Girls und Panzer/Characters

Oarai Girls High School


Oarai Girls High School used to have a tankery program, but hadn't for many years prior to the start of the story. For some reason, though, starting the club back up again has become priority one for the Student Council, and they are awfully insistent that they win the very next high school tournament...


 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Not only are their team members drawn from whatever clubs the Student Council could convince to join, but the tanks themselves come from many countries (being the leftovers from the previous iteration of the club, plus whatever the Student Council could scare up to buy on short notice and low cost).
 * Technician Versus Performer: Oarai is a school of quirky, plucky performers up against technically superior opponents.
 * Technician Versus Performer: Oarai is a school of quirky, plucky performers up against technically superior opponents.

Team Anglerfish


The main characters of Girls und Panzer.


 * True Companions: From the first day of school, they stuck together when the Student Council threatened to expel them all to strong-arm Miho into joining the tankery club.

Miho Nishizumi


The commander of Team Anglerfish and Oarai in general, and an heiress of the Nishizumi school of tankery.


 * A Mother to Her Girls: To the point of leaping into the water to rescue her teammates from a sinking tank. Her mother disapproves, but her teammates (at Oarai, at least) adore her for it and respond accordingly.
 * Hidden Buxom: Look at Miho in her everyday school uniform. Now look at her when doing the Anglerfish dance. Either that costume is padded, or she must usually wear a special bra to hide those.
 * Inadequate Inheritor: Shiho Nishizumi does not appreciate Miho's deviation from her standards, and attends the semi-final against Pravda for the sole purpose of watching Miho lose and disowning her. When Miho wins, she only treats it as a matter of luck and prepares to do the same for the final against Kuromorimine.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: It wasn't actual war, but Miho still has nightmares and flashbacks about tankery at Kuromorimine. When she's first ordered to take up tankery again at Oarai, she suffers a massive BSOD.
 * The Unfavorite: Shiho evidently didn't care when Miho left tankery and went to Oarai.

Yukari Akiyama


Team Anglerfish's loader, and Oarai's number-one tankery fan.


 * Crazy Prepared: With Hammerspace! Where'd that thermos full of hot cocoa come from? And the folding spade? The lantern? How did she anticipate one of her comrades would need an insulating wrap for inside her boots? Her pockets are flat and she has no backpack, but out come the handwarmer, scissors, sewing kit, bandages, batarang ... OK, no batarang so far....
 * Friendless Background: For years (before the reinstatement of the tankery club), nobody else at Oarai loved tanks the way she does. Team Anglerfish were her first real friends in a long time.
 * I Know Mortal Kombat: In their first drive-and-shoot practice, Yukari was the gunner. Three shots fired equals three panzers disabled. Considering that score, it's actually a bit astonishing they let Hana take over the position, but then they weren't taking tankery very seriously at that point.
 * Military Salute: Sometimes very out-of-place. For example, she salutes in the group bath when Mako agrees to be their driver.

Hana Isuzu


Team Anglerfish's gunner, and heiress of the Isuzu school of flower arrangement.


 * Floral Theme Naming: Hana means "flower".
 * Friendly Sniper: She's not the outgoing sort of friendly, but she is warm and kind to everyone. She's also a crack shot with a 75mm cannon.
 * Inadequate Inheritor: Hana's mother is not at all happy that her daughter is pursuing tankery, when Isuzu style flower arrangement should embody delicacy.
 * Silk Hiding Steel: As a Yamato Nadeshiko, Hana is exquisitely silky, but she's also much steelier than her mother would prefer (in fact, she was quite distressed to smell "oil and iron" on Hana's hands). Several times, she's been the one to encourage Miho to move forward in spite of her doubts.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: She hits all the points from our world, plus tankery (tankery is viewed as a quintessentially feminine pursuit in their world, much as the naginata was in "our" Japan).

Mako Reizei


Team Anglerfish's driver, and the number-one student at Oarai...if not for her demerits for tardiness.


 * Brilliant but Sleepy: As stated above, she's got the school's best grades and worst demerit list. She learns to operate any tank like a veteran by glancing through the manual for less than a minute.
 * Falling Into the Cockpit: Team Anglerfish came upon her, asleep, in the practice field on the first day of the tankery club. She needed to join a club to get her demerits reduced, and they needed another team member.  She turned out to be an ace driver.
 * Not a Morning Person: Sometimes it takes a 75mm blank round to get her out of bed.

Saori Takebe


Team Anglerfish's radio operator and social butterfly.


 * Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: She talks a big game about having lots of boyfriends or romantic experience and wisdom, but has little success to show for it...

St. Gloriana Girls Academy


A British-style school, and the first opponents that Oarai faces (in a friendly match, rather than a tournament).


 * National Stereotypes: They have the British ones, including:
 * Spot of Tea: St. Gloriana's students (that we meet) are all named after teas, and enjoy drinking them (and giving them as gifts to Worthy Opponents), even in battle.

Saunders University High School


An American-style school, and Oarai's first-round opponent in the tournament.


 * National Stereotypes: They have the American ones, including:
 * Yanks With Tanks: They sure love them some Shermans, and lots of them.

Pravda High School


A Russian-themed school, and Oarai's semifinal opponent in the tournament.


