Totally platonic.
Due to its large female cast, it's inevitable that the fandom would start putting on the goggles and start interpreting the close relationships between its characters as something... more. The game itself doesn't deny that some fleet girls are a tad attached to either their sister ships or division mates (often mirroring their part in real-world formations), which gives the fandom even more fuel to play with.
The anime is much much more upfront about this, however, often to ridiculous levels.
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In-Game Examples
- Yamashiro could best be described as "Fusou-sexual", with about 90% of her lines referring to her sister-ship in some way. Indeed, her marriage "acceptance" line is more accurately a polite rejection of the proposal.
- Ooi, much like her anime counterpart, is very attached to Kitakami. While early on she also doesn't mind the affection of the Admiral, from 2014 onward updates have slowly pushed her characterization toward the more popular fandom interpretation of her character — which is to say, possessive, jealous, and dangerously territorial to Kitakami.
- Chiyoda is a tad too concerned about getting her sister's Chitose's attention. Much like Yamashiro's example, a good deal of her lines are about Chitose rather than Chiyoda herself.
- While Tone is too competitive to notice, Chikuma's main concern is be strong enough to protect her. This interpretation has made it into official media, specifically the Perched Naval Base manga.
- Kako and Furutaka are very close, to the point they constantly mention each other even when they sink. As Kako is always counting on Furutaka to get things done, they almost seem like a married couple. Also, note how Kako Kai Ni has her bangs covering one of her eyes. Her original design had her hair removed from her face with a hairclip. Guess what, Furutaka Kai Ni wears those.
- Ark Royal's debut in mid-2017 immediately had fans portraying her as Bismarck's Abhorrent Admirer-slash-Stalker with a CrushExplanation (as exemplified by these
fanmade comics.) Come the Early Fall 2018 event, and the Devs made this pairing canon with this banner on the game's Information tab. - Konishi unintentionally started one between Shoukaku and Hornet.
- Honolulu's hourly lines have her meet Jintsuu, with the latter telling the former how beautiful her hair looks in the setting sun. Honolulu seems flustered after.
Spin-off Examples
- Ooi and Kitakami again from the 4-koma. In one chapter they were put into separate missions; Ooi only agreed to go through with it after Kitakami promised her to go on a vacation together after it's all over. In another chapter focusing on sports festival, in the "go find the certain something" contest, Ooi's in particular is "someone you like". So of course she goes after Kitakami (who, much to her displeasure, is her opponent, and the rules say you can't take the opponent for the thing you wanted).
- In the 4-koma's omake chapter focusing on the girls' dorm rooms, the girls tend to share rooms with another; Kongou shares hers with Hiei. That's not the big part - Miyuki then stumbles upon Hiei's locker and then finds out that it's full of pictures of her onee-sama. Cue Hiei's comic embarrassment.
- Played for laughs in one early 4-koma chapter about Akagi and Kaga. The latter is worried that the 5th Carrier Division (Shoukaku, Zuikaku) is coming to the base; Akagi hugs her to comfort her... and then says that if they're seen like that, the scene would spread around wildly. (Cue Aoba peeking from the window.) In the later part of the chapter, Akagi teases her by saying "aww, you love me so much, don't you?" Kaga's response? "That's... Not exactly untrue, though..." (cue many other girls peeking out from the window, Aoba to blame.)
- Another 4-koma chapter teases Yamato and Yahagi. It starts with the latter inviting the former to sit together and have sake with her while watching the Cherry Blossoms. Then we have this exchange:Nagato: You've already made claims of being Yamato's younger sister already, so what problem is there with me having one?
Sakawa: [Yahagi] loves Yamato-san, after all~- From both said chapter and the one introducing the Agano-class, Nagato seems to really want Sakawa as a younger sister figure. And the latter doesn't seem to mind.
Anime Examples
- Ooi and Kitakami get a short segment Once per Episode that focuses solely on Ooi fawning over Kitakami, usually unconnected to everything else that's happening in the episode itself. The fact that it verges on parodic-levels made fans call these segments Weekly Lesbian.
- Mutsu and Nagato is far more subtle, but it's apparent that Mutsu's very attached to her sister ship, to the point where she admitted in episode 10 that she was jealous of the Admiral. Indeed, the final episode she gives Nagato a bouquet of flowers, with all the romantic implications attached to it.
- Much to many watchers surprise, Fubuki and Mutsuki, doubly so since the two don't have a historic connection with each other at all (the two destroyers were assigned to different fleets during the war). Their relationship evolves from roommates to close friendship and, as the image on this page suggests, something a bit more.
- Fubuki and Akagi also have their fair share of moments, mostly on the former's part. Fubuki practically worships Akagi, going into full Squee mode from simply receiving a pat on the head from her or seeing her munching on potato bits, and does everything it takes in order to become an escort to Akagi's Carrier Group One.
- In Episode 8, the interactions between Yamato and Fubuki (noticing a pattern here?), particularly the nighttime sailing attempt. Fubuki convinces an attractive yet inexperienced girl to sneak out at night with her, in defiance of the rules, in order to do something the girl dearly wants, but hasn't been allowed to do. Does This Remind You of Anything?.
- Again, Fubuki has a small scene with Atago in which she accidentally crashed against her breasts. When she was wearing only a towel. The blush and flustering was all but subtle.
- Kaga and Zuikaku get along as well as oil and water at first, with the former acting cold and condescending towards the latter, while the latter acts like a brat with a lot to prove. However once Kaga takes a hit for Zuikaku, and Zuikaku proves her own worth during a mission in Kaga's stead, things start to get somewhat better between the two. While in Kaga's case this seems to cause a slight shift in opinion for the better, Zuikaku starts acting like a tsundere schoolgirl in the presence of her crush. Mhmm.
- In general, Kaga is shown to be cold and distant to nearly everyone around her, although Akagi seems to be an obvious exception. Kaga often blushes, becomes flustered, and loses her cool around her Carrier Group One partner, and the visible changes in her expressions and emotions are usually caused by something Akagi does or says to her. In fact, nearly all of Kaga's smiles and blushes in the whole season only appear when Akagi is there with her (even in their official art), implying that she might harbor romantic feelings for the other girl. Not that Akagi helps, with the way she says how she likes spending time with Kaga without anyone else around. Gets to near-canon levels with the opening teaser of Episode 11: While most of the girls have multi-storey bunks in their rooms (like Fubuki's and co.), Akagi and Kaga actually share a large futon together.
- Hiei. Dear Lord, HIEI. She is every bit as obsessed with Kongou as Ooi is with Kitakami. She gets jealous when other people are hugged by her Onee-sama, blushes wildly at doing something like cooking curry with her, and at one point even fell like a wild animal onto a simple trap in which the bait was a book with seductive pics of Kongou!
