Sensō Musume

Sensō Musume (戦争娘, lit. "War Daughters"), abbreviated as SenMu (せんむ, or 千む), is a Yamataian multimedia franchise. The franchise was previously known as Kantai Musume. It is developed by Midorigawa Studio, a subsidiary of Yatate Publishing, and has proven to become the corporation's largest and most lucrative franchise.

The central theme of the franchise is the representation of Endwar vehicles, particularly those from the Second Escar-Varunan War, as teenage girls and young adult women with personality characteristics reflecting the history of each vehicle. In the original serialised manga, all of the characters were Yamataian warships. Non-Yamataian warships were introduced with the first televised dōga in 2014, which was a slice-of-life show that parodied the activities and encounters of Yamataian warships in the Endwar. In late 2014, to capitalise on the unexpected popularity of the dōga, a browser and mobile game was created, alongside the introduction of characters based on aircraft. Due to popular demand, in 2017, alongside the franchise's third feature film, characters based on land vehicles were added to the cast.

The popularity of Sensō Musume has led to the creation of a wide array of copies and similar concepts, both in Yamatai and abroad. Notably, the Chiseian Teichū Sensō Gyakusetsu franchise has become a major competitor for Sensō Musume.

Overview
Sensō Musume was developed by a team of Midorigawa creators led by Tanaka Aki as a serialised manga in Yatate's Shiki Sensha, a monthly military enthusiast magazine that sought to attract a younger audience. The series was created in an attempt to appeal to both the existing readers through historical references as well as a younger audience interested in dōga and manga culture. Early attempts at dramatic war stories proved to be unsuccessful. Tanaka Aki was inspired to change the concept to focus on anthropomorphisms of military hardware, with the tone of the manga changed to be humorous with parodies of actual historical events. Warships were chosen as the initial theme due to the potential for a large cast of unique characters. The first "Kantai Musume" strips were published in Shiki Sensha in April 2010, proving to be extremely popular.

In order to avoid detracting from Shiki Sensha's own material, Kantai Musume was spun off to its own magazine in 2011, though 4koma strips still appeared in Shiki Sensha, and the anthropomorphism of the battleship Senbonzakura remained the official mascot of Shiki Sensha. A widely popular Kantai Musume RPG and turn-based strategy game was released featuring in 2013. A dōga series was green-lighted in 2014, alongside the announcement of the arrival of non-Yamataian warship characters. Midway through the show, it was announced that aircraft musu were to appear, creating one of the largest online flame wars in internet history. In late 2014, the first annual Sensō Musume Convention was held, where is was announced that Kantai Musume would be renamed to Sensō Musume. A preview of the next season of the dōga was shown featuring aircraft musu. The official Sensō Musume game, Sensō Musume: Ketteiteki Shimei, was also released early to convention visitors, with exclusive in-game gifts.

In 2015, the first Sensō Musume feature film was released, a fictionalised parody of the Crosswind Campaign in the Endwar that was notably more dramatic than the dōga series had been. A third season of the dōga was released afterwards, followed by yet another feature film in 2016, following the previous concept of "dramatic movies, light-hearted dōga" in a markedly more serious look at the air war over Chisei featuring the plane musu. In 2017, another Sensō Musume film was released, following the first vehicle musu, which had been a long-desired addition to the franchise. Detailing the Battle of Eito, "Sensō Musume: HinomaChi" was widely viewed as one of the darkest entries in the franchise's history, with multiple character deaths and a lengthy monologue about the futility of war.

In late April 2019, one of the artists for the project posted concept art of a character in an Imperial Army outfit called Arisa, believed to be a reference to the Arisaka Type-38 rifle used by Yamatai during the war, fuelling rumours that musu based on firearms were to be added soon.

The traits of each "musu" are based on aspects of the historical ships, aircraft or vehicles they are based on. As land vehicles and aircraft are less unique than warships, they are divided into notable units that used the vehicle or aircraft, with traits based on the exploits of their units. For example, the battleship Senbonzakura is portrayed as a Yamato Nadeshiko who is sheltered, lazy and pampered, due to her lack of major combat deployments during the Endwar, while the of the 16th Imperial Guards Division is portrayed as an overworked girl in samurai-inspired armour painted similarly to that used by the 16th Imperial Guards during the Battle of Eito. Characters which share particular links also have similar physical traits; ships, aircraft or vehicles of the same class or type have similar accessories or clothing. A few characters are also based on the aircraft or vehicles of fighter or tank aces during the war.

Dōga
There have been five Sensō Musume dōga series, with the fifth ongoing in 2019.

Films
Three Sensō Musume films have been released, with a fourth in production. The first, "Sensō Musume: Hagane no Shima", was about the Yamatai Imperial Navy operations in the Crosswind Sea. The second, "Sensō Musume: Konpeki no Sora", was about the air war over Chisei during the war. The third film, "Sensō Musume: HinomaChi", was about the Battle of Eito, focusing on both sides of the conflict through various tank-musu.

Sensō Musume: Ketteiteki Shimei
Decisive Mission