Kantai Collection's personification of the Japanese training cruiser Kashima. She was named after the Shinto shrine Kashima Jingu, but her name literally means "deer island". Character design by Parsley-F, voiced by Kayano Ai.
Personality
Perhaps even more than Katori, she has a highly feminine personality. Her verbal habit is to end most of her lines in "ufufu", which is usually seen as a coquettish laugh. Several of her in-game lines also paint her as someone who wistfully longs for peace, a reference to both the fact that she, as a training vessel, isn't much of a warrior and lacks any confidence in her combat ability, and the fact that the historic ship was commissioned during the peace before the war, engaged in essentially no combat the whole duration of the war, and was used as a repatriation vessel after the war before being scrapped in Japan. (Personality-wise, this makes her similar to Inazuma.) Her in-game lines portray her as lacking in self-confidence and happiest when cooking or brewing coffee for others. Unlike Katori, she's generally shown as a gentle girl who shows her admiral kindness if not affection, making her particularly popular. This has sometimes resulted in a particularly lustful/lewd image, partially from all the doujins she's recieved as as result of her popularity.
Kashima's combat gear involves a large pair of binoculars, her depth charge launcher carried like a briefcase, her bridge carried on a strap like a purse, and a back-mounted weapons platform with twin searchlights, and a large and small pair of twin-cannonturrets.
For Christmas 2015, she was given a red knit sweater with fur trimming, a Christmas capelet and a Christmassy version of her hat. She is seen holding a popper.
For a campaign with Lawson in February 2016, she was designated, along with Katori, to wear the Lawson uniform.
History
Historically, the IJN Kashima was designated for front-line duty, leading landings or being a flagship for fleet action, during the earlier parts of the war, but never actually saw combat, before being sent back to resume its intended role as a training ship. As a training ship, she was notably a much slower ship, and not as particularly well-armed as most other light cruisers. During the last year of the war, however, the desperate Japanese pressed her into service as a transport and as an anti-submarine patrol ship. During this time, she collided with and sank a transport ship, Daishin Maru, marking the only kill of her career. She survived the war, was used as a repatriation vessel, and was kept by the Japanese, eventually being broken up for scrap.
