Azur Lane is a Chinese shipgirl-themed side-scrolling shoot 'em up mobile game developed by Shanghai Manjuu and Xiamen Yongshi and published by Yostar.
Gameplay
Like Kantai Collection, the game is set during World War II and mainly features collecting and controlling moe personifications of warships from major participants of World War II. Unlike Kantai Collection, it features side-scrolling shooter gameplay with mechanics akin to those of Touhou. Other gameplay elements, such as customization of a interactive backyard and marrying in-game characters, are also present. The real life factions were replaced by fictional counterparts (such as Empire of Japan being called as "Sakura Empire", United States as "Eagle Union", etc.)
Unlike KanColle, the game has made an effort to distance itself from WW2 in most aspects in order to appeal to a broader audience, pushing for most fantastical designs, the implementation of most collabs unrelated to WW2 naval history, the release of shipgirls based on fictional warships without proper historical precedent, post-war era warships, WW1 warships, dark versions of its existing shipgirls (METAships), shipgirls from the Age of Sail, child and idol variants of its characters, and so on.
Media
The game has been adapted into several manga and novelizations. Azur Lane: Crosswave, a PlayStation 4/PC game was released on August 29, 2019 in Japan and February 13th, 2020 worldwide. A TV anime adaptation aired during Fall 2019. The game also held an annual collaboration with World of Warships since 2017.
History
Azur Lane was launched on May 25th, 2017 in China, on September 14th, 2017 in Japan, on March 27th, 2018 in Korea, on August 16th, 2018 in English, and around September 2019 in Taiwan. As of 2021, the number of players registered surpassed at least 25 million.
During the Japanese launch of Azur Lane, the game had several disputes with the then-dominant Kantai Collection, with both sides' fanbases having several disputes emerge, with each criticizing the other's game for their different themes, gameplay mechanics and character design motifs. Some members of the KanColle fandom called Azur Lane "a generic idol game with a ship-themed rigging", while some members of the Azur Lane fandom called KanColle "a far-right ultranationalist game with outdated mechanics and boring character designs".
Manjuu and Kadokawa/DMM meanwhile clashed over the use of term "kanmusu" (艦娘) which DMM had originally trademarked in 2014 but which was used by Manjuu in couple of their Japanese advertisements. Ultimately, due to wanting to avoid any potential denouncements or due to DMM's private demands, this led to Manjuu publicly apologizing and switching to a different term (kansen, 艦船) when talking about their warship personifications. This new term would be rendered as KAN-SEN, a backronym for Kinetic Artifactual Navy Self-regulative En-lore Node.
Nevertheless, due to various factors, primarily DMM policies to keep the game exclusively inside Japan, Azur Lane has supplanted KanColle to become the most popular shipgirl game internationally to date. Its reception in Japan has been mixed though, primarily due to the continued predominance of KanColle as the dominant shipgirl game in the region.
Tagging
DO NOT tag images with mecha musume. They do not accurately fit the tag's origins and would drown out other mecha musume art. Consider using rigging or machinery instead.
DO NOT tag images with ships of the same class as sisters. Reference: topic #10819.
ONLY tag images with ship, warship or submarine if an actual, literal ship or submarine is present, such as a shipgirl with her historical counterpart.
ONLY tag images with World War II if it depicts some element of the war beyond simply the ship girl, such as a battle or historical scene.
ONLY tag images with Imperial Japanese Navy if it depicts elements such as the Imperial Japanese Navy's uniforms or historical figures.
