Characters / Girls und Panzer - Oarai Academy - Anglerfish Team

Girls und Panzer Main Character Index
Ōarai: Ōarai Girls' Academy (Anglerfish Team, Duck Team and Hippo Team, Rabbit Team and Turtle Team)
Rival Schools: Rival Schools (St. Gloriana Girls Academy, Saunders University High School, Anzio High School, Pravda High School, Kuromorimine Girls High School)
Others: Der Film Characters | Das Finale Characters | Other Characters

Team A/Anglerfish Team

"Whatever happens, we give our best with teamwork."

The main protagonists' team. They drive a Panzer IV Ausf. D, a German medium tank, updated in Episode 7 into an Ausf. F2 configuration with a longer 75mm Kwk 40 L/43 gun and increased frontal armor, and later in Episode 10 into an Ausf. H, with a new paintjob and schürzen spaced turret and sideskirt armor. Initially the only Ōarai team without a Theme Naming scheme, their team's name was later given to them by the other teams right before entering the national tournament.

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Tropes shared by the team

• The Leader: Of the Ōarai teams as a whole, with their leader Miho becoming, by default, de facto commander of the squadron.
• Meaningful Name: An anglerfish is known for using its lantern-like antenna to lure its prey into a trap before eating them. Considering the fact that most of Miho's tactics involve around using ambushes, trickery, and distractions, the team's name fits nicely.
• The Dreaded: By the time of Das Finalé, many teams treat Anglerfish as this. Emphasized in Episode 3 where Chihatan's Nishi dedicates and entire detachment just to isolate and take them out. Most of the engagements involving this are shown entirely from the Chihatan tankers point of view as they struggle and fight the Anglerfish. Later on, Nishi dedicates her entire team to taking them out.
  Nishi: Taking out Anglerfish is akini to mastering senshado!
• The Squad: While the members of most of other teams are fairly homogeneous and interchangeable in how they manage their tanks, the girls of Anglerfish Team break down into fairly steady roles that complement each other: Miho is The Leader, commander of the squad and overall commander of Ōarai's Sensha-do team. Yukari serves as The Lancer; Miho's fangirl and tactical deputy. Her lively personality makes a contrast to Miho's gentle kindness and concern, and she doubles as The Sneaky Guy when she takes on some of the more duplicitous tasks, such as infiltrating competitors to pick up pre-match intelligence. She's the most knowledgeable about tanks aside from Miho herself, and possibly outstrips her in general military knowledge. Friendly Sniper Hana combines a calm, warm personality with nearly excessive precision as their gunner. The PzIv's driver, Mako, is the smartest girl in school. She teaches herself how to —properly!— drive a tank by spending less than five minutes paging through the manual, and can pull off maneuvers that most other Sensha-do practitioners think are impossible. Saori is the Communications Officer. She's radio operator for the Panzer, coordinates information coming in from other tanks, and relays Miho's orders to the rest of the team.

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Panzer IV

^{Panzer IV upgraded to Ausf. F 2} 

^{Panzer IV upgraded to Ausf. H} 

The Panzerkampfwagen IV is the first tank the characters find upon the re-establishment of the Ōarai Sensha-do elective. This was assigned to Team A/Anglerfish team. As the tank commanded by Miho, it is by default, the "face" of Ōarai's Sensha-do team.

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• Book Ends: The battle damage the Panzer IV suffers in the movie's Final Battle leaves it in almost the same damaged shape Miho and co. found it^note all the spaced armour gets blown off, the longer gun is blown in half so it resembles the shorter, initial gun, and the roadwheels (and track) of the right side are blown off, same as it was found.
  • Actually an Invoked Trope in this case, at least according to the 3D director in the audio commentary for the Blu-Ray box.
• Companion Cube: The reason it's given an entry in the characters page.
• Continuity Nod: Miho uses the same model of tank in the manga prequel and the anime. This is given a subtle Continuity Nod in Episode 1 when she smiles while caressing the old tank's armor.
• Jack of All Stats: The Panzer IV is portrayed as versatile and useful in most roles, exactly like its historical usage.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: The Panzer IV is the only tank to be upgraded roughly mid-season. Other tanks are upgraded for the Final Battle or not at all. To elaborate, it was initially found as an Ausf D◊, then upgraded to an Ausf F2◊ for the Pravda match by giving it a high-powered 75mm long cannon and improved frontal armor, and finally given additional side and turret armor as an Ausf H◊ for the final match.
• Power-Up Full Color Change: When it receives its final upgrade for the Final Battle, it's given that model's most common historical paint pattern instead of keeping its usual color.
• Straight Man: Is the only tank not painted in bright colors in episodes 1 to 4. The insides, on the other hand...

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Miho Nishizumi

Miho Nizhizumi

"It's not for the sake of my home. Neither is it to imitate big sis... This summer, I did Panzer with everyone. I felt that I could treasure this memory. That is perhaps... my 'Panzerkraft'."

Position: Tank Commander/Squadron Commander

Voiced by: Mai Fuchigami (Japanese), Margaret McDonald (credited as Meg McDonald) (English)

The main protagonist of the anime and a scion of a clan of famous tankers. She left the discipline after a certain incident and transferred from Kuromorimine into Ōarai, since its Sensha-do class was defunct for over two decades. She was promptly drafted into becoming the leader of its first class in twenty years (as a loader, then later commander of not just her team, but of the school's squadron) after the Student Council discovers her experience.

