Kantai Collection・Cards・Kongo

Kantai Collection was launched in April 2013. Only two years after its debut, the game had already accumulated 3 million registered players despite only being available in Japan. KanColle has now developed into a much larger media franchise including multiple manga series, light novels, and an officially licensed tabletop role-playing game. A PlayStation Vita game was released in February 2016 and then an anime television series began airing its first season in January 2015. An animated film followed in November 2016 as the sequel to the series.

Kongou appears in the anime adaptation of Kantai Collection, and was also featured in the adaptation's first trailer. In it, she played a major role as the only member of the Fifth Mobile Fleet that Fubuki appeared to get along with. She is also the only Kongou-class to be in Kai-Ni form in the anime. Since she was historically constructed in England, Kongou has a habit of interjecting random English words into her Japanese. Her catchphrase is "Burning Love!" She has become known in the KanColle fan community for falling in love with anyone who is the protagonist of a series, whether they make a good admiral or not. She is also known as an avid drinker of black tea, a trait which is sometimes alluded to as an obsession.

The designer of the battleship Kongou was British naval engineer George Thurston. The kanji for Kongou can be translated as "Indestructible Diamond," and is a namesake of Mount Kongou in Osaka, Japan. Kongou was the first battlecruiser of the Kongou class, which made up some of the most heavily armed navy ships of their time. Kongou underwent two major reconstructions. In 1929, the Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed and power. In 1935, her superstructure was completely rebuilt, increasing her speed again and equipping her with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, Kongou was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Kongou operated off the coast of mainland China before being redeployed to the Third Battleship Division in 1941. On the eve of World War II, she sailed as part of the Southern Force in preparation for the Battle of Singapore. Kongou was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion while transiting the Formosa Strait in November 1944.