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Kriegsmarine
The naval arm of Axis-era Germany, the Kriegsmarine (literally War Navy) historically focused much of its operations in the Atlantic Ocean, and barring commerce raiding in the Indian Ocean by U-boats of the Monsun Gruppe, had little to no overlap with its allies in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Three of its ships are the first non-Japanese ship personifications introduced to the game, added during the March 14, 2014 White Day update.
- Author Appeal: The first batch of Kriegsmarine ships were designed by Fumikane Shimada (of Sky Girls, Strike Witches, and Girls und Panzer fame), and as such display a distinct lack of skirts or pants of any kind.
- Gender Flip: In contrast to most other countries in the world, Germany calls their ships as male (a "he"), thus their portrayal here is a case of this trope.
- Germanic Depressives: Zigzagged: Bismarck, Z3, and Graf are portrayed as being stern and serious. U-511 plays it straight at first but averts it after being remodeled. Z1 and Prinz, by contrast, are portrayed as being more open and emotional.
- Gratuitous German: Mostly averted, due to the difficulty of finding voice actors bilingual in Japanese and German; they speak less German than I-8. U-511 even drops most of it after becoming Ro-500.
- Named After Someone Famous: Currently all but one of them are named after someone famous - though not necessarily famous in Germany. Prinz Eugen is named after Prince Eugen of Savoy, a field marshall serving under the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy in the late 17th and early 18th century. As Austria had been annexed into Germany at the time, famous Austrian figures like Eugene were retroactively considered German.
- No Swastikas: Instead, they have the German Ritterkreuz on their uniforms where the former would have been placed.
- Out of Focus: For one reason or another, Kriegsmarine hasn't had a new ship added into the game for the longest time even though it is the first foreign force added into the game.
- Phenotype Stereotype: All of them but Z3 have blue or aqua eyes and varying shades of blonde, going from U-511 and Z1's platinum blonde to Prinz Eugen's medium strawberry blonde.
- Team Pet: They are sometimes drawn with Unsinkable Sam
, a ship cat what was on board three different ships and surviving after all three of them sank, one of them being Bismarck. Bismarck adopted a black cat which she named Oskar in the 4koma and he also appears in Z1's Autumn 2015 artwork.
Destroyers (DD)
The Zerstörer 1934-class
The first class of destroyers built by the German navy after World War I, these ships were fraught by design problems by virtue of being built in a hurry. From engines that required excessive levels of maintenance, to limited operating range (half of that of contemporary British Royal Navy destroyers), to limited ammunition stores, it's no wonder that most of the class did not survive to the end of World War II.
- Born Unlucky: Have the lowest Luck scores of any Destroyer, at least when unremodeled. A reference to the ill-planned way they were designed and the embarrassing circumstances behind their sinking.
- Necessary Drawback: Both have above-average durability, three equipment slots from the beginning and a base ASW rating of 69, which is equal to those of both Yuudachi and Shigure Kai 2, and joint-second only to Verniy's 74. However, their other stats are lacking and they have the lowest evasion amongst the Destroyers. In their "zwei" (German ships' equivalent of Kai 2) incarnations, besides a minor upgrade to most stats, their AA stats become second and third only to Shigure Kai 2's.
- Theme Naming: All named after male Imperial German Navy personnel who were killed in action during World War I. In the case of Z1 and Z3, they shorten these names to something more manageable for the admiral.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sea mines, to be specific, which contributed to their sinking. Played for Black Comedy in Z3's damaged art for the summer event◊ where she's getting harassed by an Abyssal version of a sea mine... which has tentacles all over it.
Z1 Leberecht Maass (1st)
Artist: Shimada Fumikane
Voiced by: Aya Endo
- "Guten Morgen. I'm Leberecht Maass. Lebe is fine, yep."
. She particularly dislikes mines, as her historical counterpart ran into and was sunk by mines after having her steering gear knocked out from friendly-fire damage by a Heinkel He 111 bomber.- Born Unlucky: 8 luck pre-remodel, due to the ill-planned way she was designed, as well as how she sank, though can possibly be mitigated due to having 60 survivors while Max sank with all hands.
- Boyish Short Hair: It doesn't go below her ears, adding to the confusion about her gender.
- Culture Blind: If the Admiral pokes her.Lebe: "Admiral, what is it? Is this one of this country's greetings? It's going to be difficult until I'm used to it."
- Face Death with Dignity: If she gets sunk.Lebe: I'm sinking, once again, huh. But, this time... it was in a real battle...
- Happy Holidays Dress: She has new CG for Autumn 2015. Unlike the Japanese shipgirls, who are dressed in yukata, she is dressed up for Oktoberfest instead, wearing a dirndl and "equipped" with beer and German food.
- Named After Someone Famous: She is named after Leberecht Maass.
- Poor Communication Kills: How her historical counterpart was sunk. The Kriegsmarine had failed to notify its destroyers that the Luftwaffe (the German air force) was making anti-shipping patrols at that time and had also failed to inform the Luftwaffe that its destroyers would be at sea.
- Unfriendly Fire: Got bombed by a Luftwaffe plane after she shot at it- neither party knowing the other was also German. This didn't kill her- but the mines she drifted into did.
Z3 Max Schultz (3rd)
Artist: Shimada Fumikane
Voiced by: Aya Endo
- "Guten Tag. I am the Destroyer Max Schultz. But, Max is fine. Pleased to meet you."
. Like Lebe, she also dislikes mines, due to her historical counterpart being sunk by the same mines that may have sank Z1, in the process of trying to rescue survivors from the latter.- Born Unlucky: Like Lebe, due to the ill-planned way she was designed, as well as how she sank. However, her pre-remodel luck is lower at 6, possibly due to sinking with all hands while Lebe had 60 survivors.