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• The Ace: Initially by default, since she's the only person in Ōarai with Sensha-do experience. Throughout the course of the series, Other tank commanders make it clear that Miho is a legitimately talented commander, and even her older sister Maho acknowledges Miho's skill as being on par with her own.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the manga, it's revealed that she believes she failed to save her teammates at Black Forest, due to them being ostracized and ultimately forced to transfer schools. If counting the Anime and Manga adaptations, all but one of them transferred^Note Specifically Koume, as revealed in Episode 10. The Light Novel also has Erika as part of that crew, but the manga has her already in command of her Tiger 2.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Miporin", given to her by Saori.
• Always Someone Better: Whenever the Nishizumi name is mentioned in a conversation around Miho, it's always either about her mother or her older sister and never about her. Darjeeling inverts this trope after their practice match when she comments that Miho is quite different from Maho and she enjoyed their match more than any match she had with her older sister. She also stresses to Katyusha when she brushes Miho off that Miho has taken Ōarai (a relatively unknown school) into the semi finals.
• Armor-Piercing Question
  • Gives one to Anchovy in the manga, during the latter's Villainous Breakdown after her defeat at Miho's hands.
  Anchovy: "There's no meaning to doing Panzerkraft if you don't strive for victory!"
  Miho: "So, is there no meaning to all the efforts you and your comrades gave?"
  Anchovy: "What?"
  • She tries this on her mother in Chapter 7 of Little Army, but fails.
• Animal Motifs: Miho is heavily associated with the anglerfish due to her penchant for catching her opponents off-guard with a wide vareity of traps. And to put the cherry on top, female anglerfishes are usually huge, reflecting on Miho's position as Ōarai's overall commander.
• Awful Truth: In the "Little Army" manga, learning that her sister won the tournament by firing on the flag tank while it was trying to save one of her teammates counts as this; both because her sister would do such a thing, and because the Nishizumi style believes that it's necessary.
• Badass Adorable: She's a bit shy, socially awkward, and overall a nice girl. She's also very competent at Sensha-do with her ability to think of strategies on the fly and throw off opposing forces with unconventional tactics.
• Badass Creed: She may have rejected her family's "do whatever it takes to win" philosophy, but she does embody and uphold the Nishizumi-style creed of "Always advance". The film reinforces this further, when she gives a proper Rousing Speech to the rest of Ooarai's sensha-do team about their chances of winning against the University Team.
  Miho: There's no path a tank cannot traverse! Tanks move forward even under enemy fire... No matter how tough it is, we must think of a way to overcome!
• Battle Cry: Has often said the words "Panzer Vor"^note a German army command for tanks to advance throughout the anime. May also count as her Catchphrase.
  • Lampshaded in the movie, the second scene of which is basically a set-up so Miho can utter:
  Miho: Well, once again... PANZER VOR!
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Miho ultimately joins Sensha-do class because Saori and Hana, her first two friends at Ōarai, decide that they want to join the same class as her, even though they wanted Sensha-do. Even when the Student Council is berating her for not joining, the girls argue vehemently for her, which she later tells them no one has ever done for her before.
• Be Yourself: The anime is about her finding her own way of Sensha-do. Her character song is open about this.
• Big Sister Worship: Little Army reveals that she looked up to Maho and wanted to follow her footsteps.
• Book Ends
  • On a meta-story level, the main plot of Little Army (Maho firing on the enemy flag tank while it was trying to rescue some of her own teammates who risk drowning) and the key of Miho's Dark and Troubled Past (Miho choosing to rescue her drowning teammates at the cost of her team's flag tank), happening between prequel and anime, are very similar.
  • Within Little Army, the prequel begins with Miho walking to Ōarai alone like she did in Episode 1, and in the ending, cuts back to the present and shows her walking to school, only for Saori to call out to her and for her to turn around and see all her friends.
• Broken Ace: She's a talented sensha-do practitioner, with tank commanders from other schools recognizing this fact. However, she suffers from confidence issues because of being always compared to her more talented older sister and being less favored by their mother. Add to this the guilt she felt after being the cause of Kuromorimine's loss to Pravda the year prior, which caused some of her crew mates to be ostracized and transfer schools.
• Broken Pedestal: Her relationship with her older sister Maho goes through this and Rebuilt Pedestal twice — in Little Army. It was broken when Miho learns that Maho willingly fired upon an enemy flag tank rescuing a drowning tank crew from her own team, then rebuilt after their heart-to-heart conversation in later chapters; then in the anime, it was implied to have been broken again after Miho left Kuromorimine and tried to quit Sensha-do after her attempt to rescue a drowning teammate cost her team their tenth straight championship and earned her a cold-hearted dressing down from her strict mother (who is the head of the Nishizumi style of Sensha-do), then started rebuilding as Maho lending her team chopper to Mako in Episode 6 showed that she still thought highly of helping fellow players, even from opposing teams.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: Downplayed, in that Miho never actively questions her mother's adherence to their Sensha-do style, though at one point she directly asked her if it was necessary for Maho to shoot the enemy flag tank rescuing a friendly unit. She was unusually forward to a degree that Maho found it uncharacteristic of her.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: She transferred to Ooarai Academy because it didn't have a Sensha-do elective so she wouldn't have to do Sensha-do. Cue the next morning when she's being recruited into the academy's revived Sensha-do club.
• The Cast Show Off: Margaret McDonald herself sings the Anglerfish Dance song in the dubbed version of the 4th OVA.
• The Chosen One: The student council absolutely wanted her to join Ooarai's revived Sensha-do elective, so they went to great lengths just to get her to join, which she eventually does.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Shows a few signs of this with her insecurities.
• Closed Door Rapport: In the last chapter of Little Army, unsure of whether or why she should continue doing Sensha-do, she hides inside one of her family's tanks until Sakuyo, Chihiro and Hitomi convince her to come out.
• Combat Pragmatist: Miho is often able to think up strategies and tactics on the fly, and will utilize whatever she has to win, such as luring a tank into a trap using false communications. While their effectiveness varies depending on the opposing team's chemistry and performance, this trait of hers is acknowledged as a major strength by all her opponents and Maho notes how it was just like Miho to fight her as she did, in her own style, that managed to defeat her. She also bluntly tells their mother that Miho is much more skilled than she gives her credit for.
• Combination Attack: The final play in the movie has her have Maho shoot the Panzer IV from behind to give it a speed boost. This is implied to be her idea, evidenced by Maho's reluctance before firing.
• Confusion Fu: Her strategies revolve around going against standard tank unit formations and strategies, making full use of the different strengths of the various tanks that she commands. The only one who wasn't fooled by any of her tricks is her older sister Maho, who prepared counterstrategies for any tricks she might pull off.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Some of her strategies are, as noted by her opponents, not what you will expect a normal commander would think of. However, it is because opponents never expect that they'd do something crazy that they work in magnificent ways.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Bumps into a light post in Episode 1 while turning to look at a bakery, and in class, she drops her pencil, then several other items while attempting to retrieve it. Later in the cafeteria she nearly trips after getting her lunch. She also implies that she's clumsy to her two new friends.
• Cuteness Proximity: In the movie, she immediately squees upon seeing the Boko Museum.
• Dark and Troubled Past: After one of the tanks in her squad fell down a river, she abandons hers — the flag unit — to save them, costing Kuromorimine the winning streak in the process.
• Defector from Decadence: Left Kuromorimine because she cannot agree with its Second Place Is for Losers attitude towards Sensha-do.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Lampshaded in Episode 10 when Darjeeling, Kay, and Katyusha show up to wish Miho luck and chat with her nonchalantly. She even does this with her older sister in Episode 12, when Miho's victory causes Maho to drop his facade to congratulate her.
  • In der Film, this happens with Alice, who becomes friends with Miho after losing to Ōarai.
• Determinator: She may have shown hesitancy at first, but when the chips are down and even if the odds are against her, she will do whatever it takes to take her team to victory. This is the Nishizumi-style philosophy of "Always advance", which she and Maho embody and uphold. See Badass Creed above for the related quote.
