shin'you (kantai collection)
Kantai Collection character personifying German passenger liner turned Japanese aircraft carrier Shin'you (literally "divine hawk"). Her artist is Shibafu, Kasuga Maru's/Taiyou's illustrator.
Being originally German, she is given Caucasian characteristics of long blonde hair with blunt bangs and blue eyes. Her hair is tied to the left with a hair ornament that resembles a tumbler or drinking glass. Shin'you, like Kasuga Maru, is notably modeled upon classic Japanese falconry, and carries an aircraft (a Mitsubishi A5M, immediate predecessor to the famous "zero" fighter) on her left forearm with jesses tied to a her equipment. She also starts out wearing an outfit almost identical to Kasuga Maru's, wearing a white dougi top with a red hakama skirt, only to differentiate by wearing a yellow undershirt and yellow socks as opposed to Kasuga Maru's black. On her left hand, she wears a thick falconry glove. Upon remodel, however, she changes into a green hakama and yellow obi and, like Kasuga Maru long after becoming Taiyou, gains headphones and a green scarf.
A popular outfit for her is the Green Maid uniform she wore in a promotional event for Isetan and Mitsukoshi in March 2019, effectively enmaiding her. She is the character featured on the promotional coffee pot she is carrying on her tray.
Shin'you and Kasuga Maru sharing the same artist and starting uniform stems from the common initial histories of their historical counterparts. In Shin'you's case, she was originally the SS Scharnhorst, the first big passenger liner built in the German Third Reich. Scharnhorst was stuck in Japan when World War II broke out in Europe. She was later purchased by the Imperial Japanese Navy and converted into an escort carrier. Conversion followed the same plans as the Taiyou-class carriers due to the similarity in design between Scharnhorst and the Nitta Maru-class passenger liners which included Kasuga Maru.
The historal Shin'you was sunk on November 17, 1944 at the East China Sea after being hit by four torpedo attacks from the submarine USS Spadefish, causing her unarmored fuel tanks to explode with the ensuing fire destroying the ship and killing most of her crew.