- Boyish Short Hair: Just like her sister ship Lebe, but with longer hair in the front, making it easier to identify her for a girl.
- Holiday Mode: Gains a very skimpy two-piece bikini during an update for the Summer 2016 event, shared with Lebe.
- Named After Someone Famous: She is named after Max Schultz.
- The Stoic: And truly icy at that.
Heavy Cruisers (CA)
The Admiral Hipper-class
Prinz Eugen (3rd)
Artist: Shimada Fumikane
Voiced by: Ari Ozawa
Click here to view her Kai art
- "Good morning! I'm the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Nice to meet you!"
.- Big Sister Worship: Despite not being an actual sister, she treats Bismarck as if she was one. This goes together with her rigging being designed similarly to Bismarck's, which, as her artist points out, is a reference for Prinz Eugen (the ship) being mistaken for Bismarck once by the British. Ironically, the only time she sortied with Bismarck (Operation Rheinhubung) is also where Bismarck sank.
- Blood Knight/Genki Girl: She get's pretty excited when entering battle, cheerfully shouting "FIRE! FIRE!" in German when she attacks.
- Born Lucky: Contrast to the other German ships who appeared before her, she starts with high luck. In her case, she survived sortieing with the Bismarck, the Channel Dash, and ultimately the war. She even made it through Operation Crossroads, only sinking because she was too radioactive for a minor leak to be repaired.
- Gender-Blender Name: Perhaps the most glaring case among the Kantai Collection characters, as she is named after an Austrian prince complete with the masculine title. "Eugen" is exactly what it sounds like, the German equivalent to Eugene.(4koma chapter 77) "I'll just get this out of the way: I'm not a boy."
- Mistaken Identity: In the 4koma chapter that introduces her, Fubuki thought "Bismarck got smaller" when she sees Prinz Eugen for the first time, as a Historical In-Joke to the time the British did the same thing (they expected the Bismarck to be in the lead with the Prinz Eugen following, but Prinz Eugen was in fact leading Bismarck because the latter's radar was damaged).
- Necessary Drawback: Like the other German ships however, she has excellent durability but a lower maxed base AA compared to comparable Heavy Cruisers.
- Rare Random Drop: Finally added as an obtainable drop for the Fall 2015 event, but as it was on a non-boss node it was not a guaranteed drop regardless of result. While she was discovered to be obtainable on Easy, enterprising admirals soon discovered through experimentation that she only drops on a specific enemy formation (line ahead), which spawns very rarely on Easy (where resource consumption would be the lowest) unless specific conditions were met (the boss being in the killzone).
Battleships (BB)
The Bismarck-class
Bismarck (1st)
Artist: Shimada Fumikane
Voiced by: Aya Endo
Click here to view her drei art
- "Guten Tag. I am Bismarck, the nameship of the Bismarck-class battleships. You should remember it well."
. A dutiful and prideful girl.- Achilles' Heel: For a battleship, Bismarck has a ridiculously low Anti-Air score. To give you an idea of how low it is, Akigumo, a destroyer, has a higher AA score than her, at least until her zwei form, and even then Z1 and Z3's zwei forms, generally regarded as relatively weak destroyers, have better AA than hers. The real-life Bismarck did indeed have unimpressive anti-aircraft armament, and was also crippled in a torpedo attack by hopelessly obsolete biplanes.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Very proud of her own abilities, and shows it in her quotes.
- Born Unlucky: Initially at least; she starts with below average luck due to being sunk in her first operation. On the other hand, her zwei remodel gives her above average luck, presumably due to her being able to sink the world's largest battlecruiser HMS Hood during said operation.
- Historical In-Joke:
- Phenotype Stereotype is played even straighter when you realize that this is supposed to reference Hitler's requirements for being part of the Master Race, which is the Aryan race (blonde, blue-eyed, and "pure" German). In fact, the only thing Hitler may have been iffy about is the fact Bismarck here is also a girl (at least her commanding officer, Capt. Ernst Lindemann would) note , but she's otherwise the perfect representation of what Nazi Germany truly wanted.
- The 4koma has her being haunted by "swordfishes" in her dreams. It's a reference to how she was crippled by a torpedo strike from a British Fairey Swordfish biplane bomber. This gets even more pronounced when Ark Royal - the one who launched said Swordfish - gets added to the game.
- Phenotype Stereotype is played even straighter when you realize that this is supposed to reference Hitler's requirements for being part of the Master Race, which is the Aryan race
- Lightning Bruiser: Has a listed speed of "Fast", like the Kongou-class. Furthermore, her health when remodeled (94) is third only to the Yamato-class (96 and 97) and second only to Musashi (97) with her zwei and drei remodels (96). Her third remodel further extends the Bruiser aspect of her by giving her the ability to launch (relatively weak) torpedoes. Since night battle firepower is calculated by adding the Firepower and Torpedo stats together, the relatively weak torpedo combined with her higher than average luck gives Bismarck night battle power only slightly behind that of the Yamato-class.
- Named After Someone Famous: She is named after Otto von Bismarck.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Played straight, as she's drawn as tall, blonde, and busty.
- Took a Level in Badass: She is the only ship with a third remodel (aside from Chitose-class seaplane carriers, and later Kasuga Maru/Taiyou), which gives her torpedo stats that boosts her night battle firepower.
- Trauma Button: When she takes major damage, she freaks out over the state of her rudder, because during her sortie, she took a torpedo to the rudder that locked her into a hard turn, meaning that she couldn't reach Luftwaffe air cover before the Royal Navy caught her. Ark Royal's lines show that this also applies to Ark Royal herself, as the carrier whose planes delivered the fatal torpedo. Bismarck runs away immediately upon spotting Ark Royal, despite being on the same side- though it probably didn't help that Ark Royal deployed her Swordfish squadrons to catch her for an explanation.
