[i][[Kantai Collection]][/i] character [[personification|personifying]] the Japanese icebreaker/special mission ship/research vessel/museum ship "Souya, hull number PL107":[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%8Dya_(PL107)], named after the Souya Subprefecture in Hokkaido.  She is voiced by [[Tanibe Yumi]] and was fleshed out by [[shibafu (glock23)|Shibafu]].

Generally, Souya has [[long_hair|long]] [[brown hair]] styled into a [[single braid]] as well as brightly colored [[orange eyes]]. She wears a [[serafuku]] with a [[brown shirt|brown]] [[sailor shirt]] with a [[white sailor collar|white]] [[sailor collar]], a short [[pleated skirt]], [[white_legwear|white]] [[pantyhose]], and [[rudder footwear]]. She wears some sort of overcoat over the serafuku, which is seen entirely on her damaged CG. She has [[messenger bag]]s slung to both sides while her left hand handles a [[suitcase]]. She has [[machinery]] with a [[smokestack]], a [[mast]], and air funnels being their main components. She does have three different forms:

[b]Survey Ship (AGS):[/b]  She wears a [[blue coat]] over a full [[brown serafuku]] with a [[brown skirt]]. She handles a [[Nambu type 14]] [[handgun]] on her right hand. Both her suitcase and her machinery are mostly colored grey. This is the first form she is seen upon her first meeting with the player.

[b]Lighthouse Tender (AGL):[/b]  She wears a [[white coat]] over a full [[brown serafuku]] with a [[brown skirt]]. She handles a [[light bulb]] on her right hand, presumably the heavy duty one used in lighthouses. Her hull number as a tender, LL01, is written on the left chest area of the coat. Both her suitcase and her machinery are mostly colored white with the mast being mostly yellow.

[b]Icebreaker (AGB):[/b]  She wears an [[orange jacket|orange]] [[hooded jacket]] over a serafuku composed of a brown shirt and a [[white skirt]]. She handles nothing on her right hand, but a helicopter is seen as if she is presenting it. Her suitcase is white, but her machinery is colored orange and white. Her name is seen both in kanji and romaji on the right chest area while her current hull number is seen on her left. This reflects the ship as it appears today.

She has several seasonal CG where each form is differentiated by the color of her outfit.

[expand=Seasonal Outfits]
[b]Rainy Season:[/b] Wears a simple sailor-collared shirt and a white pleated skirt without pantyhose and with simple boots. She is holding a [[blue umbrella]] with a [[paw print pattern]] and carries with her a blue [[shoulder bag]] and the appropriate rigging.
* [b]AGS:[/b] Blue shirt.
* [b]AGL:[/b] Gray shirt.
* [b]AGB:[/b] Orange shirt.

[b]Summer:[/b] Wears a [[t-shirt]] with a large text print on it and a [[pleated skirt]] with [[sandals]]. She is carrying with her a [[duffel bag]], a [[lifebuoy]] and the appropriate rigging. Her damaged CG reveals she wears a simple bikini underneath that is the same color as her t-shirt.
* [b]AGS:[/b] Blue shirt, brown skirt, brown bag, red and white buoy with name written in hiragana, right to left, text is "特務" (Short for "特務艦", "Auxiliary Ship").
* [b]AGL:[/b] White shirt, white skirt, blue bag, orange buoy with name written in hiragana, left to right, text is "灯台" ("Lighthouse").
* [b]AGB:[/b] Orange shirt, white skirt, blue bag, orange buoy with name written in kanji, text is "南極" ("South Pole").

[b]New Years:[/b] Here, each version of Souya wears a different outfit. She is holding a [[hamaya]] with an [[ema]] attached to it with "安全海上" ("Safe seas") written on it.
* [b]AGS:[/b] Wears a t-shirt with "賀正" ("Happy new year") written on it under a blue happi.
* [b]AGL:[/b] Same outfit as normal AGL.
* [b]AGB:[/b] Wears an orange furisode with the bottom hem and sleeves fading to blue and white as well as a [[snowflake print]]. Her footwear is rudder [[geta]].
[/expand]

She is the first Japanese and the third ever museum ship included into the game after [[Iowa_(kancolle)|]] and [[Intrepid_(kancolle)|]]. The historical ship itself is currently docked at the Museum of Maritime Science in Tokyo. This and the several close calls the historical ship had during WWII are translated into a maximum luck of 155 (the highest ever in the game). However, shipgirl Souya's other statistics make her practically useless in battle due to the historical ship being mostly in the sidelines in WWII, compared to the battle-hardened American museum shipgirls whose luck stats are not as high (at 99 max and 100 max respectively) but are balanced out by other statistics.

The historical ship started out as the cargo ship [i]Volochaevets[/i] in 1936, one of three ice-straightened cargo ships commissioned by the Soviet Union as part-payment for Japan's construction of the South Manchuria Railway. She was never delivered to the Soviets, however, due to deteriorating relations between the two countries and instead was renamed [i]Chiryō Maru[/i]. The [[imperial japanese navy|IJN]] then acquired [i]Chiryō Maru[/i] in 1939, given the name [i]Souya[/i], and assigned duties as an auxiliary ammunition supply and survey vessel. Other than participating in the Battle of Midway as part of Miyamoto Sadachika's 16th Minesweeper Unit, her service in the IJN was mostly unremakable. She did survive WWII as a whole but with multiple close calls, including a torpedo attack by USS [i]Greenling[/i] in 1943, an aircraft strike during Operation Hailstone at Truk in 1944, a convoy attack by USS [i]Parche[/i] on June 26, 1945, and a flotilla attack on Onagawa Bay by British bombers on August 9, 1945. After the war, she was given repatriation duties and by 1949 was turned over to the Maritime Safety Agency, the precursor to the Japan Coast Guard, to supply remote lighthouses, hence the moniker "Santa Claus on the Sea" (and shipgirl Souya's lighthouse tender form). The historical Souya was then comprehensively refitted during the 1950s into Japan's first dedicated Antarctic research ship which made several missions to Antarctica from 1956 to 1962. Her second mission in 1958 was significant due to her rescuing the human crew of the Showa research station in the face of approaching winter, but having to abandon its 15 mission dogs, two of which survived upon Souya's return the following spring. After her retirement from her Antarctic duties and her use as a rescue ship in Hokkaido, Souya was fully decomissioned in 1978 and was moored at her present location in Tokyo the following year as museum ship.

Souya's name can also be read as "Munetani," so searching for Souya using the kanji can also turn up results connected to characters surnamed Munetani, [[Munetani Mashiro|Mashiro]] of [i][[High School Fleet]][/i] being a prime example.
宗谷 宗谷(艦隊これくしょん) 宗谷(艦これ)