So Ra No Wo To/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Characters from So Ra No Wo To: the members of the Republic of Helvetia 1121st Tank Platoon, and supporting characters from the town of Seize and beyond.

1121st Platoon

Private Kanata Sorami

Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto

Protagonist of the series, Kanata joined the military to learn how to play the trumpet and was assigned to the 1121st Platoon as a bugler. A cheerful and optimistic person, her presence helped to lighten the mood within the platoon.

  • A-Cup Angst: It only comes up in one scene, but Kanata is aware of Rio and Filicia's assets.
  • Badass Unintentional: Kanata just wanted to learn to play the trumpet.
  • Country Mouse: Kanata comes from a particularly remote and backwards part of Helvetia, where old Japanese customs are stronger.
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life: Bugle mastered, Kanata spends the second OVA wondering what she should do now.
  • Dreadful Musician: Starts off as one, but finally figures out how to blow in episode 5. She still can't hold a candle to Rio's jazz trumpet, though.
  • Epic Hail: Someone has to tell both armies the peace has been signed!
  • Hair Decorations: A single clip on her left temple.
  • Exact Words

Rio: [...] So make as many problems for me as you'd like. I did the same[...]
Kanata: Understood, ma'am! From now on, I'll make as many problems for you as I can!

  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Her haircut, with a single tress hanging.
  • Hairstyle Inertia: As seen in the flashback to the time she met Princess Iliya.
  • Hisako Kanemoto: Before she was a Squid Girl.
  • Informed Flaw: Kanata claims to get lost a lot. She gets lost exactly twice, both cases shown in the first episode. She does, however, get easily distracted, and is prone to wandering off her path if something catches her eye.
  • Meaningful Name: Her given name is written with kanji that mean 'the other side', 'distant' or 'over there'. In episode 13, she declares that she'll go with Rio to find the promised land at the other end of the world.
  • Shaggy Search Technique: Kanata has a knack for stumbling upon interesting things, be it ancient diaries, automated watchposts or giant winged skeletons.
  • Super Senses: Her hearing. It starts as perfect pitch, and then heads into the "no one could have heard that" territory.
  • Women Drivers: By the second OVA she's already driving the platoon's jeep. Although she drives slooowly, she gets distracted easily.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: That's what her senpai Rio told her in episode three when she worried about being useless.
  • You Were Trying Too Hard: Episode four shows how you can improve your trumpet technique following advice from a glassblower: don't overdo it.

Sergeant Major Rio Kazumiya Arkadia

Voiced by: Yuu Kobayashi

Second-in-command of the 1121st Platoon, Rio appears as a cool and unflappable person with a no-nonsense attitude and can be very strict in demanding military discipline and issuing orders. However, she also cares a lot about her fellow members, which makes her greatly admired by the younger members, especially Kureha.

  • Achilles in His Tent: The first arc of the series is Rio mulling over whether to keep ignoring the family that snubbed her for years and keep her freedom or give in, get into an arranged married and stop a war.
  • Arranged Marriage: To the enemy Emperor!
  • Big Damn Heroes: In the series finale.
  • Epic Hail: Good thing Kanata has Super Senses.
  • Hairstyle Inertia: As seen in the flashbacks to her childhood, Rio has kept the same Hime Cut for years.
  • Halfbreed: Rio is of mixed heritage since she lacks the Phenotype Stereotype looks of her blonde, green-eyed half-sister and her last names are Japanese/Greek.
  • Heroic Bastard: An illegitimate child of the Arkadia royal family.
  • Hime Cut: Somewhat unkempt.
  • Hot-Blooded: Rio doesn't do things half-assed, from giving speeches to cooking.
  • King Incognito: But for Filicia, the rest of the girls don't know who Rio is exactly.
  • Lethal Chef: Bits of the kitchen turn up as ingredients of her cooking, so Kanata doesn't take her offer to help her in the kitchen in episode 8.
  • Memento MacGuffin: A jingle bell inherited from her older half sister.
  • Missing Mom: Her mom died at an early age, as seen in episode three's flashback.
  • Multiethnic Name: Rio Kazumiya Arkadia
  • Parental Abandonment: Her father ignored her for years until her older sister died and he needed a princess, any princess, to marry away.
  • Rebellious Princess. Being elevated to princess status just to be politically married, Rio isn't too keen in adopting her new station.
  • Sergeant Rough
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: She isn't the taller girl (that would be Filicia).
  • That's an Order: When Kanata proves too keen on learning what is behind the mysterious cellar door in the first OVA Rio resorts to pulling rank on her.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: The singular example, at that - though the Priest refers to her as 'the black-haired girl' at one point.
  • Yuu Kobayashi: Chewing the Scenery as if she were on a diet.

Private Kureha Suminoya

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura

The designated gunner of the 1121st Platoon, Kureha is also the youngest member in the platoon. However, she is perhaps the most serious member and is a stickler for military regulations. Greatly admires Rio and Major Klaus.

  • Cry Cute: She drops her professional facade and let's out the waterworks when the rest of the crew decides to go AWOL and stop Hopkins plan to reignite the war with Rome. She goes with it, of course.
  • Deceased Parents Are the Best: Kureha loves to talk about her parents - although he barely remembers them.
  • Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She sleeps with a lederhosen-clad teddy bear.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Her usual hairstyle (tied with red ribbons) except while wearing her helmet.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: At first Kureha resents Kanata for getting some of Rio's attention as the newbie.
  • Military Brat: Her father was a tank commander and her mother a military nurse.
  • Never Gets Drunk: The only girl sober at the end of the first OVA. She still gets a hangover, though.
  • Only Sane Employee: Kureha is the only member of the 1121st that thinks there's something wrong with Filicia's relaxed approach to command.
  • Straight Man: Not only is Kureha generally the most serious of the five (barring Noel's Kuudere-ness), she's the only person living in the Clocktower Fortress with (comparatively) few Les Yay scenes.
  • Tsundere: She might act tough and professional but she's actually a softie. "I-It's not like I did it for you or anything like that..."
  • With Due Respect: She's the most military-minded of the crew, pulling rank on Kanata during the second episode on their tour through the base. When Filicia decides to hide Aisha the enemy soldier she properly objects.

