Ngl, im not fan of AL, I play KC instead but i cant help but wanting to hear AL fans opinions on this girl.
She looks pretty similar to the Cleveland-class uniform, not surprising since American girls are often designed based on the American flag (looking at you, South Dakota)
I think she looks at least as good as the AL version and is probably one of the better girls of this batch, at least art-wise.
She's cute. As indexador2 pointed out, my first thought was, "She looks like Cleveland."
You mean busty Cleveland (AL Cleveland is slender) Gotta say in terms of taking a shot at a more popular AL character, this is certainly a real try. And it's nice to see Ugume get such a honor considering they were in DE hell. I mean these days it seems most of the KC artists we know and love were cut loose, leaving only Shibafu, Konishi, and Tanaka's Battleship girls favorites.
I'm not sure what it is particularly, but something about her gives off a Colorado-ish vibe. Her moderate stature with a bust size that is comfortably big (but not shortstack territory)?
Honolulu-lu, push pineapple, shake the tree Honolulu-lu, push pineapple, grind coffee To the left, to the right, jump up and down and to the knees Come and dance every night, sing with a hula melody
It also appears that KC considers St. Louis and Helena to be seperate from the Brooklyn class.
I mean, even naval historians and Wikipedia were in confusion as to whether or not the first seven Brooklyns and the two Lewdises were considered separate or one class, it was only recently that Wikipedia recognized unity as a single Brooklyn-class
So like, is there a blond theme going on for American ships?
Blonde with blue&white outfit (with occasional red mixed in) has been pretty common theme for Americans in this game: Fits more or less perfectly: Iowa - blonde with blue, white, grey outfit with red in one of her thighhighs Gambier Bay - blonde with blue and white outfit with some red in her gloves Fletcher - blonde with blue and white outfit Colorado - blonde with mostly grey outfit that features blue (necktie, capelet, lower layer of her dress), white (shirt, necktie, dress' frill), and red (necktie) in smaller amounts Honolulu
Fits somewhat: Washington - white,blue, black outfit with grey hair Johnston - blue&black outfit with red in one of the sleeves, light brown hair
Doesn't really fit: SoDak - white&black outfit, red, blue and white hair Saratoga - white outfit with red legwear, brown hair Intrepid - black&grey outfit, brown hair Hornet - black&white outfit, blonde hair Northampton - white&black outfit, blonde hair Houston - white&black outfit, light brown hair Helena - white&black outfit, brown hair Samuel - white&blue outfit, blue hair
So 5/15 (33.33333%) of Americans have blonde hair with outfit that features white and blue (red optional but recommended), that number rises to 7/15 (46%) if you are fine with non-blonde but light hair colors. 46% of Americans boats are also blonde.
She's cute. As indexador2 pointed out, my first thought was, "She looks like Cleveland."
Really? I'm getting Portland myself, but my eyes aren't all that great,
Dreadnought said:
So like, is there a blond theme going on for American ships?
It's a Trope. In anime and manga, any and every american woman is depicted as blonde, blue eyed and stacked, if also not far, far taller then any asian character.
Really? I'm getting Portland myself, but my eyes aren't all that great,
It's a Trope. In anime and manga, any and every american woman is depicted as blonde, blue eyed and stacked, if also not far, far taller then any asian character.
Germans and British too. French... hmm, more inclined toward technicolor (various vibrant colors).
Meanwhile the Russians get white hair. Because 'cold', I presume.
(Speaking of, OriginalRecipe!Ilya is kinda of in a weird spot. Name sounds German[ish], but hair and clothes scream anime-Russian. She basically looks like Snegurochka when she's in her winter clothes.)
Germans and British too. French... hmm, more inclined toward technicolor (various vibrant colors).
Meanwhile the Russians get white hair. Because 'cold', I presume.
(Speaking of, OriginalRecipe!Ilya is kinda of in a weird spot. Name sounds German[ish], but hair and clothes scream anime-Russian. She basically looks like Snegurochka when she's in her winter clothes.)
Not just russians, northern europeans can have a rainbow of hair colors too. The manga with a girl-ified Simo Haya has her as a white haired too. While her equally girl-ified commanding officer was a tanned red head.
I kinda want fanart of her and Yuudachi, with Yuudachi being frightened because Honolulu wants to eat Poi.
indexador2 said:
She looks pretty similar to the Cleveland-class uniform, not surprising since American girls are often designed based on the American flag (looking at you, South Dakota)
I think she looks at least as good as the AL version and is probably one of the better girls of this batch, at least art-wise.
I don’t really see the uniform resemblance. Most I can say is that they both have a coat/poncho over their top, and a skirt.
