History Characters / NecessaryToWin

!Toshi Kumakura
Coach for Saunders, and one of Masae’s former teachers.

* CoolOldLady
* TheMentor: To Masae when she was younger.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Coaches fairly and is supportive to her students.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Saunders College High]]

An American-themed school that is considered one of the favorites to win the tournament. Oarai faces them in the semi-finals.

Ten years ago, under Harue’s command, Saunders was a relative underdog. While Harue became demoralized after losing the tournament, Saunders has come a long way since then, and is now one of the stronger schools.

!Tropes Associated With Saunders as a Whole
* EagleLand: The friendlier variant.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Their reaction to finding out what winning would have meant for Oarai.
* ObliviouslyEvil: If they win against Oarai, [[spoiler:Oarai will get shut down, Miho will be disowned, and Nodoka (who is friends with some of the team) will be forced to switch schools once again]], none of which they necessarily want to happen. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone They don't take it well when they find out]].

!Kay

-->'''Position''': Commander of the team.
-->''"This is tankery, not war. In war, when lives are on the line, it's reasonable to use any means necessary to defeat the enemy with as few of your people dying as possible. By comparison, when you think about it, only bragging rights and trophies are at stake in tankery matches, and no one is supposed to get hurt."''

Commander of Saunders, Kay has been interested in tankery since a young age, but has only been able to do tankery since high school. She’s known Yuu since their first year at Saunders, and helped play a role in getting her out of her shell.

* {{Foil}}: Her belief in having fun and playing fairly coming before winning puts her in contrast to Anchovy, and Anchovy is chagrined to hear that Kay has made it to the semi-finals.
* GracefulLoser: She cheerfully accepts her loss against Oarai, and tells Miho that there's more to tankery than wining or losing.
* FriendlyEnemy: To Miho. She even tells her about situations in which it is possible for rivals to trust each other to do the right thing.
* GoodIsNotDumb: Naomi believes this of her, and Kay sets out to prove that it's possible to win while playing fairly.
* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: She is fond of good sportsmanship.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Her reaction to Alisa’s wiretapping is uncharacteristic anger. She also gets quite upset when she learned that [[spoiler:if Saunders had won, Oarai would have gotten shut down]].
* WhatTheHellHero: Scolds Alisa when she learns about [[spoiler:her intercepting Oarai's communications]].

!Naomi
-->''''Year''': 3rd
-->'''Position''': Commander of her tank, vice-captain.
-->''"Kay believes in fair play, but she's not stupid."''

Kay’s second in command, and one of the better tankers on the team.

* FriendlySniper: She's good natured, relatively cheerful, and a great shot, able to take down Rabbit Team from a far distance.

!Alisa

* TheReliableOne: Her reliability was why she was chosen to be commander of the Achiga girls.

* GermanicEfficiency

Also known as Jagdpanther-chan.

* AntiVillain: Type IV.

* ThePollyanna: She's quite happy to have more people on the Konishi Middle School tankery team, even if she knows that it's not a very strong one by any standard.

!Tropes Associated With Black Forest

Saki’s older sister, who was her greatest inspiration in tankery. The two competed together in the middle school tournament, along with Mizuho, until an accident resulted in Teru having to decide whether to save Saki or Mizuho, resulting in Saki surviving and Mizuho dying. Soon afterward, their parents separated, and Teru stopped talking to Saki.

* ShutUpKirk: She shrugs off Miho’s protests and tells her that if she coddles the students, the team will suffer. Her statement that her mother would agree forces Miho into silence.

!Miho Nishizumi

!Saori Takebe

!Hana Isuzu

!Mako Reizei

!Noriko Isobe

!Akebi Sasaki

!Shinobu Kawanishi

!Taeko Kondou.

!Riko “Erwin” Matsumoto

!Takako “Caesar” Suzuki

!Kiyomi “Saemonza” Sugiyama

!Takeko “Oryou” Nogami

!Azusa Sawa

!Ayumi Yamagou

!Aya Ono

!Karina Sakaguchi

!Yuuki Utsugi

!Saki Maruyama

!Yumi Kajiki

!Momoko Touyoko

* ClingyJealousGirl: Gets jealous when Yumi calls Miho by her first name.

!Satomi Kanbara

!Kaori Senoo

!Mutsuki Tsuyama

!Saki Miyanaga

!Hisa Takei/Ueno

* CharacterDevelopment: Much of it happens before the fic begins, as she initially cursed her bad luck at winding up in a school without tankery, but began to take steps to fix this.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Makes arguments of this nature to Miho to help her become more assertive.

