is purely to oppose the Sirens and the 1st Carrier Division. You still encounter their historical counterparts as opponents pretty deep into the main story/history chapters (which can lead to a hilarious amount of Stop Hitting Yourself, depending on when you recruit them).
• Interservice Rivalry: There is bad blood between the 1st and the 5th Carrier Division. And it gets ten times worse when Zui discovers the "Sanctuary" following Midway, finds that Akagi and Kaga cheated death somehow, and they've brainwashed Shoukaku into serving them.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Each girl carries a katana with them as part of their outfit. Shoukaku rarely ever uses hers, however.
• La Résistance: The sisters are the other major component of Mikasa's Reborn Combined Fleet movement. "Visitors Dyed in Red" is essentially the story of how they started down that path, and "Return of the War God" is the tale of how they met Mikasa following Zuikaku's rescue of Shoukaku and their blind, semi-desperate flight from the Sanctuary.
• Little Bit Beastly: Averted. Their theme (cranes) are in their clothing design rather than making them kemonomimi, unlike most of the other Sakura Empire girls.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The sisters' mechanical differences. Without dipping into their actual personalities, Shoukaku is self-sacrificing while Zuikaku is selfish. Shoukaku has a buff-for-debuff tradeoff skill in Fifth Carrier Division, increasing her Aviation but increasing the damage she takes, while Zuikaku gets an Aviation buff and a reduction in damage taken when the sisters are together. Shoukaku has Crane's Protection, buffing the entire fleet's damage and reducing their damage taken when launching airstrikes, while Zuikaku has Crane's Endeavor, a stacking damage buff for her own airstrikes and gaining strength from Sakura allies.

Shoukaku

Artist: Enka

Voiced by: Risa Taneda (Japanese), Katelyn Barr (English), Karina Altamirano (Latin American Spanish)

I'm Shoukaku, the 5th Carrier Division's flagship. …A word about my predecessors from the 1st Carrier Division? …How about "I'll work hard to try be as good as them!"? (Giggles)♪ I did that on purpose.

• Balance Buff: A small but helpful one in that her "Crane's protection" skill effects will now apply to the airstrike that triggered it.
• Big Sister Instinct: She will always try to protect Zuikaku, no matter what, even if it means getting hurt all the time.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In "Visitors Dyed in Red," Shoukaku appears as an enemy before snapping out of it to save her sister.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: According to her sister; Zuikaku's special touch line is to point out that Shoukaku's boobs are larger and softer.
• The Cassandra: On several instances in the anime, she openly questions the 1st Carrier Division's ability to summon Siren warships as well as their ulterior motives behind Project Orochi. Of course, Zuikaku and the other Sakura shipgirls waved off these suspicions as more of Shoukaku's contempt towards Akagi and Kaga.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Threatens her sister with serving her tempura for dinner if she doesn't stop challenging the Eagle Union ships to duels. Given her passive aggressive attitude towards Eagle Union ships, this may not be a punishment. Particularly since it's established that Zuikaku loves Shoukaku's tempura.
• Covert Pervert: Notable in that she doesn't get upset or surprised if the Commander touches her chest. Instead, she welcomes him.
  "Commander, come and indulge yourself in Shoukaku's tenderness."
• The Jinx:
  • Whenever paired with Zuikaku, she takes more damage, due to her Big Sister Instinct. While both sisters were ultimately sunk, and most sunk ships have lower Luck Stats as a result, only Shoukaku's is lower at 49 while Zuikaku is at a pristine average value of 73. This is a nod to real life when Shoukaku would always take more damage where both carriers would be out on sorties.
  • She ends up being this to the Sirens and the 1st Carrier Division, as her managing to break free of her mind control through sheer willpower causes the Observer to realize that they're Not So Omniscient After All.
• Madness Mantra: Downplayed, she's "only" a bit stressed when Akagi's character quest leads to Akagi pushing the Sakura carriers into a particularly strict exercise.
  Shoukaku: Bad seniors, bad seniors, bad seniors, bad seniors, badseniorsbadseniorsbadseniors...
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: About half her dialogue is made up of passive-aggressive barbs directed at the First Carrier Division. This is rooted in them getting the fame while she and Zuikaku were reduced to training ships until they went down at Midway, leaving the difficult task of winning up to them. Not even American ships are safe from this as she makes a number of such remarks towards them, implying her tempura remark may be a sly encouragement on the matter.
• Support Party Member: Her "Crane's protection" skill upon an air launch boosts the fleet's damage inflicted by 10% and decreases the damage taken by 10%.
• Take That!: Her acquisition line could be seen as one towards her KanColle counterpart as she says something similar to her, but then then reveals she wasn't serious with the remark. The line in question being working nicely with her seniors (something that this Shoukaku can't/won't stomach).
• Troll: Downplayed, but expect her to talk like she frequents 4chan every time she posts or comments something that mocks Akagi on Juustagram.
  ''Shoukaku posted a photo of Akagi getting hit by Cleveland's home run ball'' #Senpaimakeshistory #Ayylmao
• Vapor Wear: Her formal dress Live2D skin leaves very little to the imagination, being extremely translucent with no visible undergarments, a generous bit of chest jiggling, and the inner skirt riding quite high up on her butt.
• When She Smiles: She's generally not a very happy person, but we do see her smile in a couple of pieces of loading screen art. When she does, she's positively adorable.