• Ditzy Genius: She is brilliant at Sensha-do and seems to be competent enough academically, but poor Miho would forget her head if it wasn't screwed on. Off the battlefield, she's pretty shy, extremely clumsy, and has a common sense deficit, especially in the manga, when she gets lost in an unknown port so she can buy a cuddly toy, and even then she stops to admire the town's mascot, in a thick crowd, nearly getting double-lost.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Suggests that one of her mother's students, being older, does not need to address her formally, but the student tells her that age doesn't matter since she's the instructor's daughter.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: After being told to take Sensha-do by the student council, when she has a blank, unchanging stare until she and her friends were in the nurse's office.
• Expy: Of Saki Miyanaga. Both are talented individuals belonging to a family of sports players, initially hated the sport they are good at because of a past trauma, and both have older sisters which they have a strained relationship.
• Fallen Princess: Miho hails from the most respected (and feared) family of Tank Warriors in Japan, and yet humiliates her family by breaking her school's decade-long streak of undefeated championships by electing to help teammates from drowning rather than holding a key position; coupled with her mother's already cold and distant upbringing this drives a deep wedge between her and the rest of her family, prompting her to move to Oarai High School. The disgrace was enough to make Shiho seriously consider disowning and disinheriting her.
• Famed In-Story: Played with. She came to Ōarai as a nobody, with only Yukari knowing who she is. It was only through Ami Chono's recognition of her that the others are made aware of her sensha-do pedigree. However, the simple mention of her family name invokes recognition and sometimes shock from tank commanders from other schools. This conversation between Darjeeling and Katyusha in episode 8 makes a point of how well-known the Nishizumi school is and Miho's standing in the family.
  Darjeeling: You're awfully composed in light of the semi-finals. Shouldn't you be practicing?
  Katyusha: It would only be a waste of fuel. Our opponent is just some no-name school anyway.
  Darjeeling: Their commander is the heir of a school though. The Nishizumi School to be exact.
  Katyusha: Eh? (to Nonna) Why am I finding out something this important just now!?
  Nonna: I've told you several times.
  Katyusha: Well, I wasn't listening then!
  Darjeeling: It is just the younger sister, I might add.
  Katyusha: Oh? (sighs in relief) That scared me for a second there.
  • Played more straighter in Ribbon Warrior manga spin-off where she has become something of a Living Legend in the sport of Tankery.
• A Father to His Men: Her first words to damaged or knocked out friendly units are to ask if the crew is alright, and is more than willing to jump out of her tank to rescue allies in danger — no wonder everyone in Ōarai's tank teams love, adore and respect her.
• Friendless Background: Briefly alluded to this in Little Army, as, similarly to Yukari, she had difficulty finding friends who were interested in tanks before meeting Hitomi, Chihiro and Emi.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Miho has a large collection of teddy plushies, known as Boko. All bandaged, beaten or bruised, she uses them as Security Blankets whenever she's experiencing Flashback Echoes.
  • In the movie They are what she packs up first when her school is closed. Later on she even gets to visit a run-down Boko-themed amusement park.
• Giver of Lame Names: She's a downplayed example. Her chosen names for their plans are simplistic and really not that intimidating. Exemplified by her naming her first operation as Ōarai's sensha-do commander "Operation Sneaky sneak". Her naming sense is only called out twice by Momo and by Erika in the movie.
• The Glomp:
  • Gives one to Maho in Little Army when she gets home after the tournament.
  • Receives two from Anzu first was after winning the championship in the first season; and later in the movie, after winning back their school in the match against the University Team.
• Guile Heroine: She generally out-thinks and outwits opposing commanders, win or lose. Except Maho, with whom, unsurprisingly, she usually ties, and Darjeeling whom Miho has never beaten.
• Heir to the Dojo: Miho hails from a family of legendary tank warriors, and has been reared into their style since childhood.
• Heroic BSoD
  • Has a minor one after being told to take Sensha-do by the student council, having a blank, unchanging stare until she and her friends were in the nurse's office.
  • Tends to suffer one whenever a friendly tank is knocked out. Her friends generally pull her out before she crashes.
  • In the battle against Maho's tank in Little Army, when she loses confidence in their ability to win.
  • In Little Army, when Maho confirms what Emi said and begins acting cold and distant. Since she got into Sensha-do because of a desire to be like her sister, she's shaken to the core and considers quitting.
  • In Chapter 15 of the manga, she has one when Erika gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech claiming that she had no regard for what happened to her old school.
• Heroic Sacrifice: During the match against Pravda, she is initially willing to surrender to avoid the possibility of people being injured in the shootout should she continue fighting, despite knowing that she will be disinherited should she fail to win.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: In das Finale she officially steps down as commander to vice-commander so Momo can be commander so that she can get in college by AO scholarship. In practice, and by everyone else's admission, she's still the one who comes up with the plans even if Momo ultimately calls the shots.
• I Have Many Names: In Ribbon Warrior, she's said to have many nicknames that are attributed to her newfound fame and achievements, such as "The Miracle of Ooarai", "The War Goddess" and even "The World's Strongest Boko-fan".
• I Just Want to Have Friends: In Little Army, she said she has long wanted to find people she can do Sensha-do with. In the main series, despite having believed that leaving Sensha-do behind is the right thing to do, she feels lonely at Ōarai until she meets Saori and Hana and is thrust back into the one thing she knows how to do.
• I Know You Know I Know: In the practice match against Maho in Little Army, Miho says that Maho's StuG III not having a turret means attacking it from the sides is ideal, but...
  Miho: "I'm sure big sis already knows that as well." (cuts to Maho)
  Maho: "Miho's team is definitely going to come at us from our flanks."
• Improvisational Ingenuity: Miho's specific genius is this. She's an absolute master at changing tactics amd flying by the seat of her pants.
• Innocently Insensitive: To Erika in Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu 13.
  Miho: So you got left behind without anyone noticing?
  Erika: RIGHT! Now I'm definitely leaving you behind.
• In-Series Nickname: "Miporin" by Saori and "Mihosha" by Katyusha.
• It's All My Fault: In the Maginot manga, she blames herself for not noticing that Maginot only had four tanks in an encirclement rather than five, enabling the remaining tank to catch them off guard.
• The Klutz: When she's not involved in Sensha-do, she tends to fall into this, almost forgetting to lock her door, dropping her pencils on the floor, and nearly forgetting important dates, and, in one of the tie-in mangas, getting herself lost in an unfamiliar port and having to be helped out by Erika (of all people).
  Erika (*thinking): And this is the commander who won the Panzerkraft nationals. For real...
• The Leader: As the only Sensha-do veteran in the school, she is elected to this position; both as commander of Anglerfish Team and of the Ōarai squadron as a whole. She overlaps with all types: planning the attack before the match (mastermind), staying focused during the match (levelheaded) and inspiring her subordinates to follow her (charismatic).
• Little Miss Badass: Both in and out of tanks. Her martial arts moves in OVA 6 are amazing, and in one of the audio dramas, she instictively dodges blows even encumbered by a giant bear costume. She had to remind herself not to do so, as she was portraying Boko the Bear at a show.
• Living Legend: Her and her team achievements and feats in the main series are shown to have inspired an entire generation of girls to take up the sport. This includes the two main characters in Ribbon Warrior, who are completely awestruck when they finally meet her.
• Lonely Rich Kid: She is the youngest of the prestigious Nishizumi family and in Little Army, tells Emi that because she wasn't able to make any friends who shared her interest in Sensha-do before meeting her, Chihiro and Hitomi, she hopes that the four of them can get along.
  • She did, however, get along well with her sister Maho as a child.
• Magnetic Hero: Miho has a tendency to attract people around her. Yukari notes that Miho's kind and caring personality is what makes the entire Ooarai Sensha-do squad want to follow her and Darjeeling notes how Miho has the tendency to make friends out of her enemies.
• Mandatory Unretirement: Due to a past trauma, Miho became uncomfortable with tanks, so she moved to a school that doesn't have a Sensha-do class. However, that school's Student Council decides shortly after she moves to revive the class and force her into it.
• Meaningful Name
  • It's likely that her surname is a reference to Nishizumi Kojiro, a famous tank commander during the Sino-Japanese War.
  • The "-ho" ending their given names (Miho, Maho, Shiho) could be a based on the Japanese word for "cannon" (hou).
• Mirthless Laughter: When she doesn't really know how to deal with a social situation, she tends to make a nervous laugh and give a little smile.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Miho looks like your typical small schoolgirl, but her Politeness Judo feat during Das Finale, Part 1 shows she is surprisingly strong, throwing Murakami with just her head!