- Vanity Is Feminine: She talks in a feminine way and takes care of her appearance.
Standard Aircraft Carriers (CV)
The Graf Zeppelin-class
Graf Zeppelin (1st)
Artist: Shimada Fumikane
Voiced by: Saori Hayami
Click here to view her Kai art
- "Guten Morgen. I am the carrier, Graf Zeppelin. You are the Admiral overseeing this fleet, yes? Is that so? Roger!"
. She's introduced as the drop for E-4 and E-5 of the Fall 2015 Event.- Born Unlucky: Has a luck of 4 (7 when remodeled), only above Taihou and Mutsu, for a good reason - at the time of her introduction, she was the only fleet girl whose real-life counterpart was never even completed! note
- Cards of Power:
According to Fumikane, she stores her planes within metallic cards inside her waist pouch which then can summon the plane once inserted into a slot behind the deck elevator. - Gender-Blender Name: Not as quite glaring an example as Prinz Eugen (Zeppelin is her namesake's last name and thus gender-neutral), but she still has the male title Graf (Count). The female equivalent would be Gräfin.
- Master of None: Frankly, she doesn't do much well. Her pathetic plane capacity means any other standard carrier and even some light carriers are better at the air superiority/opening airstrike role. While she can attack at night, giving her two guns for double attacks just means depleting that already poor air wing even further, meaning she can't be good at direct combat either.
- Must Have Caffeine: Her hourlies shows this."0300. Right! You desire coffee? Leave it to me. Be ready to taste the greatest of coffees. I am quite confident when it comes to aroma and flavor of coffee."
- Named After Somebody Famous: Named after Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Graf was von Zeppelin's noble title, which roughly translates to "Count".
- Necessary Drawback: She has strong stats, being offensively on par with Akagi and Kaga while also having a base range of Medium (previously only available on the second remodels and armored forms of the Shoukaku-class) and having guns which allows her to attack at night. However, she also has a paltry 43 plane capacity (56 when remodeled - even lower than some light carriers or the already pathetic Unryuu-class).
- Oddball Doppelgänger: The 4koma (her introduction chapter) notes that, even though she was made by studying Akagi's design, the two don't really look like each other.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Like Bismarck, she's the Aryan ideal of beauty, albeit even paler.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: Wears pantyhose, unlike the socks of the other Krigesmarine surface girls.
- Rare Random Drop: She was only available as a drop at the boss node in Fall Event 2015 E-4, at least when she was first introduced. The devs have all but explicitly confirmed that she will be a drop again for the upcoming Winter 2016 event.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Despite her cold exterior as can be seen from her in-game art and a strict attitude not unlike Bismarck's, she is far from an Ice Queen in need of a defrosting once you listen to her voiced lines. She will be wary about you poking her a bit too much as well as using a fiercer tone when in sorties, but in the rest of her secretary lines she speaks in a soft, soothing tone of voice. Being voiced by Saori Hayami certainly helps in that aspect.
Submarines (SS)
U-Boot Type IXC
U-511/Ro-500 (41st)
Artist: Shimada Fumikane
Voiced by: Ai Kayano
Left: U-511, Right: Ro-500
- "Submarine U-511 of the German Navy, please call me Yuu. I've come a long way, so I'll be in your care...""Submarine Ro-500, formerly U-boat U-511. I'm Ro, formerly called Yuu! Admiral? I will be in your care."
. Originally a stoic girl who is trying to adapt to her new surroundings, her second remodeling turns her into Ro-500 or simply Ro, a cheerful girl who reflects the name change she received once she was transferred to Japan.- Animal Motif: A wolf pup. Her initial uniform's radio headset resembles dog ears, and when remodeled, she sometimes growls like a "little wolf".
- Ascended Meme: One of her hourly lines has her asking if she's going to visit Orel or Bashi. note
- Born Lucky: Indeed, she had to travel from France to Japan, and she survived the war.
- Character Development: As U-511, she's very quiet and shy, and struggles with her Japanese a bit. Once she's remodeled to Ro-500, representing adapting to her new home, her Japanese is fluent, her personality is much more cheerful and outgoing, and she seems to have become very good friends with the other submarines.
- I Have Many Names: Is referred to "Yuu" or simply "U" as U-511, Satsuki #1 note as an alternate name when remodeled, and "Ro" or "Ro-chan" as Ro-500.
- Going Native: Her transformation into Ro-500 is heavily implied to be this.
- I'm Cold... So Cold...: If she gets sunk as Ro-500.Ro-500: No... Nooo... It's cold... So cold... And dark...
- School Swimsuit: Exchanges her uniform for the requisite swimsuit of the Japanese sub-girls with the addition of a cropped German-style sailor uniform (similar to Z1 and Z3) as Ro-500.
- Tan Lines: Ro-500 has these around the edges of her swimsuit.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: After being remodeled to Ro-500. While still quiet and soft-spoken, she also becomes confident and cheerful.
- Verbal Tic: She tends to end her sentences with "-tte", which is mainly used as a form of Japanese case-making particle.
- You Don't Look Like You: Her design and personality suddenly change after her conversion, from being an unemotional pale girl in a uniform-like wet suit to a cheerful girl with a tan who looks far more like her Japanese submarine peers (but without denying her actual roots).
The Marconi-class
Luigi Torelli/UIT-25/I-504 (4th)
See her entry in Regia Marina section for more details. She's listed here for her service to Germany as UIT-25 after Italy depose Mussolini and signed Armistice with the Allies, which resulted in Germany capturing her.
