History VideoGame / AzurLane

** ''[[Anime/AzurLane Azur Lane The Animation]]'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZIJz3cx5M4 Preview]]
** ''Azur Lane: Slow Ahead'', adaptation of the manga listed below.

** ''[[Manga/AzurLaneSlowAhead Slow Ahead]]'', a {{Yonkoma}} by Hori no Su featuring Javelin and Z-23 as viewpoint characters,
** ''[[Manga/AzurLaneQueensOrders Queen's Orders]]'' by Tsuchii featuring Queen Elizabeth and Warspite as viewpoint characters.
** ''[[Manga/AzurLaneComicAnthology Azur Lane Comic Anthology]]''

** ''Azur Lane: Crosswave'', developed by Creator/CompileHeart and Creator/IdeaFactory.

** "Rondo at Rainbow's End" makes it clear that most shipgirls do ''not'' in fact know their historical fates - the High Seas Fleet was unaware of their historical scuttling, Zuikaku of meeting her end at the hands of the Eagle Union, and numerous others including Saratoga of their fate as nuclear test subjects in Operation Crossroads. Akagi and Kaga ''are'' however aware of their demise at Midway.

*** This can lead to some hilariously peculiar moments, depending on how your drops or gacha rolls go. For example, the final boss of Chapter 3 is Hiryuu (the chapter being Midway). The previous mission (3-3), however, features Hiryuu as a drop. It is, therefore, entirely possible to obtain Hiryuu as a drop, put her in a fleet, and then have her kill "herself".
** Also used with the “Ashes” or “META” ships, alternate versions of ship girls that come from timelines where the Sirens take over and wipe the world clean of nearly everyone.

** Just like ''Samuel B. Roberts'' in both ''VideoGame/WarshipGirls'' and ''VideoGame/KanColle'', ''Eldridge'' (a Cannon-class destroyer escort) is mis-typed as a destroyer, but her stats like her speed reflect the difference.
** All light cruisers have "Light" armor class, even though a good portion of the USN's post-[=WNT=] light cruisers have thicker belt armor than heavy cruisers, most of which have "Medium" armor class. For example, the ''Aoba'' and ''Furutaka''-class are listed as "Medium" despite having thinner belt armor than pretty much every USN CL starting from the ''Brooklyn''-class.
** Nevada states that she carried two nukes in her biography. The real USS Nevada didn't even carry one nuke. In actuality, the USS Nevada was ''hit'' with two nukes, being one of the old ships used as targets in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crossroads Operation Crossroads]](the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests), and was meant to be the bullseye for the first test, having been painted red to help the bombardier target it (he missed). Impressively, while heavily damaged by the second test, it remained afloat, and even being used as a target for gunnery practice failed to sink it, eventually requiring the use of an aerial torpedo to finally put her down. Of course, this is most likely on purpose, as ''this'' Nevada is a living, breathing person, and it would be rather hard to explain why the Eagle Union decided to use her for nuclear target practice.

*** Comet is based off of the [=1930s=] C-Class destroyer HMS Comet, pennant number [=H00=]. However, she mentions serving in the Far East Fleet and being fitted for mine laying, which [=H00=] never did. HMS Comet, pennant number [=R26=], is the one that served in the Far East Fleet and got fitted for mine laying, and was a destroyer that belonged to the [=1943=] C-Class, a different class than the 1930 C-Class.
*** Ark Royal says she is the Royal Navy's first purpose built aircraft carrier and served as the prototype for the ones that followed, but she's based on the carrier that fought the Bismarck, HMS Ark Royal, Pennant Number 91 (built and launched in the [=1930s=]), which is a different ship from the HMS Ark Royal that was the Royal Navy's first purpose built carrier (which was built in 1914). As well, the 1914 Ark Royal was the Royal Navy's first purpose-built ''seaplane'' carrier, meaning it carried planes that took off and landed on water, deploying and recovering them using cranes. While it was built to be able to launch some wheeled aircraft and did carry some originally, it did not have a proper flight deck and could not recover them, meaning they had to return to an airbase to land. Despite this, they never actually launched any of their wheeled aircraft, and soon replaced them with additional seaplanes. To make this more bizarre, the Royal Navy's actual first purpose-built aircraft carrier ''is'' in the game: HMS Hermes, which was also the world's first ship to be designed as an aircraft carrier (though the Japanese Houshou launched and commissioned before her due to construction delays), and they do make several references to her being the first (she's makes mention of it in several lines, she's in the Aviation Vanguard collection alongside the other firsts).

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] The third English server, Sandy, was thought to be named after meme queen San Diego, but it turns out all versions had this server prior to the English release.

