Creativity with Historical Resources

It seems our case study has already corroborated the theory of animalization in Otaku subculture research. The clear commodification of female and fetishistic cult form the base of Fleet Girls’ popularity among Otaku people. However, until know our analysis have factually just covered half of the story in the broad world of Fleet Girls Collection. Based on the game advertisement, artistic genre and user comments on Youtube, certainly we find the emphasis over girls’ cuteness and its effect not negligible, but it’s also noticeable that Fleet Girls Collection isn’t merely based on lovely girls. As Ian Condry reveals in The Soul of Anime, the "things-creating" (物作り) tradition of Japan often drives Japanese to show unexpected creativity in their works. If reviewing the content of Fleet Girls collection in detail, we will find that the producers are quite knowledgeable as well as innovative. Taking the Battleship Girl Kongo that many players "fall in love with" as an example, the prototype of this girl is Battle Cruiser Kongo as the first ship of Kongo-Class Battle Cruiser in Imperial Japanese Navy. As a product of Japan-Britain cooperation in the 1910s, Kongo was built in the United Kingdom in 1912 and came into service in Japan in 1913. This warship served in Imperial Japanese Navy for more than 30 years until being sunk by American submarines around Taiwan Strait in 1944. When hit by torpedoes, Kongo was still able to sail out of the battle field and the sailors onboard kept optimistic about their situation, but before long Kongo slowed down, exploded and sank into the sea. In Fleet Girls Collection, Kongo is impersonated by a young girl born in Britain but raised in Japan. Wearing traditional Japanese clothes, Kongo is light-hearted, enthusiastic and fond of speaking out English expressions and phrases such as "Congratulations", "No problem" and "Burning love". What’s more, she holds 4 turrets with 8 main guns, just like her three little sisters, Hiei, Haruna and Kirishima.

Kensuke Tanaka, one of the creators of Fleet Girls Collection, said in his interview:" Fundamentally speaking, I like military affairs… I hoped to introduce the history and charm of military to other people and began to create something related to warships. At that time, to introduce these things to more people, I thought I should use impersonation, which became the origin of Fleet Girls Collection." Based on Kensuke’s words, it’s not surprising that there’s such a deep historical and military background concealed under the beautiful fighting girls: these creators of the virtual world are themselves knowledgeable and impersonation is just an approach to sharing their knowledge with others. Toshio Okada, as mentioned in the literature review above, defends Otaku group through arguing that only Otaku people can create innovative information in the digital age. As a matter of fact, Toshio himself is the co-founder of several influential ACG companies such as Gainax that created Neon Genesis Evangelion, one of the most influential animation series in the history. In an interview in 2008, Toshio said:" An Otaku is someone who is smarter than average people but chooses to divert their mental ability to childish hobbies. It’s about not quitting the things that enthralled you as a kid. It isn’t childish. An Otaku is not a loser or someone who can only understand childish things. They understand high culture such as fine art but nonetheless insist that anime and manga are better. That is Otaku." Tamaki Saito deems Toshio as a member of the "elite Otaku", who holds the ability to see reality as a kind of fiction and produce enjoyable fictions for others. The popularity of Fleet Girls Collection indeed attracts the attention from other "elite Otaku". As shown in the picture above, some fans even attempted to impersonate warships from other major sea powers in World War II to tell these historical stories. Therefore, the Otaku group themselves are quite diverse. The theory of animalization can only explain part of the complicated phenomena therein. Based on our case study over Fleet Girls Collection, there’s not only unprecedented media consumption but also unimaginable spark of creation.