Mildly Military: Difference between revisions
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== Anime and Manga ==
* The military of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' is highly undisciplined. Hikaru and other pilots regularly talk back to their superior officers, even going so far as to insult them after being given simple orders. In addition Roy Focker openly carries on an romantic relationship with a superior officer throughout the series. Hikaru especially commits all sorts of insubordination including deserting his post to watch a beauty contest. No one is ever reprimanded for this behavior.
* Although it appears this way on the surface in ''[[Ghost in the Shell
** As to Aramaki, he doesn't really appear to have any kind of military chain-of-command type control over Section 9, he himself has stated hes nothing more than a politician. That being said he is the one who had the idea to create Section 9 in the first place, is implied to have more political power than the Prime Minister (the supposed head of the Japanese government in GitS), is shown to be very capable in his own right in a messy situation, and has earned the fierce loyalty of the Section 9 members he has brought together by returning it in kind. And then add in the fact that everyone is pants-shittingly '''TERRIFIED''' of the man... there are reasons everyone calls him the "Old Ape."
*** In a Japan as corrupt as in ''Ghost in the Shell'' having more power than the prime minister isn't that impressive.
* The military in many of the entries of ''[[Gundam]]''. In the [[Mobile Suit Gundam|original series]] and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED]]'', this was justified by the ship having an inexperienced CO and a crew that weren't technically military. In ''SEED'', Kira gets court-martialed, and [[The Captain]] reaches the verdict that [["Get Out of Jail Free" Card|she doesn't have the authority to sentence a civilian]]. The ZAFT military lets its best soldiers wear red suits and get away with almost anything.
** In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' becoming a member of Faith gives them complete autonomy and unquestionable authority. Also notice that [[Custom Uniform of Sexy]] are allowed for Minerva crew, and Shinn is [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|almost blamed for his lack of respect]].
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* On a similar note to the above ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' has a crew with... very [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|peculiar character traits]]. Justified on two levels, however. The first is that they are officially working for a heavy arms company, not the military (though they ally with military, who itself is pretty mild on the military scale). The second is that the company wanted to build the best crew possible for their ship, ignoring all character flaws.
** ''[[Super Robot Wars Judgment]]'' even went to the point of hanging two lampshades on it. In Calvina's route, she's literally the only one early on who is the [[Only Sane Man]] compared to most of the ''Nadescio'' crew she's hired to be a tactics instructor to, and even she realizes being a total hardass is less effective then accommodating their quirks within reason to get anything done. Later, when actual military brass try to impose being serious on the crews of the ''Nadescio'' and ''Archangel'', Yurika makes it clear they can shove it while Murrue merely agrees, but in practice even Murrue quietly follows Yurika's lead in accommodating quirks in her subordinates because they have to deal with such a [[Ragtag Band of Misfits]] that the only way to maintain ''any'' discipline.
* The Time/Space Administrative Bureau in ''[[
** This is given a nice lampshade in ''[[
** Near the end of Episode 6 of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS|StrikerS]]'', Vita complains that Nanoha should be drilling the forwards on walking and greeting, like they were when they first entered. Nanoha responds that if there's time to do that, there's more time for sparring instruction, which suggests that part of this is pragmatically focusing on actual performance rather than etiquette. This is made clear in a later episode, when Teana violates safety regulations in an attempt to score a win against Nanoha, and is slapped down ''hard''; informality is acceptable, endangering the unit is not.
* The [[Ninja]] organizations in ''[[Naruto]]'', which amount to the setting's military forces. The creator has said that one of his inspirations for the village of Konoha was a military base located nearby his childhood home. Many ninja are...[[Bunny Ears Lawyer|odd]], [[Child Soldiers|there are plenty of twelve-year-old ninja]] (although [[Tyke Bomb|Naruto and Gaara]] at least are both power equivalents to nuclear weapons even ''before'' much training on their part), and of all the teen main characters, roughly two of them actually wear their village's uniform.
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** Considering that they control the near totality of their country's firepower, the military's insistence on ordering them around during a war might be forgiven.
