YMMV / The Greatest Generation

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Kongou's actions in chapter 3. As one reader pointed out, she went right up to where Tenryuu was hiding, then promptly turned around and left. Lucky break for the hiding person? Or, as the anime's glimpses of her more perceptive side suggest, did she know the hiding person was right there and deliberately pretend not to notice?
  • As another reader points out: Hibiki making her sisters read up on the Rape of Nanking - Did it just randomly happen to be there? Or was she being Cruel to Be Kind?
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Admiral Shimada, especially after the rewrite added more substance to his perspective and made it clear that he wasn't firing on all cylinders due to a concussion, shifting opinion away from one-sided Scrappydom. Is he a Dirty Coward who, driven by Interservice Rivalry against intelligence officers, sabotages Yvonne's mission, then selfishly throws the refugees under the bus in favour of his own girls rather than sacrifice them for the slightest chance that they might save a few more people? Or is he A Father to His Men who, having had his distrust of spooks justified by Yvonne's actions and recognising that the situation is untenable he couldn't have known Yvonne's true nature, much less planned with its abilities in mind, decides to save his subordinates and their fighting strength rather than waste them on a Senseless Sacrifice that can't actually make a difference in the face of such a large enemy force?
  • The snooping reporter Mildred Marshall is starting to create a division between readers who like her and readers who find the amount of access she's being given to be implausible.
• Funny Moments:
  • Indefatigable all but kidnapping Droits de l'Homme from a cafe in Paris for a rematch.
  • The CNN-style news interludes mentions this Escalating Brawl, and later detailed in the Top Sails omake:
    • "HMS Indefatigable’s 44 gun salute to HMS Hood damages Mary Rose Museum"
    • "Melee in Portsmouth Historical Dockyard, newly returned Mary Rose brawls with Indefatigable, damages HMS Warrior exhibit"
    • "Ship girls arrested, Mary Rose, Indefatigable and Warrior sink HMS Trincomalee museum by accident with stolen jet skis"
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In chapter 5, one of the things that clues Yvonne in to the Abyssals' plan is their recreating the sinking of Force Z with two Singaporean warships as unwilling stand-ins. Cue the game's Summer 2016 event, which is the recreation of the Malayan operations and where one of the new Abyssal bosses represents Singapore.
  • The ultimate mastermind behind the Abyssals, and the being responsible to the USN's relative lack of success in ship-girl summons compared to their Canadian, European, and Asian counterparts, would've been revealed as the vengeful spirit of USS Arizona, who has been actively interfering with the USN's summoning attempts and stealing would-be ship girls to be turned into Abyssals. Cue the Playstation Vita version and the Spring 2016 event, where the final boss, Central Princess, is a representation of Pearl Harbour, and centered around the Arizona memorial. Defeating her grants the player the very first USN ship-girl implemented into the game, USS Iowa.
• I Knew It!: A few readers correctly guessed that nosy reporter Mildred Marshall is actually an incognito ship girl before the author revealed it.
• Stoic Woobie
  • Yvonne. Her lack of family as well her inability to sortie properly thanks to her circumstances clearly affects her more than she even admits to Yamato. Even moreso once you consider that the Abyssal who lead the attack on Okinawa is explicitly stated to be Yorktown, her eldest sister.
  • Hibiki, who lived after the war and learned about things that her sisters can't handle on their own (things like politics of World War II, war crimes, etc), and she had no one to turn to for help. She generally keep this to herself and go along with her sisters, but when Chapter 7 happened, she is extremely grateful that Tenryuu is there to help her sisters out, especially since she had to bear that burden alone before.
• Tear Jerker: Yamato's resolve to make a last stand and invoke operation Ten-Go after Shimada's retreat left her the only defense left for Okinawa against the Abyssal raid, in- and out-of-universe. The poor girl is on the verge of tears herself, but her attempt at a Heroic Sacrifice brings all who overhear her to tears, except maybe Yvonne, who is too mad and determined herself to be brought to tears.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Japan's attitude towards its wartime behaviour is a recurring theme of the story.