We get this question a lot. “Will you ever do modern shipgirls?/are modern shipgirls a thing?”
I’ve answered this many times. Pacific covers shipgirls inspired by WW2.
I didn’t say Pacific doesn’t have spin-offs or special projects.
This one’s actually Sima’s design, and I’ll basically be translating his words here. You might now ask. “Wait, the Type 055 JUST entered the water like, last week! How the hell do you design a shipgirl based on something that’s not even complete?”
Well, so that’s the thing. Sima already came up with a list of designs in terms of her looks. Here are his thoughts below. Note that this one I basically acted as a rubber stamp – let’s just say I’m proud of the team and I found his notes to be quite sound.
- Chinese-esque outfit design because China, with its thousands of years of history, have traditional clothing types that are immediately discernible at a glance. It’s not a Qipao because the “buttflap” of the Qipao will seriously get in the way of her rigging.
- Color design is based on Chinese navy camouflage. Black is used to fill in some space to maintain color balance.
- Sword is actually a Chinese naval sword awarded to officers and captains. You can google 深蓝之剑 to get an idea of what it looks like.
- Rigging design is a lot more sci-fi looking than equivalent Pacific shipgirls because Sima wanted to emphasize that this is a modern shipgirl. It’s also less minimalist than many of the Pacific girl designs for a similar reason.
- Shows quite a bit of skin because, well, modern ships have no armor. May or not be an excuse because we like pretty ladies.
- She’s a catgirl because in Chinese, naval vessels are read off using their unique set of nomenclature. The 0 in Chinese (as I learned it is pronounced Ling), but Sima says that it’s pronounced Dong (literally hole) in naval nomenclature. 05 is pronounced Dong Wu – literally a pun on “animal” or “critter. Thus, Sima decided that it’d be cute to draw her as a catgirl.
- Additionally, the catgirl design is based on a Chinese lynx because he thought that as the leading shipgirl of her class, she should be mature and big-sisterly. However, the typical Chinese big cat, tiger, has very strong thematic connotations, and he wanted to pick something slightly friendlier.
Now, her personality’s still up in the air. Following the theme we have for Pacific, Sima says he’s going to try to write her as soon as they figure out which Chinese city she’s going to be named after. China has regional stereotypes much like us, so if she’s named after a northern city she might rightfully be expected to be more boisterous, whereas if she’s going to be named Nanking then she’s going to be a cunning and sly but cute “southern” girl.
Now, I can already hear the feedback now.
Remember this is a spinoff.
and let me just pre-emptively answer a few questions.
“WHY CHYNA”
Because China is a major modern naval power? Leaving China out of a spin-off in the Pacific universe involving modern shipgirls is like leaving out the Royal Navy in Pacific proper.
“IS THIS CANON”
Since when is anything we put on the site not canon?
“WILL YOU MAKE _____(SHIP THAT I SERVED ON) A SHIPGIRL”
Maybe. Give us time to work and thank you for your suggestion. I’m always happy to hear about your stories.
“CAN SHE BE MY WAIFU?”
Ask Sima.
“CAN CATGIRL SHIPGIRLS REPRODUCE?”
(Yo, not actually picking on you – yes, you. You know who you are, but this question I get at a depressingly common frequency so I might as well speak more clearly.)
*sigh*
See youtube clip below for your answer.