Zuikaku

Artist: Enka

Voiced by: Risa Taneda (Japanese), Michelle Rojas (English), Lourdes Arruti (Latin American Spanish)

From the Sakura Empire's carrier division, their last elite fleet carrier in the Great War, Zuikaku! Well, I can only utilize my full power when my sister, Shoukaku, is around. That said, it's a pleasure to meet you!

• Badass Longcoat: What's ostensibly her kimono comes across a lot more like this.
• Balance Buff: Her "Crane's Endeavor" skill on the Dec 22nd update has an effect added; 20% damage boost if there's three or more Sakura ships in the fleet.
• Big Sister Worship: Adores Shoukaku. She gushes about how cute she is when embarrassed, and her love line is her saying that she feels like she's around Shoukaku when she's with you...before verbally backspacing and insisting that she doesn't think of you as her sister.
• Blood Knight: She's always itching for a fight, though like her KanColle counterpart, this is primarily due to her desire to prove the strength of the 5th Carrier Division to her seniors. In the anime, she makes a beeline straight to Enterprise despite putting herself at great risk.
• Cool Sword: Yup. With a side of Katanas Are Just Better, naturally.
• A Day in the Limelight: She's the main character of the "Visitors Dyed in Red" event, which pits her against her fellow IJN ships in order to rescue her sister and try to free the Sakura Empire from the force pulling their strings... or at least comprehend what that force is. She's also one of the main characters in the "Looking Glass of Fact and Fiction" Hololive Collab event alongside Kawakaze and the Starter Ships. And then there's her roles as part of the Reborn Combined Fleet.
• Disc-One Nuke: Even moreso than other event reward ships. Not only is it much easier to get her as "disc one" - the original event had the core maps go from level 32 to 50, making them very much in striking distance of players in their first week, and the JP and EN reruns retained this level bracketing - but her solo-focused skill functions in such a way (being a straight damage increase, rather than a stat increase) that it scales to increase her performance regardless of how well-leveled she is, meaning it helps her contribute earlier. She's famous in fan circles for becoming by far the most powerful unit in a new player's fleet for players who start during a run of VDiR (and these days in general as the event is archived)
• Does Not Like Spam: Loudly proclaims her hatred of turkey, to the point that she doesn't like Taihou, simply because the chinese for turkey is "fire chicken", as in you know, a Phoenix.^note During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the IJN lost Shoukaku and nearly all of its carrier-based aircraft in a one-sided aerial battle known as "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot."
• Gathering Steam: Her primary solo skill gives her stacking damage upon her air strikes up to three times. Her air attack score is fairly middle-of-the-road for her rarity, and so her initial damage is a bit unimpressive... but if you get to her fourth strike, she'll obliterate you. With the new effect from the Dec 22nd update, it can lessen the need, but also increases the potential damage boost she can enjoy.
• Good Luck Charm: Shoukaku is this to her, taking less damage also present in your fleet. A nod to real life, to the point where Zuikaku was finally sunk only after Shoukaku was sunk on a prior sortie.
• Ideal Hero: Especially compared to just about every other Sakura carrier, with the possible exception of her sister. Zui is basically an idealized shounen manga hero as a shipgirl - she uses a Cool Sword, she likes fair and sporting fights, she accepts her original defeat at Enterprise's hands with even-keeled grace and humility (and becomes E's shounen-styled rival as an AL member) and she grows increasingly adorable at higher affinity levels. This is in contrast to nearly all the other Sakura fleet carriers (even, to some extent, her own sister), who range from "quietly bitter" to "mildly sociopathic" to "violently, flagrantly psychotic".
• The Rival: Always looking for another duel with Enterprise...
  • Unknown Rival: However, Enterprise never acknowledges her, though it's implied it's more Enterprise sees EVERY Sakura carrier as one, thus Zuikaku doesn't stand out.
  • Inverted with the playable Akagi. Player-Kaga notes that Akagi has come to view her as such a complete non-factor in her plans that Zuikaku is possibly the only girl in the fleet that Akagi doesn't mind seeing walk with the player.
• Support Party Member: Inverted, if there's 3 or more Sakura ships in the fleet she gets a 20% damage boost.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Shoukaku's Tempura.
• Use Your Head: She delivers a vicious headbutt to Kaga in the anime, breaking her out of her Villainous BSoD.