Not just russians, northern europeans can have a rainbow of hair colors too. The manga with a girl-ified Simo Haya has her as a white haired too. While her equally girl-ified commanding officer was a tanned red head.
The KC Pastas have the best hair color diversity in KC of all Western fleets.
The KC Pastas have the best hair color diversity in KC of all Western fleets.
Italian characters (in animemangagame-fictionland) do seem to get more realistic colors. Some 'realistic' shade of black, brown, or red, usually. Even blondes tend to be a more 'common' dark shade with traces of brown or red. Quite like real-life Mediterraneans.
Of course, if it's the only (notable) Gaijin character, chances are the char designer will get sloppy anyway and make them a stereotypical blue-eyed blonde. (i.e. the 'Nordic' 'Aryan' archetype).
I'm looking at you, Signor Dino from Blend S.
(Okay, to be fair, his has a slightly darker shade, but sometimes it's colored as the 'nordic blond' even in official art, so...)
I suppose there is a point... 'token minorities' generally have to be played to 'stereotype' in some fashion, otherwise the intended audience might not get it. So if you make a gaijin who doesn't have the stereotypical gaijin 'look' (especially if there are other Japanese characters with blond and other technicolor shades of hair), Japanese (and other Asian) audiences might get confused. It's only when you get a wider cast of characters with a similar background/origin that you get a bit more leeway to deviate from stereotype.
Doesn't really fit: SoDak - white&black outfit, red, blue and white hair Saratoga - white outfit with red legwear, brown hair Intrepid - black&grey outfit, brown hair Hornet - black&white outfit, blonde hair Northampton - white&black outfit, blonde hair Houston - white&black outfit, light brown hair Helena - white&black outfit, brown hair Samuel - white&blue outfit, blue hair
You forgot Atlanta, also there is a reason behind why they look like that, history, mostly because the artists took inspiration from their deck paint.
The uniform design of all kanmusus are based on their deck paint to a 60% to 90% of the entire set, thats why Iowa's top has similar blue than her rigging and Soudak has a brown jacket.
Pantyhoses, gloves and sometimes skirts are the things that they personalize in a kanmusu. Ship's combat record and history can be use too but it seems artist dont want to go full reference in visual so they mostly used by the VA who are going voice them.
Ngl, im not fan of AL, I play KC instead but i cant help but wanting to hear AL fans opinions on this girl.
Other than the flat colors on the rigging, I quite like the design. I do think some of azur lanes designs can be too lewd. The Kancolle American designs have been pretty great though for the most part. I do wish the Eagle Union designs in Azur Lane would be more similar. Especially since Microlayer Medley layed out excellent uniform designs.
The Virgin AL/KC Flamers and The Chad Equal-Opportunity Coomers
Also, the flat designs are not doing any wonders for KC's waifu meta (last design I remember liking is Hornet), but maybe they're not raking in as much cash anymore. Did a bad event push away a lot of players recently?
Then again, Horse Waifus, IM@S and Genshin have been honeying in players like mad anyway.
The Virgin AL/KC Flamers and The Chad Equal-Opportunity Coomers
Also, the flat designs are not doing any wonders for KC's waifu meta (last design I remember liking is Hornet), but maybe they're not raking in as much cash anymore. Did a bad event push away a lot of players recently?
Then again, Horse Waifus, IM@S and Genshin have been honeying in players like mad anyway.
I think the correct term is simple or minimalist rendering, in that case, KC probably does that because they dont consider to be a big factor in making a character more likeable, more consistency between the styles or because the more simple the rendering the more easy is to understand and more easy to make fanarts of them. That also would explain why they dont use sparkling effects and filters like some of the AL shipgirls.
Now with respect revenue, KC doesnt make money out of the game just like McDonalds doesnt make money out of selling hamburgers, KC makes its money with irl events and merch, a ton of merch.
idk if IM@S still been relevant, sure their fanbase still being solid, Umamusume is getting really popular, only the time would tell if its going to be relevant once the hype ends, Genshin doesnt have any presence in Japan for what i see comparer with the west where is eating the fanbase of AL AK GFL and any other anime theme gacha game that have been localized in the west. They really know how to appeal to the western mind in its totality.
Didn't say nit about AL. Take your flamewank debate sauce elsewhere if you want to hear AL players' opinions so much. KC Hornet was classy, simple and minimalist. This is just milquetoast and flat. She looks like an early KC character, not something they put out several years into the game after growing into Touhou-levels of popularity (as well as a similarly self-sustaining fandom). And if they're earning enough money, they can put out enough to hire better artists to make consistently pretty waifus, considering that's what they're selling, online or offline.
