While we're waiting for the next chapter to be scanlated, I have a special update for two things. The first is that Volume 4 has been released in English.
Like with the other volumes, the translation is often smoother, and I like that it translated the information on the tanks at the end (I particularly liked finding out what happened to the other Maus). This time, there wasn't as much in the way of omakes I hadn't seen before, since the scanlators worked with the tankobon.
Now for specific observations about the manga itself. Again, I'm not fond of Yukari's being cowed by Erika telling her to stay out of her berating Miho. It's quite galling that Yukari can yell at Kikuyo for telling Miho that her mother's threatening to disown her, but doesn't stand up for Miho at a time like this.
The mangaka mentions that he paid a lot of attention to the three girls of Black Forest- particularly Erika, whom he believes makes "such a perfect villain." (As I said before, she nicely fits the pattern of Manga!Anchovy and Katyusha as a group of arrogant and ruthless leaders) Perhaps this may be so, but she lacks the same depth to her character that Maho has, and Maho deserved more screen time and development in the main series.
The second thing is something Girls und Panzer-related I found on the internet. I found a way to rank your favorite Girls und Panzer characters here
. It was made by Sovietkitty, a Girls und Panzer fanfiction writer.
Here's a breakdown of each of my ranked characters by group, with their rank in parentheses after their name.
- The Top Five: Maho(1) is my favorite Girls und Panzer character, for reasons that I mentioned before; she's surprisingly deep, interesting and likable. Next comes Miho (2), who is a well-developed and compelling protagonist. After her is Mako(3) who has an interesting backstory and personality, and goes through a great deal of development. Next is Nonna (4), an excellent sniper who has a good relationship with Katyusha. After her is Hana (5), who, somewhat similar to Nonna, is talented, serious, beautiful, but not without her quirks. All in all, I was able to choose these with absolute certainty, and can easily name my five favorite Girls und Panzer characters.
- The Top Ten's Lower Half: Katyusha (6) stands at the top of this group, who's amusingly childish and arrogant, but not to be underestimated. Next is Kay(7), who has a nice focus on fair play. After her is Shiho (8), who makes an interesting villain as far as Miho goes, and is worth exploring well in fan fiction, although few have made very good efforts to do so. Next is Ami Chouno (9), who's hardly a textbook Nishizumi disciple. After her was Sodoko(10), who has an interesting dynamic with Mako, and a surprising ability to compromise and work alongside those she disagrees with.
- The Double Digits Begin: Yuzu(11) is the kindest and most hard-working member of the student council, who nevertheless doesn't hesitate to tease Momo. Alisa (12) has some nicely amusing ranting. Saori (13) wasn't as well developed as some of the other members of her team, but she's nevertheless a caring friend to Miho and Mako,.
- The Teens': This was somewhat more challenging, particularly with the choices to establish these. Anchovy(14) was interesting in her own way, although a part of me can't help but compare her to the manga. Darjeeling (15) was less interesting than the other captains, mainly being defined by her love of tea and philosophy. Gomoyo(16) has an interestingly meek and timid personality compared to Sodoko. Noriko (17) was more interesting than some of the other minor team captains (whom you will find much farther down), but not as well developed as my favorites. Azusa(18) was next. Anzu(19) is last in this category, since she has an interesting personality and noble goal in saving the school, but her work ethic leaves much to be desired; even Mako doesn't slack off in the middle of a battle.
- The Twenties: At this point, I had more difficulty choosing them, since they weren't ones that I had strong feelings about. The first group is Akebi and Ayumi (tied for 20 somehow), and followed by Taeko (22) and Shinobu (23); all of them seemed defined by their crew more than anything. Pazomi is next (24), since she seemed to be largely a background character. Carpaccio (25) is next, as her being friends with Caesar is a good touch, but it didn't really do all that much to establish her as a character. Naomi (26) comes after her, since she doesn't do quite enough to stand out from her Saunders contemporaries, even if she is quite skilled with the Firefly's gun. Erika(27) is after them, since she is quite nasty to Miho most of the time, although she does develop a bit in the end.
- Lower Tiers: At this point, I largely rank them by groups, since they became difficult to distinguish from one another. The first in this group are Saki, Yuuki, Aya and Karina of Rabbit Team (28, 29, 30, 31), who generally are only notable by one or two lines they have at various points. After them came Pepperoni (32), who was funny but wasn't as interesting as the rest of Anzio. Next is Anteater Team- Nekota, Piyotan and Momogawa (33, 34 and 35) Orange Pekoe (36) and Assam (37) are next, having barely any canon personality. After that are Caesar, Oryou and Saemonza, (38, 39 and 40), who seem more to be walking historical references than characters. The Auto Club's Nakajima, Hoshino, Suzuki and Tsuchiya, (41, 42, 43 and 44) were also not very interesting, seeming to be tacked on as last-minute additions to the series.
- The Bottom: Ranking these characters was somewhat easy, since while I don't hate them, they aren't very interesting.
Oddly enough, none of the adults apart from Shiho, the characters unique to Little Army, Ou Taiga, or others are included on the list.
It was sometimes difficult to rank these, particularly when two characters that were hard to compare came up against each other (for example, Anchovy and Saori). I'm curious to hear what results you had in this, and who your favorites and least favorites are.
Next Installment: When one girl falls ill, the rest of her crew comes over to nurse her back to health. Wait, this sound familiar...
