Kongou was a ship specifically ordered to England by the japanese navy, so for all intents and purposes it was a Japanese ship (born elsewhere, but still). Her being "fully blonde and british" would be akin to expecting your child to be red headed just because he was born while you were traveling through Ireland, by example.
Kongou was BUILT in England, with british steel, to british specifications. So by all intents and purposes she´s british, sailing under a japanese flag. Using the child analogy, it would be that she has a british father and a japanese mother.
Kongou was BUILT in England, with british steel, to british specifications. So by all intents and purposes she´s british, sailing under a japanese flag. Using the child analogy, it would be that she has a british father and a japanese mother.
More like born to two British parents and then being adopted by Japanese ones after birth.
So where do her Japan-born sisters fall into this?
Kirishima and Haruna were constructed in Japan, mostly from Japanese parts. Hiei was kind of a hybrid--she was assembled in Japan, but her constituent parts were imported from England.
Blondeness aside, I think they have captured this nicely in the design of the four sisters in Kancolle. Kongou and Hiei both have brown hair rather than black, and their faces, Kongou's in particular, look distinctly different from the younger pair's. Compared to the others, Kongou looks like a foreigner dressed in Japanese clothes, which is exactly what she was, and Hiei kind of splits the difference. It's subtler than the versions that just make her look like a Stereotypical Westerner, which is ironic, since Kongou and subtlety generally go together about as readily as chalk and cheese. :)
(An aside: In automobile manufacturing, building complete vehicles out of imported kits is called "CKD", for "complete knock-down", and used to be a common way of dressing up exports as foreign manufacture. A company would build a plant in a foreign country and begin "domestic" production there, but all the factory would really be doing was assembling CKD kits sent out from HQ. This was usually done to sidestep some regulation about importing completed vehicles--import duties would be less on "parts", or the like. It's still done, although not as commonly now as in earlier times.
In Hiei's case, I think it was more about giving the Japanese shipbuilding time to develop the supporting industry necessary to make the parts than about circumventing import-export law, but the actual practice was similar, albeit on a much larger scale.)
Because all brunettes were purged from England, amirite?
I don't know about you guys, but I kind of prefer it when every single European isn't the same giant-titted Aryan. Variety being the spice of life and all...
Because all brunettes were purged from England, amirite?
I don't know about you guys, but I kind of prefer it when every single European isn't the same giant-titted Aryan. Variety being the spice of life and all...
Ark Royal is a breath of fresh air because of that.
I like AL for they treat all countries more evenly and treat western shipgirls as individuals the same as Japanese ones. In KC they just fit western shipgirls into cheap gaijin stereotypes.
Just compare KC Iowa to AL Enterprise, or KC Richelieu to AL Jean Bart and you know what I mean.
Iowa is an intentional case; Tanaka makes her as American as she gets because she's the first American. Sara, Intrepid, and Sam aren't as on-your-face while Gamby is as non-stereotypical as she could be. The German aren't Aryan supremacist nor emotionless robot obsessed with German efficiency (except maybe Max, but even she's not more militaristic than others). The only thing that the French fit the stereotype is that they're so goddamn beautiful and classy.
If you want to see national stereotype played to the hilt, look at Girls und Panzer. And the girls still end up very charming because of it.