Regia Marina
The naval arm of the Kingdom of Italy, who were allies of Germany during the Second World War, the majority of the Regia Marina's operations were centered in the Mediterranean Sea, which Mussolini infamously declared "Mare Nostrum" (literally "Our Sea"). It had limited operations in the Atlantic, the Middle East, and the Baltic, before Italy eventually surrendered to the Allies in 1943.
The first Italian ships were added on April 2015, during the 2nd-Year Anniversary of the game, as rewards for the Spring 2015 event.
- Author Appeal: Jiji, the artist who drew both Littorio and Roma, is a regular contributor of lolicon or mecha musume art (the former showing in the design of the Maestrale-class, alongside Luigi Torelli), but when he does draw adult women, he draws them busty and plump, with the most blatant example in Duca degli Abruzzi. He also has a thing for Mami Tomoe of Madoka Magica fame, who Littorio oddly reminds people of...
- Another Author Appeal point reveals itself with the increasing number of Italian ships: exposed armpits. All of them wear outfits that expose their armpits, either by having armpit cutouts (Aquila, the cruisers) or by being sleeveless to begin with (the Maestrale-class and the Vittorio Veneto-class).
- The Battlestar: As of 24th February 2016 live update, the Italian battleships and heavy cruisers can now equip seaplane bombers and fighters post-remodel, effectively turning them into aviation battleships in all but the official classification. They are not classified as true aviation battleships or cruisers for a reason though, as they were unable to send their seaplanes for anti-submarine warfare and their plane slot capacity were nowhere as spacious as that of an aviation cruiser, let alone the actual aviation battleships such as the Fusou or Ise-classes, which puts them at significant risk of being depleted in an aerial engagement.
- Gratuitous Italian: Similar to the Kriegsmarine shipgirls, they speak very few Italian and the little they say usually makes sense considering the context they are used.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: On some levels, all Italian ships (except Libeccio and Luigi) are this, since currently they are the only ones that have alcoholic beverage appear on Anchorage Bar Counter furniture after 5am. Pola is the only one who has alcohol appear on counter 24/7, however.
- In-Series Nickname: "Land of the pasta" (パスタの国; lit. pasta country) for Italy, in the description of the Italian equipment and in Littorio/Italia's library intro line.
- Lethal Joke Item: The Ro.44 Seaplane Fighter. First introduced as January 2016 ranking reward, it's a seaplane that was intended as a fighter aircraft. However, true to their historical plane, they comes with a very poor stat, to the point that even a regular Zuiun is comparatively far superior. It was initially regarded as a Joke Item as they behaved similarly to seaplane bombers, until the next update reclassified it as proper fighter planes and allow it to be equipped on the Nagato and Yamato-class. Still a poor aircraft nevertheless, but they no longer participate in air bombing phase, thus increasing their survivabilities at the expense of their functionality as artillery spotters, allowing your fleet to reliably secure air supremacy and enable artillery shelling in maps that otherwise denied any air power to both sides.
- It gets better during the Spring 2016 Event, as proficient seaplane fighters now gain the same air power bonus as fighter planes. In fact, one of the event maps would be much easier if you were Crazy-Prepared enough to upgrade one of the seaplanes into a seaplane fighter.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Averted as much as they are the most diverse foreign shipgirls in the game. Many of them (those with reasonable hair colors) can plausibly pass as Italians of different regions.
Destroyers (DD)
The Maestrale-class
- Theme Naming: All 4 of the Maestrale-class are named after the intercardinal winds of the Mediterranean, Maestrale herself being named after the north-westerly winds or what is more commonly called the Mistral in English. Grecale is named after the north-easterly winds, Libeccio is named after the south-westerly winds, and Scirocco is named after the south-easterly winds. Lampshaded in the 4koma where Libeccio is excited at meeting Japanese destroyer girls with "wind" on their names.
Maestrale (1st)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Akari Kitou
Click here to view her Kai art
- "Buon giorno♪ I'm of the Maestrale-class destroyers! Eldest daughter, I'm Maestrale! Admiral, here I am! Please treat me well! I'll do my best!"
. She's introduced as the E-4 reward of the Early Fall 2018 Event.- Must Have Caffeine: Several of her hourlies mention on serving cappuccino to the admiral.
- Shown Their Work: Anchor hair clips on both sides of her head, although they're more noticeable in her damaged art. It's a reference to how after her stern was destroyed by mines in 1943 (something she mentions several times), prompting her crew to use two anchor chains to form a longer chain so as to reach deeper waters and to prevent her from drifting towards any more mines.
- Tan Lines: Unlike Libeccio, who appears to be naturally dark skinned; she has a swimsuit tan similar to Ro-500.
Grecale (2nd)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Yurika Moriyama
Click here to view her Kai art
- "Buon giorno! I'm the second of the Maestrale-class destroyers, Grecale. Admiral, am I cute too? Ufu, you're cute!"
. She's introduced as a drop for the E-2 and E-3 maps in the Summer 2019 Event.- Born Lucky: Shatters all Luck caps introduced until now by sporting a hefty capped luck of 120 at Kai, surpassing Colorado and Jervis' previous records by 10 points. Her luck likely owes to the fact that she is the Sole Survivor of her class and served in the Marina Militare long after the war, partly as a temporary command ship for Duca degli Abruzzi, but even with some other ships that had far heftier war involvement, participated in far more dangerous battles and are also the only survivors of their class (say, Kagerou-class' Yukikaze), such luck levels are questionable.
