ashigara (azur lane)
Azur Lane's personification of the Myoukou-class heavy cruiser Ashigara.
Introduced as part of the Ink-Stained Steel Sakura rerun.
Character design by Tetsujin Momoko, voiced by Saitou Chiwa.
Appearance
Her base art portrays her with long purple hair with wolf ears, and red eyes.
Her outfit consists of a blue serafuku (with white sailor collar), blue skirt, black thighhighs, a single black glove on her left hand, two white bracelets on her right arm, and rudder footwear. She also wears headphones connected to a music player that looks like a Walkman, and wields a katana.
Her rig shows four 20.3 cm twin mounts, two per side, as well as two 61 cm quad torpedo tubes with the Sakura Empire emblem marked on the splinter shield tops.
History
In real life, Ashigara was the fourth and last (or third according to some sources) of the Myoukou-class heavy cruisers, representing Japan in the Coronation Review of King George VI in 1937.
Her in-game skill Flashing Blade of Surabaya is a reference to her actions in the first months of 1942 when she was involved in the second battle of the Java Sea where Exeter was sunk.
Following this, she was relegated to convoy and troop transport duties for the rest of 1942 up to mid-1944, missing out most naval actions. She returned to the frontlines in the battle of Leyte Gulf as part of Kiyohide Shima's Southern Force but narrowly missed engaging US forces. She later participated in the Rei-Go operation, bombarding a supply depot in Mindoro in late December 1944 where one destroyer was sunk by PT boats.
On 7 June 1945, she departed Jakarta with Kamikaze to ferry troops to Singapore when she was sunk by a Royal Navy submarine. Kamikaze rescued 853 crew and around 400 army troops and brought them to Singapore.