The episode begins with the opening, which shows all the participating Oarai members, and the leaders of their opponents. "Dream Riser," is a nice song, and the opening nicely shows the characters to come without spoiling too much.
The episode starts off from where we left off last time, with the girls asking whether they can even use the tank they found. But whether they can use it or not, they need more tanks to include everyone they have so far, and need five total. Anzu suggests that they go looking, much to everyone's disbelief. Momo says that since Oarai used to have a tankery program, she's confident that the tanks are still there, and they have two days to find them before the instructor arrives. A girl dressed like Caesar asks if there are any good places to look, and Anzu says they don't know. Azusa Sawa, leader of the entirely freshman crew Rabbit Team, asks if they have any idea where to find them, and Anzu says no.
Saori's confidence in tankery deflates, but Anzu says that a "pretty cool instructor" will arrive, and this revitalizes her until her search of the parking lot turns up nothing. Hana comments how she had little hope of finding tanks based on their similarity to cars, and Saori plans on looking elsewhere. As the girls leave, with Miho bringing up the rear, Yukari, who has been watching them all this time, tries to follow them, but ducks behind the tree as Miho notices. Miho walks with Yukari following her for a few paces, before turning around to see her, and inviting her to join the search.
Yukari introduces herself. Apparently, she's a year-mate, of Miho, but not only in a different class, but in a different division. I heard that her division is for those who have trouble in school for some reason, but didn't hear elaboration on that. Saori and Hana provide their names, and Miho is about to follow suit, but Yukari pre-empts her, referring to her by her full name and the extremely formal honorific, "-dono." While Japanese tend to refer to each other somewhat more formally than Westerners often do, as you don't often see schoolgirls calling each other, "Miss (Last Name)", this is unusual even by those standards.
The scene cuts to a library, possibly the school library, in which Rabbit Team is looking for information about tanks Azusa asks about their progress, but Aya Ono and Karina Sakaguchi regretfully mention that they haven't made any progress finding information on tanks. Yuuki Utsugi asks why they stopped doing tankery, and Ayumi Yamagou mentions that it lost its popularity, as it's old fashioned, with Yuuki finding it a likely theory.
Saki Maruyama, the sixth member, is simply quietly reading. She doesn't say anything in this scene, or even for most of the rest of the series. No one, in or out of universe, truly knows what's up with her.
Elsewhere, Anglerfish Team continues looking, until Hana notices an unusual smell-iron and oil among the flowers, and Saori's amazed at her heightened senses as a result of flower aranging. She suspects it's worth checking out, even if it is just her nose playing tricks on her. Yukari declares "Panzer vor!" a German command for all tanks to move out that only Miho understands, and Saori misinterprets as a reference to pants.
The group identifies it as a 38(t), and Yukari gives a brief Info Dump about it, before Saori mentions that Yukari "went crazy," and Yukari apologizes.
Momo talks with Anglerfish Team on the phone, thanking them for finding a tank and telling them to continue their search. She turns back to Anzu to report on their progress, with Anzu being pleased at how things are progressing, in spite of not lifting a finger to help.
The Student Council garnered a bit of hate at first because of their treatment of Miho, and other ways in which they seemingly abused their authority. Granted, they have their reasons, and prove quite effective when the situation calls for it, but some find their behavior hard to forgive.
Through means such as rappelling down a cliff, looking in the bottom of a pond and checking an abandoned storehouse, the other three teams find a Type 89, a StuG, and a M3 Lee. The tanks are handed out to those who found them, with the exception of Miho's group(A/Anglerfish Team) being given the Panzer IV while the Student Council(E/Turtle Team) takes the 38(t).
The tanks are handed out based on the teams. B/Duck Team, gets the Type 89 C/Hippo Team gets the StuG and D/Rabbit Team gets the M3 Lee. Momo reminds them that the instructor is coming, and tells them to behave themselves.
Duck Team looks at their acquisition, with an overly optimistic assessment of its capabilities. Among Hippo Team, Oryou and Saemonza mock the StuG for its appearance and lack of a turret, but Erwin defends the tank. Rabbit Team likes the M3 Lee for, of all things, having two cannons rather than one.