• My Greatest Failure: In the manga, it's revealed that while she saved the crew of the tank that fell in the water, they were treated coldly by their schoolmates, in spite of Black Forest's vigorous enforcement of the rules preventing outright bullying, and at least one of them transferred out. Miho thus feels as though she didn't protect them.
• My Greatest Second Chance: The exact thing happens...and this trope is subverted, and then double-subverted. As...she makes the exact same choice. But THIS time? She saves her friends WITHOUT putting the rest of the team in danger. Essentially, she proves her decision was not wrong... and she has grown.
• Nerves of Steel: Miho never panics or loses her cool during matches. A good example is during the practice match with St. Gloriana, Her Panzer IV is cornered and held at gunpoint by Darjeeling's Churchill and three Mathildas, and all Miho does is to look for a possible escape route.
• New Transfer Student: Transfers into Ōarai in the first episode.
• Nice Girl: Almost never gets angry or has anything bad to say about others, no matter how mean they are to her.
• Nice to the Waiter: Gets along well with the Nishizumi maids, who are willing to talk with her about her problems. In the manga, it is indicated that she still maintains correspondence with Kikuyo via mail.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Her philosophy, which put her at odds with her own family's "win at all costs" policy. She doesn't think twice about leaving her tank to save a crew in distress. Her adherence to this belief ultimately cost Kuromorimine their 10th straight championship and caused her and her crewmates to be ostracized by the other students, which resulted with some of them, including Miho herself, to transfer schools. In the finals, she even managed to save Rabbit Team from sinking by leaping across Ōarai's tanks, tying a rope around it and leaping back, enabling the other tanks to drag it through.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: She finds herself unfavorably compared to her mother and sister, but she's the foremost expert on Sensha-do in Ōarai, which brings her to the forefront of their Sensha-do class's renaissance. Erika remarks on this once, commenting that the school must be weak if she managed to become its commander. Downplayed, if not straight-out subverted, in that Maho believes that Miho is as talented as herself.
• The Ojou: Of the sweet type. She had a good relation with the family servants, wanted to make friends, and generally is a Nice Girl.
• Only Sane Man: For example, see her increasingly confused and worried reactions to the increasingly crazier antics of her teammates as they buy swimsuits during OVA 1.
• Out-Gambitted
  • What Maho does to her during the finals — Maho has been watching her little sister's matches, so naturally she has countermeasures in case Miho tries to repeat her trick of dragging the enemy into Urban Warfare. Which she does.
  • Maho also does this in the practice battle in Little Army. Miho is understandably less than confident in her plans because she knows how skilled Maho is. After she barely avoids defeat thanks to luck, Miho, after getting a Heroic Second Wind, decides for a final confrontation with Maho, knowing that they're not skilled enough to escape her. She just barely loses.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Twice in Little Army. Sakuyo tells her how surprised she is (as are Chihiro and Hitomi) to see her get into a fight with Emi after the latter states she hates Maho, whom she never met before. Later on, Maho notes to Miho how unusual it was for her to openly question her mother about the family style of Sensha-do, a move brought on by Maho's aloof behavior.
  • Played for Laughs in the movie. The normally down-to-Earth and calm Miho gets very excited once she visits the Boko Museum. Saori even notes that it was the first time she saw Miho get excited over anything before.
• Red Baron: Following the national tournament she's said to acquired many ephitets attributed to her Tankery feats such as "The Miracle of Ooarai", "The War Goddess", and "The World's Strongest Boco Fan".
• Refusal of the Call: She transferred out of Kuromorimine to get out of Sensha-do, but her new school desperately needs to succeed at it, and so she's drafted.
• Reluctant Ruler: Her teammates have to insist that she be the tank commander several times before she accepts. Anzu has to do the same thing when it comes to being the squadron commander.
• Rousing Speech:
  • Played with in the anime. Miho's natural meekness makes her suck at the usual techniques that make a good speech, so her results when trying vary. When rallying her teams mid-battle, she resorts to tactical analysis which her teammates take as rousing (such as the matches against St. Gloriana and Saunders). When she does try, she fails miserably, like her first two against Pravda (more so with the second, where she speaks fluently and convincingly... to convince Ōarai to surrender); come the third, upon realizing that defeat or capitulation would cause Ōarai to shut down for good, she gets it right — and even that doesn't work because morale dropped quickly afterwards; the fourth (at Momo's request) fails miserably; and come the fifth, she just drops the speeches and gets the team to join in the Anglerfish Dance. She does give a somewhat decent speech before the finals, saying that no matter what happens, she will consider Oarai her alma mater. Finally, after Ōarai wins the tournament, and Miho is asked to say something to the team, she stammers for a moment (causing the background music to stop dead), then yells "Panzer Vor!".
  • In the film she finally delivers a proper (and heartwarming) Dare to Be Badass speech to her teammates just after having been informed that their new opponents are the University Team, a team even more dreaded than Kuromorimine Girls High School. It seems also to work just fine, as the camera pans to the faces of her teammates nodding with new determination. Gilligan Cut to her face after having been informed that the odds have been set even more against them by making the match an annihilation one, thereby ruling out their usual tactic of finding and eliminating the flag tank and making Oarai's numerical disadvantage count even more.
• Second Year Protagonist: Her first year involved a traumatic event involving Sensha-do, which lead to her transfer to Ōarai for her second year.
• Security Blanket: Uses her plushies as them while experiencing Flashback Echoes.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: She has plenty of experience with Sensha-do and not all of it was positive. She also tends to get Flashback Echoes.
• Squee: As a Continuity Nod to Little Army, when she first saw the (then) only Ōarai tank — a Panzer IV Ausf. D, the same one she commanded as a ten-year-old with her childhood friends — her expression and voice both soften considerably and she caresses the old tank's armor.
  • In the movie, she gets very excited when she visits the Boko Museum. Saori even notes that she has never seen Miho being excited over anything before.
• Stepford Smiler: At times, such as after Maho coldly walks off with their mother in Little Army, or when she acts as though nothing happened the day after being told that she will be disinherited if she loses the semifinals in the main series manga.
• The Strategist: Best exemplified in the St. Gloriana match — though most of her tanks are downed due to crew inexperience and/or inadequate equipment, she still manages to knock out three of four remaining enemy tanks with just Anglerfish Team thanks to clever strategies thought up on the fly, and it would have been all four had the Panzer IV's gun been able to knock out the Churchill.
• Tactical Withdrawal: In stark contrast with her family's straightforward approach, every battle she fights is ultimately won (or at least narrowly lost) through retreating from unfavorable situations, rallying, then attacking again.
• Take a Third Option: Miho's choices in the finals seem to be winning the match or saving her friends. Operative words being "seem" and "or".
• Talking through Technique: With Kikuyo's help, she comes up with this as an idea of helping Emi understand Maho. It works, but ends up getting Emi to reveal her real reason for her resentment toward Maho.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Her love of pastries and baked desserts, especially shortcake, is mentioned quite a few times.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Surprisingly, averted. She shows virtually no desire to win her mother's approval.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In "Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu", she starts to politely criticize Sodoko's overzealous enforcement of the rules, and is forced to dye her hair black despite it being her natural color.
• White Sheep: Left her family due to her disagreement with their combat style, and initially seems to be the only one who can't follow the strict and ruthless Nishizumi style. In the final episode, Maho openly tells Miho that her own style triumphed and that she's happy that Miho found her own path. Even Shiho claps for Miho.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: In line with her combat pragmatism, Miho is able to adjust her plans depending on the situation. The best example would be during the Ōarai-Saunders match, where she takes advantage of the knowledge of their radio communications being intercepted in order to set up an ambush.
• You Are in Command Now: Miho is increasingly given more responsibilities due to her experience, despite initial reluctance — first as tank commander after Saori fails at it, then later appointed by the Student Council as squadron commander before their first match, after she raises concerns about Momo's plan.

