Kongou

Kongou was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. She was the first battlecruiser of the Kongō class, among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Her designer was the British naval engineer George Thurston, and she was laid down in 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness in Britain by Vickers Shipbuilding Company. Kongō was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan. She was formally commissioned in 1913, and patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I. Kongō underwent two major reconstructions. Beginning in 1929, the Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed and power capabilities. In 1935, her superstructure was completely rebuilt, her speed was increased, and she was equipped with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, Kongō was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Kongō operated off the coast of mainland China before being redeployed to the Third Battleship Division in 1941. On the eve of World War II, she sailed as part of the Southern Force in preparation for the Battle of Singapore. The Kongō fought in a large number of major naval actions of the War in the Pacific during World War II. She covered the Japanese Army's amphibious landings in British Malaya (part of present-day Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1942, before engaging American forces at the Battle of Midway and during the Guadalcanal Campaign. Throughout 1943, Kongō primarily remained at Truk Lagoon in the Caroline Islands), Kure Naval Base (near Hiroshima), Sasebo Naval Base (near Nagasaki), and Lingga, Malaysia, and deployed several times in response to American aircraft carrier air raids on Japanese island bases scattered across the Pacific. The Kongō participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 (October 22–23), engaging and sinking American vessels in the latter. The Kongō was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion while transiting the Formosa Strait on 21 November 1944. She is voiced by Nao Tōyama in the Japanese version, and by Alexis Tipton in the English version. All of the Kongou-class wear a modified miko uniform with differently colored skirts and thighhighs. They also wear the same signature winged hairband. Kongou herself has long brown hair bunched into two braided buns and wears a black skirt. One of a few who has a second remodeling, this new form revamps her costume and modifies her hairband (the "wings" are now radars, the band itself is now fully gold/brass instead of a gold/brass and black pattern) Being historically constructed in England, she has peculiar speech habits which include using random English words. Her catchphrase (from her speech when firing) is "Burning Love!" Her also excitedly dere-dere nature and frequent demands for attention from the Admiral have left her portrayed in doujins as being "protago-sexual", falling in love with anyone who is the protagonist of a series, whatever kind of admiral (male or female, kind or mean, good or evil...) there is, or even other ship girls if they are the main character of the doujin. Her openness and one of her lines, "Hey! Admiral! Touching is OK, but there's a time and place for everything," has earned its own tag. She is also an avid drinker of black tea, sometimes to the point that she is obsessed with or even addicted to the stuff.