Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-73.220.89.40-20150318192417/@comment-25938809-20150328182331

Good write-up! ^ I never got the impression that the game was ever trying to depict a historically accurate version of the Pacific War. If it did, the game would FORCE our kanmusu to get permanently disabled/sunk, event after event. I wouldn't worry about it... events are implemented to be completed/won by the player, after all. Whatever struggles an Admiral goes through to clear an event is all on him/her. And of course, if a kanmusu is sunk, it's because the TTK was kuso, not because the game required it to happen for the sake of following historical events. Come to think of it, this is actually another reason why I can't openly accept the anime as the canon of the entire franchise in terms of story... if it was, it'd automatically supercede the players' own personal experiences with the game... their struggles and victories, even their perceptions of the characters they know and love, etc. Also, given just how kuso the anime TTK was... eeghh.

Up to this point, it seems like the game's devs have been using the IJN's WWII campaign as a type of very, very loose framework to tell their own Shipgirl vs. Abyssal story. Them not being tied directly to following historical events have allowed them to take the story in as many different avenues as they want. We've started the game fighting Abyssals that represent the Allies, but don't forget, we're now also fighting Abyssals that represent IJN ships/our very own girls. And historically, did the Bismarck fight alongside the Kongou-class in joint KM/IJN sorties? Nope, but it happens on a daily basis in the world the devs set up, all because of that same loose interpretation of history.

When it comes to the question of how and why former WWII adversaries would join forces... well, this is gonna go outside the scope of Kancolle "lore" as we know it, but did anyone ever get the impression the Abyssals present a global problem? You couldn't just cut Pacific trade routes without also disrupting trade across rest of the world, right? The game focuses on the IJN kanmusu fighting the Abyssals in their home seas... but consider the addition of the Germans, who hail from the Atlantic. Just how and why did this happen, exactly? One popular theory (that even the anime even adopts, interestingly enough), suggests that the kanmusu exist to eliminate the Abyssals, to "bring peace back to the seas". Would this mean the seas around Germany and the rest of the EU are infested with Abyssals as well? Why else would KM vessels like Bismarck and Prinz be able to take kanmusu form - Would it really be only just for the sake of joining IJN kanmusu's fight, halfway across the world in the Pacific? On that note, does Germany have some sort of kanmusu "program" of its own, and are they lend-leasing their girls to the JMSDF, or whatever organization we as TTKs are a part of...?

"OK, but Japan and Germany were both former Axis Powers... where do Allied ships fit into all of this?" Well, many of the same questions above could be posed to ponder the possibility of the existence (not necessarily the in-game implementation) of Allied kanmusu, too. Another important thing to note is that Kancolle seems to take place within our own, current world, not in some kind of alternate world/history: Girls mention smartphones, watching anime airing late at night, and most importantly, mention the existence of present-day JMSDF ships being equipped with the American-designed AEGIS weapons system. This confirms that the JMSDF had been formed in the first place after the actual events of WWII (thus, the actual IJN being disbanded as a result), but even more importantly, it confirms the alliance of post-WWII era United States and Japan in the Kancolle world. If the kanmusu of the former KM (and the recently-speculated RM) can join the IJN kamusu's fight against the Abyssals, why wouldn't countries of former Allied navies, (especially since many of those navies are now allied with Japan) also get involved?

All of that might've been bit long-winded, but there are also smaller interesting quirks that you can think about when wondering about Allied kanmusu. Let's take Kongou's history (I guess you could also call it her backstory?), for example. Imperial Japan commissioned her to be built by the Vickers Shipbuilding Company of England, who also, interestingly enough, produced 2 other warships for the IJN, including the legendary IJN BB Mikasa. That very same shipyard would go on to produce dozens of warships built for the Royal Navy in the years leading up to, and during WWII (most notably the Illustrious-class CVs). The question here is, if Kongou was able to take a kanmusu form, why can't other warships that came out of the same factory she did, do the same?

Completely valid counter-arguements can include: Because the Allies really are the bad guys, plain and simple. Because despite already featuring ships from other nations, the game is called "Kantai" Collection, is made by the Japanese for the Japanese market, and therefore should be IJN-centric. Because adding Allied ships, especially those which were superior to any IJN vessels, would severely unbalance the game. Because Allied kanmusu fighting against Abyssal representations of Allied vessels would be kinda weird (though that's exactly what our IJN girls have been doing recently). Yes, I fully realize I'm overthinking things, but man do I enjoy thinking and theorizing about Kancolle. How can I not, when so much of the story and its world is still so unknown?