"I will wage a full throttle of blitzkrieg!"
— Erika "The Radical" Itsumi
Girls und Panzer - Erika the Radical is a Girls und Panzer fanfiction written by zaochron333
that focuses on supporting character Erika Itsumi and the girls of Kuromorimine Women's Academy after the canon events of the 62nd National Sensha-do Championships.
After witnessing yet another loss at the hands of Miho Nishizumi and her unique style during the 62nd Sensha-do Nationals, Head of Kuromorimine Shino Nishizumi comes to the conclusion that her famed Nishizumi-style has fallen behind the times and with her daughter Maho due for graduation, chooses Erika Itsumi to be the new Commander to the Kuromorimine Sensha-do team. Not only that, she is also given the daunting task of radically altering the very principles of the Nishizumi-ryu in order to bring Kuromorimine back to the victory lap. Enlisting the help of both old and new friends, Erika will make a startling discovery of what her own Sensha-do is, and what it really means to follow her heart, be it in tankery or her personal love life.
This is the story of Erika Itsumi, and how she earns her title of, The Radical.
It also explores Erika's relationships with her friends as well as the various crushes and romantic build-ups that ensue. A crap-ton of Ship Tease is expected when reading this fanfiction. And memes. Lots and lots of memes. It's that kind of fanfiction.
'Season 1' of the fic can be found here, with 'Season 2' here.
This fan work contains examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: Due to Erika's multiple incidents involving confessing to women on public broadcasts, involuntarily groping women and several other events, the public readily assumes her perversions are part of her new "Radical" persona. Erika is understandably miffed about this, especially when people assume any of her actions to be part of her plan to "conquer" them. Also being surrounded by company like Karen or Elena does her no favours at all in this department.
- Ace Custom: Chief Keni, the head of Kuromorimine's engineering department owns a Japanese Type 98 Ke-Ni light tank, modified to be a recovery vehicle. Similar to Leopon team's, it has it's engine jacked-up to go at ridiculous speeds.
- Affluent Ascetic: It turns out Anchovy is one, having distanced herself from her family's immense wealth and status in order to escape the burden of inheriting the family company and to forge her own path in life through Sensha-do.
- All Germans Are Nazis: Played With. Elena has German heritage, in which the irony of her being in a German-themed Kuromorimine is not lost on her. She and her close friends like to joke about this trope once in a while.
- During the coup, she is seen wearing an SS-inspired peaked cap and a Badass Longcoat.
- It comes to a head in the end of chapter 8 in S2, where she starts Laughing Mad upon hearing the Saunders-St. Gloriana's challenge, and declaring that, "Finally... we have returned."
- In Season 2 - Chapter 10, Elena inspects a recently-kidnapped Orange Pekoe and compliments her on her "Aryan" features (blue eyes, blonde hair, facial structure, etc) before bring her elsewhere to do.... something.
- Season 2 - Episode 11: Several Kuromorimine students (especially Elena) are excited to wear the tournament-sponsored, Wehrmacht-inspired costumes for their match against Saunders - St. Gloriana's, even complementing on the otherwise historically accurate markings (sans Swastikas, of course).
- Ascended Extra: Many background characters from Kuromorimine get names, characterization and a bigger spotlight than the main series. Aside from original characters, Koume Akaboshi is appointed Vice-Commander of the team after Erika's ascension to Commander.
- Ashface: Olga gets one when a Stielhandgranate (with severely reduced non-lethal load, thankfully) thrown by Yukari explodes in her hand.
- Avengers Assemble: Kay assigns Alisa and Naomi to recruit from the Saunders delinquency pool as their 'wild cards', in a direct response to witnessing the new Kuromorimine in action in Season 2.
- Badass Boast: "I will wage a full throttle of blitzkrieg!"
- Badass Driver: In the form of Cadenza Gatti who later becomes Erika's tank driver for most of her matches.
- Batman Gambit: Karen's coup is based on exploiting the highly predictable Nishizumi-style falling for her rebels unorthodox tactics and schemes, and that Erika would eventually confront her one way or another regardless of the situation she is put in.