The Taihou-class

Taihou

Artist: Yunsang

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki

My body is burning and my heart is throbbing… at last, I get to meet you, Commander! I may not be much, but I hope I'll be of service to you♡

The personification of the heavily-armored aircraft carrier Taihou.

---

• Abhorrent Admirer: Taihou really can't stand Albacore's mere presence and sees her as a rival to the Commander's affection and even shows some fear towards her, whereas Albacore herself just wants to befriend Taihou and doesn't even care that much about the Commander. This in itself is a Historical In-Joke considering that Albacore was the ship that sunk Taihou in real life, albeit unwittingly (it was fuel ignitions sparked by the otherwise non-fatal torpedo strike that did Taihou in).
• Ax-Crazy: Her "Starting Mission" line has her declare that she will kill anyone who stands between her and the Commander (You). And yes, that includes other shipgirls in your dock.
• Animal Motifs: Her standard outfit resembles a phoenix, as in her name.
• Balance Buff: Her "Predestined Launch" skill was reworked so one effect would always proc, but lowering the chances of the other two from 30 percent to 25, increasing her consistency if at the expense of the chances of getting the triple effect payout.
• Boobs-and-Butt Pose: A variation. Her Temptation on the Sea Breeze Oath CG has her reclining on her side above a seaside rock, the trope being complied with the near top-down perspective of the CG.
• Character Development: She has basically an arc that extends through various events, showing her opening up more and more to other kansen, including Albacore.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Taihou is clingy to an uncomfortable extreme. During her secretary's quest, Albacore points out just how big a turn off that kind of behavior can be and that in doing so she risks alienating herself from the Commander. Shortly after, unaware that this conversation occurred, the Commander suggests that Taihou take a vacation from secretarial duties at which point Taihou believes Albacore's warning has come to pass, locks herself in her room, and has a total emotional breakdown. Both her character story and the Yamashiro dress mini-event show that she can otherwise socialize with other girls without issue, assuming they are not Akagi.
• Cute and Psycho: She is one of the game's go-to fanservice girls, and also Ax-Crazy.
• Enemy Mine: In her Questline, she and Shoukaku team up to form an impromptu "Anti-Akagi Alliance", much to the Commander's concern. Also some Historical In-Joke given that Taihou and Shoukaku sailed together following Akagi's sinking and the reorganization of the 1st Carrier Division, as well as both being related in terms of construction (The actual Taihou was based on a modified Shoukaku design with armored flight deck).
• Everyone Has Standards: According to "Universe in Unison" cutscenes, as quick as she is to think about doing violence to the competition, even she thinks Roon takes it too far.
• Girlish Pigtails: Has very long ones in her normal skin.
• Hidden Depths: On the surface, Taihou is nothing more than a lustful Yandere, but her character story has some hints of the latter partially being a mask to cover up her lack of sociability and confidence in herself (due to her record as a ship) and wants to be seen as useful by the Commander. This being said, she is overzealous in everything she does.
  • If her Chinese New Year dress and wedding dress skins are anything to go by, Taihou is a masterful tailor, as she crafted those outfits herself.
  • As long as you are not after the Commander, Taihou can be forgiving, as she told Albacore that past is past on their first meeting in Ceremonial Gala.
  • Her Seaside Daydreams swimsuit skin shows a more reasonable and responsible side of her, as she stops her Elopement fantasy dead in track since she does not want the Commander to abandon his calling here.
• Laughing Mad: Not as much as Akagi, but she does have her moments of these. In some of her lines, however, she does a lower, more seductive giggle more befitting of the Laugh of Love.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The quote with her Chinese new year skin has her mention intentionally skipping some holidays as to have her outfit have more impact.
• Love Martyr: How devoted Taihou is towards the Commander? For one, her "Disappointed" line - unlike the other shipgirls who has them having a very low opinion of the Commander if they reached this state - she instead threatens to do something about the "little insects" around him (obviously, she's referring to the other shipgirls). This, alone, points out that even if the Commander is being an asshole towards her, she simply interprets it as the other shipgirls stealing your attention away from her. She's so in love with the Commander that she expects him to be devoted to her alone, as well.
• Ms. Fanservice: Taihou has an impressive body that she's absolutely shameless about showing off.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: She's perfectly willing to harm or threaten anyone, friend or foe, whom she perceives is getting too close to the Commander.
• Mythology Gag: Before she was properly introduced, she was mentioned by an off-hand comment in Akagi's Questline, referring to her as an annoying stalker.
  Akagi: ''Taih- That wench is right behind us! One day Akagi will end her, Akagi swears it...!
• Odd Friendship: Taihou is seen with Albacore quite a bit in event dialogue, which is funny considering Albacore sunk Taihou and loves to screw with her even now that they're part of Azur Lane. When she's not out to scare Taihou into unconsciousness Albacore is also quite adept at pushing her buttons and getting Taihou to hang out with her.
• Random Effect Spell: Her attack skill has one of three random but beneficial effects, two add more planes of a certain type to her airstrike, directly increasing her damage while the last buffs all the carriers. Unlike most examples, each effect has its own proc chance so if you get lucky, you'll get all three effects at once and a very large number of planes. The Dec 22nd update makes this skill more consistent but lowers the chance of all three happening slightly.
• The Rival: To Akagi for the commander's affections and the feeling's mutual.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Taihou is pretty much "Commander-sexual".
  I know everything, everything there is to know about you~ Because to me, you are the only person in the world, Commander~
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Almost every line of hers is oozing and dripping with sex. She doesn't tease Commander, oh no! She's dead serious about sleeping with him if he allows it. She's also shameless about wearing her clothes really loose on purpose to arouse the Commander and give him a good view of her breasts, which carries into her New Year's getup with the added bonus of competing with Atago for showing off the most skin in her Race Queen outfit, which is pretty much another bikini.
• Spell My Name With An S: It is possibly a spelling error in the EN version, but her title card in cut-scenes refers to her as Taiho, but all the dialogue refers to her as Taihou.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Slow Ahead Chapter 14-3 reveals that she keeps the spare keys to the Commander's office and personal room in her cleavage.
• Vocal Dissonance: Although her body is extremely well-developed, Aoi Yuuki uses a high-pitched register for her voice similar to her roles as Diane and Tatsumaki.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Taihou is quite afraid of Albacore, the sub who sunk her, to the point of passing out if she sneaks up on her. Which is quite frequent.
• Yandere: A different sort than Akagi. Since she's already obsessively in love with the Commander, her affection lines imply that it's the Commander who's becoming warming up to her rather than the other way around as is the case for most other shipgirls. It's implied that it's driven by insecurity.