!Nodoka Haramura

!Mako Someya

!Yuuki Kataoka

!Tropes associated with the Student Council as a whole

!Anzu Kadotani

* GotVolunteered: Miho, with Hisa’s encouragement, ends up doing this to get Momo to be gunner.

!Momo Kawashima

!Yuzu Koyama

!Mallard Team

!Midoriko “Sodoko” Sono

* GungHolierThanThou

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Is forced to take tankery lessons from Mako Reizei, much to her displeasure, but she reluctantly accepts it.

!Moyoko “Gomoyo” Gotou

* RedOniBlueOni: Blue oni to Sodoko.

!Konparu “Pazomi” Nozomi

* {{Foil}}: To the Haramuras. The Akiyamas don’t know much about tankery but are willing to support Yukari’s interest, while the Haramuras disapprove of tankery.

* GoodParents

* TheVoiceless

* WeUsedToBeFriends: With Takako.

* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:In an accident three years ago, she chose to save Saki instead of Mizuho, believing Mizuho was already dead]].

* WalkingSpoiler: It’s difficult to talk about her without spoiling her backstory.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: She finds corporeal punishment to be too extreme of a method of discipline, although this is in part due to her belief that Takako is wasting her effort on those who are

->''"You want to turn back the clock, back to the days when we pretended we were one happy family, Saki? How could you when one of us is gone and won't ever come back? When you act as though she was never part of our family to begin with?"''

* BenevolentBoss: Cares a great deal for her troops,

* FriendlyEnemy: To Miho.

Kay’s second in command, and one of the better

* FriendlySniper

** Asks Nodoka if she would stop doing tankery if her father ordered her to do so.

* ObliviouslyEvil: If they win against Oarai, [[spoiler:Oarai will get shut down, Miho will be disowned, and Nodoka (who is friends with some of the team) will be forced to switch schools once again]], none of which they necessarily want to happen.

* WhereDidWeGoWrong: She finds herself asking this after Hana goes into tankery, purchasing a book on parenting. She ultimately realizes that Hana developed a great deal independently of her parents.

->“Have you heard this saying? Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

->"And no one seems to find my jokes funny. For me, that's like being a chef that can't make edible dishes. ''(thinks)'' Like Darjeeling-san."

!Jindai Komaki

IdenticalStranger: Is one to Saki, although Sumire notices that her hair is a different color and her breasts are much larger.

Mizuho drowned in a tankery accident in her first year of middle school, when their tank plunged into a river. Teru, believing she may have already diedd and pressed for time, chose to save Saki.

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent

* AlliterativeName

* ParentalAbandonent: Her parents died in an accident and she was taken in.

* PosthumousCharacter

Saki’s older sister, who was her greatest inspiration for tankery. The two competed together in the middle school tournament, until an unknown incident that resulted in the family breaking apart.

* ByronicHero: She’s brooding, cynical, lives life without regard for what others (especially her parents) think, and is haunted by the past.

* UnreliableExpositor: Some of what she says is questionable, since we only have her word for it.

!Kakura Kurumi

* TheReliableOne: Her reliability was why she was chosen to be commander of the Achiga girls, [[spoiler:and commander of the team after Kay graduates]].

* WellDoneSonGuy: Averted. She has completely given up on winning her parents’ approval, and even says that trying for someone else's approval is a difficult goal

* OnlyFriend: Sumire is this for her.

* OnlyFriend: To Teru.

As in canon, Rabbit Team is a team of first-years with little in common save for their being in the same year at the same school and a love of movies.

* ItsAllMyFault: They blame themselves for the defeat against BC Freeedom

->'''Position''': Commander

Year: 2nd
Position:

* BadassTeacher

* HiddenDepths: She’s an instructor for the JGSDF and a student for the Nishizumi school, but

->'''Position''': Commander of her tank
An old friend of Ako’s who went to BC Freedom.

Position: Commander of an AMC 34.

According to Mihoko, St. Gloriana decided to change things last year, and as such, appointed [[BadBoss Ceylon]] as commander. In response to Ceylon losing in the semi-finals against Pravda, they decided to go with Mihoko as commander.

!Masaki Funakubo(formerly Atago)

Be warned: many spoilers are unmarked.

Teru's loader, as well as significantly more nervous and insecure about her spot on the team than most of her teammates.

Saki and Teru’s parents, who are separated at the start of the fic [[spoiler:and are divorced by the end]].

[[/folder]]

->'''Year: 2nd

* AntiVillain: Type IV.

