How does materia even work, giant orbs, don't fit into 1 inch wide holes.
Well you see, you can squeeze them into a much smaller form. So when they install those they're compressed down to fit into the slots. The pressure from the materia trying to restore to its full size in the slot helps to keep it firmly secured so they don't fall out when you're swinging your weapon around.
Aren’t materia malleable? I remember in the movie they were pretty much just rubber balls, given the sound they make hit, and having been said they were just condensed ball of Mako I had assume they have both a solid and liquid-ish form that let them be absorbed easily into weapons and people.
The even better was as much as I like Touhou I don't have to see yet another doujin with Remilia Scarlet on it for the xxx time. Doujin and artwork circles moved to different things.
and STILL no English version despite the growing fan-base over here
I'm pretty sure the fanbase over here is the size of peanuts. It's not as if Kancolle's fanbase is still super big right now (Azur Lane and other new fad games that are more within people's attention), so it'll be a waste of time and money. If they hadn't done it back when it was at it's golden age, doing it now would just be throwing money into the sea.