分类： 前线来信·Mail call

SUNE HERE.

Working out the site at the moment. I actually just wrote this particular piece and have it be loaded by Morgane’s account. To be honest it makes no difference, but I want to say something more about Japan.

Note that this represents one perspective in which someone in the NKT might take this. This is neither the official NKT answer nor is it meant to speak for everyone.

Japanese society is largely driven in my opinion by harmony. It is far more important for the individual to keep to themselves for the benefit of the greater society as a whole. You can see this from our language and etiquette to how Japanese society has worked traditionally. Even in the Japanese constitution the term for harmony appears many times.

To Japanese, it is very important to belong to a group. In historical times you belonged to a clan. In pre-Showa era you belonged to a town or an organization or a clan or an organization loyal to something. Those of you that watch anime knows the various clubs that students belong to. Even our otaku feel a strong sense of belonging in the 2D worlds that they live in.

This brings us to why I wrote this to begin with. Morgane has said that the shipgirls cannot be spoken of as a whole. This is true even for the Japanese ones. However what they are trying to figure out is exactly to what extent should they allow themselves to be individualistic.

I know it is ironic that the modern NKT still worships morale like the Imperial Army and Navy. However, the unique nature of each shipgirl’s gear and the random nature of their “upbringing” (Japan does not have access to MERLIN and thus depend on blind luck and other shipgirls sensing each other to find more) means that the NKT’s first goal is to instill a sense of unity within the Japanese shipgirl service as a whole. It is necessary to have the right values before creating anything pertaining to the nation. Even American militaries have something called indoctrination at boot camp.

As you can imagine this is difficult. Sometimes adjustments and punishments are necessary. It may seem cruel but to the NKT’s perspective it is for the good and the health of the organization as a whole. If a shipgirl cannot adapt or listen or follow the orders she is given, then she cannot be useful because her reliability is then called into question.

In other words if we are to say that the Americans are trying to unlock the potential of each shipgirl based on as they are, the Japanese are trying to do something very different. There is already a perfection or a highest grade that is known. Everyone should strive to emulate that and be the absolute best.

Zero has landed in the US, and hopefully he’ll have a lot of fun wandering around the country.

Yes, that is 2016.

Anyways, today’s update is a bit of an unusual one. It’s largely out of universe since I thought it makes more sense to think about it from our perspective rather than in-universe, but let’s just say that it’s a problem that everyone has to think about in the Pacific-verse.

“Considering how the last update talked about “paper ships”, can we assume they aren’t technically paper ships anymore? Getting a bit philosophical here, but given the fact that they did “exist” in an alternate universe where “Japan” existed before the Abyssal assault on their planet, they are very much “real” in a material sense, just not from the perspective of the current universe, i.e.”

For all intent and purposes a “paper ship”‘s reference frame is to our own world. Since Pacific’s development follows real life history up to 1950, they would call it the same thing as we do.

There is no way to prove that a “paper” shipgirl is who she is, however. It’s not like she can open up a portal to her world and prove that the ship actually existed. Opinions are split as to whether the fairy projections would have been “historical” or “not,” but whether or not they’re real is irrelevant. She exists. She makes claims to some unbuilt battleship (in this world) and that’s sufficient.

“Current universe (in-verse perspective)
Paper ship > never built > does not exist > not real

Current universe (an outside observer’s and probably the Abyssal’s perspective)
Paper ship > was built (alternate universe) > actual ship > does exist > real”

Yeah, that’s one way of looking at it. I’d be a little more specific but overall it’s pretty accurate.

“And how controversial is this idea to the people in that came from the current Pacific-verse?”

I don’t know, man. This is a world with giant teleporting fish monsters and young women who can hand-lift tanks and doesn’t afraid of anything. You tell me. 🙂

(On a more serious note, I think the shipgirl agencies as a whole are mostly open to these ideas of interpretation. The parallel/multiple worlds thing is going to take proof, but they treat it with due rigor like any other field of study.)

“I already seen a response from Hiei, so I can tell that it can get quite heated, but is her response part of a minority or a majority of not just ship girls, but all who is related?”

On matters such as these each shipgirl have their own opinions. I tend to not speak in broad swaths about the shipgirls – doctrine and policy are different.

“And does it vary among different agencies?”

Sort of? STEC benefits from having MERLIN who basically can confirm that the shipgirls are shipgirls and not Abyssals. So in that sense I think the Japanese are right to be wary. After all, again, nobody really understands shipgirls very well just yet.

“Like how the NKT might be a more zealous bunch and are more likely to reject ship girls like Zao and other paper ships. So what of STEC? What of RN-STEC? etc. etc.”

For all intent and purposes nobody knows Zao is around yet. She’s content to just sit around and, to borrow a term Sune recently learned, trololo about the countryside.

STEC I’ve answered. The only other additional note is that for some reason a lot more “paper” girls have appeared in Japan, so they’ll be keeping an eye on this matter quite closely.

The NKT is fragmented. Some don’t care – a shipgirl is a shipgirl. Others are thinking more from Japan’s operational security and worry (rightfully) that these shipgirls aren’t what they seem. In that sense of course the xenophobia would play a very significant role in how they interact with the shipgirls.

RN-STEC, at least at the time of that “interview,” have its own internal structural problems of who’s commanding what. That, and there aren’t really any British “paper” shipgirls that appeared as of now, so that’s not what they have to be concerned about.

Hope that helps and see you next time. 🙂

Guh, it’s almost Friday, and it’s almost the weekend, but I got home a bit later than I had expected.

What do I do when I’m too tired to comment or to proof our writing to make sure it doesn’t break any known lore?

Easy. Post Zuizu.

(This is not one of ours, but it’s so adorable xD)

Oh wait. Actually, no. That’s not it. I’m going to RNG a random image from our pool, which happens to be this one.

Still the same old scout Abyssal that everyone knows well, but this one’s just a tad bit scarier looking. 🙂 I’ll talk more about this probably some other time.