User blog:Morgane of the Mists/Lore (Pt. 2)

How does the ship girls actually fight?


 * In Kakuyoku no Kizuna, it is not particularly clear as to what the driving mechanism for the kanmusu's weaponry is. We know it requires some amount of the aforementioned "spirit energy" to operate. Ammunition is consumed in proportion to the amount of energy required to cause damage. How this actually works is not particularly well described.
 * Some fans including myself theorize that the ship girls simply locally concentrate the ammunition and delivers all of it at the same time in the form of magic or kinetic energy. Given that in Ch.3 it explicitly states that the resupplying takes "tons" of ammo, I think it might explain why they are better at hitting the abyssal fleet than the world's conventional navies. In other words, shooting one ton's worth of shells over an hour vs. shooting one ton's worth of shells as a single powerful attack is likely going to give drastically different effects.
 * An example of this is in the prologue, where Yukikaze shells the abyssal fleet and fires her cannons at the speed of machine guns.
 * Ship girls can "summon" their battle gear magically at will (Pg. 22). This ability is inane, as evident by Zuikaku being able to summon her aircraft to attack the admiral (who just successfully coped a feel as they ran into each other).
 * The equipment are loosely ship-girl sized.
 * Ship girls possess protective fields to reflect, deflect, or absorb enemy fire. (Throughout the book; clearly described in the opening prologue). Ahe abyssal ship girls are explicitly mentioned to have hexagonal shields (SC2 Protoss tech??) that covers all 360 degrees. As the shield is damaged, it is both a physical and psychological drain on the ship girls themselves.
 * The non-humanoid abyssal ships does not appear to have this protective mechanism.
 * It is heavily implied that a ship girl is about as durable as an actual human girl, so you can imagine what happens when this shield is depleted.
 * Most ship girls prefer to dodge attacks rather than tanking it head-on. This includes the battleship sisters.
 * When ship girls become damaged, their magitek equipment are usually damaged first.
 * Unlike the ship girl's equipment, the abyssal fleet equipment actively adapts to new enemy threats. Kongou mentions that the enemy battleship's shields hardened during her engagement. (Chapter 1 end)
 * In the novel, once a piece of equipment has been developed, it is capable of being mass produced. (Pg. 171-186). Commentary from Yuubari (the girl responsible for tech development) suggests that specific ship girls are usually assigned to this role.
 * A large number of ship girls operate in the background to run supplies and other things. This is a consistent theme across the light novel - the ship girls engaged in battle are the tip of the iceberg, and the logistic division supporting them are vast.
 * However, it is theorized - not described explicitly - that the bottleneck are the fairies operating the equipment. In normal circumstances, the ship girls have to operate all of their equipment on their own mentally. This is in contrast with other official light novels, in which the equipment fairies are stated to assist in the operation of various guns and planes. Here, after the battle is over, the fairies are responsible for flying the fallen planes back or recollecting the fallen arrows in the practice field.
 * 1st and 5th division aircraft carrier girls materialize their planes through firing arrows. The eagle sisters use charms and summon them directly into existence. It is mentioned explicitly that the planes are controlled by the ship girls (Pg. 117).

Do ship girls actually remember much of their past lives? Do they feel anything?


 * This question is particularly difficult to answer, as Kadokawa has explicitly avoided the issue. As such, these official novels - while possessing the blessing of the creator - tend to have wildly different interpretations. While the ship girls are certainly far more militaristic and "imperialistic" in other works, Zuikaku in Kakuyoku no Kizuna is considerably less so. I hope to use her as an example of why and how this is a difficult topic for both Japanese fans and doujin writers alike to tackle.
 * Specifically, she remembers how she was sunk. She expresses pride that she successfully completed her first ever mission (The attack on Pearl Harbor), and she was proud of the fact that she did her job properly as an IJN aircraft carrier.
 * However, as she reminiscences about the rest of her tour of duty, the fact that she was sent out as bait and unceremoniously sunk as a distraction for the "greater good" is a very painful memory for her. She accepts her fate as it is - as a warship. She expresses remorse at the fact that the war has gotten to the point where victory was impossible, but for the sake of war, she had to continue to fight. The beliefs of "most" of her crew only supplemented that feeling.
 * However, she is no longer just a ship of war. She is a ship girl. She possessed the memory of a warship, but ... (I'm just going to quote her straight from the novel as an impromptu translation.)

[quote]"I don't know how I feel. I don't even know if "that war" (Note: the reference to WWII) was right or wrong. But, because of that, I think I've been given a second chance. That's why I'm here - to once again, save the innocent people. Maybe through that, I can redeem myself."

To redeem myself. For Zuikaku, that was her new goal. If she was just a warship, even if she could express her emotions, she probably wouldn't produce such thoughts, mhm? She was thinking like this because she was a ship girl.[/quote]

I will comment on how WWII is viewed in Japan in a different post. It is sufficient to say that there is a general sense of pride and respect for their military for doing their duty, rather than the matter at hand. Most people simply don't know much about WWII, as whatever is actually taught is taught very, very superficially. In a sense, until I was exposed to other sources, I was personally as confused as Zuikaku is in terms of whether or not the war was "just" or whether or not there were concrete rights or wrongs committed. Japanese textbooks (and education) tends to be boring and dry, and there simply isn't a lot of detail.

It's worth mentioning that I think for this particular light novel, the author did a great job diffusing the history from the ship girl herself. As Zuikaku said, the moment she became a ship girl, things changed. She begin to think and question. It is clear from the fact that she felt guilt over her previous life that she is 1). aware of right and wrong and 2). apologetic for something. Whether that's failing to follow her orders through (from the PoV of her as a soldier, or a warship) or feeling empathy for the people she saw when the admiral showed her video footage of the abyssal fleet assault, I think it doesn't matter much. As the novel is still serialized, it'll be very interesting to see what happens to her character as she grows.