* UnreliableExpositor: Some of what she says is questionable, such as whether her father truly opposed adopting Mizuho, since it we only have her word for it.

* DisappointedInYou: Her reaction to Miho resigning after the incident in the previous tournament.

* KickTheDog: Slapping a student for missing a shot on the Joghurt flag tank during the last tournament.

* FollowInMyFootsteps: Averted. They didn’t do what their parents did, and don’t expect Yukari to follow them into their line of work.

* OpenMindedParents: It’s implied that they are this way because their parents supported their desire to become hairdressers.

[[/folder]]

!Joghurt

Kazue Nanpo

Shizuru Nanpo
Kazue’s grandmother and a renowned tanker back in her time.
* GenderFlip: Of Satoru Nanpo, Kazue’s grandfather from Saki.

!Hana Isuzu

* LetsFightLikeLadies: She is fond of good sportsmanship.

* WhatTheHellHero: Complains about Anzu’s threat to expel Miho.

* GracefulLoser: Against St. Gloriana

Commander of the flag tank for Anzio

“Beaten by a bunch of rank amateurs from a no-name school? [[YouveGotToBekiddingMe You’ve got to be kidding me]]!”
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe

The page is under construction; only add tropes from the fic itself. Since characters' backstories often change or are expanded on, a brief paragraph

* [[AFatherToHerMen A Mother to her Girls]]: Cares for her people, takes the time to listen to them,

* {{Jerkass}}

* OriginalCharacter: As a result of her graduating before the start of the story.

Year: 2nd
Position: Driver

Year: 1st
Position: Hull gunner/co driver

Year: 3rd
Position: Commander of her tank and Pravda’s tankeryt eam.

* CoolBigSis: To Kinue.
* FieryRedhead

* HeroAntagonist

* IllGirl: Not in the best of health after her hospitalization.

Toki and Ryuuka’s mutual friend.

A member of Hiroko’s crew.

->'''Position''':

Coach for Saunders, and formerly advisor for the Achiga girls’ tankery club.
Harue was a rising star at Saunders 10 years ago, but after her defeat against [[spoiler:Ami Chouno]], she was hesitant to return to tankery, and as such, advised a club of young girls interested in tankery at Achiga, as a form of rehabilitation.

* {{Tritagonist}}

Year: 3rd
->'''Tank''': Jagdtiger.

* {{Tetragonist}}

Teru's loader, as well as significantly more nervous and insecure about her spot on the team than most of her year-mates.

Black Forest’s coach and one of Shiho’s students. She has a somewhat bad reputation for physically abusing her students.

Year: 2nd
Position: Commander of her tank and Oarai’s tankery team, formerly loader

!Mako Reizei

* NotSoDifferent: Sees herself as this compared to Hana and Nodoka, and urges them to resolve their problems with their family before it’s too late.

* TheStoic: The level-headed one.

A team of history enthusiasts

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Of all the Oarai teams, they most exemplify this.

!Aya Ono

* ClubPresident: Of the mahjong club

* WideEyedIdealist: She realizes that it will be difficult to bring her family back together, but perseveres nevertheless.

The StudentCouncil of Oarai, sans Hisa, who is commander of Octopus Team/

* GotVolunteered: Miho, with Hisa’s encouragement, ends up doing this to get Momo to be gunner

* ATeamFiring: As in canon, but she gets switched out earlier.

* NiceGirl

* YouDidTheRightThing: Tells this to Miho with regards to saving the tank in the previous tournament.

* BrutalHonesty: Her defining character trait

* JadeColoredGlasses: She’s somewhat cynical,

* AscendedExtra: She shows up more after her match.
* BreakTheHaughty: Losing to Oarai has this effect on her.

* SoreLoser: Complains about Oarai winning, and wonders what it says if a school like theirs can defeat hers

Year: 3rd

A British-themed school

* HeelRealization: Undergoes one while watching Mihoko’s match with Oarai, but only realizes the full extent of her being on the wrong path by the time Mihoko graduates, when she notices that she, despite having won fewer matches, is far happier and more fulfilled.

!Teru Miyanaga

* AwfulTruth: Mizuho was still alive when the tank fell into the river, and thus Teru could have saved her.

Toyone Anetai

[[folder:BC Freedom]]

A relative underdog among the tankery schools that suffers from relatively low crew morale, and few teammates.

Tropes Associated with BC Freedom As a Whole

[[folder:St. Gloriana]]

[[folder:Pravda]]

!Tropes Associated with Pravda as a Whole

* YouHaveFailedMe: Defied. [[spoiler:After losing to Black Forest, she makes it clear to Maho that she has no desire to scapegoat any of her subordinates for the loss, especially not her sister]].