** The perception of greedy Akashi made by fan is becoming more and more prominent. During the ''Neptunia'' collab, she stated that she will take her share of profit made by Neptunia girls. ''I will get my share of the profits you earned from this event down to the last cent. Capiche?''
** [[https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=2656064 This loading screen]] canonizes the [[Franchise/YuGiOh Egyptian Gods]] trio of Helena, Wichita and Cleveland.
** The [[BlindIdiotTranslation poor translation]] of Hornet's name as "Big Wasp Yo" led to first community jokes and now InUniverse acknowledgement (as the modern, improved translation leads to Hornet warning you to ''not'' call her Big Wasp, a "feature" that isn't present in the other translations).
** There had been circulating a lot of jokes in the fandom about how the T4 gear boxes Shiranui sells on discount are really just T3 gear boxes she painted gold. Then as of the May 23 2019 update, they actually added an image of her repainting T3 gear boxes as a potential loading screen, confirming many people's suspicions about her practices.
** Some fans like to portray Enterprise as kind of military police who comes knocking when Ark Royal gets too pervy with destroyers. The English version canonizes this in "A Prayer for Peace" when Georgia threatens to call Enterprise on Ark after the latter's in bliss due to there being so many destroyers at the party. Later, in Spring Festival Justagram event, there's an entry of a rather excited looking Ark taking a photo of a scared looking Little Bel featuring an angry Enterprise standing behind Ark with a pair of handcuffs, with Enty captioning the picture "We caught her red-handed". Ironically, it's revealed that Ark was actually innocent, as she isn't interested in anything other than destroyers and the Commander[[note]]The Royal Maids had actually asked her to take some pictures of them, Little Bel was simply nervous, and Ark's expression was because she'd accidentally accessed a picture of a destroyer on her camera[[/note]].
** "Apologems" is a very common fan catchphrase in any gacha game community, referring to the premium currency given to compensate players every time an unexpected issue or maintenance happens. In the Juustagram event, the player can choose "#Apologems" as a comment to the post where Akashi hoards a lot of red training books (the most desired kind) in a secret room.

* BleachedUnderpants: Several artists, both for in-game art and related media like anthology comics and such, had worked on hentai art and doujins (may or may not including hentai ''Azur Lane'' art) before (or still do while) working in official capacity.

** Another example is Enterprise's eagle being named ''God of Death'' in the English version, a valid translation from ''Shinigami'', but it's clearly meant to be a reference to her VF wing, the ''Grim Reapers'', which is also a valid translation.
*** The translation team seems to have realized this mistake. A [[GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals stuffed doll in her eagle's likeness]] given out as a login reward in March 2021 is named "Grimmy" in the English client.
** Instead of the Free French faction being called ''Iris Libre'' like in the other versions, the English version would call the faction ''Iris the Liberty''. According to the translation team, this was an order from [[ExecutiveMeddling the higher-up]], and they weren't allowed to change it back. Recently, they seem to have gone back on this, with most of the references to the faction now being ''Iris Libre''.

*** On that matter, this also marks the other time Creator/MiyukiSawashiro voiced [[Literature/FateApocrypha a knight with a complicated relationship]] with Kawasumi's character (Weird parent-child on the ''Fate'' side, half-sisters on the ''Azur Lane'' side).

*** In the Latin American Spanish dub of the anime, Enterprise is voiced by Marisol Romero, who voiced Gaila in ''Film/StarTrek2009'', a GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe dating Captain Kirk, aka the captain of the ''USS Enterprise'', the spaceship named after the RealLife sea ship.
** Due to the RoleEndingMisdemeanour entry below, Kaga's VA was recasted to Creator/YukaIguchi. The same voice actress behind her counterpart in ''VideoGame/KanColle''.
* CasualDangerDialogue: During their fight in "The Enigma and the Shark", Bulldog and U-110 argue over whether U-110's hair looks like a shark fin or a garlic bulb, and compare Amazon and Admiral Hipper's ACupAngst, to Amazon's consternation.

** There was also a cross-promotional campaign with ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarships''. ''Azur Lane'' receives six new ships based on high-tier "paper ships"[[note]] That is, ships that were never completed in history or only existed in blueprints. [[/note]], available through the research system. On the other hand, ''World of Warships'' received fully-voiced captains and unique camouflages for certain ships that are also featured on ''Azur Lane''.
** There's also a somewhat unlikely crossover with ''{{VideoGame/Utawarerumono}}'', specifically the [[VideoGame/UtawarerumonoMaskOfDeception latter]] [[VideoGame/UtawarerumonoMaskOfTruth games]], featuring several of the female cast as new ships.
** There's the long-awaited (for both long-time fans of the game and of the character) crossover with WebAnimation/KizunaAI where she ends up in the game world and deals with clones running amok. You get the original/Destroyer one by logging in (and more from a mini event) while you can build other variations from the event build.
** Following the success of the Kizuna Ai event, November 2019 saw the release of the WebAnimation/{{hololive}} [[https://azurlane.koumakan.jp/Looking_Glass_of_Fact_and_Fiction event]], which centers around seven of the [[VirtualCelebrity VTuber]] agency's (at the time) most popular characters. Its story also references a lot of said group's out-of-character livestreaming shenanigans on Website/YouTube.
** An event in November 2020 was a crossover with ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive Xtreme: Venus Vacation'', centering on seven of the female ''Dead or Alive'' cast participating in a festival alongside the Kansen so that they can return to their world.

** The climax battle of ''Operation Siren'''s Chapter 5 is basically this with rotating Main and Vanguard fleets as you whittle down the Arbiters, including teaming up with a pair of [[GuestStarPartyMember METAs]], whom at that point of the [[GameplayAndStorySegregation story had not joined your fleet yet]].
** The final fight against "Compiler" during ''Rondo at Rainbow's End'' features a similar mechanic as the fight listed above, with fleets constantly rotating as you whittle down "Compiler"'s HP.

