Hatsukaze
Hatsukaze is a warship girl in Kantai Collection, representing the seventh ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kagerou-class destroyers. A member of the 16th Destroyer Division, she operates alongside her sister ships in various fleet missions. In the game's early history, she became famous among players as an extraordinarily rare drop, earning a reputation comparable to a mythical creature. While maintaining an aloof and cool demeanor on the surface, she exhibits a complex combination of pride, subtle affection, and underlying vulnerability.
Overview
Hatsukaze is a warship girl in Kantai Collection, representing the seventh ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kagerou-class destroyers. A member of the 16th Destroyer Division, she operates alongside her sister ships in various fleet missions. In the game's early history, she became famous among players as an extraordinarily rare drop, earning a reputation comparable to a mythical creature. While maintaining an aloof and cool demeanor on the surface, she exhibits a complex combination of pride, subtle affection, and underlying vulnerability.
Appearance
Hatsukaze has semi-long light blue hair styled with neat, straight-cut bangs and jade-green eyes. Her standard attire consists of a white dress shirt under a black blazer vest, tied with a yellow bow at the neck, along with white gloves. She wears a black mini skirt held by double belts, white high socks, and reddish-brown loafers. Her default rigging includes a waist-mounted base box featuring mechanical arms that hold a twin high-angle gun on the right and a quadruple torpedo tube on the left, a pouch-like handheld twin high-angle gun with double grips strapped to her left hip, and anti-aircraft mounts on both thighs. Her Christmas outfit features a red Santa sweater with a moss-green sailor collar, a mini Santa hat, a large rear torpedo tube, rudder-shaped heels, and a bow section with a present bag on her right side.
Personality
Hatsukaze presents a cold and pragmatic personality, often speaking in a detached manner rather than offering warm words or enthusiastic thanks to the Admiral. Despite her aloof front, she frequently exhibits cat-like behavior, seeking attention when bored, staring intently, or dropping subtle hints of affection beneath her tsundere exterior. She harbours a deep-seated fear of the heavy cruiser Myoukou due to a historical collision, yet paradoxically relies on her as a protective figure when shaken. Toward her squadmates in the 16th Destroyer Division, she harbors a genuine, albeit softly expressed, sense of comradeship.
Abilities
As a Kagerou-class destroyer, Hatsukaze possesses combat abilities focused on torpedo warfare and anti-submarine operations. While her final anti-submarine warfare stat is slightly higher than that of standard Kagerou-class destroyers, her overall battle performance remains largely on par with her sister ships, offering standard destroyer capabilities within fleet operations.
Background
Hatsukaze was introduced to Kantai Collection in August 2013 to celebrate the game reaching 500,000 registered users. During the early era of the game, she was infamous for her extreme acquisition difficulty, dropping exclusively from the boss node of Area 3-4 with an A-rank victory or better. Due to the area's unforgiving random compass routing and high battle difficulty, obtaining her was so rare that players nicknamed her after the mythical Tsuchinoko. Her availability later expanded to limited-time event maps and Area 5-5, and following the 2018 map overhaul of Area 3-4, obtaining her became far more manageable.
Relationships
Hatsukaze shares a close bond with her fellow 16th Destroyer Division comrades: Yukikaze, Amatsukaze, and Tokitsukaze, affectionately calling Yukikaze by a shortened nickname. Among her Kagerou-class sisters, she addresses Shiranui informally. She shows formal deference to senior light and heavy cruisers by addressing them with the honorific "sister," such as Sendai. Her connection with the heavy cruiser Myoukou is particularly distinct: she harbors intense anxiety toward Myoukou due to their historical collision, yet paradoxically turns to her as a reliable senior figure during moments of stress.
Trivia
Her introduction line questioning how many versions of her the Admiral owns is a famous meta joke, which fans speculate may also reference the 154 T-34 "Hatsukaze" trainer aircraft operated by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. At her release, she was the only member of the 16th Destroyer Division whose default uniform differed in style from her division mates. In December 2015, she became the first character illustrated by Konishi to receive a seasonal Christmas graphics update. Additionally, in the trading card game Weiss Schwarz, her character card became a legendary meta staple for its powerful ability to disrupt opponents' card salvage tactics.