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Saori Takebe

Saori Takebe

"Count on me for love advice!"

Position: Radio Operator

Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese), Jessica Calvello (English)

The main protagonist of the light novel adaptaion, Saori is a redhead with a string of failed searches for romance. She's one of Miho's first friends since her transfer to Ōarai. She becomes Anglerfish Team's radio operator due to her love of small talk.

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• A Friend in Need: Risked expulsion together with Hana (or so they thought) by defending Miho's decision not to take up Sensha-do before the Student Council.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Compared to her teammates, she has a considerably thicker pair which is very visible through her hair bangs.
• Casanova Wannabe: A rare female example. She'd have an Urban Legend Love Life if anyone believed her for more than five minutes. So infamous is she for her failed attempts that the girls of Rabbit Team once jested that she has a more successful "romance" with the Panzer.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Saori is pretty good at noticing when something is bothering Miho and getting her mind out of it. One example is in the second episode, where after Ami Chouno asks Miho, who is the daughter of Instructor Nishizumi, who was Ami's teacher, "Is your sister doing well?", which was Innocently Insensitive, Saori raises her hand and spontaneously asks:
  "Instructor, are you really popular with the guys?!"
• Chekhov's Hobby: Her speedy texting comes in handy in the battle with Saunders.
• Childhood Friends: She's known Mako for a long time and uses her inside knowledge to get her to stay in Sensha-do class.
• Cool Big Sis: To the girls of Rabbit Team, giving (untried) love advice, explaining things, leading their search team, and comforting the panicking younger girls when they're hopelessly lost.
• Date Peepers: In Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu, she sets up a group outing like this for Saki's boyfriend, who turns out to be Shinobu Kawanishi, wearing a hoodie that conceals her face.
• Drunk on Milk: At the after-battle victory party in OVA 6, she starts getting tipsy after a couple glasses of orange juice. Mako and Miho both express their amazement at this.
• Eyelid Pull Taunt: Does one as Erika is walking away in Episode 5.
• The Face: Playing with a trope. She's the radio operator for Anglerfish Team, but in that case she's relaying Miho's orders.
• Fiery Redhead: She can be a bit energetic sometimes.
• Friendship Moment: As Mako is about to leave in the helicopter in Episode 6, she impulsively boards the chopper to keep her company.
• The Heart: Of the Anglerfish Team's Five-Girl Band, as an excellent communicator and hopeless boy-chaser.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: In Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu, she threatens to bombard Saki's boyfriend if he turns out to be an inappropriate partner for her. It turns out that "he's" not a boyfriend or even a guy.
• Instant Expert: In the Daikon War OVA bundled with Das Finale 3, she goes from being unable to ride a horse to an expert rider in the span of a day. It's implied that her communication skills allow her to bond better with her horse.
• Invisible Parents: She obviously has parents, and briefly alludes to her father often saying that he loves her, but they're the only ones unseen throughout the anime, meaning they are likely the most normal parents.
• KidAnova: Claims to have a boyfriend in every port, but her reaction to Yuuki Utsugi of Rabbit Team asking how many boyfriends she has so far? Sulking.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: When it comes to romantic relationships, she has plenty of advice but no experience.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Played with in a Mundane Made Awesome way. Saori drops the glasses when she sets about cooking the first time; otherwise she wears them when dealing with other housework.
• Ms. Fanservice: Deliberately invoked on her part with her glamorously permed hair, secretary glasses, a shirt one-size too small and Zettai Ryouiki to emphasize her generous and firm bust and legs, to better cultivate the image of "a hot girl who is popular with the boys"... When in reality, she is just as inexperienced with men as the average Oarai Schoolgirl.
• The Nicknamer: She loves adding "-in" to peoples names: Miho to "Miporin", Yukari to "Yukarin", and so forth.
• Personal Raincloud: She gets one when one of the girls from Rabbit Team, Yuuki Utsugi, asks her how many boyfriends has she had.
• Supreme Chef: A skill she picked up in hopes of getting a guy Through His Stomach. Hasn't worked, but it's still a useful skill.
• Team Mom: She handles Mako, worries about Miho's wellbeing, and is the only one of the team who can cook (technically, Yukari can cook field rations, but she's not very good).
  • She also considers herself this towards the Rabbit Team, from providing love advice right down to jumping for joy as the freshmen do their routine in OVA 6, and even refers to herself as such in Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu.
  "This is unheard to Mama!!!"
• Took a Level in Badass: In her first time as tank commander, she is so useless that Miho is forced to step in (and, when in the Fierce Fight: Maginot Battle spinoff Miho's absence forces her to be in command again for another training battle, she manages to lose against every tank, including the Type 89. Come the Final Battle, she is able to step in during Miho's absence and (successfully) take command of the entire Oarai team.
• Urban Legend Love Life: She fancies herself as a love expert, claims to be troubled because boys keep greeting her every morning as she walks to school, and boasts about having boyfriends in almost every port in Japan. In actuality, she's never been in a relationship before, evidenced by the fact that she sulks when the first year members of Ooarai's tankery team asks how many boyfriends she has had before.^note As for her stated claims, she takes cues from cliche romance stories, the "boys" greeting her as she walks to her all-girls school every morning are the local old men in their town, and what she has in almost every port in Japan are a list of popular curry shops.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Complains about the Student Council threatening Miho with expulsion over not taking Sensha-do. It's only what it seemed like at the time.
  "Would you stop being so selfish?!"

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Hana Isuzu

Hana Isuzu

"No matter for how long I kept arranging the flowers, I felt like something was missing. But I want to work with stronger flowers!"

