hiryuu and yamaguchi tamon (kantai collection) drawn by otabe_sakura

I got my Hiryuu through construction. She looks like a healthy, bright and strong at heart girl, which is why I like her so much and raised her up. But when she got heavily damaged, those healthy looking hips that peek through her miniskirts are just…! From the beginning, I already think she had beautiful legs, but when heavily damaged, those hip lines got emphasized more. Simply marvelous! I want to be clipped between those legs… want to be scolded by her… Hiryuu has many historically-related lines, and that’s nice.

That “Tamonmaru” who showed up in Hiryuu’s lines is the nickname of Rear Admiral Yamaguchi Tamon, commander of the 2nd Carrier Division who commanded in Hiryuu during the Battle of Midway. His given name “Tamon” is from “Tamonmaru”, the childhood name of Kusunoki Masashige.

Hiryuu is originally designed to be sister ship of Souryuu, but her island structure is placed in the opposite side of Souryuu. Following the request from Aviation Bureau to put the structure in the middle of the ship, Hiryuu's island structure is built on the middle of the left side. There's a funnel in the middle of the right side, so they can't build the structure there. But this positioning caused turbulence that made landing difficult. Afterward, all island structures were built in the forward of the right side. It's really rare to see aircraft carriers with the island structure on the left side. There are only two of such ships in the world: Hiryuu and the modified Akagi.

During the Battle of Midway, 1st Division's Akagi and Kaga, 2nd Division's Souryuu caught fire after receiving attack. Hiryuu as the only IJN aircraft carrier that can still launch attacks is having a hard fight. The airplanes launched from Hiryuu dealt massive damage to USS Yorktown (later, I-168 delivered the finishing blow to Yorktown). But Hiryuu was also struck by attacks from the US Navy and sunk together with her captain Kaku Tomeo and Yamaguchi Tamon. From now on, I felt hurt every time I hear her say “Is Operation MI oncoming ?” Legend has it that Tamon and the captain of Hiryuu went down with the stricken carrier while calmly admiring the moon.