Mizuho
Mizuho is a character from Kantai Collection representing the lead ship of the Mizuho-class seaplane tenders of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Characterized by her polite and traditional Japanese demeanor, she serves as a dedicated fleet support vessel who retains her pure seaplane tender classification even after undergoing remodeling.
Overview
Mizuho is a character from Kantai Collection representing the lead ship of the Mizuho-class seaplane tenders of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Characterized by her polite and traditional Japanese demeanor, she serves as a dedicated fleet support vessel who retains her pure seaplane tender classification even after undergoing remodeling.
Appearance
Mizuho has translucent white skin, hazel eyes, and very long black hair reaching her knees, tied low into a large tassel with a silver ear-of-rice ornament. Her sidelocks are bound with red tassels and light-green wrapping. She wears an open-chest, shoulder-exposing miko-inspired top with a gold anchor and checkered ribbon at her collar, paired with a green hakama featuring plover and plum crest patterns. She wears detached furisode sleeves, hand-guards, net long tabi, and geta-style engines with red thongs. Her back carries hull rigging with two catapults and four cranes. She respectfully holds a 12.7 cm twin high-angle gun on a Shinto offertory pedestal adorned with paper streamers. Medium damage reveals white lace string panties.
Personality
Refined and gentle, Mizuho exhibits a polite, traditional personality. Although she frets over engine troubles, she maintains a brave front, though in combat she quickly grows anxious and relies on guidance. She is deeply devoted to the Admiral, frequently preparing homemade meals. Mizuho is weak against hot weather, easily overwhelmed by assertive peers, and possesses an extremely kind nature. She enjoys handicrafts and actively attempts to organize an association for seaplane-operating vessels.
Abilities
Mizuho possesses base stats superior to the Chitose-kai Kou class, featuring notably high firepower and torpedo values for a seaplane tender. When equipped with secondary guns or midget submarines, she can deliver opening torpedo strikes and achieve night battle damage comparable to destroyers. With an aircraft capacity of 32 across three slots, she can equip seaplane bombers and fighters like the Type 2 Seaplane Fighter to provide air control. She can also deploy Daihatsu Landing Craft and Special Type 2 Launch inner fireboats for ground bombardment, and arrives with a Type 0 Observation Seaplane.
Background
First introduced as a limited event drop in the Summer 2015 event, Mizuho later became accessible through subsequent events, Large Ship Construction, and regular map drops. Unlike the Chitose-class vessels which convert into light aircraft carriers upon further upgrades, Mizuho remains a dedicated pure seaplane tender throughout her progression.
Relationships
Mizuho maintains a close bond of friendship and admiration for Chitose, having served alongside her in the 11th Air Squadron. She treats the Admiral with deep devotion, taking meticulous care of daily meal preparations. She warmly interacts with fellow shipmates like Sendai and Naka, and actively engages with waterplane-capable ships such as Commandant Teste, Nisshin, and Gotland.
Trivia
Because the object offered on her Shinto pedestal changes across her numerous seasonal artwork updates—featuring items like kagami mochi, gyudon, jack-o'-lanterns, and rice croquettes—she earned fandom nicknames such as the Queen of CG Variants. Her name literally translates to fresh ears of rice, an ancient poetic name for Japan. Her iconic pedestal was even manufactured as a real-world Mino ware ceramic product.