- Gratuitous Italian: Not much on her dialogue lines, but more on the inscriptions written in some of her special CGs. And both emphasize her flirty behavior:
- Her Valentine CG◊ reads "Baciami / carina piccola fata" (Translation: Kiss me / Cute little fairy)
- Her Halloween CG◊ has "Diavolo" written on her spaghetti blouse. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Her Valentine CG
- Sole Survivor: Of the Maestrale-class.
- The Tease: Constantly sweet-talks the Admiral, invites him for kisses and flips her skirt before him, to name a few. Due to that, she's genuinely surprised at the Admiral's Marriage line, not actually expecting him to like that kind of behavior.
Libeccio (3rd)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Akari Kitou
- "Good morning! I'm Libeccio, a Maestrale-class destroyer! Just Libe is fine. Nice to meet you Admiral!"
.- Ambiguously Brown: Her skin is noticeably darker than Italia and Roma's, and she doesn't appear to have any tan lines like similarly dark ships Ro-500 and I-401.
- Big Sister Worship: She and Roma aren't sisters, but Libeccio admires Roma and wants to become a battleship like her, much like how Kiyoshimo admires Musashi. Naturally, Kiyoshimo and Libeccio become friends. In her Kai form's 1700 hourly, she thinks that Warspite is the strongest battleship. note
- Girlish Pigtails: A pair of long ones.
- Happy Holidays Dress: Gains a special Halloween costume during early November 2015 along with Roma, apparently for trick-or-treating.
- Holiday Mode: She also gains a two-piece bikini for Summer 2016.
- Necessary Drawback: She has tremendous ASW and above average AA but overall weaker Torpedoes. Her other stats are otherwise similar to an average destroyer.
Scirocco (4th)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu
- "*Yawn*, Good morning. I'm a Maestrale-class destroyer. Yes, the youngest sister. My name is Scirocco. Yeah, pleased to meet you~"
, introduced in the Fall 2020 Event as a drop in the E-1 map.- Ambiguously Brown: Like her sister ship Libeccio, Scirocco is tanned. Unlike Libeccio, Scirocco has tan lines if you look at her palms and her damage art shows tan lines on her feet.
- Really Fond of Sleeping: A lot of her lines mention about taking naps.
- Tan Lines: Noticeable on her palms as well her feet in her damage art.
Light Cruisers (CL)
The Condottieri-class
- Theme Naming: All of the Condottieri-class cruisers were Named After Someone Famous, that being historical Italian military commanders (condottieri).
Duca degli Abruzzi-subclass
- Named After Someone Famous: Abruzzi was named after Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, while Garibaldi's namesake is Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi.
- Jack of All Stats: Both sisters have incredibly high firepower (Abruzzi's even being equal to Jintsuu Kai Ni, who's already known for being a heavy hitter among the CLs) and they are the most durable Light Cruisers introduced until now, making them the queens of surface combat. Even their middling ASW is barely an issue, as they have 4 slots like Ooyodo, allowing them to abuse ASW synergies easily; And their non-zero aircraft stat allows them to perform Artillery Spotting as well, further enhancing their combat abilities.
- Overly Long Name: Both sisters abbreviate their names for the admiral's convenience. While Garibaldi's full name is reasonable enough ("Giuseppe Garibaldi"), it's less snappy than simply "Garibaldi". On the other hand, Abruzzi's full name is "Luigi di Savoia Duca degli Abruzzi" (literally "Luigi of Savoy, Duke of the Abruzzi") and on her card, this is abbreviated as "L.d.S.D.d. Abruzzi". As she is fully aware of how unwieldy this is, she asks the Admiral to simply call her "Abruzzi".
Duca degli Abruzzi (1st of the Duca degli Abruzzi-subclass)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Yurika Moriyama
- "Buon giorno! The up-and-coming light cruiser from Italy, I am Luigi di Savoia Duca degli Abruzzi. A bit long, isn't it? You may call me Abruzzi. Admiral, please guide both my sisters and I."
, introduced as the E-2 Map reward in the Summer 2019 Event.- Born Lucky: She starts out with 20 at base and 30 at Kai before maxing out to 88 at base and 98 at Kai. Fitting as she survived an aerial torpedo in 1941, and served post-war until her scrapping in 1972.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Her 2100 to 2300 hourlies involve her getting drunk, to the point of seeing Grecale triple and outright passing out a while later.
Giuseppe Garibaldi (2nd of the Duca degli Abruzzi-subclass)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Haruna Asami
Click here to view her Kai art
- "Buon giorno! State of the art light cruiser from Italy, I'm Giuseppe Garibaldi! Too long? That's true. Garibaldi's fine. Take care of me!"
, introduced as the E-3 Map reward in the Spring 2019 Event.- Born Lucky: Sort of while starting with 20 at base and 30 at Kai, she maxes out to 89 at base and 100 at Kai. Part of her luck was surviving past the war, being reconstructed into a guided missile cruiser in 1957 before her scrapping in 1971.
- Jack of All Stats: Of the light cruisers. Her Kai remodel has equal firepower as Jintsuu's Kai Ni (though less torpedo stat), equal base luck to Ooyodo and Sakawa, and the highest HP and armour of all light cruisers, on top of being one of a very few four-slot CLs.
Heavy Cruisers (CA)
The Zara-class
- Awesome, but Impractical: They are Long ranged by default, which allows them to be chosen to fire in the first shelling round in the same turn as most battleships. However, this also means that they might end up being chosen to fire over a battleship. Given that battleships usually have higher firepower, this could well cost you an opportunity to cripple or sink a foe, which might have happened if a battleship got to go first instead.
- Location Theme Naming: All four are named after cities which were taken by Italy from Austria-Hungary in the aftermath of WW1: Zara, Fiume, Gorizia and Pola. Of all of them, only the city of Gorizia wasn't given back to Croatia.
