Souryuu

"I'm aircraft carrier Souryuu. Count me on when organizing a carrier task force!"

- Souryuu

Soryu (蒼龍 Sōryū?, meaning "Blue (or Green) Dragon") was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the mid-1930s. A sister ship, Hiryū, was intended to follow Sōryū, but Hiryū's design was heavily modified and she is often considered to be a separate class. Sōryū's aircraft were employed in operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s and supported the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in mid-1940. During the first months of the Pacific War, she took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Wake Island, and supported the conquest of the Dutch East Indies. In February 1942, her aircraft bombed Darwin, Australia, and she continued on to assist in the Dutch East Indies campaign. In April, Sōryū's aircraft helped sink two British heavy cruisers and several merchant ships during the Indian Ocean raid.

After a brief refit, Sōryū and three other carriers of the First Air Fleet (Kido Butai) participated in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. After bombarding American forces on Midway Atoll, the carriers were attacked by aircraft from the island and the carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown. Dive bombers from Yorktown crippled Sōryū and set her afire. She could not be salvaged and was ordered to be scuttled so as to allow her attendant destroyers to be released for further operations. She sank with the loss of 711 officers and enlisted men of the 1,103 aboard. The loss of Sōryū and three other IJN carriers at Midway was a crucial strategic defeat for Japan and contributed significantly to the Allies' ultimate victory in the Pacific.

Appearance
Souryuu and Hiryuu, being originally designed as sister ships, share many similarities. Namely, they wear color-differentiated versions of the same clothes.

Souryuu wears a green dougi ("道着") top, with the bottom of the sleeves fading to gray (the main color, green and blue, are said to be coming from her name "蒼龍" which means "Blue Dragon" literally; in classic Japanese the phrase " 蒼 " signified both blue and green). Her bottom is a green pleated skirt. She also wears a flight deck apron like Akagi and Kaga. Her full flight deck is attached to her right arm. Unlike most other archer carriers, she doesn't wear muneate.

She has medium-length blue hair in twintails.

Trivia

 * The three smoking spots on the flight deck of her damaged CG reflects how she was sunk in real life.
 * Sunk by air attack at the Battle of Midway, 4 June 1942