Katsuragi (Kantai Collection)

"I'm Katsuragi, the third ship of the Unryuu-Class Carriers! Eh? 'A floating anti-air gun platform'? I-It's not like that...! What are you saying!"

Katsuragi (葛城?) was the third and final Unryū-class aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy built during World War II. Named after Mount Katsuraggi in Nara Prefecture, and completed late in the war; she never embarked her complement of aircraft and spent the war in Japanese waters. The ship was badly damaged in a July 1945 airstrike by American carrier aircraft on Kure Naval Base. Repaired after the end of the war, Katsuragi was then used as a repatriation transport for a number of months, bringing Japanese soldiers and civilians back to Japan from overseas locations. She was scrapped in Japan beginning in late 1946.

Appearance
Unlike previous carriers portrayed as archers like Akagi, or shikigami-using onmyouji like her sister ships Unryuu and Amagi, Katsuragi uses bows combined with shikigami to launch her aircraft, making her a strange hybrid of aforementioned carrier styles. She uses a small gun-like device similar to Amagi's in her original form but with an attached bow, and a longbow in her Kai form.

Personality
Often likes to assert the fact that she's an aircraft carrier, stemming from wanting to serve in such a capacity due to being unable to do so during the war. She appears to be a fan of Zuikaku.

Trivia

 * Refers to the Admiral as "Anata" while the on screen text reads "Teitoku".
 * Katsuragi's portrayal as having smaller breasts than her sister ships Unryuu and Amagi may refer to the fact that Katsuragi was fitted with less powerful engines than her sister ships. While Unryuu and Amagi both used heavy cruiser engines identical to the ones used by the Heavy Cruiser Suzuya, Katsuragi was only fitted with a less powerful destroyer engine, the same type used by the destroyer Kagerou.