** Because the EN server never got the scripted dialogue scenes of Chapter 4 that the CN and JP servers had, [[spoiler:Hornet II and Northampton II's scenes in "Parallel Superimposition" lose their impact (Hornet and Northampton's fates were showcased in Chapter 4)]].

** All of the non-IJN Meowfficers have their names (based on actual naval staff) altered in the Japanese version, which also made it into the English version. While some of the names are still tangential to the original (eg. The Bismarck-looking Meowfficer is named after Ernst Lindemann, but in JP/EN, it's instead named after Oskar the cat, with one her skills referencing one of Oskar's other names, Sam or ''Unsinkable Sam''.), others are not (There's an Ironblood meowfficer named ''TOFU'' for crying out loud!).

** The 2nd trailer showed younger ''Yorktown'' sisters, but in-game, kansen are supposed to have been BornAsAnAdult, and the existence of the young versions comes as a surprise.

** Some ships got the short stick for their history (e.g. Norfolk and Pensacola) in a number of areas, compared to later on where most ships with historical weight got their due.
** A large chunk of earlier ships and skins had no facial expressions based on their dialogue. However, later ones ended up doing so. However, the game is trying to alleviate it by giving those facial expressions (lifted from Crosswave) to earlier ships based on events - as of this writing - Saratoga, Cleveland, Hornet, Enterprise, and Helena have updated expressions on their original skins now.
* EasyLogistics: Oil is the only thing you need to concern when sending your ships into battles. Ammo and equipment are automatically [[HandWave handled]], unlike ''VideoGame/KanColle''. Also unlike both KC and ''Videogame/GirlsFrontline'', ships are automatically and instantly repaired post-battle. You ''do'' have to manage your repairs in Operation Siren. While you don't have to worry about oil in OS, you do have to worry about Action Points, which do somewhat the same thing.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: You, the protagonist of the game and the commander of the fleet, are usually simply called the Commander. Some ships will either call you Master (some Royal Navy maids like Belfast, Dido or Sirius) or Milord (Fusou and Yamashiro) or Your Excellency (London), and so on. Anchorage calls you Sensei, which everybody else regards as really weird. This may be because Anchorage has memories of a different timeline.

** Some shipgirl designs lean more towards this compared to the other ship games, with some designs that may make the other games' racier ones pale in comparison. Particularly infamous are Albacore's base art and Deutschland's swimsuit skin, which are so lewd that the official ''Azur Lane'' Discord won't let them be posted, or South Dakota's base art, which somehow got past all censors despite showing a part of her left areola.
** ''Slow Ahead'' has a number of incidentally fanservicey poses in an otherwise clean slice of life 4koma, with chapters with Suzuya and Prinz Eugen among a few others really taking it up to eleven, or the extra chapters advertising official lewd dakimakuras.
* FanservicePack: A decent chunk of shipgirl retrofits will result in some combination of OvernightAgeUp, increased size in their chest armor, or less clothing. Foxhound is the best known example featuring the former two changes plus the less-common new seductive pose "upgrade" upon retrofit. Many skins also result in cup size upgrades even for shipgirls who were far from flat already.

** At the very beginning, you have a tutorial battle with HMS Suffolk, HMS Norfolk, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood against KMS Prinz Eugen and KMS Bismarck. It doesn't take much knowledge of naval history to know that [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Denmark_Strait this won't end well for Hood.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: If you don't know history, the game still gives you clues, like the eventual sinkings of [[spoiler:Yorktown and Hornet]] [[note]]at Midway and Santa Cruz respectively[[/note]], specially if you've seen the 2nd trailer that shows [[spoiler:a photo of the sister trio, in their younger days, with Hornet and Yorktown fading away eventually.]]
* FragileSpeedster: Destroyers have the quickest movement speed, highest evasion, and strongest torpedo attacks of all the escort/screen ship classes. Such advantages are offset by generally lacking HP, armor, and generally gun firepower.
* FreemiumTimer: Oil, which is used mainly for sending shipgirls on missions. It is quite generous with this, though, as there is not only a slowly-refilling canteen from which more oil can be collected, various commissions can be used to collect oil and the developers frequently send out gift mail containing additional oil, usually as compensation for maintenance downtime. Nevertheless, hardcore players who still somehow run out of oil can buy more with real money. While there are a number of timers, it doesn't count for that category because there are no purchasable items to accelerate them.
* FriendlyFireproof: You cannot damage your own ships from your own gunfires and aviation.
* FrontlineGeneral: Dialogue from "Ashen Simulacrum" says that the Commander is going into battle alongside the shipgirls, presumably on board a friendly mass production ship.