Year: 2nd
Position:Commander of her tank, member of the strategy committee

Year: 3rd
Position: Gunner

* FriendlySniper

Year: 3rd
Position: Loader

Year: 3rd
Position: Driver

Year: 1st
Position: Radio Operator.

* LetsFightLikeLadies: She likes
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Her reaction to Alisa’s wiretapping is uncharacteristic anger. She also gets quite upset when she learned that [[spoiler:if Saunders had won, Oarai would have gotten shut down]].
* WhatTheHellHero: Gives one to Alisa for the use of [[spoiler: radio interception balloon]].

Year: 3rd
Position: Commander of her tank, vice-captain.

* FriendlySniper: Unlike most of the rest of the team, she’s fairly understanding with Alisa

Year: 3rd
Position: Commander of her tank, operations officer.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: While terrified of Kay’s wrath, she still believes that [[spoiler:intercepting radio communications]] is a valid and necessary tactic.

* OhCrap: After realizing that [[spoiler:Kay found the radio interception balloon]].

Year: 1st
Position: Loader

* GracefulLoser: [[spoiler:She doesn’t mind losing, and is willing to try again next year, especially when it comes at the hands of her old friend’s crew]].

“Ako often joked that Shizuno would wear a tracksuit everywhere if she was allowed to do so, which had a grain of truth.”

Year: 1st
Position: Gunner
Another old friend of Nodoka’s from Achiga.

Year: 1st
Position: Driver
Tank: Sherman Firefly

* AgeLift: A year younger than in canon.

* OpenMindedParent: Her and Yuu’s father, according to her. She also suggests that her mother would be this if she were still alive.

Year: 3rd
Position: Radio Operator
Tank: Sherman Firefly

Year: 1st
Position: Commander
Tank: Sherman Firefly

Year: 3rd

Year: 2nd
Position: Gunner

Year: 2nd

Year: 3rd

* CatchPhrase: “It’s All the Government’s fault!” which she uses on anything from an ambush failing to [[spoiler:getting taken out by the P44]].

[[folder:Black Forest]]

* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor
* GermanicDepressives

* TrueCompanions: As a team, this is somewhat averted, as Miho notices a lack of camaraderie. Some members, however, become or have ben close friends, like Miho and Koume, Teru and Sumire, and [[spoiler:Maho and Teru]].

Position: Commander of her tank, and of the Black Forest tankery team.
Tank: Tiger I

“Miho's freedom and happiness are still my greatest desires, as they were back then, but I've learned that helping her get them is more complicated than I thought. And while I no longer see things in black and white, I'm not always satisfied with the choices I make, or the results that I get."

Year: 3rd
Position: Gunner.

* SecretKeeper: She’s one of the few who knows about Teru’s past. [[spoiler:Even so, she doesn’t know about the decision Teru had to make]].

Year: 2nd
Posiition: Radio Operator

Year: 2nd
Position: Loader

Black Forest’s Coach and one of Shiho’s students. She has a somewhat bad reputation for physically abusing her students.

Bosporu Academy
Kakura Kurumi

In the past, she was at Geneva Middle School, [[spoiler:and faced Miho’s middle school in the match in which Mizuho lost her life]].

* HeroicBSOD: Was in one after [[spoiler:the tragedy in her first round match at the tournament three years ago]]

* AmbiguousSituation: Since neither of their daughters are fully objective about them, and Teru claims that her father was not fully forthcoming with his opinions, it’s difficult to tell how demanding they were.
* [[spoiler:AmicablyDivorced]]: [[spoiler:This is the end result of Saki’s attempts to get the family back together]].
* DysfunctionalFamily
*

* OpenMindedParent: Reiko is this in comparison to Kei, but Kei eventually comes around.
* OriginalCharacter:Reiko

* WhereDidWeGoWrong: She finds herself asking this after Hana goes into tankery, purchasing a book on parenting. She ultimately realizes that Hana develops a great deal independently of her parents, [[spoiler:and ultimately accepts Hana doing tankery]].

* GoodParents

* IHaveNoSon: [[spoiler:Following the manga, she uses this as a threat to motivate Miho into winning against Saunders]]

* TheMaidenNameDebate: Kept her name and gave it to her children after marrying, because her husband was disowned by his family for marrying her.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: In the alternate ending, says this of Shiho disowning Miho.

Note: Since characters’ backstories might have changed, it’s helpful to include a brief

Like in canon, this is a group consisting of Miho and her friends. They perform well, winning the practice battle, and

They have a Panzer IV.