- Battle in the Rain: The first skirmish between Karen's rebels and the Morals Disciplinary Committee's Feldgendarmerie takes place during a heavy downpour, in which the defenders take full advantage of.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: It was Miho who begged Karen to sit out the fateful 61st Nationals when the latter was down with the flu but felt pressured to go anyway. It was this act of genuine concern and care that led Karen to listen to her commander rather than blindly obeying, which motivates Karen's actions in Season 1.
- Becoming the Mask: Played for laughs in Season 2 Chapter 10, where a disguised Erika slowly becomes more ladylike, refined and addicted to tea during her team's infiltration into St. Gloriana.Karen: ... what happened to Erika-chan?
Lotte & Hawisa: She got colonized. - The Berserker: Alisa's M4A1(76) Sherman suddenly becomes a raging speedster of a tank once it is commandeered by an awakened Helmet-chan.
- Betty and Veronica: Maho and Karen respectively are these to Erika, who has a hard time in private deciding who she loves more, aside from her already conflicting feelings for Miho.
- Bilingual Dialogue: Erika seemingly has no issues understanding the Gratuitous Italian that Cadenza Gatti speaks. How or why is never brought up throughout the story.
- Bizarro Episode: Invoked in Season 1 Chapter 10. It is a series of troll Multiple Endings and What If? variations of events akin to an episode of How It Should Have Ended. Highlights include an alternate opening where Oorai loses, closes down and Miho disappearing forever, Maho accepting Erika's confession and practically marrying on the spot, Erika confessing to Miho instead and the last one being of extremely questionable taste. Erika confessing to Shiho Nishizumi and them getting married after the end through Insane Troll Logic. Maho, being so done with her mom's shit goes and joins Miho in Oorai.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: In Season 2 - Episode 11, we have Fraulein Black - a dark, sadistic, twisted parody of what was once the sweet, mild-mannered, soft-spoken girl called Orange Pekoe after Elena was done with her "re-conditioning". Despite the horrifying implications of the previous sentence, this event is still played for laughs.
- Breather Episode: Season 2 Chapter 3 takes a short break from plot and character introduction to give us a chaotic day in Kuromorimine; a spying Yukari Akiyama on the run, Erika missing her lower unmentionables, romantic tensions and the sailors being generally up to no good.
- Burn Baby Burn: Megan and White Boar sets Kuromorimine's fuel depot aflame near the climax of the St. Gloriana-Saunders vs Kuromorimine match.
- Cacophony Cover Up: As seen in Battle in the Rain above, the rebel forces uses the downpour to cover the sounds of their movement. Erika loses this advantage when the rain conveniently stops before her turn at fighting Karen, but she improvises by using a Hanomag armored half-track loaded with loudspeakers to cover up the sounds of her scout vehicles moving through enemy positions as well as her Elefant tank destroyers being pushed by heavy-duty moving trucks onto a elevated position. The music in question? Ride of the Valkyries of course.
- Cast Full of Gay: Almost all the named characters from Kuromorimine seem to have some preference for the fairer sex, with the exception of first-year student Lotte Siskin who offhandedly mentions that she has a boyfriend. Alisa from Saunders is also aggressively hetero for her canon love interest, an unseen boy named Takeshi.
- The Cavalry: Inverted in Season 2, Chapter 12. Kuromorimine's initial Curb-Stomp Battle against the Saunders main force is viciously countered by St. Gloriana's trump cards, which includes Bonple High tankette reinforcements para-dropped via gliders and Maho Nishizumi.
- The Cameo:
- Chito and Yuuri are introduced in Season 2 as members of the Round Table's security, Kettenkrad, helmets and rifle included.
- The author gives a heartfelt tribute to the late Stan Lee when Erika bumps into him disguised as a janitor after the battle with Bellwall Academy. Erika thanks him for the all the work he has done anyway."You know, I guess one person can make a difference. Nuff said."
- Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Zig-Zagged.
- When BC Freedom – Maginot challenges Kuromorimine, the German mechanics relentlessly joke about every stereotype of the trope, about how the French tanks might reverse faster than their own, the need to go around them and more. It is even invoked when several BC Freedom–Maginot elements do defect to Kuromorimine before the match, essentially recreating the Vichy–Free French split from WWII.