Position: Gunner

Voiced by: Mami Ozaki (Japanese), Caitlynn French (English)

The other first friend of Miho since her transfer to Ōarai, Hana is the daughter of a family of ikebana (flower arrangement) professionals. She initially sat at the driver's seat, but the thrill of hearing the roar of shells inspired her to man the Panzer's guns.

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• A Friend in Need: Risked expulsion together with Saori (so they thought) for defending Miho's decision not to do Sensha-do.
• Big Eater: It's subtle, but she always has bigger portions than her teammates when they have a meal. In Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu, this is made into a joke when Saori, seeing that she's gained weight, worries about inadvertently taking larger servings while around Hana. Not so subtle in Ribbon Warrior when she is shown going to town on a full pig - complete with apple in its mouth.
• The Big Girl: She's the gunner for the Anglerfish team. She's proud of her accuracy.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: She exhibits a variant regarding her flower arrangement. While she is recognized as being very good at flower arrangement, with her mother even stating that her skills and techniques are in line with their traditional family style, she feels unsatisfied with her works and expressed her desire to "work with stronger flowers". She saw sensha-do as something new and saw being disowned because of it as a new chapter in her life. It is shown that practicing sensha-do did have a positive effect on her ikebana as her mother notes that in the past, Hana's works were perfect but lifeless. However, the entry she submitted to the flower exhibit was nothing like her previous works for it was full of life.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Mother: Yuri initially opposes her daughter's interests due to finding Sensha-do a vulgar and barbaric practice, and wants her to stay in the family's ikebana business.
• Friendly Sniper: Soon after being assigned as gunner, she does some impressive shooting with a low-velocity 75mm KwK 37 L/24 cannon.
  "No. One shell is enough."
• Heir to the Dojo: Hana's family is very prominent in ikebana, and she was supposed to succeed her mother's school.
• Idiot Hair: Has a long one sticking out of her head. Downplayed trope, while normally averted with her headstrong personality and her proper upbringing, side material shows she can sometimes exhibit strange habits, such as absent-mindedly playing with a rope while her friends set up the camping tent in the OVA or doing flower arrangement at inappropriate times in the Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu manga. The manga also shows her going on imaginative tangents since becoming class president, which usually have to be shut down by an exasperated Saori.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Hana uses her ikebana concentration for gunnery.
• Kimono Is Traditional: Wears a yellow kimono to her flower exhibit.
• Lady of War: She's tall, elegant and gentle... and fires live ammo. Sensha-do and ikebana are all the same to her.
• Meaningful Name: Hana means "flower", and in case you haven't noticed yet, she's an ikebana specialist. It also means "nose", in conjunction with her sense of smell.
• Nerves of Steel: In addition to standing up to the Student Council to defend Miho's (initial) decision not to do Sensha-do, she's the only member of the search party in Episode 7 who doesn't get scared of the "ghosts" inside the school ship, and is determined to go see Mako's grandmother despite hearing her yelling. Yukari lampshades this.
• Nice Girl: She is very gentle, polite and kind to others, and is very supportive of her friends while constantly having a smile on her face.
• The Nose Knows: Has a keen sense of smell, honed by years working with flowers. She helps pinpoint an abandoned tank on the school grounds by being able to detect the smell of iron and oil in a forest.
• Not So Above It All: Despite being seemingly one of the more down-to-earth members of the team, she randomly plays with a tent rope in OVA 2, and starts arranging the weeds in the spinoff manga. In the same spinoff manga, she laughs uncontrollably at Assam's terrible jokes.
• Oblivious to Her Own Description: She correctly guesses the people the Duck team impersonates during the 6th OVA talent show (not that they were hard to guess to begin with), save for one; when they impersonate her.
• Oh, Crap!: Her reaction when Yukari mentions she's doing Sensha-do in front of her mother, not knowing Yuri does not approve.
• The Ojou: Similar to Miho, but to a family of a different specialty.
• Power is Sexy: She is slightly aroused after witnessing the Panzer IV's 75 mm gun firing for the first time, and volunteers to be the team's gunner. This later becomes her inspiration to create more "powerful" flower arrangements, which turns around her mother's disapproval of her participation in Sensha-do.
• Student Council President: Succeeds Anzu in the Das Finale OVA.
• Visual Pun: Her ahoge looks rather similar to the sprout of an anglerfish.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Complains about the Student Council threatening Miho with expulsion over not taking Sensha-do. It's only what it seemed like at the time.
  "Please give up on Nishizumi-san."
• Worthy Opponent: Of sorts to Saunders' second-in-command Naomi, as revealed in the spin-off manga.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Sensha-do is supposed to mold girls into this, but she already fits the bill; polite, elegant, skilled in traditional art forms and possess Nerves of Steel.

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Yukari Akiyama

Yukari Akiyama

"Panzer is life, life is Panzer."

Position: Loader

Voiced by: Ikumi Nakagami (Japanese), Rebekah Stevens (English)

The main character of the manga adaptation, Yukari is an energetic tank fangirl who hides severe fitting-in issues. Then she met kindred souls in the form of Miho, Saori and Hana, inspiring her to become the gunner, and later the loader and de facto second-in-command of Anglerfish Team.