- Necessary Drawback: To compensate for the class' very low torpedo stat note , they are the only Heavy Cruisers with Long range by default. Their main guns also gives Long range to any ship that is equipped with it but, like the Italian battleship guns, it comes with lower accuracy. In addition, they are the only standard Heavy Cruisers capable of fielding Seaplane Bombers and Fighters, though it is still ill-advised (at least for bombers) due to the pitiable capacity of their equipment slots.
- Overrated and Underleveled: The real life Zaras were the best-armoured heavy cruisers in the world until the late/post-war American Des Moines, but their armour and HP value in-game falls short compared to Prinz Eugen when they're first released. The Due (second) remodel gives significant boost to their armor that allows them to live up to their reputation, but they required a very high level and a blueprint for said remodel.
Zara (1st)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Chinatsu Akasaki
Click here to view her Due art
- "Buon giorno! I am the first of the Zara-class heavy cruisers, Zara! "Tenacity" is my motto. Please to meet you, Admiral!"
. She was introduced in the Winter 2015 Event.- Big Sister Instinct: Towards her younger sister Pola, who she often worries about due to Pola's drunken antics.
- Catchphrase: She frequently mentions her tenacity, and she outright states in her introduction that "tenacity" is her motto. This is due to the real Zara ship's motto being "Tenacemente" (Italian for "tenacity"), which was displayed prominently on her Y turret.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She's the responsible one to Pola's foolish.
- Liquid Courage: Zara in the 4-koma takes a leaf from Pola's book and gets drunk in an attempt to steel herself for Warspite's arrival. Sort of works as she's too busy trying to not puke to be afraid when she finally greets her old killer.
- Of Corsets Sexy: In her Due remodel, emphasizing her larger breasts with being the strongest heavy cruiser in shelling firepower and armor. She even have a torpedo bulge as one of her stock equipment. note
- Plucky Girl: Comes with her tenacious personality.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: She has this look in her standard form. After being remodeled, she no longer wears tights and has a single leg garter instead.
- Took a Level in Badass: The 28 February 2016 update introduces her second remodel which gives her the best shelling firepower note and armor note among the heavy cruisers, Her anti-air stat receives a significant boost as well as increased her plane slots to usable levels and enable her to equip Skilled Carrier-based Aircraft Maintenance Personnel while retaining her heavy cruiser classification. To top it all off, she gets an Art Evolution. That said, she has a very high level requirement for a heavy cruiser, requiring Level 88 note and a blueprint for the remodel.
Pola (3rd) note
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Chinatsu Akasaki
- "Buon giorno. I'm the third ship of the Zara-class heavy cruisers, Pola. I'm at an age where I want to challenge myself with everything. I'll do my best."
. She was introduced in the Spring 2016 Event as the E5 reward.- The Alcoholic: Many of her lines are about her wanting to drink and some of her hourlies actually has her drunk. This was also implied from Zara's lines even before making her in-game debut. In fact, she is the only ship to have the Bar Counter furniture filled with booze 24/7. In the 4-koma, her meeting with a fellow alcoholic Junyou has been described as "a meeting of destiny" (and they proceed to drink together).
- Born Unlucky: She has slightly below average luck both before and after remodeling. This likely has to do with the circumstances of her getting sunk during the Battle of Cape Matapan note
- Clothing Damage: Downplayed; though her skirt is slightly ripped, none of her other clothing appears to be torn due to the strong implication that she actually stripped off most of her clothes before they could be damaged at all. This is, of course, a reference the Historical In-Joke that her crew took off their clothes after they abandoned ship during the Battle of Cape Matapan.
- Averted with the damaged version of her Fall 2016 seasonal art, in which Pola's clothes are completely intact but her wine glass is empty. It is completely in-character that Pola would consider running out of alcohol to be "heavy damage".
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She's the foolish one to Zara's responsible one.
- Historical In-Joke: Her drunken and stripping characteristics are a reference to what her crew did during the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941. The crew had abandoned ship, drinking enough wine to get drunk beforehand to keep warm in the icy waters, and stripped off their soaked clothes.
- Naked People Are Funny: A couple of her lines indicate that she sometimes strips when drunk.
- Toplessness from the Back: The result of removing her top in her damaged portrait.
Battleships (BB)
The Conte di Cavour-class
A trio of dreadnoughts that was completed during World War I for the Regia Marina, none of them saw actual action - Leonardo da Vinci sunk due to a magazine explosion in 1916 before being sold for scrap in 1923, leaving behind Conte di Cavour and Giulio Cesare. Both would later be extensively reconstructed to include stronger guns, better armor, and faster speed in the interim.
Conte di Cavour (1st)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Hikaru Iida
Click here to view her Kai art
Click here to view her Nuovo art
- "Buongiorno! Mi chiamo Conte di Cavour. So you're the Admiral? I see. Well, happy to work with you."
, introduced as the reward for the E-2 Map in the Summer 2021 Event.- Named After Someone Famous: Count Camillo Benso of Cavour, one of the leading figures on unifying Italy and the first prime minister of Italy.
- Pintsize Powerhouse: Less so at base form (starting at 53, maxing out at 75), but more so in her Kai and Nuovo forms, maxing out at 91 and 95 respectively. As of her introduction, she's the shortest of battleships with a length of 176 meters (577-ft, 5-in), beating out the previous record holder Gangut.
- Shown Their Work: Her Docking Major line mentions about being running aground again, which actually happened to her in real life after being captured by the Allies in 1943 - after capsizing, she was finally scrapped in 1946.