Taihou (Muse)

Artist: Byulzzi

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki

"Sakura Empire armored carrier Taihou, reporting in to test the experimental "Muse System..." hehehe♡ My Commander need only ask and I will give anything, even my very life~"

• Glass Cannon: Compared to her normal self as she lacks her original's defensive passive and her offensive skill boosts her airstrike's damage at the cost of Hit Points (500 or so). While she has a special barrage that triggers at lower hp that heals based on damage inflicted, it's best to end things before getting to that point.
• Idol Singer: In the "Universe in Unison" event, as part of the Verheerender duet act with Roon.
• Leitmotif: Kanjou LOYALTY^*LOYALTY on Board, shared with Roon as part of the Verheerender duet act.
• Only Sane Man: Between her and Roon in Verheerender, she's surprisingly the saner one and noted to be tasked to keep the other girl in check.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: This hasn't changed from normal Taihou, with her special touch line saying that she doesn't care about "causing a scandal on stage".

Taihou-chan

Artist:

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki

"I am the Sakura Empire's cutting-edge armored carrier. No bombs, torpedoes, or anything else can even scratch me. My Commander, I will systematically eliminate all who dare threaten you."

• Bratty Half-Pint
• Girlish Pigtails: Just like her older self.
• The Rival: With Akagi-chan over the Commander.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Taihou-chan is a little girl who openly discusses how she loves you.
• Yandere: Oh yes.

The Unryuu-class

Katsuragi

Artist: 山×2 

Voiced by: Megumi Toda

"Hello there, Commander! I'm the Unryuu-class aircraft carrier, Katsuragi. I'm not just a carrier, I'm a full-fledged aircraft carrier, meaning that I can do everything that an aircraft carrier is supposed to do! I'm not telling ya what I don't like, but as for hobbies, I've got a whole buncha those~ For example... (1 minute later) ...So yeah! Hey, Commander, are you still listening?"

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• Born Lucky: Among the Sakura carriers her LuckStat of 75 is surpassed only by Houshou (79) and Junyou (80), reflecting that she was the only purpose-built Japanese fleet carrier to survive the war.
• Genki Girl: Very enthusiastic about almost everything, and is almost constantly on full energy.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: The real Katsuragi never participated directly in any battles, and her intended air wing ended up committed to other battles like Iwo Jima while operating from land bases.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Her continuous emphasis on being a "real carrier" probably refers to how she spent most of the war hidden away without an air wing.
• Insistent Terminology: Katsuragi is a full-fledged aircraft carrier and will never let you forget it.
• Motor Mouth: Katsuragi talks faster than any shipgirl so far, to the point comparisons between her and Eminem have been made by the fanbase.

The Yamato-class

Shinano

Artist: sorayuna

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto

This sensation... is that of reality... Was it you who awoke this one from her long slumber? Such is the inevitability of fate... Please allow Shinano, third ship of the Yamato-class, to guide you forward upon the right path.

Introduced in dialogue during the Swirling Cherry Blossoms event as one of the three kansen described as the "Decisives", Shinano is a the incarnation of the infamous converted aircraft carrier who began life as one of the Yamato-class battleships. She is initially aligned with the main Sakura Navy under Akagi; though, given that she's described as being in near-constant slumber, one might wonder how willingly this is.

While an offscreen presence during "SCB", she made her proper (and wakeful) playable debut during the Dreamwaker's Butterfly event on Sept 17th, 2020, in commemoration of the 3rd Anniversary for the game's Japanese Servers.