* The eponymous unit in ''[[Strike Witches]]'' has a base that's basically built into a castle, and {{spoiler|when one character disobeys orders twice, allowing an enemy to escape and a comrade to be badly injured, she gets off with ten days confinement to quarters. This is somewhat justified since she is one of only a small number of people in the world who can operate a Striker Unit and the military really can't afford to lose her.}}
** Virtually everything in ''Strike Witches'' is justified at one point or another and this trope is averted in several cases. For one thing they're technically Special Forces with a very high success rate with a very limited recruitment pool, no expandability, and little to no time to properly train or discipline new recruits, and this is set in the 1940s. Despite that there is a clearly defined hierarchy (justifiably mixed with [[True Companions]] elements) which is followed and the Witches do spend most of their time drilling, training or doing maintenance work and menial tasks, some of their other fun activities actually happen during their allocated leave. Plus they're aces with a considerable amount of propaganda riding on them. Military law is carried too as Miyafuji was dishonorably discharged after her dereliction of duty, it's just that extreme circumstances had it revoked. Finally they use castles because are just 'there'. Air Wings and various military units during World War II would actually just set up base wherever tactically convenient. Notably other witches like the Ardor Witches and Storm Witches have more conventional bases relative to their location, the Ardor Witches are stationed in an actual military base with proper hangars while the Desert based Storm Witches live in tents by an Oasis.
* ''[[Legend of the Galactic Heroes]]'' plays with this trope: the alliance, and '''especially''' the "Yang Team" are ''very'' casual: you will see them throwing parties, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1yYQ0VVPq0 drinking alcohol during strategic meetings], going after [[Really Gets Around|every girl they meet]], and even making fun of their leader's (lack of) sex life [[Dude, Where's My Respect?|in front of him]]. Do not take this for a lack of competence or discipline: they ''know'' the horrors of the war, and have chosen to enjoy life as much as they can between battles: when the [[Let's Get Dangerous|battle starts]], you're quick to remember [[One-Man Army|why]] [[Ace Pilot|they]] [[Cultured Warrior|were]] [[The Squad|handpicked]] by [[The Strategist|Yang]].
* ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]''{{'}}s protagonists always seem to get away with ignoring their jobs and leaving their poor commanding officer [[Butt Monkey|Colonel Volcott]] to pick up the slack.
* Alex Rowe's crew in ''[[Last Exile]]'', but then again, they're more like a mercenary ship than a real military vessel.
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. NERV fulfills many of the same functions as an Air Force or Navy (mostly the former), and is run and organized much like both. However, NERV personnel are allowed to grow long hair and beards and keep pets in on-base housing, and dating a co-worker isn't viewed a problem: and what real-world military would ever entrust its most important weapons to a fourteen-year-old?
** Ones that are completely desperate given that
*** To be precise, the
** Not to mention gross insubordination, and (in the manga version) ''punching'' Gendo, who is technically his commander. If NERV were any more military, Shinji would be locked up.
*** When there are exactly three things standing between Humanity and
*** Then again, if NERV was any more military, Gendo wouldn't be allowed within thirty feet of command.
** That can be excused
*** Worse yet, the necessary state of mind to sync with an Eva at optimum efficiency is "borderline insanity". There is a ''reason'' the pilots are all psych cases.
* Played with throughout ''[[Pumpkin Scissors]]''. The eponymous group are often derided by the public and other military bodies for being this way, and it was because of this reputation that Oreldo joined. Given their dangerous missions during the series, this label doesn't really hold up, although the relationships among the protagonists does kind of fit the mildly military idea.
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* Lieutenant Filicia Heideman of ''[[So Ra No Wo To]]'' runs her tank platoon [[Team Mom|as a family]] rather than as a military unit.
** It helps that their post is in some isolated border town which isn't deemed valuable enough to properly staff, or even supply. Hell, they have to deal in [[Military Moonshiner|bootleg liquor]] with [[The Mafia]] to get money for anything! Save for Hopkins' [[General Ripper|issues]], the regular military fares better in avoiding this trope.
** A peek at her [[Backstory]] does a [[Tear Jerker|pretty good job]] of explaining why she runs the platoon like this, establishing her as an [[Iron Woobie]] in the process. More specifically, {{spoiler|when she was younger her entire platoon (who it seems was just as close as her current one) was killed in battle, leaving her with a pretty serious case of [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|Post Traumatic Stress Disorder]].}}
* Surprisingly, the ''[[One Piece]]'' Marines tend to fall into this. Aokiji goes off on his own to track down Robin, with the Gorosei merely complaining that he should be mindful of his rank. Officers above Lieutenant (and even some lower ranking ones) are not required to wear the uniform, although the preferred uniform for higher-ranking offices is a suit with the "justice" coat, and there are no grooming standards to speak of. Discipline tends to vary between officers, as Garp doesn't seem to mind his men telling him to help fix the wall he broke while breaking in to surprise Luffy, while one soldier who objects to destroying a Marine battleship to kill Luffy immediately gets executed on the spot by Vice-Admiral Onigumo. Officers are sometimes referred to by name and "[[Japanese Honorifics|-san]]" rather than their rank. And these aren't even the [[Military Maverick|mavericks]] like Smoker or corrupt officers like Morgan.
