Tactical Roar (タクティカルロア, Takutikaru Roa) is a Japanese anime television series set in a not-too-distant future. The series revolves around the all-female crew of the commercial warship the Pascal Magi.
In the near future, a hypercane
has appeared in the Pacific Ocean, causing a series of worldwide climate changes. This storm, dubbed the "Grand Roar", has been stable for over 50 years. Climate changes make air travel and transport less reliable, and thus the world has begun reverting to a second naval age, particularly in Asia. However, the world's condition also heralds the return of piracy and the growth of maritime terrorism, causing many large international companies to arm themselves and setting up their own private naval security forces.
At the outset of the series, Systems Engineer Hyōsuke Nagimiya runs into the crew of the Pascal Magi, one such maritime security ship. He gets into a few typical compromising situations before finally being introduced as a software engineer assigned to update the systems on-board the ship. He meets his stepsister, the captain of the war vessel, Captain Misaki Nanaha, who treats him as a stranger. Although he refers to her as 'sister', he still thinks of her as a woman nonetheless. During the duration of his duties, the ship is called into combat, where Hyosuke begins to understand the nature of the Pascal Magi and its crew's battle potential as the vessel flings itself into the fight.
Tropes:
- Chekhov's Gun: The main cannon of Pascal Magi was never used onscreen (due to guided-weapon reliance of modern ship-to-ship battles) until the final episode when it's used to destroy the Roar generator.
- Cool Boat: The Pascal Magi, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyernote . Also the Super Prototype of the first arc, as well as other examples.
- Gas Leak Cover-Up: In Episode 3, though the military was not happy that their state-of-the-art multimillion-dollar Super Prototype warship was stolen by pirates, or that it was used to carry out terrorist attacks, they are insulted by said warship being defeated by a civilian escort ship. So they simply erased the battle from the records, instead stating that the Pascal Magi rescued the ship after it was crippled by a classified "accident". When Captain Misaki protests, they imply that if she sticks with her initial report, they will charge her with attacking an official military vessel! After a half-hour of being insulted and harangued, they decide to take the Pascal Magi from her, so she plays her trump card: She had the pirates interrogated on the Pascal Magi, then sent those records to non-military authorities. They decide to Just Ignore everything and send her back to her ship.
- Heroes "R" Us: The crew of the Pascal Magi hired out to protect shipping lanes in the Pacific Ocean from pirates, terrorists and other types of bad guys.
- Improbably Female Cast: In a world where piracy is a global threat to maritime trade and travel, the Unlucky Everydude system engineer finds himself beset by the all-girl crew becoming his Unwanted Harem.
- Perpetual Storm: The titular "Tactical Roar" makes air transportation in the Pan-Pacific area impossible, and has been doing so for 50 years by the time the story starts.
- Private Military Contractors: They've made a comeback by the time Tactical Roar due to the presence of the hypercane in the Pacific Ocean. They were meant to protect commercial shipping from pirates and other maritime terrorists.
- Unlucky Everydude: Hyosuke.