** The game tends to play from one faction's point of view for each story, but the game won't stop you from using ships from the opposing faction as more likely that not, you'll have ships from differing factions. Similarly, the game won't stop you from using certain ships that have been canonically sunk in the story, and ships not in your dock can still appear in cutscenes.
** It inverts upon finding out that [[AlternateSelf your ships are separate entities than the ships seen in the story]]. This actually comes up in [[spoiler:Akagi's substory where your Akagi is indeed aware of this.]]
** Takao Ember. You can easily destroy her if your fleet is beefed enough, but that won't stop her from kicking your girls' asses in cutscenes after battle. Zuikaku learned it the hard way as well as Union girls from Ashen Simulacrum events.
** "Crimson Echoes" makes a big fuss about carriers being revolutionary, being set in the 1920s, but it falls flat when you can go into battle with full carrier main fleet and the characters still act like it's something new.
** In Portland's secretary story, she takes up the flagship role for a training exercise. Gameplay-wise, the flagship position always belongs to backline ships (namely, battleships, battlecruisers, aircraft carriers, repair ships, and monitors); since Portland is a heavy cruiser that belongs to the frontline, it is impossible to assign her as flagship (though you can assign her as lead ship of the vanguard).
** A funny example regarding some ships with yandere tendency like Akagi or Taihou: they are blatanly and obviously in love with the commander, to the point of lusting, but you still need to send them into battle to increase their affection (from stranger to love), if not for marriage, then for stat increasing when reaching 100. Their in-game dialogues (aside from their side quest) don't even mention anything related to relationship development at all (development as how initial lust turning into true love).
** In most individual quests, it is often mentioned that you, as the Commander, have to deal with "paperwork": making reports, checking inventory, etc. What you do (as playing game) most of the time are pressing the buttons, confirming changes and so on, as most behind-the-scene procedures have been automatically done for you. Your secretary the story will help you with such works, but on main interface, all they do simply narrowed to announcing mail arrivals, commission team returning or mission completion.

* HarderThanHard: EXTRA stages in major events, available only after clearing the last Hard mode stage. It costs no oil to play, and there are no [[{{Mooks}} trash fleets]]. But there didn't need to be. Not only do the EXTRA bosses do enough damage to shred even StoneWall characters such as Prinz Eugen to ribbons in seconds, but they are the only fights in the game that follow a certain classic ShootEmUp rule: ''stat-based evasion is completely disabled''. If a bullet touches you, it does damage, period. And not only do you lack the [[HitboxDissonance small centralized hitbox]] of most BulletHell games, but you indeed have up to three rather large hitboxes, two of which [[AllInARow are lagging behind you as they follow your point ship's movements]]. This leads to a completely different style of play from all other content in the game. Evasion equipment (normally very powerful on cruisers) becomes useless, and HP boosting equipment (almost universally considered great for all frontline ships) becomes woefully inadequate. But all of those [[SprintShoes Gyroscopes]] gathering dust in your depot suddenly become very attractive options to help you weave your way through the bullet patterns. The devs considered this to be such a difficult departure from the rest of the game that they didn't even bother with so much as a CosmeticAward for beating them for over three years. The ''Inverted Orthant'' event in December 2020 finally introduced a tangible reward: the first clear of an EXTRA stage awards 500 Cognitive Chips.

** For normal stages, higher enemy levels, thus more experience, dropping core data (which can be exchanged for valuable equipment and characters), retrofit blue prints. The "skip straight to boss fight" trait that can be unlocked makes for a way to try getting certain rare ships.
** For event stages, much higher enemy levels, far better equipment blueprint drops (often with event exclusive gear), and more event materials per clear. In most events they have to be cleared to unlock the SP stage, which is a once a day stage that rewards a great deal of event mats upon completion.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: The Commander, who represents the player and commands the Ship Girls, is never seen in the game even though the menus and Visual Novel questlines are from his POV with the Ship Girls directly talking to him. The Commander also manages to be all three variants across the franchise. The Commander is TheVoice in questlines where the player can select dialogue options and listens to his thoughts, TheGhost in the 4-Koma and story missions where the Ship Girls frequently mention the off screen Commander, and is finally TheFaceless in the Comic Anthology where he ''finally'' appears, only to have the top of his head always obscured.
** One of Vittorio Veneto's animations with her bikini skin is to casually take a picture of the Commander, and when the photo comes out, it's completely blurred without us even seeing his outline or even something resembling a head. ''Or'', we only see the backside of the photo while Vittorio Veneto looks at the Commander's photo [[TheUnReveal we can't see.]]
** After 5 years of having no on screen physical presence, his ''hands'' finally makes an appearance in the game in 2022 in Taihou's animated school girl skin. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_exMCI4uA&ab_channel=HurricaneStudios While taken in first person like]] other skins are assumed to be, this one outright confirms it's his perspective as we can see the Commander's hands scroll through his phone before he runs into the classroom to greet Taihou.
** His hand [[https://azurlane.koumakan.jp/wiki/File:Bg_2022.09.15_3.png also appears]] in official art featuring Musashi and Brunhilde, where the two ship girls are in sports uniforms getting doused and wet by the Commander spraying a hose at them. While it's still just his hands, the perspective of the shot and the way Musashi and Brunhilde look up at him indicates he's rather tall.

