User:Jigaraphale

Early Origins

The depiction of ships as female figures dates back to ancient times, with ship naming conventions across time often using feminine connotations, notably in English where "ship" has retained a female grammatical gender in some usages^[3], or in Japanese where most name are considered as female despite the apparent lack of gender.

In Japan, the earliest known antropomorphic depiction of ships are from the "Atago Shimbun", a newspaper published on board the Takao class Atago, featuring in 1934 an illustration of the Takao, personified as "Mr Takao" and Atago as "Mrs Atago"^[4].

In 1940, the "Nitta Maru Sisters" were depicted as three women representing respectively the ships of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha Nitta Maru class cargo liners (later the Taiyō class escort carriers): the Nitta Maru, the Yawata Maru, and the Kasuga Maru^[5].

Mecha Musume Emergence

In the 1990's with the emergence of many anime sub-genres such as the Mecha genre and moe culture, some other sub-genres were created by the fusion of the two, notably the Gundam "MS girl" (MS少女, MS shōjo) in 1982, with girls wearing mecha armors, reintroducing the idea of girls representing military hardware. Thus, the "Mecha musume" (メカ娘, Mecha girls) genre was created, and with it soon, the "ship girls" sub-genre. Here, contrary to previous iterations, the girl will directly wear elements from the ship she represents, usually from its armament, but sometimes other elements such as the armor or superstructure.

The oldest known representation of a modern ship girl comes from ???

The artist ZECO later greatly contributed to the genre, notably institutionalizing the girls apparences regarding their gearing and weaponry. He first published his own work in various artbooks, and then took part in the elaboration of some girls of the Warship Girls R franchise, to finally becoming an official artist for Kancolle.

In the 2000's, several franchises used this trope, such as Arpeggio of Blue Steel, where alien invaders take the form of WW2 warships associated with women forms alongside them. Most importantly Strike Witches, where girls directly wear aircraft propellers and guns, as mecha musume, boosting the appeal for the genre.

Several fanarts of ship girls were also made in this period, often limited in reach due to their niche nature, and more often using puns or name similarities as a pretext. E.g. the character Yuki Nagato from the popular Haruhi Suzumiya franchise would be dressed as the battleship Nagato.

Kantai Collection

[[File:|thumb|right|Examples of kanmusu cards used within the game, depicting (from top left to bottom right) Shimakaze, Nagato, Tenryū, Kaga, Haruna, Fubuki, Takao, Verniy, I-19, and Taihō]]

In 2010, Kensuke Tanaka [ja], then director of the C2 Preparat circle/studio, wanted to promote a food guide in the JMSDF Yokosuka Naval Base area, utilizing military mascots. After some refinement and an accord with Kadokawa and DMM, was released the game Kantai Collection, the first free-to-play game that reintroduced mecha-style ship girls. Here, ship girls directly wear elements from their real-life counterparts, such as

Ship girls rapidly became a popular phenomenon, Kancolle reaching 3 million players in less than two years, despite the regional lock to Japan only, and the game server overpopulation limiting further players^[11]. It is also notably observed in the Comiket statistics, where franchises like Kancolle and later Azur Lane represent a major percentage of the convention ever since.

The destroyer Shimakaze notably became extremely popular, from being one of the main mascots of the game, but especially because of her outlandish and mesmerizing uniform (micro-bikini, miniskirt, bunny ears, and red and white socks), becoming a cosplay and a fan art staple ever since, usually under the tag "Shimakaze's outflit" (島風の服) (Pixiv).

Following the game's success in Japan, many tried to capitalize on the ship girl genre, mainly by including warships from other nations and by opening their player base to most of the world and not only Japan. Some franchises were refreshed, such as Warship Girls R, or created, such as Azur Lane, introducing other elements such as different gameplay types, usually more active, or with the gacha economic model.

Some rip-offs of KC were also created, generally in an attempt to bypass the georestrictions of the game.

In XXXX, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) started an official collaboration with Kancolle, notably using girls from the franchise as mascots for their ship using the same name. For example, JS Kaga has the ship girl wearing the JMSDF women uniform as her official mascot, and the game introduced the "Kaga Kai Ni Go" ship remodel, notably featuring amament from the early JMSDF, and a flight deck copied from JS Kaga^[12]. The girl Shigure is even the official mascot for the Sasebo Naval District^[13]