- Thoroughly averted during the actual match however as the BC Freedom – Maginot team puts up a very stiff resistance, with the presence of large Char 2C superheavy tanks and the surprise fielding of mobile artillery. It gets worse when the Vichy faction suddenly betrays Kuromorimine and these turn of events actually forces Erika to order a retreat, a first for the Nishizumi school.
- They do eventually surrender in the end, but only after the entire artillery unit were captured/wiped out, their ace-in-the-hole taken out and that Kuromorimine were about to overrun the main capture point anyway, with no avenues of counterattacking.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: In Season 2, various members of BC Freedom and Maginot Academy seem to change sides at a whim during their match against Kuromorimine.
- First, Karen convinces the Escalation faction of BC Freedom and elements of Maginot opposed to Eclair's leadership to join them by bribing them with expensive gifts.
- During the match, their 'Vichy' allies turns on Kuromorimine when the French Alliance informs everyone that the bribes were knockoffs via carrier pigeons.
- Even later, Marie, Oshida and Andou's tanks defect to Kuromorimine when the Ribbion Warrior herself appears, the former being personally insulted by Shizuka Tsuruki's tankathalon style. Also, she just wanted to spite the French Alliance leaders for even hiring Shizuka, an outsider for the match.
- City on the Water: Aside from the school ships, the Round Table introduced in Season 2 is a high-tech, purpose-built massive artificial island for grand-scale tankery matches, that also has luxurious living quarters, several hotels and mega malls built around the arena itself. Not to mention the ports that can dock several of the already huge school ships side-by-side. According to the author, the whole island is impossibly the size of 1/3 of the Australian continent.
- The Combat Pragmatist: Erika slowly learns to become this after she is given the reigns over the Nishizumi school and style, being directly inspired from Miho's own style of sensha-do, and with a little push from Karen's coup, begins breaking free of the school's rigid tactics for more freedom of self-initiative on a squad level.
- The Coup: Karen Nakahashi pulls one off against the entire Nishizumi school, by threatening to leak (doctored) compromising photos of Vice-Commander Erika if the Kuromorimine team cannot beat her and her rebels in an impromptu tankery match within 3 hours. She even tricks the Maintenance team the night before into prepping most of the heavy tanks for her rebels by forging Maho's signature.
- A Day in the Limelight: Alisa and by extension the Saunders tankery team gets one in Season 2 - Chapter 9 when the story diverges to them assembling their Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, with the Kuromorimine protagonists making a small appearance in the end.
- Day of the Jackboot: On the surface, Karen's coup against the Nishizumi school is apparently an attempt to drive the school and its teachings out of Kuromorimine by force. Practically no one saw this coming.
- Defeat Equals Friendship: Erika defeats Karen Nakahshi's rebels during Season 1 and subsequently earns the loyalty and respect of Karen and her crew, including the delinquent sailors of Kuromorimine's Naval Studies Department. Even the Feldgendarmerie officially contributes some of its members to the school's Sensha-do team afterwards fighting side-by-side with their former enemies.
- Bellwall later assists Kuromorimine against the Saunders - St. Gloriana's alliance by adding several of their tanks and crew to the Kuromorimine count.
- Defector from Decadence: Huguette Steiglitz, a former Kuromorimine super-delinquent who transferred to Saunders thanks to the actions of the previous "Bastards" from Saunders. Sounds familiar?
- Delinquents: Similar to Oorai, Kuromorimine's Naval Studies Department is apparently filled with these at the lower decks, in contrast to the highly disciplined nature of Kuromorimine and the practitioners of the Nishizumi-style. In Season 2, Saunders is revealed to have its own band of juvenile miscreants, but evenly spread amongst the student body.
- Den of Iniquity: A non-explicit variant. The Garden of Eden below the decks of Kuromorimine serves as an escape for the repressed students and sailors to relax and let loose from the monotony and rigid discipline of their high school life. The arcade machines, questionably legal drinks and other forms of entertainment apparently came from the founding member's own pockets, as well as donations from like-minded students and former alumni.
