I wonder if any Abyssal or shinkaisei kan will ever dethrone Northern Ocean Hime/Princess/Hoppo, and Wo class in popularity. Or the next Abyssal that will be popular. Seaport Hime seems to be somewhat popular due to her looks, and maybe history implications. And Re Class seems to be somewhat popular due to being a hard versatile enemy while not being a boss. Gameplay reasons mainly for most people, with some characterization interpretation stemming from that, various like being a fearsome warrior, loyal hard worker, some portray her as sadist, characterization as psycho interpretation, and others.
These new ships, wonder if they will be released soon, or its a teaser for the future.
The current release pattern from the historical one seems to be.
Japanese, German, Italian.
Then American, British, French, Russian. I wonder if smaller powers navy will join in. Netherlands and Canadians for example arguably had a much better navy then the Russians.
It went Iowa in Spring 2016, Warspite, Commander Teste, Saratoga, Gangut, Richelieu, Ark Royal.
American, British, French, American, Russian, French, British.
With some all Japanese ship event in between, though with only small ship since all actual made WW2 Japanese capital ships are done except Shinano.
Since a British ship was just released, the next event might be a different ship, and the British ship might come in the event after that.
They might take time to fill in another American or French ship, since there's 2 of each of the Allied nations so far. Or add more German or Italian ships. Or just add the British one. The Royal Navy has a long history and is quite large even in WW2, so they might pull ahead and add a few in a row for them to start getting some major ones off.
I wonder which ones these devs view as more major or interesting. Warships aren't known very well in general society anywhere in the world, historical or modern, so it depends on what sources the devs use.
New Akizuki class picture has quite a bit of art and discussion on characterization already, especially on Japanese sites. It is quite a popular ship, its Japanese of course, and does symbolize some late war things. Akizuki class as a whole has lots of popularity, and use during Operation Ten Go which many consider was a major event.
That's cool.
I wonder who the British ship is, and if they'll haul around that suitcase in their standard CG.
I also wonder what their focus will be, or if they'll have any visual or ability based special things/gimmicks. ASW maybe due to the level of U boat activity and many history book, media focus on them? Thus far the British theme seems to be cost effectiveness. Not quite the best at everything, but second best at nearly everything and much cheaper to use. And best in a few stats. Like cost use.
From my perceptions.
The British seem to be third or fourth in popularity behind the Japanese and Germans.
The Italians and French seem to be distantly behind, which is a little unfortunate for them.
The Japanese of course usually are the most popular, though with the sheer amount of Japanese ships in this game, a few aren't noticed and forgotten. Amagiri from this last event for example, though some official art makes her look muscular, with abs, which did give her a boost in popularity. Wonder if it will be temporary or permanent. Her other major historical incident is perhaps accidentally(? ,maybe on purpose?) running power JFK's PT Boat, which was ultimately a minor event if JFK hadn't gone on to become a famous President. I don't think this incident is that well known, especially in Japan. One fanartist I know seem cautious or afraid to portray this, since they think its a sensitive topic to some.
So Japanese most popular, especially to Japanese fandom.
The Germans are next it seems. Lots of propaganda during the war, and after about a fearsome enemy, even if their surface fleet was small and relatively few accomplishments, it did have a major psychological effect. And Germany of course had close relations during WW2 with Japan.
Third might be a tie between the Americans and British.
Iowa was the first Allied ship, so her gimmick in some art interpretations besides being American is being Allied. This is seen in official art and fanart sometimes. She's got a lot of art relative the average, but less interpretation of her, characterizations, or doujin story comic appearances for her quantity. I think part of that is because most doujins still are sex doujins and porn overall, so less room for characterization. Its possible to do characterization in sex scenes, by dialogue or silently show traits, but most I've seen are very similar with how they go. Still Iowa didn't do anything major in the opinion of many, especially from a Japanese perspective, so that's another reason why there's so few interpretation of her. She's got less individual character interpretation and historical event to reference, and just seems to fill in representing America as a whole. The most I could say is that Iowa was a fleet flagship, which a few comics/manga referenced.
Warspite, the first British ship, doesn't get too much characterization as well due to being British and not really interacting in Asia with the Japanese ships in any major way. But a few fanart just pairs her with the German ships to represent their interactions during the war. Ark Royal seems to be taking that role the few characterization art she's got so far, since HMS Ark Royal historically interacted with Bismarck directly, in an semi famous incident that was played up in propaganda on both sides of the war, and post war media.
The poor Italians and French seem to be last in popularity, in both amount of art made, interpretations of their character, and discussion of them, at least on Japanese and English sites I found.
Italians is unfortunate. They arguably had a better, bigger, and more accomplished surface fleet then the Germans in technical on paper ability and historical accomplishments, but the British were simply better performed, though it was a close fight for a long time in the Med, especially with land based airpower. The Germans got their fearsome reputation mostly from the long land combat attrition and U boats, and propaganda and post war media influenced by such, but the Italians surrendered and did less well in land combat, so were viewed overall more as a joke in many post war fictional media in all aspects, land, sea, air, economy, civilian, sector, leadership. They're often forgotten about (in lots of WW2 media, historically; and modern Italy isn't that super major of a power or talked of that much, they're still a major power, but most media seem to just group them with Europe as a whole), and when they are remembered, lots of fanartist just make them a joke.
The French are in a similar position, though I'm curious to see any interactions or references to Operation Catapult (British vs Vichy France, the result boosted Vichy support and lowered Free France influence, but arguably Vichy support would have been near that high even without) and later the scuttling of a large portion of the fleet. It was proposed to try to berth some of them in a neutral port, like America was at the time. And result of Operation Catapult was one reason why American units led the way in taking lots of French towns. It was believed they would be viewed more positively then British or other Allied units.
I'm actually a little surprised they're not more popular. Sure historical its argued, whatever the technical capability of the ships, they historically didn't do much outside Operation Catapult due to lack of organization. But modern France has a heavy Japanophile anime fandom, and relatively close ties to Japan in various ways, cultural, economic, social, political, military, and more. So I expected a bit more interpretations. Though, the French anime fandom is still somewhat niche, and most French and Japanese view their relations with neighbors in Europe and Asia respectively as higher priority from polls I've seen.
A famous participant in Op Catapult is HMS Hood. Which had other more famous occurrences, including one of the most famous naval fights in the Atlantic of WW2. I do wonder how well known Catapult is, I've seen it referenced a few times in texts, and had fairly major results imo. Submarine warfare has less famous specific incidents, and is perhaps less famous overall despite perhaps being more important. Probably because sub convoy battles happened so often, while capital ships were rare and fought even more rarely.
USSR or Russia I'm not sure where they go. Gangut didn't accomplish much IRL as a ship, though she was a bit of a symbol within Russia, but most Japanese texts I read don't seem to note that since many consider that rather minor and irrelevant. Some fanartists are using her more from a Cold War or modern day point of view, rather then WW2. Russia does after all have a fairly big impact on the world even in modern day.
She also came out recently, so maybe she'll catch on with some of the fandom.
A Russian fan community thread I was linked to was able to discuss and draw some fairly obscure events surrounding the ship I hadn't heard of.