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• Animal Motifs: Butterflies, which are commonly associated with spirits and change, representing not only Shinano's power to see the future through her dreams, but also her growth from a passive observer resigned to fate to an active fighter trying to change it.
• Artistic License – History:
  • Another "what-if" ship in the same vein of Amagi, Tosa, and BB Kaga, though actually managed to be set afloat in real life. The real-life Shinano was eventually planned to be converted from a Yamato-class battleship to a carrier after the disastrous losses suffered at the Battle of Midway. However, unlike Akagi and Kaga (who had the benefit of a decade in which to be experimented on and refined in non-wartime conditions) her hull was too far along to immediately outfit her as a proper fleet carrier (and the equivalent resources and time that had gone into Akagi and Kaga simply didn't exist), and while she could and did sail, she was sunk on a supply mission long before anything like a proper outfitting could be completed. The in-game Shinano portrays her as a fully-converted, fully-completed aircraft carrier with capabilities at least on par with a US/Eagle Union Midway-class. (and,if not hindered by the miniscule amount of her airwing relative to her size, she would be considered the first supercarrier similar to the USN Forrestal-class).
  • The game also classes her as a "Yamato-class carrier", which is not how most fleet lists classify her; since her layout ended up being radically different from a Yamato battleship (natch, being a carrier conversion) she is usually considered a unique class of her own in both Allied and IJN fleet lists.
• Asian Fox Spirit: Like her sister carriers Akagi and Kaga, she sports nine tails and fox ears. The former two may be references to Tamamo-no-Mae as mentioned above, but Shinano is a reference to Japanese depictions of Inari herself.
• Boobs-and-Butt Pose: Her "Moonlit Chrome" Race Queen CG has her straddling the front end of the Cool Car in this posture.
• Cool Car: The Mercedes-Benz AMG One Hypercar in her Race Queen CG.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: A variation. In the final level of her event, Shinano will support both fleets with a skill unique to the level, Blessing of the Butterfly. After a short period, she will begin to continulously launch screen-filling barrages of butterfly shells. While many ships use unique abilities as a boss, this is a rare instance in the game where it's in the player's favor (assuming your device can handle the performance instability when her skills are activated). The same perk will be active on other levels in clearing mode.
• Dramatic Ellipsis: Her dialogue lines is littered with this, even when speaking to her fellow Sakura Empire ships.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: A bit of a variant — Shinano is, evidently, aware of all things happening in the present while dreaming, regardless of distance or subject. And that vision extends to other timelines.
• Dream Weaver: While it's unclear precisely how well she can control the dreams of others, this is the primary way in which she is, evidently, a Waif Prophet, and does seem capable of interacting with the waking world in some way (otherwise the rumors would never start).
  Yamashiro: From what I've hard, she's far from useless! They say that she can see everything that is happening, and can even conduct a ritual from within her slumber! Although, they're just rumors...
• Friend to All Children: She is kind and motherly towards destroyers, allowing them to rest on her bosom and/or play with her tails. This trait is in reference to how the destroyers Isokaze, Yukikaze, and Hamakaze escorted Shinano on her first and last voyage to Kure Naval Base. Additionally, her third skill, "Protector of the New Moon", buffs the FP, EVA, and ASW stats of all destroyers in the same fleet as her.
• Game Changer: The first ship to have the 'Ultra Rare' designation that isn't either a Research vessel (Azuma, Drake, Friedrich) or a retrofit of an existing ship (Warspite and San Diego).^note This was, ironically, originally the plan for Bismarck, and a number of the UR assets are adapted from the early "Legendary" rarity assets that were buried in the launch-era Azur Lane client. She's also this on a story level as her visions reveal a considerable amount of insight on the game's overall plot.
• Hotter and Sexier: Her Moonlit Chrome Race Queen CG, and later her Dreamy White Sands Swimsuit CG, emphasize this trope on her to a T, both showing more skin compared to her default CG, and are interactive Live2D skins to boot. Even her facial expressions and dialogue lines on both skins are quite... Suggestive, especially for a kansen of her personality.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: A trait she shares with her sister Musashi.