* TheHero

Year: 2nd
Position: Radio Operator

Year: 2nd
Position: Driver

Year: 2nd
Position: Commander

She’s also friends with Mutsuki Tsuyama, whose club suffered a similar fate.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: After her tank is taken out in the finals, she quotes Saemonza’s FamousLastWords… but does so referring to herself by her real name.

* MyGreatestSecondChance: After fleeing the battle with BC Freedom, they serve as the flag tank against Anzio, a role they will have to perform well for their school to win.

Year: 1st
Position: Commander

Year: 1st
Position: Gunner

Year: 1st
Position: Driver

Year: 1st
Position:

Year: 1st
Position: Loader

A team of Saki characters, consisting of those who were from Tsuruga Academy in Saki, and in this fic, are the former members of the disbanded mahjong club.

Year: 3rd
Position: Commander

* SugarAndIcePersonality:

Year: 1st
Position: Gunner

* {{Invisibility}}: Her Stealth Mode is still present here, although it’s useless in tank combat.

Year: 3rd
Position: Driver

* {{Foil}}: To Yumi. Satomi is laid-back and doesn’t think too deeply about things.

Year: 2nd
Position: Radio Operator

* NoSenseOfDirection: The reason why she’s not tapped for the search for Rabbit Team.

* [[spoiler:TraumaInducedAmnesia]]: [[spoiler:Has forgotten not only the circumstances associated with Mizuho’s death, but also Mizuho herself]].

* WalkingTechbane: Searching for information on Hisa on the internet very nearly got her banned from the computer labs until she met Kana.

Year: 3rd
Position: Commander of her tank, Vice-captain
“Have you heard this saying? Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

* LastSecondWordSwap: She does this when about to say “Hell Yes” when asked if the rumors about Ceylon are true.

Year: 3rd

* DespairSpeech: Interlude 8 is essentially a long one from her.
* TheFettered: Forced to act according to her mother and the coach’s demands, and has certain things she will not do for Miho’s sake.

* [[spoiler:GracefulLoser]]: Glad that her sister has found her own way of tankery.

* OddFriendship: Eventually becomes friends with the brutally honest Hiroe, who happens to be the elder daughter of the head of an opposing tankery school.

** Also comes to consider Miho this.

!Teru Miyanaga (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Tank: Jagdtiger, [[spoiler:Panzer VIII Maus]]
Position: Commander of her tank, Vice-Captain.

"You want to turn back the clock, back to the days when we pretended we were one happy family, Saki? How could you when one of us is gone and won't ever come back? When you act as though she was never part of our family to begin with?"

Saki’s older sister, who was her greatest inspiration for tankery. The two competed together in the middle school tournament, along with Mizuho, until an accident resulted in Mizuho’s death. Soon afterward, their parents separated, and Teru stopped talking to Saki.

After the semifinals, she confronts Saki over what happened. In the finals, she crews a Panzer VIII Maus in an attempt to defeat Saki’s teammates, but is defeated by a well-placed shot by Saki herself. She sees the error of her ways, apologizes to Saki, and begins the process of reconciling with her.

* AntiVillain: Type II. At heart, she is a girl who was profoundly impacted by a death in the family, and her feeling as though she is responsible.

* ByronicHero: She’s brooding, cynical, lives life without regard for what others (especially her parents) think, and is haunted by the incident that claimed Mizuho’s life.

* CynicismCatalyst: The death of Mizuho is this for her. Even after reconciling with Saki, she remains fairly cynical.

* HeelRealization: Has one after Saki defeats the Maus, realizing just where she went wrong.
* {{Hypocrite}}: As she realizes after the finals, while accusing Saki of forgetting about Mizuho, she was the one who pushed Saki out of her life

* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:In an accident three years ago, she chose to save Saki instead of Mizuho, believing Mizuho was already dead]].
* OnlyFriend: Sumire is this for her. However, by the end, she says she considers Maho one as well.
* SadisticChoice: Essentially was forced to choose between saving Saki and saving Mizuho
* SecretTestOfCharacter: She sees attacking Saki’s team in the Maus as this, forcing Saki to show how far she can and will go to protect her friends.
* TearsOfRemorse: While apologizing to Saki.
* {{Tetragonist}}
* TragicVillain: The tragedy influences most of her actions, including her treatment of her younger sister.

* VillainousFriendship: Has one with Sumire and later Maho.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Averted. She has completely given up on winning her parents’ approval, and fights for her own reasons.

Masaki Funakubo(formerly Atago)

[[/folder]