iowa (kantai collection)
アイオワ アイオワ(艦隊これくしょん) アイオワ(艦これ) Iowa iowa アイオワ(艦これ)
The USS Iowa, hull number BB-61, as officially depicted in Kantai Collection.
Named after the 29th state to join the Union, she is the lead ship of the Iowa-class battleships of the United States Navy. She is the first US Navy ship and the first from the wartime Allied fleet to make an official appearance in the game. Initially appearing exclusively in the PS Vita version, she later made her browser version debut during the Spring 2016 event. She is voiced by Hashimoto Chinami [橋本 ちなみ].
Her historical counterpart is currently docked in the Port of Los Angeles complex as a museum ship, making her the first ship to appear in the game which wasn't sunk, scuttled, scrapped, or expended as a target.
Appearance wise, she is given sterotypical Caucasian American traits, based upon old WWII-era US Navy pin-ups: long blonde hair, grayish blue eyes, and a well endowed body with visible cleavage. She wears a corseted bra with the number 61 written on the right side and attached to a pair of differently colored thighhigh socks (red vertical stripes for the right, blue for the left). She also wears black fingerless gloves attached to long white sleeves and a miniskirt with a belt. When in battle, she is mounted with her famed nine 16-inch/50-caliber triple mounted Mark 7 guns. Due to her long golden locks and sparkling eyes, fans often see a resemblance between her and Shokuhou Misaki of the Index/Railgun universe or Hoshii Miki of the Idolmaster series. Fan artworks of Yang Xiao Long from RWBY in KanColle as Iowa have been noted for easily qualifying for the "Hilarious In Hindsight" pool, because the official Iowa is more Yang-like in appearance than either of the fan arts in question.
Her first seasonal CG came for New Year 2017 with her wearing a "Inverted American Flag" print furisode for first New Year in Japan as a shipgirl.
Much like Kongou, Iowa is loud, friendly and energetic. Also like Kongou, she uses English mixed in with her Japanese speech (though Iowa uses it more often). Further like Kongou, Iowa's English is so broken and accented many find it incomprehensible. These similarities have led to some fan artists pairing the two up, often with Kongou as Iowa's reluctant companion. As her hourlies imply, Iowa maintains a friendly rivalry with most other battleships, particularly Yamato, even asking her for gunnery practice, even though she accidentally calls her a hotel (and later tries to cheer her up). She's also the first ship in-game to have a killer-victim relationship, being responsible for sinking Katori. Also, unlike Mutsu, she survived a turret explosion, albeit in 1989, well after WWII.