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• Adaptational Badass: In Ribbon Warrior Chapter 5, her skills in pre-match surveillance has gained the attention of a lot of Sensha-do teams, including Tankathlon practicioners, Rin's exaggerated Imagine Spot notwithstanding.
• All Women Love Shoes: Much to her mother's consternation, she enjoys collecting military footwear.
• Ambiguously Gay: Yukari's hero-worship of Miho sometimes crosses into "girl crush" territory. She memorizes Miho's measurements after briefly seeing them once during a school physical, looks rather jealous when Miho gets hugged by Kei, and proclaims that "Nishizumi-dono confessed to me!" after Miho says she "loves" all her friends in Episode 10.
• Apologizes a Lot: Usually after some enthusiastic outburst.
• Ascended Fangirl: A girl who loves tanks, and gets to be a crew of one of them, more so commanded by her idol, a Nishizumi. In the manga, for the match against Anzio, she gets to command a newly-restored Char B1 bis because there wasn't enough time to recruit three new members to man the tank before the match.
• Badass Driver: Not to the level of Mako, but she is able to serve as such in a pinch such as during the night battle of Das Finalé's third episode where they need Mako up top as a spotter due to her superior night vision.
• Color Failure:
  • In the manga, after hearing about Miho being threatened with disinheritance.
  • Played for laughs in volume 4 of the spin-off manga, when she sees Kay kiss Miho on the cheek.
• Crazy-Prepared: She carries a military-issue mess kit around, and is genuinely surprised other people don't do the same. Exaggerated in the fifth OVA, much to Erwin's amazement.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Has infiltrated Saunders, Anzio (in the seventh OVA) and BC Freedom Academy (in Das Finale) by boarding a supply ship and donning the respective school uniforms. In the fifth OVA, she and Erwin steal some of the Pravda team's overcoats and talk to Nina, a Pravda student who doesn't recognize them.
• Fangirl: Of tanks. She all but cuddles the Pz38(t) when it was found. She's also triggered when others misunderstand or disrespect tanks.
• Femme Fatale Spy: Not actually an example, but Rin imagines her to have elements of this archetype in Ribbon Warrior.
• Flanderization: Goes from merely having a "girl-crush" with Miho (almost certainly in a purely platonic fashion) into full blown enamoredness in Motto Love Love Sakusen.
• Friendless Background: Yukari was so obsessed with tanks, she had virtually no common ground with schoolmates until she met Miho.
• Friendly Sniper: During her brief time as gunner, she gets 3 kills with 3 shots despite not having any Sensha-do experience.
• Genki Girl: Even outside Sensha-do, she acts quite lively.
• Hammerspace: Hana and Saori both say that despite having known her for years, they're still unable to figure out just how she manages to carry all her crazy prepared gear.
  • In the first das Finale, she conceal carries a Stielhandgranate.
• Hero-Worshipper: Admires Miho and her knowledge and skills in Sensha-do.
  • In an official 4-koma gag strip she owns a Miho dakimakura (hug pillow).
  • In the first OVA, she's shown to know all her three sizes^note Although the first two measurements were already revealed during the uniform fitting in Episode 5 (with elated gasps from Yukari no less), the third wasn't. Judging by Miho's embarrassed reaction, she got them right.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Sergeant Third-Class Oddball after the Saunders infiltration.
  • Erwin later calls her Guderian, but the instance for the coining thereof varies: in the anime, she gets the nickname after helping Hippo Team find the Char B1 bis; in the manga, she gains the nickname for her superb performance as commander of the said tank during the match against Anzio.
• Jack of All Trades: Yukari has managed multiple positions within the tank: the Gunner before all positions were finalized (and scoring 3 kills), Loader most of the time, Driver during the Chihatan battle, and general scouting/intelligence work outside the tank.
• The Lancer: For the Anglerfish Team's Five-Girl Band as de facto second-in-command and tank otaku.
• Motor Mouth: Downplayed as it only happens in the bonus "Yukari's Tank Corner" segments. Her speech is always very quick and agitated when she's talking about tanks, but never so much that she's difficult to understand. However, in the bonus segments, Ikumi Nakagami plays it up for comedy as she unleashes descriptions, technical terms, data factoids, opinions and statements about the tanks with the speed of a coaxial machinegun.^note On a more meta level, that's the reason said segments have been subtitled so slowly: the translators usually could not keep up with her.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: While she has a fairly slim build, she can throw Mako into the air one-handed.
• Otaku Surrogate: Yukari fills this role for military geeks in general and tank geeks in particular. She used to be a lonely person in her hobby, too.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Yukari was too busy thinking of tanks to make friends.
• Secret-Keeper: In the manga, she's the only one besides Miho who knows that Miho will be disinherited if she loses to Pravda.
• Shoot the Messenger: In the manga, after hearing from Kikuyo about Miho being threatened with disinheritance, Yukari tears into Kikuyo as though she was the person responsible, when Kikuyo was merely given the unpleasant task of delivering a message.
• The Sneaky Gal: She infiltrated Saunders, Anzio and BC Freedom prior to their team's match against them (barely escapes in the first). In later episodes, she's Miho's first choice for scouting. In the Ribbon Warrior spin-off, she's depicted (At least by Centipede Team's Rin) as a Mata Hari-Femme Fatale-Ninja Composite Character. See Adaptational Badass entry above.
  • In the aforementioned spin-off manga, she's also tried to infiltrate Bonple as well, but were immediately found out by Uszka who plays an Obfuscating Stupidity act on her.
• Squee: Tanks evoke this reaction on her ("Panzer High", as Miho puts it), and a more heartwarming one when one of the tank crew Miho saved during her tenure at Kuromorimine thanks her for saving her (and her comrades).
• Super-Strength: In OVA 1, she hurls Mako airborne using only her left arm; a result of spending time lifting heavy tank shells and workouts, as she states during OVA 2.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Some talk of food, others of erotic things... such as Leopard 2 MBT cannons.
• Teen Superspy: Downplayed. Several times, Yukari infiltrates other schools to get recon on their team. In quite a few Fan Fic stories, a well as in the Ribbon Warrior manga, this escalates from just looking around and asking a few questions, to James Bond levels of Superspy-dom.
• The Team Wannabe: When the Sensha-do teams are assembled at the end of the first episode, she is seen standing behind Miho, Saori and Hana. Later in episode 2, she is seen admiring Miho from a distance behind a tree as the girls look for the tanks in a parking lot. At first she seems unimportant, but when Miho look back at the tree, Yukari hides. When they start walking away, Yukari tries to follow them, but then Miho starts talking to her, and she ends up becoming the fourth member of their group.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Her idea of a self-defence weapon for a bar brawl is a hand grenade.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: When Hana is introducing her friends to her mother, Yukari mentions that she's in a different class from Hana, Saori and Miho, but they're doing Sensha-do together — oblivious to the fact that Yuri Isuzu doesn't know of and disapproves of her daughter's hobby, and later apologizes for what happened next.
• With Due Respect: Yukari likes to use military terms, addresses Miho and the crew by the very formal "-dono", and invokes this trope verbatim when defending Miho from Erika's Trash Talk.
• You Are in Command Now: In the manga, in order to field the newly-restored Char B1 bis for the match against Anzio, Miho had to form a new three-person team for it by drawing from Ōarai's existing crew pool. Yukari was chosen to take the commander's seat (along with Team Hippo's Erwin as gunner/loader and Team Rabbit's Aya as driver) until three new members could be recruited to man it.
• You Did the Right Thing: Her opinion of Miho's past decision to save the crew of sinking tank even at the cost of a championship.

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Mako Reizei

Mako Reizei

"In the morning? Can humans even wake up... at six o clock?!"

Position: Driver

Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi (Japanese), Molly Searcy (English)

Saori's childhood friend and a gloomy fellow with a string of tardiness and absences stemming both from her dislike of rising early in the morning and, so she claims, problems with low blood pressure. She only joins the team because of the incentive of clearing her record. She's placed in charge of driving the Panzer.