Among Anglerfish Team, Saori finds that the outside of the tank is rusted and sticky, and Miho finds that the inside is even worse, pointing out that they'll have to clean up their tanks. The crews get to it, but also fool around a little, such as making historical references or spraying each other with the hose, while Momo and Anzu slack off. Miho, however, seems to be starting to enjoy this. Momo dismissed the crews, some of whom are exhausted, and decides to leave the rest to the auto club.
Miho looks out at sea, and Saori wants to make landfall, wanting to go shopping and claiming to have a boyfriend in every port. On Yukari's suggestion, the girls stop in a tankery club, which sells tankery related memorabilia. Saori, as might be expected, doesn't understand much about tankery, and ignorantly says that all tanks are the same. Yukari starts to go into how tanks differ from each other, to which Saori and Hana can only respond based on their own experience.
Yukari plays a game of Battle Zone and reassures Saori that while the rounds are real, there's an emphasis on safety. Take note, fanfiction authors; they don't use simunition or anything of the sort.
Meanwhile, Miho is distracted by a news program in which a female anchor in a suit and tie (Interestingly enough, I've noticed that in fiction, women often seem to be expected to wear neckties with business attire like their male counterparts do), goes from a story about the thirty-ninth year of a biking competition to an interview with Maho Nishizumi, Miho's sister. Maho, speaking with a reporter, says that her secret to success simply lies in not giving up, and turns to the camera, almost as though she's addressing Miho directly. Miho is inexplicably surprised and depressed to see her sister on TV, but her mood improves when Saori asks if they can come over.
They arrive, and Saori finds Miho's bandaged stuffed bears cute. Yukari gets to cooking the rice, with camping gear that she carries around all the time so she can camp at any time. Hana slices her finger with a knife, her skills at cutting flowers unsuited to cutting potatoes (presumably since she used shears for the former task), and Miho searches for the bandaids. Saori, exasperated, decides to swap her contacts for glasses, and decides to get to cooking.
Saori is a good cook, apparently as a result of practicing to seduce a man, even if she hasn't had any success and isn't entirely sure if her efforts are in the right direction. Miho appreciates Hana's work with the flowers, even if Hana is quite modest. Miho says goodbye to her friends, says she's glad she transfered, and returns to her apartment with a spring in her step.
The next morning, Miho walks out in a hurry, almost forgetting to lock the door, and encounters a girl- Mako Reizei- who appears to be worse off than she is, murmuring that life is painful. Miho helps the girl get to the gates of the school, where the head of the disciplinary committee, known as Sodoko, complains that Mako has been late for 245 days in a row. While the Japanese school year is apparently longer than the Western school year, at around 200 days, according to Wikipedia
, it seems difficult for Mako to rack up that many tardies so early on in her second year of high school. Sodoko has no interest in Mako's excuses, doesn't see her good grades as a mitigating factor, and advises Miho to not bother helping out Mako in the future. Mako mutters Sodoko's nickname under her breath, but doesn't repeat it; apparently, it's a sore spot for Sodoko.
On the way into the school building proper, Mako apologizes to Miho and promises to pay her back somehow. Miho arrives late to the assembly of students, only to find out that their instructor is even more late.
A cargo airplane arrives, and drops off a Type 10 MBT that slides into the principal's car, knocking it over, before half crushing it. A woman in a JGSDF dress uniform emerges and greets the students, prompting Saori to complain that Anzu lied. The woman introduces herself as Captain Ami Chouno of the JGSDF, and looks around, recognizing Miho as the daughter of her tankery teacher. She also asks about how Miho's sister is, which seems innocuous enough, but sends Miho into depression. Perhaps Miho is depressed by how people respect her family's style of tankery, even if she herself can't follow it
As Ami goes on about how prestigious the Nishizumi family's school of tankery is, a school that apparently even the neophytes at Oarai know about, Saori asks about whether Ami is popular with the guys, much to Miho's pleasure, and Ami claims to possess a 120 percent kill rate for the target she aims for, which suggests that she's attractive but doesn't seek out any men.