* HistoricalBadassUpgrade: ''Azur Lane'' is BasedOnATrueStory, but there are some upgrades compared to the historical equivalents for the Crimson Axis. These upgrades are perhaps justified by Siren involvement and assistance.
** The Sakura Empire is the in-game incarnation of the real life Imperial Japanese Navy. Towards the end of the war in the Pacific Theater, the IJN suffered one defeat one after another, mostly due to outdated technology compared to their opponent, the United States Navy. One prominent example was their anti-air capability; it was so bad, the IJN could no longer stand against USN air power (one of the reasons why Yamato and her escort fleet could do so little against Task Force 58's relentless air assault, with few plane casualties on the USN side). Later chapter in the campaign, however, have IJN ships and boss fleets gain tremendous power and anti-air stats that make friendly carriers' air raids (more so Dive Bombers than Torpedo ones) deal reduced damage and encourage more battleship use mixed with torpedo bomber and/or fighter heavy carriers instead (which is ironic, since the Pacific theater was dominated by aircraft carriers with dive bombers during the later stages of World War II). And recent events reveal they're using relics to strengthen a number of ships (Shinano being a big example) if not materialize paper ones.

* MaintainTheLie: The ''Queen's Orders'' official manga has Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, and Akashi doing this in order to maintain the illusion that the Commander's still working on the base and needs to be away occasionally while in actuality he's gone on extended medical leave due to [[HeroicBSOD stress-induced]] [[HeroicRROD breakdown]] caused by overwork and thus cannot work at all. This is because very few people in the base (even many who don't know about the situation) want to see the Commander replaced by someone else.
* MarketBasedTitle: Not the game itself, but the Ironblood-centric event. In the Chinese and Japanese versions, it's called "Opposite Colored", but in English, it gets the more poetic name "Divergent Chessboard". It gets a third name in the "Year in Review" feature for the English version, [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/174170976022560769/612775078488309760/Screenshot_20190817-030650.png Operation Dichotomous Chess]].
* MascotMook: Manjuu (same name as the devs), baby chicken-looking critters that can be see in various places (on Torpedo boats, kamikaze boats, various character art both official and fan-made).

** In a manner similar to ''VideoGame/KanColle's'' Admiral, the Azur Lane Commander is a featureless entity, who commands every action taken by ship girls during combat in all fleets present and micromanages the equipment assigned to all ships, but nonetheless interacts with the ship girls much more than most examples of this trope, being able to form relationships with and eventually marry them.
** Moreover, cutscenes for the shipgirls' personal questlines and for some events that explicitly take place at your naval base do have the Commander interacting with the girls directly, though early on we never hear the Commander talk (though it's made clear that they do say stuff). Later questlines and events introduced a "dialogue option" system similar to other games, and often there's only one dialogue option - this is still meant to reflect "you" saying things and thus requires your input.
** This does end up raising some questions as to precisely ''who'' we are, [[spoiler:since it becomes clear that ''our'' Azur Lane is a much broader multinational entity than the "historical" one being observed by the Sirens]].
** This becomes interesting in ''Ashen Simulacrum'' where the Sirens are now targeting the commander.

** The developers have publicly stated that their goal is to have four ''Ultra''-rare events a year. These ships are so strong that things like faction synergy (excepting Nagato) have for the most part fallen by the wayside and the best fleet is as many of these as you can shoehorn in.

* PunBasedTitle: ''Azur Lane'' is a play on a line from the British patriotic song ''Rule, Britannia!'':
--> Arose from out the '''azure main'''
* PunnyName: Kansen, the proper term for the ship girls is this, twice. First, it's a ShoutOut to [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'s own G.U.N.D.A.M OS, and the 2nd as a wordplay on Senkan, the Japanese word of battleship.
* PurposelyOverpowered: With the sole exception of [[CripplingOverspecialization Izumo]], Priority Research shipgirls have incredible stats and skills, including one that gives them damage bonuses against Sirens, who make up many of the most powerful bosses. This comes at the cost of needing weeks to months to grind up the EXP needed to unlock them, and likely even more time to acquire the blueprints needed to bring out their full power.

** Centaur would apply as she's a ship that was designed at the end of war to be cutting edge. While in reality, she was behind the times by the time of her completion (the 1950s where carrier tech had advanced dramatically), this puts her in the heat of [=WW2=] where she is indeed ahead of most others.
** Unicorn's retrofit turns her into possibly the best healer in the game. This was done so that even newer players have a good enough healer to help them clear later chapters.

** In the "Universe in unison event", we have another makeshift band of Illustrious, Dido, Tashkent, Albacore, and Balitmore and their chief rival is the duo of Roon and Taihou.

* RandomDrops: As a Gacha game, everything is pretty much set up this way. It's a little more forgiving than average:
** There is a traditional Gacha currency in the form of Wisdom Cubes (which is given generously on a daily basis) to build new ships from a giant pool. The typical rate is 7% for a Super Rare ship, 12% for an Elite, 51% for a Rare, and 30% for a common.
** The maps in which combat take place also have a chance to drop ships, equipment, and other resources. A good plurality of ships are available without even touching the build menu. There are even several ships, including some SR ones, that are obtained ''only'' from drops in maps. The extreme end include Akagi, Kaga, Yudachi, Maya, and Choukai, who are obtainable from a single map each with user-polled rates of ''0.75%'' per attempt. This even extends to most events with similar high rarity ships and occasionally low-rate low rarity ships like Fiji.
** To downplay this trope, there are two types of [[RareCandy Bulin]] ships that [[JokeCharacter aren't intended to be used for battle]], but are usable in place of a copy of the same ship to LimitBreak and increase the LevelCap and stats. Several Bulin are given every week as part of simple PlayEveryDay quests, with an additional weekly purchasable supply in the Medal Exchange, no randomness required.

* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: Unlike other collab events, ''Looking Glass of Fact and Fiction'' actually starts off pretty seriously, with Mio and Fubuki struggling to stay alive against the Sirens in the Mirror Sea. Things progressively gets lighter the more Hololive cast are introduced, especially Matsuri, but it's when they starts facing the clones of themselves that the the tone fully shifts to the wackiness that is always pervasive in Hololive characters and streams.

** This is seen even more prominently in ''Parallel Superimposition'', where the the Commander and several Eagle Union Type II shipgirls fight both alongside [[GameplayAndStorySegregation and against]] [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture 21st century warships]] that use guided missiles, jet fighters, and even quadcopter drones in several exercises before the real combat begins.

** In the inversion of the above, Essex will be censored due to the word "sex" if there's punctuation or other texts before or after her name.
** Strangely, the word "shit" isn't censored ''at all''.

** Some English players were unhappy with Z23's party skin dialogue talking about apple juice when the Chinese and Japanese line, and even the Japanese voiced dialogue says orange and the [[https://i.imgur.com/ysJ6ro8.jpg concept art]] shows censored Fanta. On further research, however, it was discovered that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanta#History wartime Fanta was indeed made with apple]], meaning English was the right one all along...........until said line was seen as a typo and corrected back to orange.
** ''Slow Ahead'' does this for both how characters are portrayed (often taking nods from their character stories or details from their lines) as well as a few additional nods to history/ship traits. Examples include North Carolina seeing I-19 (the crew of both ships wound up on friendly terms post war) or Kaga easily handling the Sauna (a nod to how hot the ship can get in a number of places)

** Saratoga can also count for many players. She's a reward for purchasing Gems for the first time. While that might make her seem like a "pay to win" unit... she's a reward for your ''first Gem purchase of any sort''. That includes the $.99 pack. Needless to say, one buck barely even registers on most people's pay-to-win radar, and she's a very common pickup, especially since she's also extremely useful.
** While the prior examples are strong ships throughout the game, the cheaper variant of this trope occurs with two Rare-rarity ships. In all three versions, you will also get Long Island as your back row ship at the start, and then Repulse as your first battleship (actually a battlecruiser) as a quest reward very early on to function as CrutchCharacter backline ships.

* StopPokingMe: The ships have three kinds of pokes: Normal (areas besides the chest or head) which they generally don't mind, Special (the chest) which gets a mix of reactions, some angry at it being done at all, some angry you're doing it in public, and a few Unique ones, like Akagi who is generally eager for the commander to continue, or the various marriage skins where the girls don't mind being risque with you , and some can even be aggressive about it, with at worst are them annoyed you do that in public/office. Finally there's Headpat (the head), which is only present on smaller number of ships, and the reaction tends to be varied. The [=Live2D=] secretaries (the starters, Akashi, Yukikaze, and others with [=Live2D=] skins) have three areas (Head, Chest, anywhere else) with different animated reactions.

* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: In "Parallel Superimposition", [[spoiler:Hornet II, Hammann II, Northampton II, and Langley II]] are all wiped out in an instant by Arbiter: The Tower XVI once Arbiter: The Devil XV is disconnected from the Reality Lens. Even given that it's a simulated world, on the rare occasion than someone actually dies in ''Azur Lane'', it's the kind of game to normally give them their last words or let the player see their last thoughts. The shipgirls in the Reality Lens get none of that, only Yorktown II desperately trying to raise them on the radio.
* TellMeHowYouFight: Discussed in ''Ink-stained Steel Sakura'', where Mikasa tells Nagato that one battle reveals character better than a thousand words.
* TemptingFate: In the starting cutscene of ''Iris of Dark and Light'' B2/D2, Cleveland complains that she won't get to show off if the enemy has no planes and is immediately beset by Siren aerial units.
* TheOneGuy: While the Commander is supposed to be a blank slate due to being a representation of the Player, multiple instances of in game dialogue refer to said Commander with male pronouns, inadvertently making him this even the person playing is a woman. Played more straight in the Anthology Comics where he's the only male to show up, albeit has generally blank features aside from black hair that's long enough to cover his eyes.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: This could happen if you happened to bring a superpower, supercharged fleet to engage a much weaker enemy fleet (the level difference is around 30 or more between your fleet and the enemy), and watched as your fleet one-shot most enemy ships. It often happens in Chapter 1, Map 1, as this is an ideal place to increase a ship's affection due to the fact that the enemy is just around level 2, and there is a fixed ambush spot that you can exploit to farm affection over and over again. Of course, it isn't by any mean the attacker would cut the victims into pieces, but using a gun that deals tons of damage to kill a ship with just a few hundred HP is just... overkilling. On the other hand, the enemy can do the same to you should your fleet be too weak to handle them.

* ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts: In "Khorovod of Dawn's Rime" B3/D3, the "Recorded Voice" explicitly tells the Commander that the forces under him are much smaller than the friendly forces depicted in the recording he sees, and so are the enemy forces he's fighting now compared to what was recorded, making it clear that what he's fighting now is merely a pale shadow of the enemy's true strength.