- Despair Event Horizon: Alisa in Season 2 - Episode 11 has her on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle by Kuromorimine witnessing setback after setback. Lotte helps her cross it completely with the revelation that Takeshi is Lotte's current boyfriend. Alisa undergoes an epic Villainous BSoD and is effectively out of the fight.... until an accidentally awakened Helmet-chan decides that enough is enough....
- Didn't See That Coming: Erika's revolutionary changes to the Kuromorimine doctrine messes with all expectations of the people previously prepared for the usual heavy tanks lineup.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Kuromorimine unleashes several of the infamous "Ersatz" M10 tanks (German Panther tanks externally disguised to look like American M10 Wolverine tank destroyers) against Saunders in their match in Season 2. Notably, the Ersatz M10s has Saunders markings and insignia painted on them when they engaged in combat, which would make this a blatant war crime if this were a real-life combat situation. note
- Drunk on Milk: Erika's first trip to the Garden of Eden ends with her apparently going up on stage seemingly drunk, leaking news of her ascension to the rank of commander, a Love Confession to Maho Nishizumi, then ends with her karaoke singing (badly). As no alcohol was served at the bar, Karen suggests that she simply got high off the atmosphere, then partied hard afterwards.
- Erotic Dream: The opening chapter of Season 2 is pretty much this for poor (or lucky, depending on the reader) Erika. It involves an apparently jealous Miho, a very dominant Maho, an unexpectedly submissive Karen and finally comes crashing down with Shiho Nishizumi intending to join in. Cue Erika waking up completely mortified. It affects her for the rest of Season 2.
- Engineered Public Confession: The finale of Season 1 reveals the footage of what Erika said during her 'drunk' episode. Her drunkenly telling everyone how she is to become the new commander of Kuromorimine and wishing how she could just boldly ask Maho Nishizumi out for a date. The leaked footage is aired out in public. In front of the whole school. Including Maho herself and her completely unamused mother.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite organizing a coup that nearly humiliated Kuromorimine's reputation, Karen literally only gets a slap on the wrist from Shiho herself for her rebellious actions. Downplayed however, as it is revealed in Season 2 that Karen was subjected to perform hours of community service as her official punishment.
- Easy Amnesia: Anchovy somehow gets some identity disassociation when she was rescued from sea. Then due to a series of events in which she gets a stepladder smashed onto her head, her mind regress to a preteen state after she wakes up from that ordeal. She regains her memory completely when she witnesses the Kuromorimine cafeteria and students desecrating every aspect of cooking spaghetti.
- Maho has one after getting knocked out during the Saunder-Gloriana vs Kuromormine match. She doesn't remember anything that had transpired for two days before.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Erika's well-earned title, "the Radical" is this to her. Especially when given the "-sama" suffix.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Karen Nakahashi is apparently this among the Kuromorimine campus, to the point where Erika often compares her to a succubus with how easily the latter found the former attractive. Erika Itsumi and even Koume Akaboshi get fan clubs of their own once they are thrust into the leadership spotlight.
- Everyone Has Standards: While the mastermind of the coup; Karen and most of her rebels were forgiven for their actions, the more extreme sailors directly responsible for capturing and then stripping the Morals Disciplinary Committee girls of their dignity were not, and were targeted for expulsion. They already had an escape plan executed beforehand; a mass-student transfer to Oorai's Naval Studies department.
- Failure Gambit: Operation Valkyrie was only meant to force the Nishizumi school to change, and for Erika to embrace her own style of sensha-do by having her defeat Karen's forces with unorthodox tactics. It works brilliantly.
- First Kiss: Everyone thinks Erika's first kiss was taken by Karen in the epilogue of Season 1, until her sister Aki reveals that the honor technically goes to Miho back in the 61st Nationals, where she performed CPR on an unconscious Erika during the accident. Erika somehow finds this ok, much to her own conflicting feelings.
- Get Out!: Erika says this as a final blow to the mob of Bellwall Academy hooligans that were attempting to harass the Kuromorimine team, but had quickly found the tables turned on them.
