Boat goes binted.

Museum ships are cool. You don’t have to be into military history to like them.

But they also come with challenges that you won’t see at the average building museum. After all, museum ships are still ships that need to go through similar maintenance to when they were in active service. Naturally, restorations and renovations are costly endeavors.

The Historic Naval Ships Association currently has over 160 ships in its rolls globally ranging from the 18th-century HMS Victory and “Old Ironsides” to those who served well after the turn of the current millennium like the former USS Ainsworth. Alas, those numbers are likely to decrease as the years pass and the ships are sent off for scrap if upkeep cannot be achieved. Museums in general rely on donations to offset expenses, though the aforementioned makes it obvious why they’re especially vital for ships and any historical site involving vehicles.

VFleet Project was designed to campaign on supporting museum ships in a slightly different way, one that’s more in line with the modern age.

For better or worse, VTubers seem to be all the rage these days. Livestreaming has long been a popular form of entertainment since the late 2010s, but doing so with fictional avatars in particular has allowed talents to shine under characters of their design whether it be through gaming, music, or simply chatting with viewers.

VFleet consists of VTubers as moemorphisms of historic battleships and aircraft. For example, Ali-60 is a personification of the USS Alabama that served in WWII before becoming a museum ship while Josie-62 is modeled after Ryan Szimanski’s dear USS New Jersey. The latest addition to the roster, test pilot Anthony Talon, is set to make his debut on August 4.

Ali and Josie were among the talents who appeared at VFleet Project’s panel at OffKai Expo in San Jose in June, where they discussed how the appeal of VTubers could be leveraged into raising donations for museum ships. A vendor’s booth was also set up in the Industry Exhibit Hall selling merchandise like patches and acrylics as well as QR codes directly linking to donation pages.

OffKai was a natural place for VFleet to show up as a convention focused on VTubers. However, the project had already dipped its toes into the convention world with Carrier Con at the USS Hornet Museum, probably the first ever anime con on an aircraft carrier. Carrier Con is one of many events hosted by the museum to drum up funding through other means beyond simply asking for donations, especially given the Alameda-based Hornet had struggled to cover expenses over the years. The military community may be loyal and caring for its history, but it can only do so much.

Anime and VTuber fans might seem like an unconventional target at first glance, but there is surprisingly deep overlap between them and militaria. In fact, “anime girls going to war” is a trope that’s beloved by many. Girls’ Frontline and Goddess of Victory: NIKKE are among the most popular media franchises today that tell of human-like gynoids in combat in a post-apocalyptic setting, partly for their ability to blend fanservice of sexy women with deep and impassioned storytelling. Sound of the Sky, albeit a show that’s unfortunately mostly tossed to the dustbin of anime history, is especially impressive in its Second World War-molded worldbuilding. In naval warfare specifically, series like Kantai Collection and Azur Lane have especially been instrumental in tying historical ships with waifus.

While VFleet’s focus is on museum ships, it was mentioned at OffKai that expanding to aviation museums is not out of the realm of possibility either. There are at least 200 air museums across the United States, even when excluding museum ships like the Hornet and USS Midway that cover naval aviation.

VFleet Project has a page on its website leading to donations for various museums that can be accessed here.

Featured image credit: Justin Nguyen