Hatsushimo

Info
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Basic

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Second upgrade

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Character
Voiced by: Kobayashi Motoko

Illustrated by: やどかり(Yadokari)

Appearance
Brick red eyes and long black hair held together with a red hair tie towards the end, though nevertheless a little messy all around. Dresses in a black suit jacket with a matching skirt over a white button-down shirt and red tie; wears black socks and brown penny loafers. She holds two small main cannons in both hands resembling dual 12.7cm naval guns, though the left one only has a single turret (which was the standard for Hatsuharu-class destroyers until post-1942 when they were replaced with additional anti-air guns), with 61cm triple torpedo mounts attached to either side of her torso. Her mainmast and funnel, mounted on her back, are apparent as well. Her design from the point of view of her armaments appears to reflect the real ship at the outset of the war rather than the later years.

Hatsushimo Kai Ni gains a blue hachimaki along with a new (piped) blazer. In this outfit she's forgone her tie, rolled up her sleeves and appears to have followed in the example of Yahagi and Yamato (two of her Operation Ten-Gō comrades), wearing one thigh-high sock on the left leg and her usual on the right. Unlike her real-life counterpart, she's kept her single-turret 12.7cm gun and appears to have opted for the installation of a 40mm 2-pounder single-turret as well, another gun which the real Hatsushimo had replaced with 25mm AA weaponry. Like her latewar self, however, a Type 13 RADAR has been affixed to her mainmast. This old equipment being retained is perhaps a reference to gameplay more than anything; the loss of her single turret would serve to reduce her firepower considerably. The Vickers 40mm gun's heavier rounds could be more effective than the Hotchkiss 25mm's against Abyssal planes, which have sloped armour and tend to fly lower than the ones she fended off in real life, but that much is debatable.

Personality
Much of her personality may be based on her final and most significant captain, Sakawa Masazou (酒匂雅三), a devoted humanitarian. Many of Hatsushimo's traits seem to match up with his own, particularly her outspoken desire to protect the player and her fellow Kanmusu. Her dialogue is spoken in a polite, feminine but enthusiastic tone. She is protective, careful and kind to a fault. At the same time, though, Hatsushimo is brave and strong-willed, a reference to the ship's decorated service history and her crew's accomplishments during the late war.

Trivia

 * Mined and heavily damaged in action, July 30, 1945 at Miyazu Bay, Kyoto (35°33′N 135°12′E) with the loss of seventeen sailors. Towed to Maizuru and scrapped in 1948.
 * The last IJN destroyer to be lost in the Pacific War, outlasted in Kancolle only by the surviving Yukikaze, Hibiki, and Ushio. Generally she is not considered "sunk" as she does not meet the definition of the word; she was run aground in critical condition rather than actually passing beneath the water's surface and scrapped around the same time as Ushio. For this reason she is sometimes included by fan-artists in group depictions of the surviving Kanmusu.
 * Hatsushimo took part in Operation Ten-Ichi-Gō, Yamato's final mission, and took even less damage during it than Yukikaze, emerging unscathed with two sailors injured. By contrast she rescued approximately 310 people from the crews of the sinking Yahagi and Hamakaze.
 * Her name means "first frost of the year", often associated with the month November.
 * An anchor was retrieved from her wreckage and is currently displayed outside of the Yamada Memorial Hospital (Google Maps Street View) in Sumida City, Tokyo. Dr. Masaaki Yamada, the founder of the hospital, was a ship's doctor of Hatsushimo. Interestingly, Yukikaze met a similar fate (she also ran aground and was memorialised via anchor, along with her rudder in Taiwan) after failed attempts to bring her full self back to Japan to be preserved as a museum ship.
 * The hachimaki is a likely reference to her communication officer's recollection of Hatsushimo's crew at the moment Yamato sank, as described in Abe Saburou's book 特攻大和艦隊 (Tokkou Yamato Kantai, lit. Yamato Suicide Fleet): "Even now, officer Matsui remembers clearly the faces of the hachimaki-donning troops, watching [her go down] with bitter expressions."
 * The hachimaki's stripes are a reference to the famous Second Torpedo Squadron. Hatsushimo was not originally a member, but out of necessity and a general lack of ships, joined their ranks at the end of the war. The Second Torpedo Squadron was officially dissolved in a ceremony on her deck, on 20 April 1945.
 * Japanese fans have pointed out that Hatsushimo's hair tie is similar to the one worn by Yahagi. Given that other destroyers have often been given clothing similar to that of the larger ships whose survivors they rescued, it's entirely possible that this was intended from the start.
 * The same has also been said of Hatsushimo Kai Ni's hachimaki, resembling Yahagi's tie in colouration.

Quests

 * Required by Quests A48, B37 and B38.