- Gratuitous German: Being students of Kuromorimine, it's no big surprise they issue orders or sometimes swear in German. Elena, Hawisa Wang and Lotte Siskin have the excuse of being actual German international exchange students.
- Gratuitous Italian: Cadenza Gatti breaks out into these once in a while. Justified as she is an Italian exchange student who was supposed to go to Anzio High, but was accidentally transferred to Kuromorimine, and that her parents had already paid for an entire year's tuition fee.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Erika gets very jealous to anyone that shows any kind of affection to Maho Nishizumi and vice versa.
- Heroic BSoD: Erika has a major one when Headmistress Nishizumi informs her about Karen's coup and her own immense disappointment at how Erika allowed herself to be manipulated to this extent. She spends a good portion of the next two chapters essentially catatonic before snapping herself out of it after calling Karen on her cellphone to hear her explanation.
- She experiences another one later in Season 2 when she finds herself facing Maho in Kuromorimine's match against the St. Gloriana-Saunders Alliance, who confronts her about her recent infidelities.
-
Hilarious in Hindsight: As of Das Finale 3, we see canon Kuromorimine with Erika as commander and Koume as her subordinate, with the former finding her own way of Sensha-do. - Humiliating Wager: The match between St.Gloriana-Saunders alliance vs Kuromorimine has a very embarrassing consequence for the losers: the entire losing team has to perform the Anglerfish Dance in costume on live broadcast. Kuromorimine loses, but due the immense collateral damage invoked by Saunders' delinquents, the Round Table judges deems the match a draw, so thankfully no one has to do it.
- Humiliation Conga: Inverted. Karen deals blow after blow to the Morals Disciplinary Committee during the attempted coup. First, she lures the Feldgendarmerie tanks into a series of Defensive Feint Traps that are outside the realm of Sensha-do rules. The girls are tricked or forced out of their tanks by various means and their tanks are then hijacked and turned on their former teammates. Their leader's tank falls into a pitfall and then swarmed by Karen's forces before being taken out. Abe and many of her many of her tankers are then stripped down to their underwear in the cold freezing rainstorm and just simply left there to wallow in their misery.
- Identity Amnesia: In Season 2 Chapter 4, an unconscious Anchovy is rescued at sea and then wakes up thinking she's actually the Duce. No, not just the nickname or persona, the real Benito Mussolini resurrected and given a second chance at rebuilding Fascist Italy.
- The Infiltration: Partially inspired by Yukari, the Kuromorimine gang lead by Erika decides to spy on St. Gloriana's schoolship before their match in Season 2.
- Insult Backfire: In Season 2 Chapter 5, Bellwall Academy comes over to Kuromorimine's hanger to rile them up before the scheduled match. Unfortunately for them, every criticism they mentioned had already transpired and had been resolved during Karen's earlier coup, and the now-united Kuromorimine students rebuff every single one of their insults, to Bellwall's surprise.
- Interesting Situation Duel: Kuromorimine sailors versus BC Freedom–Maginot tankers, all sword fighting on top of moving tanks while a pitched tank battle rages on in the background. Rule of Cool reigns supreme in this fic.
- Iron Lady: Shino Nishizumi's nickname among the students of Kuromorimine.
- Irony: Junko, like Yukari Akiyama is a tank enthusiast, but unfortunately for her she also has severe claustrophobia.
- Is This Thing Still On?: Karen's intentional self-Spanner in the Works conversation with Erika over the phone during the coup was apparently heard by every member of the resistance when she left the comms on. They call her out on it when a very motivated Erika comes in later on them, hard and fast.
- I Surrender, Suckers: A BC Freedom girl tries to backstab Obama immediately after the former lowers her weapon and convinces the latter to let her go peacefully. Obama parries the attack and then Sparta-kicks her off the hijacked Saint-Chamond tank for her treachery.
- I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: Alisa was having an idyllic dream about her love interest Takeshi..... which is abruptly ruined by Kay rudely kicking her room's door open.
