Line #42 Anime/FirstSquad


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6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/79ca709c0f4f76662f91df9dd9fc3a4e.jpg]]
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8	''First Squad'' is a Russo-Japanese {{anime}} film, focusing on Nadya, the last surviving member of an elite squad of ChildSoldiers with PsychicPowers, who gets (re)drafted to fight the invading Nazis in 1942. It only gets stranger from there.
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10	!!Features examples of the following tropes:
11	* AllMonksKnowKungFu: An old (presumably) Russian Orthodox monk demonstrates great skill with a staff when confronted by Nazi assassins.
12	%%* BackFromTheDead
13	* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The only man who isn't dead in Nadya's vision is the commander who in another vision is decapitated by Baron von Wolff.]]
14	%%* AChildShallLeadThem
15	* ChildSoldiers: The titular First Squad are all young teenagers recruited and trained when they were much younger.
16	* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Nadya's parents are dead.
17	** ''Possibly'' subverted for historical reality--you're a child in the western Soviet Union at this time, there's a not unreasonable chance that your parents are missing or dead. [[spoiler:Her parents are shown as being very much alive before the war.]]
18	* CoolAirship: Reconnaissance airships are scattered here and there.
19	* CoolVersusAwesome: A squad of teenage Russian psychics vs a Nazi sorcerer with an army of the undead.
20	* {{Determinator}}: While Nadya may be a FauxActionGirl (see below) she does deserve credit for soldering on traveling probably over a hundred miles in the Russian Winter wearing nothing more than pajamas and an overcoat, handling assassinate attempts, the cold, amnesia, the death of her friends and family, the cold, air raids, visions of every third person she meets dying horrific deaths from the war, the cold, probably underfed and malnourished from rations.
21	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The entire events of the movie could be interpreted as Nadya simply hallucinating while improperly dosed sedatives tied up in a medical ward.]]
22	* EmpathicWeapon: Sputnik-01 is guided by the pilot's mind, and so they end up in a familiar place.
23	* FauxActionGirl: Nadya is the embodiment of this trope. She's ostensibly an elite soldier, but not once in the movie does she defeat or even harm a foe by her own power. Contrast this with the number of times she runs from danger or is rescued by a male comrade. [[spoiler:Not even death itself can prevent her squadmates from doing her job for her.]]
24	* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Baron von Wolf is a bloodthirsty knight who carries out campaigns of murder because... he's evil. The movie explains next to nothing about his character, just that he's some guy leading an army of undead warriors resurrected by ThoseWackyNazis.
25	* {{Ghostapo}}--but don't worry, the Soviets have their own, too.
26	* {{Homage}}: The climactic scene is one big homage to the Battle on the Ice from Sergei Eisenstein's film ''Film/AlexanderNevsky''.
27	%%* ImmuneToBullets
28	%%* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind
29	%%* KarmaHoudini: Everyone.
30	%%* KatanasAreJustBetter
31	%%* KillItWithFire: Zena's is a flamethrower.
32	%%* KilledMidSentence
33	%%* LanguageOfMagic
34	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Although an attempt is made to justify it.
35	* MagiTek: The astro-radar, among others.
36	* TheMasquerade: Twice. The Red Army is trying to hide its own paranormal program, headed by Below, and the SS is trying to hide its infiltrators in the Red Army.
37	%%* MeaningfulName: Lots.
38	* {{Mockumentary}}: Interspersed, and it gets more bizarre as the film goes on.
39	%%* MoreDakka: Marat lives for this trope.
40	%%* MrExposition: General Below serves as this.
41	* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Provides the framework for the trauma-induced {{flashback}}.
42	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Baron von Wolf.
43	* NightOfTheLivingMooks: The FacelessGoons aspect is even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]].
44	* TheOnlyOne: Nadya is the only one who can [[BackFromTheDead bring the First Squad back]].
45	* PocketProtector: The Monk survives the Nazi ninja twins' attack partly because a book took a bullet, though it wouldn't do much for the long fall into an icy river.
46	* PsychicPowers: All of the First Squad are telepathically linked.
47	%%* RampJump
48	* RightHandCat: General Below's unnamed cat.
49	%%* SheFu
50	* SiblingTeam: The two Nazi assassins after Nadya, who are never named.
51	%%* SloMoBigAir
52	* SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic: At least compared to the [[TrailersAlwaysLie trailer]] the movie is downright realistic, mundane and lowkey with the supernatural presented in a way that one could convincingly argue that all of the events of the film from Nadya's perspective are really just her hallucinating from shell shock in a medical ward.
53	* SoleSurvivor: Nadya is the only living member of First Squad by the time she gets to the front.
54	%%* SpiritWorld
55	* UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights: Given the allusions to ''Alexander Nevsky'', the ghostly knights would appear to be a reference to this.
56	%%* TrainEscape: Twice--one for each kind.
57	* TraintopBattle: Averted; Nadya needs to get on a different train and can't stop to do battle. Doesn't stop her pursuers from firing at her, however.
58	* UnflinchingWalk: General Below is described as doing this.
59	* VillainExitStageLeft: [[spoiler:Von Wolff escapes with his sword.]]
60	* WaifProphet: Nadya's main power is precognition that grants her brief visions of important events. She is also a very small teenage girl.
61	%%* WallOfWeapons: In the ''spirit world''.
62	* WarIsHell: On multiple levels--the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Eastern Front]] is hell all the time, and then there's an actual hell of sorts.
63	* WarriorHeaven: The Gloomy Valley, or the Valley of the Dead in some translations. [[CrapSackWorld It's a pretty awful variant of this trope, however.]]

Context Anime / FirstSquad