I've been wondering, what's the differences between Admiral and Commander? Cause i see few characters calling him by the two. While i understand that an Admiral is an officer who command a fleet of ships, what bout commander?
I've been wondering, what's the differences between Admiral and Commander? Cause i see few characters calling him by the two. While i understand that an Admiral is an officer who command a fleet of ships, what bout commander?
In the IJN, destroyers and lesser ships (Frigates, Gun Boats, Torpedo Boats, Submarines, etc) were led by a Commander, and almost never had any direct connection with a higher ranked officer except through the DesRon Commander (also a Commander, but position made them higher on the food chain). Everything above a Destroyer (every other class in Kancolle, except the Army Ships) in some way or another reported to an Admiral.
In KanColle it's generally used (like the verbal tics) as a "cute attribute" for the little destroyers, that they call their superior "Commander" instead of "Admiral" like the larger vessels.
I've been wondering, what's the differences between Admiral and Commander? Cause i see few characters calling him by the two. While i understand that an Admiral is an officer who command a fleet of ships, what bout commander?
Commander is usually a pretty ambiguous term as far as I know. But I think it's like how the person commanding a ship can be called the "Captain" of the ship even if they're not actually ranked as a Captain. In this case, it seems like they're using it as; even if the player is an Admiral, they're the "Commander" of the Fleet / "Commander" of the ship in question.
Japanese does have different words for the rank of Captain （大佐 taisa）and the commander of a boat (船長 senchou). For Admiral (提督 teitoku and Commander (司令官 shireikan / 司令 shirei, given that neither of the terms used was an actual rank in the IJN, they're both functioning as positions. Matsuda here is a Lieutenant-Commander (少佐 shousa), but as he commands a fleet, he's refered to as Admiral, and as he commands ships, he's a Commander. (The rank of Admiral is 大将 taishou)
It should be pointed out that in the actual KanColle game, the player actually starts the game as a commander rank, and works their way up to admiral.
Hence, it makes a bit of sense that the starting girls refer to you as a captain as you get them when you're just a captain. Meanwhile, it's hard to get the Nagatos until after you're an admiral in rank.
TaintedDream said:
Commander is usually a pretty ambiguous term as far as I know. But I think it's like how the person commanding a ship can be called the "Captain" of the ship even if they're not actually ranked as a Captain. In this case, it seems like they're using it as; even if the player is an Admiral, they're the "Commander" of the Fleet / "Commander" of the ship in question.
The rank of commander goes back to the old sail-ship navy days. The post of captain was only given to captains of ships of certain sizes or above. Smaller ships did not have captains, but instead had someone called "Master and Commander" of the ship, as per the title of the movie that came out a few years ago. It was later shortened to just "commander". Informally, they might be called something like "skipper", but they aren't captains, and wouldn't be called such in formal military settings. (Japanese tradition might be different, but I doubt the IJN would be LESS formal.)
Officers of commander rank can also be subordinate officers onboard a larger ship. As an example in pop culture, in Star Trek TNG, you had Commander Riker and Commander Data, both subordinate to Captain Picard.
Also, commanders are basically equivalent to lt. colonels, and lead aircraft squadrons in naval aviation.
Apparently it's something to do with how the chain of command worked in the IJN. Carriers and battleships were under the command of teitoku (提督, admiral), so the girls of those classes refer to their superior officer as such, since kanmusu don't have captains (what with their crews being represented by fairies and all). Similarly, destroyers and other small boats were under the command of shireikan (司令官, commander/commandant), and so the destroyer kanmusu refer to the player as such.