- Jumped at the Call: Leila Rou, a former member of Erika's Panzer III crew who is overjoyed at the opportunity to fight alongside her again, even forgiving the latter for the argument that broke the team apart.
- Loophole Abuse: Karen is practically a master at this. With Season 2's Round Table providing a set of revised looser Sensha-do rules, she has so far gotten away with arming the crew of the previously-useless tankettes with Panzerfaust anti-tank launchers, by the justification of the rule that says "as long as the weapon is fired from the vehicle", it is legal.
- Love Confession: After Erika's drunk outburst is aired in the finale of Season 1, Maho actually tries to reciprocate Erika's feelings, but could only awkwardly answer with a "Sorry," (for not noticing before). Everyone else misinterprets Maho's reaction to be one of rejection.
- Karen kisses Erika in the epilogue of Season 1 and timidly declares that her heterosexuality was finally broken by her, to varying degrees of reactions among the witnesses. Maho is not amused in the slightest.
- Koume also does one with a quick and chaste kiss on Erika's lips after the match against BC Freedom/Maginot.
- Sheska consoles a heartbroken Leila with her own confession, that is promptly interrupted by Cadenza and Kai.
- Love Dodecahedron: Erika finds herself in one. Chief of her affections would be Maho Nishizumi, who is willing to return her feelings, albeit in very awkward baby steps and gets visibly jealous when other girls make moves on Erika. Erika also yearns to make amends to Miho, who had saved her life before, only to realize some hidden romantic feelings for her as well. Karen Nakahashi's charisma also attracts Erika's attention and in turn also realizes her own infatuation with Erika. Koume Akaboshi and Leila Rou both figure out their feelings for Erika, who were all former crewmates in that fateful Panzer III. Not to mention both Erika and Koume's respective fan clubs. Being the type of fic that it is, it's all Played for Laughs.
- Loves Me Not: Leila Rou is seen plucking flower petals for Erika to this trope, while getting a "loves-me-not" last petal, fourteen flowers in a row. She is understandably heartbroken about this till Sheska comes along to cheer her up.
- Magical Native American: Parodied. White Boar is an actual Native American transfer student in the Saunders Airlift Division, but speaks and behaves like a very stereotypical caricature of her people.
- Meaningful Name: Karen's coup is code-named, "Operation Valkyrie".
- Moment Killer: A passionate confession between Leila and Sheska is broken and lampshaded word-for-word by an oblivious Cadenza and Kai.
- Season 2 Chapter 12: Erika's tearful re-affirmation of love to Maho is violently interrupted by Fraulein Black firing at Maho's tank, knocking her out.
- Molotov Cocktail: In Season 1 - Chapter 8, Elena in direct violation of Sensha-do rules (and common sense) is seen standing on top of a Jagdpanther using herself as a Human Shield while tossing flaming bottle bombs at Erika's tanks, all the while Laughing Mad.
- Mythology Gag:
- The fic credits Tsuneo Nishizumi as the engineering prodigy who created a guide on how to successfully convert Panzer 38(t) light tanks into the Hetzer tank destroyer configuration despite being historically inaccurate and impossible.
- Kuromorimine's secret bar below-deck serves the same Hanabero Club shots from das Finale. Several students playing mobile games also appear to be facing off against Anteater Team online.
- Erika is still a fan of alligators, and even gets a small backstory for how she came to love them.
- Yukari actually uses the Stielhandgranate that she was shown to possess in das Finale when her infiltration in Season 2 goes sideways. It is depicted as being a smoke grenade however, which would make it a Nebelhandgranate 39 instead.
- Tankathalon is mentioned multiple times, with the Ribbon Warrior herself making her debut in Season 2, chapter 8.
- Darjeeling notes that the disguised Erika (wearing a wig) resembles her predecessor, Earl Grey in Season 2, chapter 10.
- Katuysha accidentally piggybacks herself on Erika's shoulders again, just like the Freeze-Frame Bonus in Girls und Panzer der Film and a few panels from MLLSD.