The Vittorio Veneto-class
Built as a response to the French-made Dunkerque-class of battleships, the Vittorio Veneto-class (also known outside of the game as Littorio-class note ) ships were some of the most modern for their time. Unfortunately for them, their tours of duty were cut short at the capitulation of Italy to the Allies.
- Awesome, but Impractical : The 381mm/50 Triple Gun Mount, which was initially available as one of March 2015 ranking rewards, and are the default equipment of the Vittorio Veneto-class battleships, is regarded as this. It is very powerful note and long-ranged for its modestly-sized 381mm caliber note . However, the gun itself comes with a significant loss of accuracy and slight reduction of evasion despite being less than 16 inch (40.6cm in metrics) in caliber, making it all the more impractical in the Combined Fleet due to the huge accuracy penalty imposed for mobilizing such a massive fleet, meaning that this already inaccurate gun is unlikely to hit enemy ships with reliable accuracy. Since there are no in-game restrictions up to 46cm for the caliber size of the main guns for fast battleships, many players have regarded it as a joke armament and opted to replace the stock Italian BB guns with more accurate guns. The gun itself is upgradeable into its Kai version, fortunately, though the gun remains somewhat inaccurate note .
- This is pretty much what the Italian 381mm guns were like in real life, which fires very high-velocity shells (muzzle velocity of 870 meters per second, a good 50 m/s faster than the Bismarck's guns and indeed faster than any other battleship's main guns of any size) which resulted in a theoretical maximum range on par with the 46cm guns equipped on Yamato-class battleships, but also resulted in excessive barrel wear and poor accuracy. Even brand new barrels had extremely variable accuracy, because only some of the Italian munition factories were actually producing quality shells that matched the design specs, with the rest producing absolute garbage. When the ships were unlucky enough to receive the bad ammo, the best that could be said about it was that it could fit into the chambers of the guns.
- Lightning Bruiser: True to their historical counterparts, they are classified as fast battleships and they have both excellent firepower note and durability as well as decent AA.
- Necessary Drawback: In exchange for such impressive firepower, range and speed, they are fairly resource intensive to maintain, having a much higher fuel and ammo consumption rate than the Nagato-class battleships. They also require a blueprint for their (single) remodel as well.
- Of Corsets Sexy: And used to accentuate the Littorio-class' impressive... fuel tanks.
- Vocal Dissonance: Despite being battleships, Littorio and Roma have very high-pitched voices, in the same range as the high-pitched destroyers.
Littorio/Italia (2nd)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Misaki Kuno
Click here to view her remodeled art
- "The second ship of the Vittorio Veneto-class battleships, Littorio. note I have confidence in my speed and firepower. Nice to meet ya ~""I'm Italia, the second ship of the Vittorio Veneto-class battleships and previously known as Littorio. Nice to meet ya ~"
.- Born Lucky: She starts with above average luck due to having survived the war.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to Roma's responsible. This applies to both in-game and 4koma.
- Happy Holidays Dress: Has two so far; first in the Summer Season where she wears a swimsuit and in the Christmas Holiday where she wears a Santa outfit, complete with a snowman looking like Roma.
- Meaningful Rename: She was originally named after the Lictor, which were symbolized with the fasces. As the fasces was a symbol and namesake of fascism, when Mussolini was kicked out of power, she had to be renamed to something else. Thus "Italia", a name that would be considered acceptable to all Italians.
- Supreme Chef: Strongly implied to be this with all food she cooks.
- Weight Woe: Implied in her resupply line as Italia, possibly in reference for her weight being well beyond the Washington Naval Treaty's limit for capital ships.
Roma (4th)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Misaki Kuno
- "I'm the fourth battleship of the Vittorio Veneto-class, Roma. note Nice to meet you. What? Please don't stare at me, okay?"
.- Born Unlucky: She's the first major warship to be sunk by a guided bomb attack after one of the Fritz-X radio guided bombs launched by the Germans struck one of her magazines. The force of the explosion was so powerful it blew her number 2 turret clear off its mountings off the ship, which is why her damaged artwork is missing a turret.
- Don't Look At Me: She seems to hate being stared at as her quotes seem to indicate.Roma: I'm going to need a little repair. What? Don't stare at me.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The responsible to Littorio's foolish. This applies to both in-game and 4koma.
- Happy Holidays Dress: She gains a Halloween-themed sprite along with Libeccio for November 2015. In her case, it's a Cute Witch costume complete with Jack-o-Lantern cannons.
- Rare Random Drop: Unlike her sister, who was a reward for clearing map E-4 of the Spring 2015 event, Roma can only be obtained as a random drop after getting an S rank on the boss node of E6 (or on a node along the way, for a much lower chance) for the same event. She's such a rare drop that many frustrated admirals have declared that Roma is a myth. After often more than a hundred runs, many admirals have also spent a multitude looking for her than they did on the entire event combined. If you hardly had any resources left to begin with, the hunt for Roma gets all the more difficult since you also have to carefully manage your resources and are often forced to pause to let your resources recover a bit which costs valuable time.
- For the Summer 2015 event that followed, where Roma was not only a drop at a map that had guaranteed routing, even admirals playing on Easy difficulty had a chance to get her, but she was still a very rare drop.
- It only got harder in the Fall 2015 event. Roma isn't a drop at the boss node this time, she's on a dead end node, which has an installation boss and several PT Imp Packs. S-ranking on a node that isn't the boss doesn't guarantee a drop, so it's possible to go through a perfect run and not get any sort of drop whatsoever.
Standard Aircraft Carriers (CV)
The Aquila-class
Aquila
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Chinatsu Akasaki
- "Buon giorno! I'm a Mediterranean born aircraft carrier, Aquila! I am battle ready... supposedly~ But do look forward to it!"
