| “ | Super-dreadnaught, 1st of the Ise-class, Ise. Setting off! | „ |
| ~ Ise |
Ise (伊勢 (戦艦）) Ise (senkan)?), was the lead ship of the two-vessel Ise-class battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which saw combat service during the Pacific War. Ise was named after Ise Province, one of the traditional provinces of Japan, now part of Mie Prefecture.
Appearance[]
Ise has short brown hair in a ponytail tied with a red hair ribbon and brown eyes. She wears a non-traditional miko outfit with a brown skirt instead of a hakama. She wears a katana at her side. She wears kneehighs with a distinctly Japanese weave, and sandals. She is also notably broad-shouldered and powerful-looking, so some artists may make her muscle-bound, but otherwise is relatively plain-looking in design. When in a state of partial undress, she often is portrayed wearing a skintight black undershirt, although others up the "Japanese" and go for a fundoshi and sarashi.
In her combat gear, she is surrounded on all sides by five huge turrets with double-barreled cannons. (Practically obscuring her form.) A radar array pokes up from her back, and two garter belt-like rings on her legs are studded with secondary turrets. In Kai form, the turret in the middle that covers her torso is exchanged for a triangular flight deck.
Personality[]
Ise is an energetic, determined, and forthright woman. While she has a militaristic bearing, she is more emotional than her sister, boasting about how much gear she can carry, laughing off damage early on, while fretting when seriously damaged. When she hits Kai, she is exceptionally proud of her aircraft capacity for a Battleship. "It's the age of the Aviation Battleship!" is her catchphrase. Because of this, she is portrayed as the more excitable and single-minded sister, who has to be reined in by Hyuuga's level-headedness.
Trivia[]
- Sunk by air attack on 28 July 1945.
- At first, Ise and Hyuuga were planned to be built as the 3rd and 4th of the Fuso-class battleships, but because of many defects found in Fuso and Yamashiro and because of budget problems, their construction was put off. In this period, learning a lesson from Fuso class battleships, the design of Ise & Hyuuga was widely changed (e.g. positioning of 3rd, 4th turrets, see the photo cited from Brassey's Naval Annual 1923 p.426) and at last they appeared as Ise class battleships.
- During WW2, Ise & Hyuuga were converted into aviation battleships. There were 2 reasons for doing so. One, in an exercise on the 5th of July 1942, there was an accident on the 5th turret of Hyuuga and she needed fixing. Two, the Japanese Navy had to compensate for the loss of 4 regular aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in June 1942 (Akagi, Kaga, Souryuu and Hiryuu). Because of this, instead of being restored to her original state, Hyuuga was remodeled as an aviation battleship (Ise received the same treatment.)
- Though they became aviation battleships, they were not utilized as aviation battleships in combat partly because there were not enough planes available for them, and they served solely as normal battleships until they were sunk. This can be seen from the fact that their catapults were removed.