- Anzio's tankettes surround and dogpile a St. Gloriana heavy tank to immobilize it and give way for Anchovy's P40 to strike a critical hit, similar to their antics in Das Finale Part 2.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Karen's coup hinged on breaking every rule of sensha-do by playing every single dirty trick in the book to defeat Kuromorimine's Feldgendarmerie. Setting traps, utilizing open-top tank destroyers (which are not sensha-do legal), having on-foot infiltration teams force the crews out with smoke grenades or fake snakes, hijacking the enemy tanks and then turning them on their former team. All this done intentionally in order to expose the flaws of the Nishizumi style in the face of unorthodox tactics or unexpected events.
- Not So Stoic: Maho and her mother, Shiho Nishizumi are known in canon for being The Stoic and has never shown any other emotion in public. During the beginning of the coup, Maho nearly goes ballistic on Karen when the latter suggests that she had drugged Erika to obtain Blackmail material, and finally Shiho slamming a table to get Karen to stop beating around the bush and tell her their demands.
- Darjeeling's refined-lady exterior slowly cracks during (a disguised) Erika's confessions about her complicated love life, seeing as Darjeeling herself has zero experience with romance.
- Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: The second part of the fic is titled: "Erika the Radical S2 - Overdrive Phrase". Given the nature of the author and the tone of the series, it is likely intentional.
- Old Shame: In-universe version. Miho's old Tiger I had been repaired and ready for action since the end of the 61st Sensha-do tournament, but the team superstitiously refuse to use it for anything due to the events and person associated with it.
- The One Guy: Chief Keni, as well as the rest of the guys-only Kuromorimine mechanical engineering team are the only male characters to have decent pagetime in the story.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Maho uncharacteristically yells in pure rage when she discovers the full extent of Karen's actions during the coup. This clues in to Erika and her crew that something really went down between Karen and the school.
- Darjeeling maniacally laughs when she reaches the limit of her sanity dealing with Erika and a Yandere Orange Pekoe before reverting back to a state of Tranquil Fury. Everyone is utterly creeped out by this.
- Original Character: The fic contains both canon characters and some original characters adapted from the show's background extras, many given intriguing personalities and backstories. Chief example would be Karen Nakahashi, who is supposed to the the commander of Kuromorimine's Jagdtiger seen during the anime.
- Putting the Band Back Together: Erika's first unofficial act as Commander was to locate and recruit the last two remaining Sensha-do members from her old tank crew, Leila and Sheska.
- Put Their Heads Together: An annoyed Shiko tries to do this to a bickering Oshida and Andou, but ends up making them accidentally lock lips instead.
- Randomly Generated Levels: A non-videogame variant. The Round Table in Season two is a super high-tech arena built on a massive artificial island that has the ability to restructure terrain, generate realistic obstacles such as buildings, functional vehicles, scenery and even simulate weather and temperature conditions.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Karen gives one to Erika regarding the failings of the Nishizumi-style and why she organized the coup. Mainly about how the school insists on enforcing their rigid, strict style onto their practitioners resulting in blindly obedient soldiers with no sense of initiative or individuality. She credits Miho for opening her eyes twice about how more important it is to have fun in sensha-do instead of doing it for a emotionless title.
- Reference Overdosed: The fic contains an overwhelming amount of film, anime, video game references and current-age memes in which most of the side humor is derived from. The author is also evidently a avid subscriber of r/prequelmemes.
- Rock Beats Laser: The BC Freedom/Maginot alliance resorts to using carrier pigeons in a not-so-subtle reference to Battlefield 1 to deliver written messages to their troops, as well as their turncoat Vichy opponents.
- Say My Name: Mamori Abe, the leader of the Morals Disciplinary Committee screams Karen's name when her tank is immobilized and about to be taken out by Karen and her band of rebels. The rebels mock her for it afterwards."KKAAAAREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!-" *Gets shot by multiple heavy tanks*
- Start of Darkness: Inverted. It is revealed that the pressure of the Nishizumi school of sensha-do coupled with the high expectations set for them that slowly made Karen lose her love for the sport and even affected her both physically and mentally. The rift between the seniors and juniors resulting from the fallout from Kuromorimine's loss apparently pushed Karen into her rebellious phase and her underlying dislike for the Nishizumi-style.