• Made of Iron: A combination of high HP, Heavy Armor and a 20% damage reduction through her skills makes her nearly as tanky as Main Fleet ships (Battlecruisers, Battleships, Light & Fleet Carriers) Friedrich Der Große.
• Master of All: Befitting her Ultra Rare classification, her kit is absolutely packed. A passive destroyer buff, a passive carrier buff (this includes herself), passive damage reduction, a second damage buff for herself for her first two battles, a timer-based barrage that also supports the off-fleet, and a stackable debuff to an enemy's offensive and defensive abilities. Furthermore, her first equipment slot can accept any type of aircraft, giving her a greater deal of versatility and can be respecced to fit the enemy type you'll be facing (This is a bit of a Historical In-Joke as at one time, one of the proposals for the converted real life Shinano was to be repurposed as a supply carrier (that is, a carrier who supplies the planes for other carriers) rather than the regular fleet carrier.
• Mighty Glacier: Claims the crown for tankiest carrier in the game, beating out previous title holder Graf Zeppelin by over 1200 HP on top of sporting Heavy Armor and the second-highest Aviation stat in the game that's only beaten by Retrofit Saratoga.
• My Greatest Failure: Her lines has her lamenting the fact that she was unable to change the tides of fate. This references how in real life that, despite her having been commisioned and expected to relieve the losses that she and her sisters were supposed to do, Shinano was sunk without having done any significant impact in turning the tides of the war.
• Mythical Motifs: The Asian Fox Spirit entry notwithstanding, her role as one of "The Decisives" of the Sakura Empire, and the Moon motif of both her default CG and the Dreams of the Hazy Moon special CG, places her squarely as the Tsukuyomi to Musashi's Susanoo.
• Odd Friendship: Oddly enough, she develops one of these with Archerfish, the submarine who sank her.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Initially, she is somewhat hesitant about the boldness of her Moonlit Chrome and Dreamy White Sands costumes, but happily chooses to wear them simply because the Commander requested it.
• Shout-Out: Her "Moonlit Chrome" Race Queen CG has at least three references to Formula One, of all things:
  • The backdrop of the said CG is based on the Start/Finish straight of the Shanghai International Circuit, which hosted the Chinese Grand Prix^*When Shinano was introduced in the game in 2020, the CoVID-19 Pandemic took the circuit out of the F1 schedule, only to be reintroduced in 2024 once restrictions were lifted.
  • The black, silver, gray, tiffany green, and white color scheme used on the Mercedes-Benz AMG One hypercar is based on the livery colors of the Mercedes-AMG F1 Team, who were also major contributors to its development.
  • The writings on the grandstand refer to both this radio feed during the 2018 German GP, and more infamously the S🅱innala meme.
• Sleepyhead: Befitting of someone who has been awoken from her long slumber, she speaks in a very quiet and drowsy manner much like resident sleepyhead Laffey (who appears in her event and chapter in Show Ahead), and is just as prone to dozing off at the drop of a hat.
• Spanner in the Works: Shinano's ability to walk through different timelines with her dreams is not unlike how the Sirens operate. As a result Shinano is the first real variable that the Sirens have no genuine response to. The autonomous Tester during Daedalian Hymn mentions that she's problematic.
• Unseen No More: She is discussed in a fair amount of detail during "Swirling Cherry Blossoms", but she does not appear on-camera. Granted, she apparently wakes up right at the end of the epilogue, but then, naturally, cut to standard gameplay, that's all for now folks!. She finally appeared and became obtainable in the "Dreamwaker's Butterfly" event, in addition to being the event's main character.
• Waif Prophet: She's described in this way, invoking primarily a trope common to far eastern fiction of "the sleeping priestess who interacts with the world through dreams".
• Wonder Child: Possibly, and one of the things that necessitates putting some qualifiers on just who she "is" ahead of a more in-depth reveal; she was evidently brought into being via the use of a capital-C "Catalyst" in addition to the Watatsumi, although Akagi does not elaborate on what this is (and Akagi herself is rather disdainful of the result), with some implication that "standard" kansen creation wouldn't have cut the mustard for Shinano. For all intents and purposes during the war, the real life Shinano was only technically half-complete, which makes Akagi's initial disdain, assumedly due to her initial impression, towards her a bit justified.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Shinano is a kind-hearted woman, if not a bit too lethargic, and also a very powerful aircraft carrier.