Yukari asks about the practice, and Ami says that they will immediately try for a mock battle, giving the vaguest possible description of what they need to do, while leaving the rest to them, showing them their starting points.
There are a number of interpretations as to why Ami does relatively little despite being their instructor, but the one I favor most is the idea that she wants to see how they do first, and after seeing that they do well for beginners, decides to watch over them and supervise them as they continue to improve. Another is that the training sessions mainly happen offscreen, and since they're the extent of Ami's role in the plot, she loses virtually all of the screentime she might have had.
In any case, the girls thus have to improvise. Aya decides to look up instructions online, first getting a person telling her to Google it (I can understand the "Give a man a fish" argument, but a better answer would be to point her to a site with lots of information), while another tells her to take off her clothes. The four girls from the volleyball club are determined to restart their defunct club. The History Team discusses pinwheel formations despite only having one tank. Anzu, too short to climb onto her tank, calls out Momo's last name, and Momo immediately complies, serving as a footstool.
Ami tells the girls to figure out what roles each tank will have. The three-man teams will have a commander, a gunner and a driver. The fourth person will serve as a loader, and the fifth will serve as a radio operator (who seems useless in this battle that does not involve communication between tanks).
Anglerfish Team is faced with the task of divvying up the roles, and Miho, the one best suited to commander, refuses. Saori then has them draw straws, resulting in her becoming commander. The girls find their seats, and they are out of their element, except for Yukari. Yukari gets fired up, but a "Panzer halt" command by Miho brings her back to reality, and with a Luminescent Blush, she apologizes.
Hana struggles with the controls as the StuG advances forward more easily in the background, and gets the tank moving... in the opposite direction as intended. The Panzer IV advances, with the neophytes except Yukari quite uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Rabbit Team finally gets a useful answer(for all people tend to mock those who ask for help online, there's usually at least one person who makes an honest effort to help), Duck Team runs into a tree while giving orders in volleyball terms, and Turtle Team has Yuzu doing all the driving while Momo orders her around and Anzu eats potatoes.
Anglerfish Team nearly runs into a tree, with Saori barely ducking a branch in time. Hana apologizes, having been unable to hear Saori's commands. Miho suggests kicking Hana in the shoulder she wants her to turn, but Saori is reluctant to do something like that to a good friend, but then complies, a bit more forcefully than Hana had hoped.
The tanks reach their starting points and Ami tells them to shoot all their opponents until they stop moving. Ami does, however, take a slightly more serious tone when telling them that tankery begins and ends with a bow, and the girls comply. This emphasis on sportsmanship, combined with her laid back demeanor, makes me wonder if all Nishizumi style practitioners are humorless and ruthless.
Yukari is, as always, excited to get started, but Miho says that they can't just fire randomly. Saori wants to take out the student council, because the instructor turned out to be a woman; the wording in the dub almost makes her sound like a Female Misogynist. Hana questions why Saori's still bitter about that, and Saori says that as commander, what she says goes, and Miho goes along with it. Unfortunately for Saori, she doesn't know where they are, even though their starting points should be on the map.
A shell being fired and landing near the Panzer IV distracts Saori, however, and it came from Duck Team. They like the sound of the gun firing, and want to take out Anglerfish Team. Meanwhile, Hippo Team decides to cooperate with Duck Team to take out Anglerfish Team. Saori panics and orders an escape, but comes to a fork in the road. Spotting the Stu G at one branch, Saori hastily orders Hana to go down the other path, kicking her in the shoulder, but they soon see Mako sleeping on the path.
The ending theme plays for the first time (the previous episode merely had the opening theme in a letterbox with the credits rolling), showing one of the team's tanks rolling down a path, accompanied by the catchy song, "ENTER ENTER MISSION".
Essentially, this episode got the rest of the preparation work out of the way, and got to the tank battles, which was a nice step. I've noticed that fanfics often begin with a practice battle, whether to gauge the original characters' skills or because it's close to canon.
In any case, the next episode will conclude the practice match, and get us to actual matches.
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