* ''[[Kurogane Pukapuka Tai]]'' is a ''huge'' example of this trope. The heroines are part of the ([[That One Guy|nearly]]) all-female crew of a Japanese cruiser in [[WWII]], who run into a German U-boat (crewed mostly by women) and later a British destroyer (captained entirely by women). [[Yuri Genre|Romantic entanglements ensue]].
* Zigzagged in ''[[Space Battleship Yamato]]'', especially in the remake. While both the ''Yamato'' and the Gamilas military are pretty hardassed, some degree of quirkiness or bizarre informality is tolerated, on the proviso you are just that damned good at your job, and even then there are limits. For instance, Dommel is allowed to pull off [[Crazy Awesome|otherwise batshit insane looking]] military strategy by virtue of the fact he's just that successful at getting results, and everyone from Desler on down is aware of that. On the ''Yamato'' side, some degree of unorthodox behavior is allowed so long as it doesn't endanger lives and gets results, but with the unspoken yet very harsh reminder doing so without approval from on high will be harshly punished, as Kodai found out more than once.
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* In ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'' series the Alliance navy has become this after a century of constant warfare and massive attrition in the officer ranks. Neither officers or enlisted personal salute anymore and ship captains actually get to vote on the fleet commanders battle strategy. When Jack Geary is put in charge of the fleet he reintroduces saluting and makes sure that his orders are followed without any voting. His main problem is that he does not have enough senior competent officers to replace all the idiots and glory hounds who refuse to follow his orders. The only units who still maintain proper military discipline are the Marine detachments.
* ''[[Catch-22]]'' has, among its many things, a man who keeps intentionally getting court-martialled so as to get sentenced to dig ditches instead of go on the front lines. He also fraternizes with the officers.
* ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' tends to be something of an aversion except in specific areas. Officers from [[Upper Class Twit|
** However, it is to be noted that the primary reason the senior NCO is obeying the ensign's orders in the above scene is because she's actually ''getting it right''. If her orders had been egregiously stupid her squad NCO would almost certainly have politely ignored her and done whatever ''he'' felt appropriate to the task, in full expectation that the captain would have backed him up on it later.
== Live-Action TV ==
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* ''[[Combat Hospital]]'': Much like the ''M*A*S*H'' example above, actually military protocol in a day-to-day situation is treated relatively casually in the hospital. However the chains of command are still followed, and Colonel Marks on occasion will dress down officers for not following their responsibilities with regards to rank and uniform.
* Averted in ''[[JAG]]''. For a staff corps office they take military protocol very seriously.
*
== New Media ==
* In ''[[Descendant of a Demon Lord]]'' Celes has felt dismay on multiple occasions by the lack of discipline her soldiers have displayed out of battle (such as acting as sentries). But in 11.1 there was this gem
{{quote|'''Celes:''' Did you disrobe before or after [Vrudanos, the person in charge of you] left?
'''Ignaros:''' If you must know, [[Naked People Are Funny|I have not put on pants for the last two days]], ma’am.}}
== Newspaper Comics ==
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** "Laid-back discipline" ... except when Sarge "disciplines" Beetle with a [[Big Ball of Violence]].
* ''[[Beau Peep]]'' is much the same. In fact, probably ''any'' gag-strip set in the military.
** Except ''[
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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** The US Air Force's Auxiliary, the Civil Air Patrol, is made up entirely of volunteers, many of whom use their own aircraft to support search and rescue, disaster relief, Air Force training exercises, etc. And although it is a auxiliary of the Air Force, it technically is only such when the aircraft is being used on a Air Force mission, otherwise it is a private, non-profit corporation.
** [[wikipedia:Military Affiliate Radio System|The Military Affiliate Radio System]], an all-volunteer group of amateur radio operators.