 * National Stereotypes: They have the Russian ones, including:
 * That Russian Squat Dance: Some of the Pravda girls are seen doing it around a campfire.
 * Reds with Rockets: Lots of T-34s to be found in their ranks, and their commander shares her name with the iconic Soviet rocket artillery. (They also have a Katyusha vehicle, but it's not used in battle.)

Katyusha


Pravda's commander.


 * Cute Little Fang(s): She has two, but usually only one shows at a time (and if both are showing, one will be more prominent than the other).
 * Napoleon Complex: Katyusha likes to ride the shoulders of her very tall subordinate Nonna, so she can literally look down on people. Spinoff manga Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu! indicates this began as Nonna's idea; Katyusha came up with good tactics, but was being brushed off as if she were a child. Nonna first gave her the lift to bolster her confidence about insisting that other girls listen to her battle plans. Given that she's now the tankery team commander, it worked.
 * Older Than She Looks: She looks as if she's maybe 12 years old (acting that way a lot, too), but there's no reference anywhere to being unusually young for a high-school student, so she's at least 16 (she may even be 18) ... but very, very petite. And as said above, she has a complex about it.

Nonna


Pravda's second-in-command.


 * Friendly Sniper: For a quiet, reserved value of friendliness.
 * Servile Snarker: Lets Katyusha ride her shoulders, serves tea and cakes, sings her commander to sleep, and ZINGS Katyusha verbally from time to time.
 * The Stoic: If her face isn't expressionless, the expression is a small, quiet smile. Never anger or worry.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: The tallest girl seen in the series, at 172 cm. Black hair and blue eyes, beautiful and shapely, elegant and never seen losing her calm.

Kuromorimine Girls High School


A German-themed school, which is strongly influenced by the Nishizumi style of tankery. Miho used to be the Vice-Commander of Kuromorimine's team, under her big sister Maho, but during a match against Pravda (in which Miho was commanding), one of her tanks (commanded by Erika Itsumi) slipped into a river. The crew would likely have drowned, but Miho jumped out of her tank and into the river and rescued them. However, Pravda took advantage of her absence and won the match. Her family and school turned against her, and she left Kuromorimine for Oarai and left tankery entirely.


 * National Stereotypes: They have the German ones, including:
 * Germanic Depressives: They would have preferred Miho let her teammates -- their classmates -- drown rather than lose a match.
 * In spinoff manga Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu!, Maho declares a Christmas party for several of the tank commanders. Mistaking this for a meeting to chew them out, they arrive with dread; one girl even breaks down crying for her mother. Part of the problem is that Maho isn't all that great at communicating her intentions. Also, the presents she gives several of them are hilariously not what they would've liked, and it seems this, too, is unintentional.
 * Germanic Efficiency: At least some students and staff (such as Erika and Shiho) feel that friendships and the like are wasteful in tankery. (Maho disagrees.)
 * Opposing Sports Team: Of course, Oarai has to go against four teams to win the tournament, but Kuromorimine is the big one -- not only are they the final opponent, and not only have they had a nearly-unbroken string of victories, but they are also commanded by Miho's big sister Maho.

Maho Nishizumi


Kuromorimine's commander, Miho's big sister, and an heiress to the Nishizumi style of tankery. The only heiress, as far as Shiho is concerned.


 * Aloof Big Sister: As demanded by the ruthless Nishizumi style.
 * Hidden Heart of Gold: Although she projects the image of being a cold, ruthless commander, she actually cares very deeply for Miho and her friends -- she immediately offers the use of her school's helicopter to take Mako to the hospital when her grandmother is injured.
 * Used to Be a Sweet Kid: She and Miho used to be much closer when they were younger, before Shiho's tankery style took its toll on them.

Erika Itsumi


Kuromorimine's vice-commander. She was a "regular" tank commander under Miho, but was promoted to vice-commander of the team after Miho left.


 * Inadequate Inheritor: Erika feels this way about herself, having been thrust into the vice-commander position after Miho's departure (after an incident that was partly precipitated by an error on Erika's part).
 * Jerkass: It takes a special brand of Jerkassitude to object to giving someone a flight to a hospital to visit an ailing grandmother.
 * Moral Myopia: She feels "betrayed" by Miho's transfer to Oarai, but evidently doesn't think about how Miho was treated for losing the match in exchange for saving her classmates.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: The light novels reveal that Erika was one of the girls that Miho rescued from drowning -- in fact, she was the commander of the tank that foundered in the water. When she gripes in the final battle about how Miho is "as soft as ever", that's her rescuer she's talking about.

Yuri Isuzu


Hana Isuzu's mother, and matriarch of the Isuzu school of flower arrangement.


 * Fainting: She faints after hearing that Hana has been participating in tankery.
 * Floral Theme Naming: Yuri means "lily".
 * Too Important to Walk: She gets carted around town in a rickshaw.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: She hits all the points from our world, though some in the Girls und Panzer universe might ding her for shunning tanks (tankery is viewed as a quintessentially feminine pursuit in their world, much as the naginata was in "our" Japan).

Shiho Nishizumi


Matriarch of the Nishizumi style of tankery, and mother of Miho and Maho.


 * Embarrassing Nickname:
 * Evil Matriarch: She apparently didn't care that Miho left home to leave tankery behind, and when Miho got back into tankery at Oarai, she simply watched Miho's matches to disown her when she lost -- and when Oarai qualified for the final, she implied to Maho that if Miho beat her, she might be the one leaving the family.
 * The Stoic: To her, emotions have no place on the battlefield.