So Graf is angry that Admiral is trying to get fired. I'm assuming she thinks he's perfect for the job.
Next strip is going to be the You Are Better Than You Think You Are lecture (which may possibly be disguised as The Reason You Suck).
As for the thesis, I'm going to guess that it's something along the lines of how this base's shipgirls need a commanding officer who cares whether they live or die, and if he's swept out, he's much more likely to be replaced by someone who will treat the girls as cannon-fodder. (If I understand timelines, this is long before the other-Kashima/other-Katori incident, but Graf may still be aware that Idomiral treating kanmusu as people is an anomaly among the flag officer corps.)
If we're tagging the shipgirl who died in the flashback as Fubuki here, we should do so at post #4325732 too, right?
I'm not sure there's enough to say either way, and definitely moreso here where we only see the arm. The first strip, it's definitely a Fubuki-class, but not sure if it's clear enough to know if it's Fubuki herself or not.
You can find all appearances of him with the unsinkable_sam tag. And yes, that cat was real.
There's some questions about that. There's no account from the survivors of Bismarck ever having a cat onboard (https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/203480.html), and pictures of two different cats that were supposedly "Sam/Oscar".
Random musings about what members of The Admiralty or Oberkommando der Marine would think about people on an image site in 2021still arguing about that damn cat(s).
You know, reading this again, would the plan to make himself fired make him a Shitty Admiral? It's true he is a stellar specimen of a Japanese admiral to feel guilt about sending shipgirls into battles, but before Graf gave him a "What the Hell, Hero?", he was going the cowardly route: 1. Completely abandoned his job to Nagato & Sazanami, hoping to resign from his post so that he'd escape the guilt and responsibilities of the shipgirls under him getting injured or worse, sunk. 2. But to his surprise, Nagato did an outstanding job, so he couldn't resign with the excuse of his poor battle results. 3. So he played the long-run, letting his shipgirls do whatever the Hell they want, increasing the workload of Nagato, Sazanami and Ooyodo (as he himself admitted here). He hoped that once the number of loony shipgirls and their shenanigans reached the breaking point, HQ will have the perfect justification to fire him and replace him with someone more willing to coldly boss shipgirls around.
In short, to not have shipgirls getting injured or sunk on his conscience, he planned it so that the supervisory shipgirls would overwork to the breaking point, he himself would get fired out of the shipgirl business, abandoning his shipgirls to a successor he doesn't even know would qualify. He thought he was doing them a favour by giving them a capable boss, not understanding that what they need is a CARING boss.
I'm technically just paraphrasing Graf's speech to him in the next strip, but bottomline is: He was too cowardly to have shipgirls dying on his conscience, his plan out of this involved overworking his subordinates, and the end result relies on a massive uncertainty that is the empathy of his successor. Those sure sound like the actions of a Shitty Admiral.
You wanted to what!?It'd be for the best.But with more and more idiosyncratic shipgirls being posted, the problems on the base skyrocketed.No matter how good the battle results, the day where your supervisory responsibilities will be questioned is surely closing in.And at such time, I will have my position of Admiral stripped from me.Afterwards... I'm sure that the right man for the job, one who can command shipgirls personally, will take my place, It's a roundabout method and it does cause trouble for Nagato and the others, but...So... he's afraid of shipgirls getting injured or sunk as a result of his orders?And thus your hands-off policies giving the shipgirls free rein - that's due to your feelings of guilt over leaving the command of the fleet to them...Certainly seems like one aspect to it.Yeah... I just don't have what it takes to be a commanding officer, y'know...?Nor did I have the wherewithal to see those girls as either military personnel or weapons.You're going to tell me the reason as to why you're not involved in fleet management, just as I asked before.After all that, I headed to HQ, with the hope of them allowing me to resign as an Admiral.Even though you got into some heavy stuff there!As to what you're going to do for me...So?You actually remember the bargaining point from all the way from the start...?The point where Nagato's lot will no longer be able to manage it by themselves is fast approaching.Before my very eyes, I saw a shipgirl die....It was from before I came to the base.That's right.Combined Fleet's Flagship's CharismaUTTER DUMMKOPF!!!YOU...!I can't help but remember what happened to that girl.I was terrified, but I had no choice in the matter...But I... I just couldn't bring myself to send such young girls into the fields of battle so easily.And now whenever I give any of you commands...But!!Our battle results improved, and somehow I had been given all the credit for that as their superior officer.Whilst I was withdrawn from the Naval Base, Nagato performed magnificently as the interim Admiral!!It became increasingly obvious that they would never let me leave the Admiralty!!A lot of things happened after that, ending up in me being voluntold into the position of Admiral through the harassment of a former direct superior.
