So, the question is, is this a line ahead formation (flagship at back; all ships [the line] are ahead of the the flagship), or line astern (flagship at the front; all ships are astern, or behind the flagship)?

(Note that the Japanese kanji 「単縦陣」 only indicates a "single line formation", so it can refer to either.)

I would imagine that Elephant Lady would want to take the flagship position for herself (which isn't likely for Den-chan), so line astern?

NNescio said:

So, the question is, is this a line ahead formation (flagship at back; all ships [the line] are ahead of the the flagship), or line astern (flagship at the front; all ships are astern, or behind the flagship)?

(Note that the Japanese kanji 「単縦陣」 only indicates a "single line formation", so it can refer to either.)

I would imagine that Elephant Lady would want to take the flagship position for herself (which isn't likely for Den-chan), so line astern?

Its line ahead, line astern/abreast is 単横陣. And I have a feeling that this artist don't know about the position of the flagships in these formation. That, or its on purpose.

laisy said:

Its line ahead, line astern/abreast is 単横陣. And I have a feeling that this artist don't know about the position of the flagships in these formation. That, or its on purpose.

But 単横陣 is "Line Abreast" (all ships across, or in a line perpendicular to the direction of travel, that is, in a rank/'row'), and not "Line Astern" (all ships in the same line as the direction of travel, that is, in single file/'column', with the flagship in the front.)

If we want to get pedantic, we can just go with Battle-line/Line of Battle which is agnostic on who's up front. (It's also the EN Wiki page linked to 単縦陣). The wiki page does say that the flagship is up front, though.

This would be pretty amazing...

You should make a "stupidly adorable" tag. Akatsuki is just making a dumb of herself... But she is only a child and she is so lovely!!!

Well aside from getting an entire DesDiv, those girls are literally the bane of all capital ships along with their other DesDiv colleagues but at this moment, their cuteness is the bane of reasoning.