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• A-Cup Angst: She's not proud of her chest size, as shown when doing some Skinship Grope on Saori in Episode 5. In Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu, the version of herself that has grown up (Mako is also the shortest member of Team Anglerfish) also has a large pair of breasts.
• Aloof Ally: She's in Sensha-do strictly for the extra credits and The Pardon. She owes Miho one, too.
• Always Late: Mako is Not a Morning Person, often staggering into school late and groggy. Discipline Committee head Midoriko Sono has a bookful of tardy slips on Reizei, which could jeopardize her advancement to the next grade. By itself, this isn't enough to motivate Reizei out of her truculence, but having her grandmother find out is a potent motivator.
• Animal Motifs: She's got tones of being catlike in her; the aloofness, the naps in sunshine, etc.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Saori reminds Mako that she can either join Sensha-do class and earn The Pardon (which will cancel out her tardiness demerits), or refuse and repeat a grade due to being constantly Late for School.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: With Sodoko in der Film, saying she feels lonely without her around.
• Badass Driver: She drives a Panzer IV the way Takumi Fujiwara drives a Trueno.
• Blue with Shock: In OVA 3, when her agoraphobia kicked in after climbing the pinnacle of the ship. The girls sans Saori wonder if she's ill.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Mako is one of the smartest girls in Ōarai who can learn tank driving just by reading the manual. However, she hates getting up early and is generally unmotivated due to "low blood pressure".
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Mako is always at the top of her grade and can learn to drive a tank just by reading the manual, but anyone who wants her to work for them must deal with lethargy. Luckily for them, her fear of her grandmother outweighs her distaste for waking up early.
• Childhood Friends: With Saori; they've known each for a long time, indeed, long enough for Saori to know about her grandmother.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Towards Midoriko Sono, aka "Sodoko". During episode 8, after being asked to train Sodoko's team on how to drive the Char B1, Sodoko gets a little snooty, upset at the prospect of having to ask Mako for help, and tells Reizei to train them thoroughly. Reizei responds by saying "hai hai" (Japanese for "yes"). Sodoko tells her not to say it twice, so Reizei says it once, but then stretches it out...
  • While the rest of Anglerfish Team is protesting Erika's mockery of Miho, and Miho sits there passively, Mako chimes in to remark about how humiliating it would be for those in the "ivory tower" to be beaten by a team they thought were unworthy of participating in a tournament.
• The Drag-Along: Mako would rather not be doing this tank thing; Saori does the dragging by reminding her of the pardon.
• Dramatic Drop: Drops her cell phone after hearing about her grandmother being hospitalized.
• Establishing Character Moment: Miho first saw her running Late for School and heard her record. Her kinder side is foreshadowed when she apologizes to Miho for imposing on her and promises to make it up to her someday.
• Falling into the Cockpit: In Episode 3. Mako takes over driving the tank after Hana gets knocked out briefly after they take a hit.
• Flat "What": More like a flat "heh", this was her response when being told about upcoming morning practices.
  "Heh?"
• Genius Sweet Tooth: She's the smartest girl in school and she eats more sweets than even Hana. Probably also owing to her low blood pressure.
• The Glomp: Gives one to Midoriko "Sodoko" Sono after she erases her record once they win the tournament.
• Height Angst: Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu implies that she wishes she wasn't as short as she is, since her dream self is a good deal taller.
• Hidden Depths: She's shown to be helpful despite her aloof disposition, and also shows a lot of concern for her grandmother, and, according to Saori, about Miho's family situation.
• Implausible Deniability: Immediately after her Dramatic Drop of her cell phone, tries to say the phone call was nothing important.
• In-Series Nickname: Sodoko counterattacks at being called so by Mako, by calling her "Remako", except nobody followed suit, so she switches back to calling her by her last name.
• Instant Expert: Episode 3. Mako, without previous tank driving experience, manages to do it after briefly glancing at the manual. This is lampshaded by some members of Duck Team (anime) and Sodoko (manga) when she tries to teach it to them, without taking into account how long it would take ordinary people to learn.
  Midoriko "Sodoko" Sono: "Don't screw with me! You think it's normal to know how to do it just after looking at the manual?"
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Her cellphone has cat purrs as ringtone. One can argue that a cat is also her character motif, since she's just like a cat, and is shown sleepily poking her head out of the tank in front of a cat in the opening. In the manga, Saori even calls Mako and Sodoko "like cat and dog".
• Kirk Summation: Her retort to Erika's Trash Talk:
  Erika: "There's an unspoken rule that everyone knows: schools that will just embarrass Sensha-do stay out of the tournament."
  Mako: "It'd sure be pretty embarrassing if one of those teams beat the veterans that all sat around in their ivory towers coming up with that rule."
• Late for School: 245 times and counting when she was introduced, which increases to 251 late arrivals, 12 unexcused absences and 5 excused absences as of the finals. It's easier to count the number of days Mako isn't late for school.
  Midoriko "Sodoko" Sono: "Ms. Reizei, this is the 245th day in a row that you're late."
• Malicious Misnaming: Often calls Sodoko by her nickname against her wishes. Although she's not the only character to do so, Mako is the only one that does it to get a reaction out of her.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: Saori says Mako had a fight with her mother the last time she saw her.
• The Night Owl: Related to Not a Morning Person below. Das Finale shows that she can remain quite alert during the night, even when her teammates doze off.
• Not a Morning Person: The very idea of getting up around 5:00-6:00 AM is anathema to her, as the quotation above shows.
• Not So Stoic: She drops her phone in shock and tries to swim an impossible distance to visit her injured grandmother, and after the finals she glomps Sodoko and bursts into tears after the latter forgives her truancy record.
• Oh, Crap!: Anytime Saori says that she will tell her grandmother about her slacking off.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • She's typically cool-headed at best and lethargic at worst. When she hears about her grandmother collapsing, she becomes determined to get there, even considering swimming an impossible distance if necessary. It also comes to the point that the perpetually sleepy Mako has been losing sleep over her grandmother.
  • After the finals, in response to Sodoko clearing her truancy record, she lets out a whoop and glomps her.
• Punny Name: "Reizei" sounds a lot in Japanese like "lazy".
• The Quiet One: Compared to the rest of Anglerfish Team, since she rarely speaks in a given scene that doesn't specifically involve her. This is lampshaded by her Tsundere grandmother.
  Hisako: "You're always too quiet, like some anti-social!"
• Raised by Grandparents: Mako's parents died when she was in elementary school.
• Resigned to the Call: She really doesn't want to take up Sensha-do, only joining because of The Pardon, and even then she has a problem waking up early to attend tank practice. Eventually, she attends tank practice on her own will, and is willing to put extra time on practicing with everyone after school.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Midoriko Sono sees her chronically tardiness as a grievous offense to their class, and hence became "Sodoko".
• Skinship Grope: Mako is shown testing Saori's assets while Miho is getting measured for the new uniforms.
• Super-Speed Reading: She can perfectly drive a tank across an uneven wooden suspension bridge after reading the manual for a few seconds.
• The Smart Girl: She's got the best grades, and can learn to drive anything by just reading the manual.
• The Stoic: Most of the time, due to her lethargic behavior, she is non-expressive and monotone about most subjects and occasions.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: As Miho points out, despite seeming more aloof than the other girls, her interactions with her grandmother and willingness to help Sodoko show a warmer side. Her reaction to Miho saving Rabbit Team is more understated than most, but her smile is proof that she's impressed.
• Tempting Fate: In the movie, she wishes that the school just be gone because she has to wake up early again. Not even a day passes when everyone finds out that the school is actually closed down.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Loves sweets in general, but is partial to milkshake.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: She has some indications of this with Saori, since she doesn't hesitate to snark at Saori, often over her lower intelligence, but they care a great deal for each other.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: It's implied that in spite of her bickering with her grandmother, she isn't just scared of her temper, but wants her to be proud of her. Her image song also shows her fear of disappointing her.
• When She Smiles: Surprisingly warm and kind looking in the rare times she does.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Fears ghosts, heights and, above all, her grandmother Hisako more than she fears being held back.

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