developed by Kadokawa Games. The game was launched on April 23, 2013. As of May 2014,

the game is available in Japan only and has 2 million registered players. The game has

developed into a much larger media franchise; various media including multiple manga series

and light novels have been released, in addition to an officially licensed tabletop role-playing

game. A television anime series and PlayStation Vita game have been announced.

Gameplay

The gameplay is centred upon a mobage-like card battle game, with individual characters

represented by various cards with different attributes. Each of the characters are moe

anthropomorphisms of World War II naval warships which are depicted as cute girls, known as

"Fleet girls". These personified warships are based on real-life vessels which are explained

in detail within the game; the physical characteristics, appearances and personalities of each of the

girls correlate in some way to the real-life vessel. The player takes on the role of an

admiral and organises their fleets in battle in order to win. Combat is largely automated,

and manual actions by the player include micromanagement such as building and repairing. The player

can organise up to four different fleets. The player progresses through the game by

advancing through maps, gaining experience points through grinding, obtaining new fleet

girls whilst repairing and resupplying existing ones, and fulfilling quests to obtain resources.

New equipment can be crafted, allowing the fleet girls to equip different armaments depending

on the situation. Acquisition of new kanmusu by the player can occur via drops on map or

via crafting, and is heavily RNG-based; randomisation is also a key component of the battle mechanism,

map progression and equipment development. Construction, resupply and repair of ships

is reliant upon four types of resources, namely fuel, ammunition, steel and bauxite; these

supplies will gradually increase automatically as time passes. Players can choose to engage

in expeditions, sorties and quests to further increase their supplies as well.

Ships can be customised through the addition of various equipment within their empty slots,

which add attribute bonuses and even provide special effects in some cases; such equipment

include naval guns, anti-aircraft guns, torpedoes, torpedo bombers, dive bombers, fighter aircraft,

seaplanes, recon planes, radars, steam turbines, special artillery shells, depth charges, sonars,

drum canisters, searchlights and anti-torpedo bulges. The effectiveness of ships in combat

depend on its attribute parameters, namely hitpoints, armour, evasion, aircraft capacity,

speed, attack range, firepower, torpedo, anti-air, anti-submarine, line-of-sight, and luck.

Kanmusu are capable of becoming stronger as they gain experience and level up after battles,

and can also be remodeled into more advanced models once they reach a certain level. Unwanted

kanmusu can also be "fed" to other kanmusu through a process known as "modernisation",

which grants attribute bonuses to one ship in exchange for losing another. Ships can

become fatigued once it accumulates after sorties; fatigued ships have decreased attributes,

whilst sparkling ships have increased attributes. Fatigue can be alleviated by allowing ships

some time to rest, or by recovering the fleet's morale using Japanese food supply ship Mamiya.

As ships become damaged, their icons begin to blow off smoke and their clothing become

visually torn and battered; in the event when a ship's durability drops down to zero, it

is considered sunk, and the player will lose the fleet girl. Players cannot resurrect fleet

girls that have been lost unless they are in possession of an emergency repair item,

and are only able to re-train ships that have been lost from scratch.

Whilst the game is free-to-play, special premium bonuses can be obtained through prepaid game

money and credit card micropayments, such as repair dock expansions, home shipyard furniture

tokens, ship possession limit increases and special consumable items. Although each ship

in the game has an experience level cap of Lv.99, the player is able to obtain the "marriage

papers and ring" item with a monetary purchase priced at 700 yen or via a one-time special

quest, which allows the player to "marry" the girl, thereby breaking the original level

cap and allowing a new maximum of Lv.150, in addition to other perks such as stat boosts

and decreased operating costs; this process can be repeated as many times as the player

wishes, and there is no limit to the number of girls that can be "married".

