kongou (kantai collection)
金剛 金剛(艦隊これくしょん) 金剛(艦これ) ダイヤモンドバスト 金剛改二 金剛改二丙
金剛, Literally, "Adamantine", or "Indestructible", named after the Mt. Kongou. (Originally a battlecruiser, IJN cruisers were named after mountains, rivers, and other geologic formations.)
Kongou is the namesake ship of the Kongou-class battleships in Kantai Collection.
All of the Kongou-class wear a modified miko uniform with differently colored skirts and thigh boots. They also wear the same signature winged hairband.
Kongou herself has long brown hair bunched into two braided buns and an ahoge, also she wears a black skirt. She uses a ship-like rig.
For her second remodeling, this new form revamps her costume and rig and modifies her hairband (the "wings" are now radars, the band itself is now fully gold/brass instead of a gold/brass and black pattern).
More than 5 years later, she obtained her third remodel, termed Kai Ni C (or Hei). This form revamps her costume and rig further more and takes advantage of Konishi's art style evolution as well as given cues from other Konishi ships. The most notable features are her boots (similar to the Shoukaku-class K2), her headband (more intricate), her jacket (now collared) and sleeves (back to being attached to her top) as well as her rig (more detailed for the HD era and features some torpedo launchers).
Her first seasonal CG for Autumn 2016 features her dressed for shopping in a western-style casual outfit with an off-white dress shirt, a pink jacket, a pair of jeans and a pair of red high heels. She is holding a shopping bag and some take-out food while one of her guns is hanging down like a purse. The only difference between the unremodelled and second remodel versions is that she wears the appropriate hairband.
Being historically constructed in England, she has peculiar speech habits which include using random English words. Her catchphrase (from her speech when firing) is "Burning Love!" This does not keep her English from being so grammatically incorrect and accented to nearly be incomprehensible (see pool #11167).
Her excitable dere-dere nature and frequent demands for attention from the Admiral have left her portrayed in doujins as being "protago-sexual", falling in love with anyone who is the protagonist of a series, whatever kind of admiral (male or female, kind or mean, good or evil...) there is, or even other ship girls if they are the main character of the doujin. Her openness and one of her lines, "Hey! Admiral! Touching is OK, but there's a time and place for everything," has earned its own tag.
She is also an avid drinker of black tea, sometimes to the point that she is obsessed with or even addicted to the stuff (see pool #7461).
In spite of her "indestructible" name, she was historically sunk by the USS Sealion II, and was the last battleship ever to sink to a submarine, and the only IJN battleship to be sunk by one.
Although rarely mentioned, Kongou is the second-oldest Kancolle ship in the game (oldest before the introduction of Gangut). Launched in 1912, and only sinking in November of 1944, Kongou not only served all but the last few months of World War II, but served the length of World War I as well.
She's perhaps one of the best known ships and generally seen as the current face of the game, despite other more famous ships also being contained within. She has the most figurines, a large number of in-game lines, a prominent role in the official anime, and even an official Reddit subreddit (r/OneTrueKongou) and a Discord server which can be accessed through the subreddit.
See also
- Hiei (Kantai Collection) - second Kongou-class battleship
- Haruna (Kantai Collection) - third Kongou-class battleship
- Kirishima (Kantai Collection) - fourth and final Kongou-class battleship
- Kongou (Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio) - alternative version of the Kongou-class battleship, from Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio
- Burning Love (phrase) - When her signature catchphrase is used in an image
- It's_OK_to_Touch - A phrase she speaks as a secretary line if you keep clicking her, one made popular because of its more sexual connotations.