* TitleDrop: The title of "Microlayer Medley" is eventually revealed to refer to a compound that creates a signal-jamming mist.

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: {{Discussed|Trope}} in the WebAnimation/KizunaAI collaboration event, where Kizuna finds herself in the world of ''Azur Lane''. ''Hololive'' collaboration event has Zuikaku and Kawakaze immediately say [[OhNoNotAgain how familiar this sounds]] when they met the Hololive girls.
--> '''Ikazuchi:''' I see, I see! So this is that "summoned from another world" trope!

** ''Khorovod of Dawn's Rime'' is really the first true breakthrough in the overarching plot of Azur Lane. It's the first episode to treat the commander as an actual character that is actively participating in conversations. It also sees them and an the North Union [[spoiler:access a long forgotten facility with ties to the Sirens, but more importantly the faction that the Ashes seem to have once been affiliated with. It establishes the commander as someone [[TheChosenOne genuinely special]] not only as the person with the single highest affinity for Wisdom Cubes and all associated technology on Earth, but as someone who the Sirens cannot figure out even with all their overwhelming knowledge. technology, and continuous testing. It even ends on an ominous note revealing that even after all of that the North Union still has one massive secret they've kept from the commander and few of the North Union members furious that Soyuz approved their return to New York with Azur Lane.]]
** ''Rondo at the Rainbow’s End'' blows the the previous example out of the water. Where to begin? The shipgirls [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou learning]] the AwfulTruth of the fate their RealLife counterparts, and how the same thing would have happened to all of them [[spoiler:had the Sirens not intervened]]? The [[ShesBack glorious, three-years-in-the-making return]] of [[spoiler:Bismarck]]? The fact that the first thing she does upon returning is to [[spoiler:''dissolve the Crimson Axis'' and reunite Iron Blood with Azur Lane]], officially ending one of the biggest plot points in the entire series, and doing it with all the epicness that such a moment deserves? Or how about the fact that, for the first time, [[spoiler:an Elite Siren is KilledOffForReal, and in a [[AlasPoorVillain rather sad way]]]]? One thing is certain: This game’s story will ''never'' be the same after this event.

** What ''Crimson Echoes'' essentially is, [[spoiler: with Kaga having said flashbacks during the climax of ''Five Minutes of Fate'' at the Battle of Midway.]]
** "Scherzo of Iron and Blood" is retelling of an event right after the player's tutorial, played in the perspective of Bismarck and her Royal Navy hunters.
* WhatTheHellHero: A number of shipgirls at the lowest affection levels will greet you with such a line in their status screen. And given how getting them to this level is very difficult to do accidentally (constant battles/sinkings without break), it's not unwarranted.

* DubInducedPlotHole: ''Skybound Oratorio'' suffers from quite a few of these due to the story dialog in some cutscenes being completely re-written in the Japanese version, which was used as the basis for the English version. Details available [[https://www.reddit.com/r/AzureLane/comments/h92zkc/the_english_story_of_skybound_oratorio_is/ here]].

* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: In "Parallel Superimposition", [[spoiler: Hornet II, Hammann II, Northampton II, and Langley II]] are all wiped out in an instant by Arbiter: The Tower XVI once Arbiter: The Devil XV is disconnected from the Reality Lens. Even given that it's a simulated world, on the rare occasion than someone actually dies in ''Azur Lane'', it's the kind of game to normally give them their last words or let the player see their last thoughts. The shipgirls in the Reality Lens get none of that, only Yorktown II desperately trying to raise them on the radio.

*** On that matter, this also marks the other time Creator/MiyukiSawashiro voiced [[LightNovel/FateApocrypha a knight with a complicated relationship]] with Kawasumi's character (Weird parent-child on the ''Fate'' side, half-sisters on the ''Azur Lane'' side).

** [[Creator/YuiIshikawa Enterprise]], [[Manga/AttackOnTitan Mikasa Ackerman]], and LightNovel/VioletEvergarden are [[BrokenAce Broken Aces]] who rely on and hold onto their loved ones.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking:
** Played straight with cases like Bismarck -- being the fleet leader of Iron Blood (as stated by Z23), she is a powerful battleship, and one of the best unit in the game. Others like Queen Elizabeth (who is supposed to be Royal Navy leader) are less badass, but it is certain they command respect and prestige to a degree.
** Inverted with the case of the Commander. We never see the Commander fighting directly, but the Commander is the highest ranking military officer in the naval base and is put in charge of the entire fleet, consists of warships from different factions, and each faction leader will report to the Commander directly.

* RealEventFictionalCause: The sinking of Hood in the prologue by Bismarck in a single shot really ''did'' happen, but while it was a [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome consequence of thin armor plating in reality]], here it's caused by secret weapons supplied by the mysterious Sirens. World War II seems to be precipitated by the Sirens in the first place, as the betrayal of Azur Lane and the formation of the Crimson Axis is very sudden. It's telling that in ''Crosswave'', [[spoiler:the lower amount of direct Siren meddling in that timeline results in the nations co-existing rather peacefully.]]