, converted from the ocean liner SS Roma. She's introduced in the Summer 2016 Event as the E-3 and E-4 boss drop.- Born Unlucky: Much like Graf Zeppelin before her, she was an incomplete ship that was never commissioned. To make it worse off, her own countrymen (in diving suits) sabotaged her when she was taken over by the Kriegsmarine in dry dock. Notably, while her base luck (5) is a little higher than Graf (4), Mutsu and Yamashio Maru (3), and Taihou (2), she has the second-lowest maximum luck in base form at 29 (beaten out only by Taihou at 19), slightly lower than Yamashio Maru at 33 and Graf Zeppelin at 39.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: She references her own lack of combat experience, as seen in her Introduction and Library lines.Aquila: I was a passenger and cargo ship converted into an aircraft carrier but, in a large-scale remodeling, my performance is close to an standard aircraft carrier... Supposedly.
- Joke Character: She would have decent stats... if she were a light carrier. note For a standard carrier, it's unbecoming. note The only thing she has going for her is her low resource consumption, which is lower even than the Unryuu-class.
- Joke Item: Her stock planes are not great, all things considered. Re.2001 OR Kai fighter has same AA stat as Type 0 Model 52 fighter, and Re.2001 G Kai torpedo bomber has the worst torpedo stat in the game.
- Overrated and Underleveled: Her stats do not reflect how she would have been had she been completed. She was more armoured than Jun'you and would have had more anti-air mounts than Jun'you or Graf, but her armour, HP and AA stat are inferior in-game.
- Rare Random Drop: As noted above, at the time of her introduction she is only available as a boss drop from Summer 2016 E-3 and E-4.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: She is the Red Oni to Graf Zeppelin's Blue Oni, her fellow uncompleted European carrier. Aquila is considerably more cheerful and upbeat despite her unlucky history.
- Unknown Rival: A couple of her lines indicate that she wants to be a rival to Akagi and Graf Zeppelin, as both were the other 'first standard carriers' of the Axis Powers. However, they don't seem to take her that seriously.Aquila: Hey! Graf, Akagi... Are you listening?!
- Verbal Tic: Frequently uses the expression "yoshi yosh" when speaking.
Submarines (SS)
The Marcello-class
Comandante Cappellini (CL) (10th)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Yuka Iwahashi
Click here to view her Kai
Click here to view her as UIT- 24
Click here to view her as I- 503
Comandante Cappellini is the personification of the Italian submarine Comandante Cappellini, introduced as the E-5 Map drop for the Summer 2023 event. She was later transferred to Germany and renamed UIT-24, before her final service in Japan as I-503.
- Born Lucky: Starting from her maxed out 73 at base and ending with 93 in her I-503 form, on the basis that she had survived post-war until she was scuttled by the USN in 1946.
- Foreshadowing: The devs had tweeted that a Jiji-designed shipgirl would be released.
- Named After Someone Famous: Alfredo Cappellini is her namesake, who had served as an officer with the Regina Marina during Italy's Third War of Independence.
- Tan Lines: Her tan lines are noticeable when looking at her palms, but as I-503 they're more evident when looking at the bottom of her feet.
The Marconi-class
Luigi Torelli/UIT-25/I-504 (4th)
Artist: Jiji
Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame
Click here to view her as UIT- 25
Click here to view her as I- 504
- "Ciao! I'm Luigi Torelli. That's right, Torelli... Hmmm, just Lui is fine!"
. She was first transferred to Germany and renamed UIT-25, before being moved to Japan as I-504. Luigi's introduced in the Summer 2017 Event as a drop reward in the E6 map.- Anti-Air: She is notable as the only submarine in the game that has an anti-air stat. This is a reference to how Italian submarines had slower diving speeds compared to other nations' submarines, which led to their crews becoming proficient at shooting at enemy aircraft. As I-504, she was allegedly responsible for last known success of an Axis naval ship in the war, where she shot down a USAAF B-25 bomber over Kobe, Japan. In-game, she can also perform anti-air cut-ins as UIT-25 or I-504 if equipped with any anti-aircraft machine guns.
- Born Lucky: Quite high. As Luigi, base stat starts at 25, her Kai at 30, as UIT-25 at 35, and as I-504 at 40. This is due to her historical record of: being part of a Wolfpack attack on sinking multiple Greek, Norwegian, and British ships throughout 1941; surviving heavy damage in 1942 and yet still making back to port for repairs; and survived two air attacks in 1943 before her transfer to the Kreigsmarine to become UIT-25. Then she was acquired by the Japanese after Germany surrendered. Then she managed to survive the war.
- I Have Many Names: 3 different names while in services with 3 different navies. In fact, she has a problem choosing a nickname for you to call her (and which language she's supposed to use for greetings) on each name change. For the record, she goes from "Lui" to "Ui" and finally "Go-chan".
- Named After Someone Famous: Italian patriot Luigi Torelli, who had participated in the Five Days of Milan on driving out Austrian soldiers from Milan, the beginning of the First Italian War of Independence.
- Power-Up Letdown: Remodeling Luigi Torelli to her Kai form gives her a base torpedo stat of 0, similar to Maruyu, with this state persisting when remodeling to UIT-25, and she only gets her torpedo stat back once she remodels into I-504. This unusual feature is likely based on Luigi Torelli's history: when she sustained critical battle damage earlier in the war, her torpedo tubes were replaced with extra fuel tanks to turn her into a transport ship carrying supplies to and from Japan.
- School Swimsuit: As I-504, she sports a white one.
- Verbal Tic: She tends to append "Hanya Hanya~" at the end of her sentences.