- Starts Stealthily, Ends Loudly: In Season 2, Kuromorimine's spy mission into St. Gloriana starts with a quiet infiltration via swamp (somehow) and ends guns-a-blazing with a vehicular chase via a stolen Churchill Mk VII and double-decker-bus.
- Shipper on Deck: Karen is apparently okay with other girls falling for Erika, despite having romantic feelings for Erika herself.
- Shout-Out: Too many, that it needed its own page.
- Skewed Priorities: Despite the fact hat Marie, Andou and Oshida were about to be mobbed by the rest of BC Freedom and Maginot for their betrayal during the match with Kuromorimine, Marie's only concern was that her cake was growing cold.
- State Sec: Downplayed. The Morals Disciplinary Committee of Kuromorimine holds a lot more power in comparison to Oorai's, being lead directly by the Nishizumi head and even fields their own heavy tank platoon separate from the school's team. Many characters including Erika refer to them by their nickname, Feldgendarmerie. Realistically, they are just a heavily-armed high school prefect group which still answers directly to the school system and stand by their own principles.
- Karen however does hold a degree of sway over them, being in possession of a "Black Note" which she sometimes uses to bail herself and others from their scrutiny.
- During the coup however, being indoctrinated by the strict but inflexible Nishizumi-style, they are easily countered by the guerrilla tactics of Karen's rebels and are wiped out in short order.
- The Nishizumis, as well as Erika seem to have a direct hotline to their services.
- Team Pet: Erika's team adopts a red squirrel named 'Dave' as their unofficial mascot. The sailors literally named their pet monkey, Jack.
- Thanks for the Mammary: Erika accidentally (of course) does this to Darjeeling when she falls atop of her after trying to escape.
- Tournament Arc: Season 2 is framed like this. In a twist, the participants of the Round Table are not officially fighting for any trophies as they are really only there to test the island's facilities and their own off-season performance (akin to players beta testing a video game). Everyone still wants to give their best against each another though and with the added twist of there being no enforcement of official Sensha-do rules along with some incentive rewards, the participants quickly show the world how wacky and insane their matches could escalate into.
- A Truce While We Gawk: The sight of Erika and Koume riding a bike while being chased by a tankette that is actively firing on them is apparently a sight worth dropping whatever the hell everyone else was doing. Even the announcer and the crowd were going nuts at the spectacle.
- Tsundere: Mamori Abe acts a lot like this towards her long-time rival, Karen Nakahashi. The latter teases her a lot for it, to the former's extreme indignation.
- Unconventional Vehicle Chase: Erika and Koume on a German WWII motorbike are chased through a simulated French town by a very excited Shizuka in her Type 97 Te-ke.
- Unwanted Harem: Erika slowly finds herself in a very compromising position between multiple ladies, all vying for her affection. Worse of all, Erika does have a degree of feelings for every one of them.
- Vehicular Turnabout: The Kuromorine sailors thrive on this tactic. They do it first to some of the Feldgendarmerie heavy tanks during the coup in Season 1. The next season has them outright commandeering an entire artillery platoon of the French Alliance.
- Kuromorimine stea- *ahem*, acquires a Churchill Mk VII from St. Gloriana's, designating it as the "Kampfpanzer Churchill", repainting it grey with Kuromorimine markings, then assigns it to Erika and her crew, joined by the newly minted Fraulein Black, a post-Brainwashing Orange Pekoe.
- Wall Pin of Love: Anchovy, whom at the time thinks is the real Benito Mussolini tries to aggressively hit on Cadenza using this technique.
- Wham Line: In Season 2 Chapter 12, Karen informs Erika of Oorai's shutdown, finally tying the plot of the fanfic into the events of Girls und Panzer der Film.
- When She Smiles: Shiho Nishizumi does this from time to time, especially when she sees Erika's growth with her take on the Nishizumi style.
- You Shall Not Pass!: In Chapter 7 of Season 2, Koume's tank does this to buy time for the retreating Kuromorimine team to regroup when the French Alliance begins their vicious push. It turns into a Last Stand when the tank's tracks are immobilized by artillery.
