Student council members Kadotani, Koyama and Kawashima tell the others how they were informed before the year began that Ooarai Girls’ School would be shut down as part of budget cuts, because it’s an unremarkable school with no major accomplishments. Miho rallies the girls, and sends Irwin, Yukari, Mako and Midoriko to scout out Pravda’s positions. After repairing the tanks and strategizing, Ooarai bursts out of their corner at top speed, managing to catch Pravda off-guard. They split their forces and keep the Duck Team in the flag tank on the move. Yukari finds the Pravda flag tank. Anglerfish Team corrals it into a trap and Hippo takes it out, but almost simultaneously, Nonna hits the Duck Team…
Ooarai Girls School were dealt a rough hand. The Student Council insists that they have to win the Panzerfahren championship in order to avoid the school getting closed down because it sucks. While we can understand their reluctance to let their classmates know about this, they couldn’t have picked a worse time to drop it on everyone. Some people work better under pressure, but others fold like a table. Fortunately, Miho isn’t one of the latter, and she marshals the troops with an inspiring Anglerfish dance. What follows is the most heated battle of the series, and it’s an absolute hoot. Yes, Pravda makes it easy by keeping their forces totally sedentary for the extent of the truce, allowing Ooarai to craft an intricate path to victory.
And they make it!…or do they? Nonna definitely hits their flag tank, but the Hippo Team takes care of theirs. This episode doesn’t tell us who won, but somehow we doubt they’ll lose. Even if they do, Pravda’s victory is so thin, perhaps the Ministry will spare a school like Ooarai anyway, as a young, bold Panzerfahren team that’s shown promise, and very nearly taken victory from the jaws of defeat against a far superior adversary. Or they just won. In any case, the fast-paced underdog battle is an excellent payoff, with Ooarai’s inferior tanks darting and juking every which way, narrowly missing volley after volley. If Pravda lost, it wasn’t just because its leader Katyusha was a little too confident and indulgent. It was because Miho and her team never gave up.
Rating: 7 (Very Good)
P.S. We half-predicted Polyushka Polye to be played before this arc was out, and we were right! That’s our favorite Soviet march song.
RABUJOI - An Anime Blog 