** For starters, everybody speaks Chinese or Japanese regardless of side (and presumably would speak English if full English voice for the game was considered feasible), flat screen television exists, the Coca-Cola CaptainErsatz use the modern bottle design, apparently video games exist (as shown in Long Island's sidequest), as do idol singers (as shown in Unicorn's sidequest), light novels, manga, and modern romance novels as seen in Visitors From Another Dimension (the ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptunia'' event), and online shopping and thus the internet (Atago's sidequest), but all the characters are based on WWII warships and have appropriate armament for WWII warships and seem to have no prior knowledge of the events of WWII.

* AmericanEagle: A few of the Eagle Union aircraft carriers, particularly Enterprise, Yorktown, and Hornet, have bald eagles as pets, and these are often featured alongside their owners in official art, merchandise, and related material. And of course, more broadly, the faction representing the USA is the ''Eagle'' Union.

* GottaCatchEmAll: The collection system gives you rewards for acquiring and leveling related ships. And the recently introduced Fleet tech gives in a few ways stat boosts for getting and leveling ships.

** Averted with [=USS=] ''Juneau'' and [=HMS=] ''Juno'', as no such measures were taken in the Japanese version, where both of them appear with the same katakana sequence (ジュノー). The Chinese version at least makes a distinction by rendering the American cruiser phonetically, and rendering the British destroyer, just like in the case of [=HMS=] ''Neptune'', using a direct translation of the Greek deity she's named after. This is lampshaded in one of the trailers for the anime, where both Juneau and Juno appear together in a scene at the very end.

* LevelCap: Ships are limited to a certain level when they first drop and to go past that you need to LimitBreak them with either a copy of the same ship or with a special Engineer ship. Note that doing so also increases oil consumption. Upon hitting 100, you can extent the cap further by 5 by spending golds and cognitive chips, and it can be repeated every 5 levels until 120.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: You, the protagonist of the game and the commander of the fleet, are usually simply called the Commander. Some ships will either call you Master (some Royal Navy maids like Belfast, Dido or Sirius) or Milord (Fusou and Yamashiro) or Your Excellency (London), and so on. Anchorage calls you sensei, which everybody else regards as really weird. This may be because Anchorage has memories of a different timeline.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: You, the protagonist of the game and the commander of the fleet, are usually simply called the Commander. Some ships will either call you Master (some Royal Navy maids like Belfast, Dido or Sirius) or Milord (Fusou and Yamashiro) or Your Excellency (London), and so on.

* EasyLogistics: Oil is the only thing you need to concern when sending your ships into battles. Ammo and equipment are automatically [[HandWave handled]], unlike ''VideoGame/KanColle''. Also unlike both KC and ''Videogame/GirlsFrontline'', ships are automatically and instantly repaired post-battle. You ''do'' have to manage your repairs in Operation Siren. While you don't have to worry about oil in OS, you do have to worry about Action Point, which do somewhat the same thing.

* EasyLogistics: Oil is the only thing you need to concern when sending your ships into battles. Ammo and equipment are automatically [[HandWave handled]], unlike ''VideoGame/KanColle''. Also unlike both KC and ''Videogame/GirlsFrontline'', ships are automatically and instantly repaired post-battle. You 'do' have to manage your repairs in Operation Siren. While you don't have to worry about oil in OS, you do have to worry about Action Point, which do somewhat the same thing.

* EasyLogistics: Oil is the only thing you need to concern when sending your ships into battles. Ammo and equipment are automatically [[HandWave handled]], unlike ''VideoGame/KanColle''. Also unlike both KC and ''Videogame/GirlsFrontline'', ships are automatically and instantly repaired post-battle.

*** USS ''Boise'' is listed as City of Trees (树城), the nickname of her namesake city, named so "when settlers summited a hill, looked down into the Treasure Valley and were astounded by the vast river forest."

** Centaur would apply as she's a ship that was designed at the end of war to be cutting edge. While in reality, she was behind the times by the time of her completion (the 1950s where carrier tech had advanced dramatically), this puts her in the heat of WW2 where she is indeed ahead of most others.

* ArbitraryMinimumRange: Battleships' and battlecruisers' main guns cannot fire at targets too near to them, though you'll only see this happen in PVP. This is where their secondaries start firing.

* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: In "Parallel Superimposition", [[spoiler: Hornet II, Hammann II, Northampton II, and Langley II]] are all wiped out in an instant by Arbiter: The Tower once Arbiter XV: The Devil is disconnected from the Reality Lens. Even given that it's a simulated world, on the rare occasion than someone actually dies in ''Azur Lane'', it's the kind of game to normally give them their last words or let the player see their last thoughts.

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality

** ''Slow Ahead'' has a number of incidentally fanservicey poses in an otherwise clean slice of life 4koma, with chapters with Suzuya and Prinz Eugen among a few others really taking it UpToEleven, or the extra chapters advertising official lewd dakimakuras.

* UpToEleven: The Ultra Rare/Rainbow status, twice. The first instance of it was during San Diego's and Warspite's Retrofit, which boosted their usefulness significantly. There were also Decisive Ships from the Research Ships, which had the same rainbow coloration as the Super Rares. However, none of those were directly buildable. However, the Dreamwaker's Butterfly event is the first event to introduce a non-Retrofit Ultra Rare ... along with even throwing a new Bulin just specifically to upgrade them.