Players can choose to battle against the fleets of other real-life players on the same game

server via the exercise maneuvers menu. Players are also able to compete with each other's

scores via in-game ranking boards, with periodical prizes for top ranking players. As of June

2014, there are 18 servers that can be played on, each named after a World War II-era Japanese

naval base. The game is currently intended to be played by a Japanese domestic audience

only, with the interface exclusively in the Japanese language. As of present, the game

cannot be played outside of Japan without the use of a VPN; utilisation of such methods

to circumvent country IP restrictions and access the game breach the DMM.com online

game terms of use, however. From August 2013 onwards, new player registrations are only

available via periodic lottery, due to the servers being overloaded by large numbers

of new registrants. Ship types

Battleship: Have strong power and defense, whilst requiring large quantities of resources.

A battleship on either side grants a second attack turn for both the player and enemy

fleets. Aircraft carrier: Allows for preemptive aerial

strikes before battles. Have long repair times, are expensive to maintain, and the planes

require bauxite. Cannot attack at night. Light aircraft carrier: Have better fuel consumption

than standard aircraft carriers and are able to damage submarines, however have lighter

armour. Cannot attack at night. Armored aircraft carrier: Capable of combat

operations even with medium damage. Seaplane carrier: High enemy formation detection

stats. Largely weak. Can be equipped with midget submarines and seaplanes, and can attack

submarines. Can also be remodeled into light aircraft carriers.

Heavy cruiser: Able to deal significant damage, and are fuel efficient. Have decent overall

stats, however does not excel in any particular areas.

Light cruiser: Strong anti-submarine type, effective during night combat. Have low endurance,

and serve as a support role. Though slightly stronger than destroyers, firepower and armour

is still limited. Cheap to maintain. Destroyer: Good for night battles and anti-submarine

warfare, in addition to being cheap to maintain with their good fuel and repair rate. Boasts

a high evasion rate, however also have low armour and firepower.

Torpedo cruiser: Remodeled from certain light cruisers. Capable of deploying midget submarines,

allowing a preemptive torpedo strike. Submarine: Have low health and limited damage

output from its torpedo attacks, however use very small amounts of resources, and can only

be attacked by certain ship types. Have a high evasion rate, however are weak against

ships equipped with depth charges or sonar. Capable of attacking preemptively.

Submarine aircraft carrier: Capable of carrying seaplanes.

Aviation battleship: Remodeled from certain battleships. Deals less firepower than standard

battleships, however can equip seaplane bombers which are able to attack submarines.

Aviation cruiser: Remodeled from certain heavy cruisers. Can equip seaplane bombers which

are able to attack submarines. Amphibious warfare ship: Largely useless during

combat. Autogyros play an anti-submarine role, whilst equipped landing crafts add a resource

bonus to expeditions. Repair ship: When placed within a fleet, gradually

repair other ships within the fleet over time, similar to a repair dock.

It is planned for coastal defense ships to be eventually added to the game in future;

the developers anticipate that these ships will play an anti-submarine role, and will

feature a more cute and childish character design, reason being that coastal defense

ships are smaller in size compared to destroyers. Fleet girls

Upon the debut of the game, there were a total of 94 different fleet girls available. Within

an update introduced May 15–17, 2013, additional fleet girls were added. On September 11, 2013

the first non-Japanese vessel, Soviet destroyer Verniy, was introduced into the game. There

were plans during the early stages to eventually bring additional ships from other countries,

and in March 2014, three German Kriegsmarine vessels were added. Presently there are 135

original girls in addition to 45 upgraded variants, bringing the total number of fleet

girls to 180. The game currently holds spaces for 200 different types of fleet girls. Different

fleet girls are illustrated by different artists; artists involved in the drawing of various

characters include Shibafu, Shizuma Yoshinori, Konishi, Kūrokuro, Mikoto Akemi and 9 other

artists. Fumikane Shimada, who was previously the lead character designer for Strike Witches

and Girls und Panzer, created the designs and illustrations for Japanese armored aircraft

carrier Taihō and the three German vessels. The traits of each fleet girl are based on