** Skippy of ''[[Skippy's List|Skippys List]]'' (according to his [https://web.archive.org/web/20110908171132/http://skippyslist.com/about/ about page]) was in PSYOPS, mostly as an illustrator. Basically, he drew propaganda posters for the Army (in post-[[The Yugoslav Wars|war]] Bosnia, apparently). So yeah, more or less Mildly Military.
*** He was an ''[[Insistent Terminology|Airborne]]'' Illustrator. He couldn't tell you why the Army felt they needed an illustrator to be airborne qualified though.
* The United States Lighthouse Board (1852-1910) was like this as well. It consisted of uniformed Army and Navy officers who oversaw lighthouses, but of course their expertise was primarily technical and logistical. The postings were often relatively comfortable, with each officer having his own house at the post, and allowed to have his family live with him.
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* The United States Merchant Marine is arguably like this (as are most country's merchant navies). While in and of itself a civilian career, Merchant Marine cadets and officers must wear naval-style uniforms and abide by military custom and are obligated to become a part of the United States Navy Reserve.
* Paramilitary forces are usually like this, due to not being a proper military, and having laxer disciplinary standards. Some of the more professional ones defy this trope however, and are much more effective for it.
* The crew of the USS Enterprise (no, not [[Star Trek|that]] one, [
** Actually, this is an example of the real military. This may be an example of reality being unrealistic, though. This sort of thing happens all the time in the military. The Tailhook incident is another good example. I wouldn't call either incident "mildly military." If so, every service member who breaks the rules is also "mildly military." What this is is an example of bad judgment.
*** To be honest, what I consider most Mildly Military in the Enterprise incident (I am not aware of the other one you mentioned) are the reactions and conversations among the crew. They don't even seem to address their superior officer as "sir"—granted, from those videos it seems ''very'' likely that the XO himself enforced this laid back atmosphere, but it does resemble most examples of Mildly Military in fiction.
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** Frankly, the Navy as a whole is often considered this by Marines and Army types. The Navy at sea is more of a blue-collar industrial work station than what one thinks of as strictly "military." While not as much as the aforementioned Air Force, the Navy is a bit more lax about spit and polish and proper salutations and such. Which is somewhat ironic, considering that the Navy (and navies in general) was once the ''most'' spit and polish branch, because there were so many things that could go wrong on a ship, and almost every single one needed to work right or the ship was in major trouble. Strict discipline also helped to reduce the risk of mutiny (virtually unthinkable today). Today, everything is multiply redundant and/or automated, not to mention the fact that the workings of warships are so complicated that you need an engineering degree to maintain them, on the rare occasion anything major does break.
*** This is especially true with Navy Corpsmen, who are most famous for providing direct medical support for Marine units. It's fairly common for "Docs" to casually shoot the shit and show only minimal bearing with Marine NCOs many ranks above them. While this does give them a reputation for being dirtbags, most Marines will let a corpsman that they are confident can do their job (i.e. save the lives of their Marines) get away with murder. Furthermore, even in our own BAS (battalion medical), the rank structure is very lax, with the most junior and senior sailors casually conversing, joking, and pulling pranks on each other - this attitude is partially due to being an island of sailors in a sea of Marines. Corpsmen do have their own version of military professionalism, however, as corpsmen who can't do their jobs and put their Marines at risk from their incompetence are almost universally reviled.
**[[Exact Words|Technically]] the navy was not military at all in the older usage (as in "Naval and Military"), and there is some justification for that as regular (on permanent contract to the central government) naval forces may predate regular land forces though it is hard to tell. At just the time when navies were first being developed most kings had little regular land forces besides [[The Musketeer|palace guards]] and still relied on a mixture of feudal levies, militia, and contracted
***Actual regulars naval or military were a surprisingly rare sight in history. A King that could afford them was rolling in money and quite likely a conqueror (because that sustained his men). Also even when available they have their own disadvantages such as getting involved in politics (which is one reason the Roman Legions spent so much time working on roads rather than being allowed to be idle with restless thoughts). In any case a given state was at a given time in history [[Reality Is Unrealistic|quite likely to be]] dependent on a rather hodgepodge system for it's muscle.
* The Republican soldiers in the party and union militia's in the Spanish Civil War count. Heck they elected officers and could hand in their guns and leave at any point. Orders from the rear such as an advance were followed only after each unit voted. People would not follow an order they did not understand, even in battle. It seems that only idealism kept them in line at all. And then the Soviets showed up and took over, and then came the commissars and the field executions.
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