The friendly between Oorai and St. Gloriannas begins with a simple baiting tactic Darjeeling easily sees through. Her counterattack causes Team D to panic and abandon their tank and Team E loses a track. Miho orders C and D to fall back and re-engage the Brits downtown where they use stealth tactics, and Miho even has Darjeeling one-on-one at point-blank, but the Churchill’s superior armor wins the day. After losing and performing the Anglerfish Dance with Team E, Team A shops around town. They bump into Hana’s mother, who faints upon hearing she has joined tankery. Hana refuses to budge, and her mother disowns her. The girls recieve tea from St. Gloriannas, a symbol that they were a worthy opponent. They enter the national tournament.
This week the show about teenage girls battling in tanks who live on giant city-ships goes for realism: that is to say, when it comes to the ultimate result of the Oorai Tankery Club’s fist match. It leaves victory in reach as long as it can, but ultimately St. Glorianna’s prevails, as it should have. It’s a hell of a fight, though, with tanks darting all over the place. We’re still not clear how this is at all safe (especially when the tanks start doing real damage in the town), but…who cares! As Miho continues to improvise ways to keep her chances alive, Darjeeling gets more competitive, even spilling her black tea – something she promised she would never do! Still, training, discipline, experience and armor win out over rawness, pluck, luck, and a commander still finding her footing.
The tank battle never lags, and as we said, had our belief in the underdog’s defeat suspended. But surprisingly, the friendly isn’t even the whole episode. After the Anglerfish dance (which indeed looked just as horrible as the girls insisted), they simply enjoy the town that graciously and eagerly hosted their battle. And then they bump into Hana’s mother, and we learn that even in this world that deems tankery the most feminine thing you can do, there are some who harbor the opposite opinion. Hana’s is a family of flower arrangers, and it’s shocking how swiftly her quick-to-faint mother freakin’ disowns her when she refuses to give up tankery. Miho simply allowed herself to get mixed into something she was already very well versed in, but Hana has forsaken her family calling and dived into the glory of tankery head first. That makes her pretty cool.
Rating: 7 (Very Good)
Tank Cameo: The Oorai team’s next opponent, Saunders, is from America. They appropriately ride in M4 Shermans – lots of them – to the playing of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
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