Didn't say nit about AL. Take your flamewank debate sauce elsewhere if you want to hear AL players' opinions so much. KC Hornet was classy, simple and minimalist. This is just milquetoast and flat. She looks like an early KC character, not something they put out several years into the game after growing into Touhou-levels of popularity (as well as a similarly self-sustaining fandom). And if they're earning enough money, they can put out enough to hire better artists to make consistently pretty waifus, considering that's what they're selling, online or offline.
Thats the thing, unlike AL is not that easy like just replacing the artist and hiring another new one, since Ugume is the father of Furutaka, Kuma, Hachijou, Ishigaki, Kako, Kiso, Shimushu, Tama and Kunashiri. The fandom grow attached to these characters and the artist.
With respect the goal of KC, its main target audience isnt the regular otaku, is the military otaku and in case of the west i would say it appealed to the historybuffer that liked animes like Girls und Panzer and other military theme mangas.
Honolulu herself is something on the middle more to the weeb side than the history one, the rendering can be hated but people sooner or later would aknowledge her design as something cool to have around their naval bases.
If we consider her voicelines, specially her hourly lines, she is pretty sympathic(and she made a ton of references to Hawaiian culture), but that only shows that her first bad impressions can only be saved by her voice or performance in battle, well in KC since Intrepid released, most people dont make quick judgements when they dont like the shipgirl's looks at first glance and they try to see the positives of the girl in question.
Btw some people didnt like Hornet saying that she looks generic and plain comparer with other more "energetic" Hornet.
I seriously doubt it's hard to introduce a new artist if they're well in the black. Dunno why the hell you're talking about replacing one. And again, didn't mention a single thing about personality or voicelines.
I seriously doubt it's hard to introduce a new artist if they're well in the black. Dunno why the hell you're talking about replacing one. And again, didn't mention a single thing about personality or voicelines.
They did that, they hired Zeco, Acea and recently Watanabe Akio, tho Zeco and Acea have experience with ww2 naval stuff unlike Akio. And nobody knows really what was the reason why Tanaka put Ugume in charge of her design but if they didnt hired anyone new is because either they dont want it or they cant for now.
With respect the last, it just an speculation on why they dont rely or dont want to rely on high rendering, they just want to take more care of other things and probably for them the rendering is good enought, honestly a very good rendering only can achieve a very momentaneous "wow", is in the design what decides if the character visually speaking is memorable or not. tho it seems that C2 use the voicelines as another support pillar to justify her overall "lack of high rendering" what at this point is very common, even Konishi girls have a very simple rendering if we compare with other games like Arknights or Azur Lane.
Cause Shimada Fumikane still hasn't return from whatever he is busy with right now...
he/she seems busy recently, SW Road to Berlin, World Witches, Das Finale, and now preparing for Luminous Witches. after Luminous witches released maybe we finally got KC S2
he/she seems busy recently, SW Road to Berlin, World Witches, Das Finale, and now preparing for Luminous Witches. after Luminous witches released maybe we finally got KC S2
Apparently Shimada is also currently busy with Frame Arms Girls, according to the Japanese fanbase.
Italian characters (in animemangagame-fictionland) do seem to get more realistic colors. Some 'realistic' shade of black, brown, or red, usually. Even blondes tend to be a more 'common' dark shade with traces of brown or red. Quite like real-life Mediterraneans.
Of course, if it's the only (notable) Gaijin character, chances are the char designer will get sloppy anyway and make them a stereotypical blue-eyed blonde. (i.e. the 'Nordic' 'Aryan' archetype).
I'm looking at you, Signor Dino from Blend S.
(Okay, to be fair, his has a slightly darker shade, but sometimes it's colored as the 'nordic blond' even in official art, so...)
I suppose there is a point... 'token minorities' generally have to be played to 'stereotype' in some fashion, otherwise the intended audience might not get it. So if you make a gaijin who doesn't have the stereotypical gaijin 'look' (especially if there are other Japanese characters with blond and other technicolor shades of hair), Japanese (and other Asian) audiences might get confused. It's only when you get a wider cast of characters with a similar background/origin that you get a bit more leeway to deviate from stereotype.
Don’t forget mannerisms. Germans tend to be akin to Stroheim or Laura Boedewig, Brits tend to be all fancy with tea, Italians laid back, etc. Excellently summed up.
Ngl, im not fan of AL, I play KC instead but i cant help but wanting to hear AL fans opinions on this girl.
AL Honolulu: Twin-tail redhead tsundere who gets flustered over her breasts KC Honolulu: Blonde bubblegum blowing non-native Hawaiian who immersed into the culture
Me: As someone born and raised in Hawaii, I see both as an absolute win!!