The Hakuryuu-class

Hakuryuu

Voiced By: Satomi Sato

So, this brat is supposed to be the commander? My name is Hakuryuu. Listen well – try to control me, and you will make a laughingstock of yourself. Remember this!

Personification of the IJN Project G-15 "Taihou Kai" Hakuryuu (though G-15.5 would be more appropriate. See below). She is part of the fourth Research ship collaboration with World of Warships.

• Artistic License – Ships: The Hakuryuu that is featured in World of Warships is very different compared to the original G-15 plans, featuring the game's classic mish-mash design. Lesta/Wargaming originally featured Shinano as the premier Tier X IJN carrier tech tree that even goes all the way to beta phase, but she was eventually scrapped (part of reason is because she will be too heavily armoured for a carrier to be at least balanced in terms of gameplay). Since this pretty much leaves the Tier X empty, they needed another carrier to compensate, and looked to find something that is at least equal to Shinano in terms of size and air power but still represents an evolution of IJN carrier development. So they chose the G-15, (which is essentially a retrofit plans for Taihou should she ever need it, weirdly enough), but enlarged and stretched to make it similar in size to the more obscure G-14 "Super Taihou" (which is essentially just an enlarged Taihou with up to 50,000 tons displacement and improvements to her weakness rather than a major redesign).
• BFS: Her katana (it's actually a nodachi, but she mostly refers it as such), which is almost as long as she is tall.
• Big Fancy House: In the game's world, the Dragon Palace that appears in the Upon the Shimmering Blue event appears to be her own place of living.
• Curtains Match the Window: Both her hair and eyes are white.
• Katanas Are Just Better: She wields a massive katana as her weapon.
• The Rival: A one-sided one with Shinano.
• Security Blanket: Her Katana; with it she's brash and confident, without it she's quite meek and skittish.
• Stance System: Two of her skills act like this:
  • Her The Great One's Shadow skill: if she has at least one Sakura aircraft, it increases her aviation and accuracy stats. Otherwise, it increases her AA and accuracy stats.
  • Her Flame-Anointed Conquest skill: if she has a fighter equipped, she fires a barrage every 12 seconds. If she does not, it instead becomes a slashing barrage that triggers if she launches an airstrike.
• Tsundere: She doesn't show this normally, but starting from her "Like" lines afterwards, she becomes a bonafide one thanks to the Commander knowing and getting hold of her secret, and her post-oath lines are littered with remarks you may expect from a tsundere.
  Hakuryuu: (Post-oath special touch) F-fine it's not like I can beat you anyway... Hyaah?!