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.

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.


 * Napoleon Complex: Katyusha likes to ride the shoulders of her very tall subordinate Nonna, so she can literally look down on people. The manga 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.

Kuromorimine Girls High School


A German-themed school that Miho used to attend.


 * 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.
 * Germanic Efficiency: At least some students and staff (such as Erika and Shiho) feel that friendships and the like are wasteful in tankery.
 * 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.

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).