aspects of the historical ship they are based on; for instance, Japanese battleship Kongō

frequently adds English words and phrases into her dialog as a reference to her British

origins, whilst Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi is depicted as a glutton and Japanese

destroyer Shimakaze is depicted as a speedy girl in artworks and official print media,

since the Akagi consumed large amounts of fuel and the Shimakaze was one of the fastest

destroyer ships of World War II. Characters which share particular links also have similar

physical traits: ships of the same class may have similar accessories or clothing, whilst

all submarines are depicted as wearing sukumizu. Voice actors have been employed to voice the

fleet girls, with anywhere around 10 fleet girls being voiced by one actor. The complete

list of voice actors involved has not yet been published.

Voice actors Development

Prior to Kantai Collection, the majority of games published by DMM.com were R-18+ adult

online games. In an effort to attract customers from a wider audience, DMM.com experimented

with Kantai Collection in partnership with Kadokawa Games; by November 2013, Kantai Collection

accounted for 30-40% of DMM.com's total online game business.

Media Print media

A bi-monthly online web manga by Momoi Ryōta began serialization from April 23, 2013 in

the Famitsu Comic Clear. The manga follows a 4koma format, and features a storyline with

the fleet girls enrolled in schools, where senior girls teach battle techniques to their

juniors. Momoi Ryōta's 4koma manga will be released in print book format under the title

KanColle: Fubuki, Ganbarimasu! beginning from December 14, 2013. Famitsu Comic Clear has

introduced an additional manga adaptation by Shōtarō Harada under the title Naval

Base Communications.　The Famitsu website also hosts a web comic by Mizutaki which focuses

on gameplay aspects of Kantai Collection. In addition, another manga series by Sasayuki

featuring the title KanColle side:Kongō was serialized in Comptiq from December 2013 onwards,

with a story based on the adventures of battleship Kongō. A manga illustrated by Sakae Saitō

titled KanColle: Someday as the Seas turn Calm began serialisation in Monthly Comic

Alive on November 27, 2013, with a focus on an original story revolving around Tenryū

and Tatsuta. A manga titled KanColle: Torpedo Squadron

Chronicles and illustrated by Yasuhiro Miyama began serialisation in the November 2013 issue

of Comp Ace, with the plot focusing on the Akatsuki sisters. Age Premium will feature

a manga publication by Nanaroku titled KanColle: nanodesu. starting from January 2014, with

Inazuma as the main character. A manga series titled KanColle: Shimakaze

Whirlwind Girl by Yamazaki Kazuma is planned to begin serialisation within the Dengeki

Maoh magazine in February 2014. A manga series by Hiroichi titled KanColle: The perched naval

base will begin serialisation in the July 2014 issue of Dengeki Daioh, and will focus

on a storyline revolving around the heavy cruisers Kumano and Suzuya. Kadokawa has also

announced a manga series titled Kantai Collection Black Order, created by Ōto Taguchi who was

previously responsible for the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 manga.

A light novel based on the game has been announced under the title KanColle: Kagerō, Setting

Sail!, written by Tsukiji Toshihiko and illustrated by NOCO. It was released on November 30, 2013.

A short story series featuring aircraft carriers Zuikaku and Shōkaku written by Hiroki Uchida

and illustrated by Mataro, titled KanColle: Bonds of the Wings of Cranes, will begin serialisation

within the January 2014 issue of Dragon Magazine. A novel project featuring aircraft carriers

Kaga and Akagi involving the illustrator Koruri and the authors Siidekei, Kazuyuki Takami

and Bakagane has been announced, with the title KanColle: A day at a certain naval base.

Comptiq, Dengeki Comics, DNA Comics and Famitsu Comic Clear have also published numerous series

of comic compilation books which each contain a collection of various one-shot manga.

Publications KanColle Kai

A PlayStation Vita game titled KanColle Kai was announced during Kadokawa Games' 2013