Kantai Collection's personification of the Japanese escort carrier Kasuga Maru. Upon remodeling, her name changes to Taiyou. Character design by Shibafu.
Her rigging involves a flight deck strapped to her right arm, falconry-related steel pouches strapped to her torso, and steel platform boots. She is notably is modeled upon classic Japanese falconry unlike the majority of carriers in-game that are either archers, onmyoji, or marksmen.
Historically, the Kasuga Maru was originally built as a Nitta Maru class passenger-cargo liner, but was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy and converted into the escort aircraft carrier Taiyou without ever seeing service as an ocean liner. As Taiyou, she was initially used to transport aircraft and for training, but was later used to escort merchant convoys. She was sunk by a US submarine on August 18, 1944.
One of her lines references an advertisement where she was anthropomorphized alongside her sister-ships even back in the 1940s.
