Kantai Collection

Kantai Collection (often abbreviated as KanColle) is an anime created by Diomedéa (animation studio) based on the video game with the same name created by Kadokawa Corporation.

Context
On planet Earth, the seas have been invaded by an army of monsters called the Abyssal Fleet. These monsters destroy everything foreign to them, among which are human ships and airplanes, so interoceanic travel is practically impossible.

To solve this problem, humans send a series of girls (10 to 20 years of age, mostly) who have the ability to evoke the spirits of military ships of the 1st and 2nd World War. These girls are called Fleet Girls.

The main story arc
The story centers on Fubuki, a student just arrived at the military academy by decision of the Commander (the high command of this institute). At first, Fubuki is the worst student on the battlefield, since she has no experience, however, over time she trains and becomes one of the best students.

The shape of the armor
Their armor looks like military ships, and because of the detailed those are (you can see that there are stairs, doors, windows, antennas of radial communication, cannons, airstrips, among others).

It looks as if there are people in miniature on those ships (and there are).

There are miniatures, but they are chibis
It is shown that along the anime, there are some very tiny people who control these boats (and also the planes), but they are presented like chibis.

The chibis also control the planes
The closest clue to know the size of these pilot chibis (since there are other types of chibi in this anime) is the size of the aircraft:

Fanarts created by artists outside the GTS community
Most fanarts of people outside the GTS community are more focused on the "moe factor" than on the fact that they are boat girls. On the other hand, people affiliated to the GTS community are more focused on the fact that they are boat girls, as it reminds them of the pseudo-giantesses they are.

The gallery that will be shown below are some examples of how Kantai Collection characters can be displayed as the pseudo-giantesses that are from the point of view of people who are not part of the GTS community:

Trivia

 * This anime has been aimed especially at a male otaku audience, showing pretty girls with flat, stereotypical personalities and with notable tendencies to lesbianism. At no time does the image of a male appear in this anime.
 * And not surprisingly, since the geek-otakus are the main consumers of video games in Japan.
 * In fact, the animé explains that the Commander (a man who never showed his face) chose Fubuki for the simple fact that he had a dream with her having a date and declaring her love (saying: "Commander, I love you"). In short, because she had a loving fantasy with her.

Source

 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantai_Collection_(anime)