Corporal Noël Kannagi

Voiced by: Yuuki Aoi

The designated driver and mechanic of the 1121st Platoon, Noël is a taciturn and reserved person who spends much of her time tinkering at the platoon's tank Takemikazuchi.

  • The Atoner: Encouraged by Yumina to make up for her role in the Invisible Reaper plague, she pilots the Takemikazuchi against her own army in episode 12.
  • Bokukko: She uses this male pronoun to refer to herself.
  • Broken Bird: Machines don't betray you. Unlike Colonel Hopkins, they won't take advantage of a little girl to create biological weapons of mass destruction. Thanks to Kanata and Aisha, she gets better.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: She may not answer you while driving, wonder at a pillbug, fall asleep at random and be quite laconic, but she can repair anything, save those pesky Black Boxes.
  • Child Prodigy: Singlehandedly repaired the facility used to manufacture a biological weapon known as the "Invisible Reaper" as a little girl.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Filicia mentions that Noel has changed a lot since Kanata arrived. Noel also declares herself happy when Kanata doesn't arrive at the Clocktower Fortress on time, but by episode 4, she falls asleep on Kanata's shoulder.
  • Failure Knight: Aisha reminds her of one of the victims of the Invisible Reaper.
  • Heavy Sleeper: She has a tendency to pull all-nighters working on the tank, resulting in narcolepsy.
  • Kuudere: The Stoic subtype. Noel says very little and uses as few words as possible to say it; however, she's severely emotionally scarred by her part in the Invisible Reaper, warms to Kanata and Kureha inside of a few months of Kanata's arrival, and wants to become 'a lovely wife'.
  • Sobriquet: Her connection to the Invisible Reaper bio-weapon earned her the epithet for herself.
  • Rei Ayanami Expy: Her laconic speaking style and appearance bring to mind a few other girls like her.
  • Teen Genius: Repaired the super-advanced Takemicaduchi alone, in an old, dilapidated high-school gym and achieved fluency in German Holy Roman in just under two months.
  • Terse Talker: Noël is pretty concise when she talks. While she is sober.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Hopkins used her to repair the facility that recreated the Invisible Reaper plague, giving her a serious case of My God, What Have I Done?.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: She's fifteen and white haired, and as seen in the flashback to the time she worked for Colonel Hopkins, she's been white haired since an early age.
  • Wrench Wench: She's the Takemikazuchi Spider Tank pilot and mechanic.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Her nightwear.

Second Lieutenant Filicia Heidemann

Voiced by: Aya Endo

Leader of the 1121st Platoon, Filicia adopts a very relaxed approach in commanding the platoon, beginning with her insistence of First-Name Basis amongst platoon members. She cares a lot about her subordinates and wanted them to be as happy as possible during their time in the Clocktower Fortress.


Supporting Characters

Sister Yumina

Voiced by: Misato Fukuen

A miko nun well, she works at the church and takes care of the orphans, all right?

  • Faux Fluency: Whereas Nami Miyahara's Aisha is pretty fluent in German - err Roman, Misato Fukuen clearly isn't. Fortunately Sister Yumina isn't supposed to be, being Helvetian, which means Roman is likely her second language.
  • Nuns Are Mikos: An inversion of the usual example; she looks more like a miko, but acts more like a nun.
  • Parental Substitute
  • Rummage Sale Reject: Not so much herself - her hakama-habit is actually quite fetching - but she doesn't spare the children or Kanata her poorly-coordinated choices of clothing.
  • Unsuspectingly Soused: In 'The Fortress At War', when Filicia spikes everyone's tea and gets them to drink several cups each. Less unsuspectingly later in the same episode, though.

Major Klaus

Voiced by: Unsho Ishizuka

A courier and part-time standard bearer responsible for supplying the 1121st with their mail and their new recruits. Has the same name, and looks like, 'Miracle Klaus', the Desert Wolf.

A'isha Aldola

Voiced by: Nami Miyahara

A Roman soldier introduced in Episode 11 after she is found by Kanata and Kureha while on patrol.

  • Ambiguously Brown
  • Bilingual Bonus: Given that she only speaks German Roman, much of her dialogue, including a major CMoH, requires a translation team fluent in German as well as Japanese.
  • Breast Attack: Noel gropes her breast to forestall being stabbed in the neck with a syringe. It works very well.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Her grandmother was Helvetian.
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin': She breaks a leg, almost freezes to death, gets hunted as an excuse to ruin the peace talks and then shot, all just for crossing the frontier to try getting a peek of her grandmother's town of origin.
  • Versöhnlich: Aisha forgives Noël for her role in the Invisible Reaper plague in episode 12.

Du hast genug gelitten, deshalb vergebe ich dir, auch wenn dir sonst niemand vergeben sollte. You have suffered enough, therefore I forgive you, even when no one else will.

Iliya Arkadia, a.k.a. "Grace"

Voiced by: Ryoko Ono

War heroine and daughter of the Archduke of Helvetia, she crossed the paths of several of the girls of the 1121st Tank Platoon before they were assigned to the Time Keeping Fortress.

Naomi

Voiced by: Mayuno Yasukawa

Owner of the glasswork shop and ally of the Clocktower Fortress girls.

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