Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 13 (Fin)

Out of ammo after their last match, the C3 club enters in the 5th Annual “Field Queen Contest” with 16 other hopefuls, to win a year’s supply of BBs. Daishichi gives the play-by-play while Sono gives color commentary. When matches last longer than ten minutes, the winner is chosen by the audience, hence the need for showmanship and flair. Karila makes it to the final after defeating Yura and Aira, while Honoka defeats Rin with psychological warfare. Honoka and Karila’s match goes over ten, and Honoka wins the vote of the people.

With the main story arc all wrapped up last week, this was essentially a bonus episode, with little in the way of lasting impact, but was nevertheless a fun and entertaining end to the show, efficiently utilizing the skills, personalities, and yes, “assets” of both the main and supporting cast. Sure, things got a little corny at times, and we hasten to remark that Yura could easily win with her supernatural powers, but the mood was charmingly chipper and the pace was quick and confident, never bogging down as the pageant bracket filled out.

As an innocuous bonus episode, there was plenty of (very mild) fanservice, a product of the contest being more than just shooting your opponent, but also currying favor with the audience. Rin’s self-introduction in sailor fuku was pretty amusing, as was her ultimate defeat to Honoka after hearing all burdens that will befall her should she win. We were glad Yura and Rin didn’t progress that far, and the spotlight instead fell on her teammates. Honoka was the master strategist right up to the end, keeping Karila at bay while making sure she showed enough skin.

Rating: 6 (Good)

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 12

After Sono defeats everyone else, Yura returns and goes one-on-one with her. They battle hard, attracting the attention of Rento and the others, who watch from afar and eventually rejoin the fray. They battle until the sun is almost down, but Yura changes the world by restoring daylight and temporarily turning Stella Women’s Academy into one huge airsoft school where everyone is a combatant. Afterwards, with Sono gone abroad, the C3 club is short a member again. Yura, hearing two new students disillusioned by their high school experience, decides to try to recruit them.

Last week Yura hit rock bottom, but only she could pull herself out of her rut, live with her past misdeeds, and reconcile with her friends and Sono in particular the best way she knows how: with an airsoft battle. There was really never any doubt that they’d forgive her; and Yura even learned to enjoy herself again without fussing over tactical details. We liked how the battle started off with just Yura and Sono, but the others couldn’t resist jumping back into the battle, making it an even more exciting 2-on-2-on-2 that continues all day until the bells toll its end. That is, until Yura decides otherwise.

Using her supernatural powers, she not only extends the day, but makes an army out of Stella’s entire 1,800-girl student body. It’s a stunning move that shocks her teammates, though not enough to be disturbed by how Yura came to possess such godlike powers. Perhaps wisely, the series has avoided long explanations about the nature of her power, but in our opinion, it would have been nice to see in operation more often. Instead we must be satisfied with her revising a small chapter in Japanese history and then giving her senpai one hell of a send-off. And once Sono leaves (saying she’ll wait for Yura), Yura makes it her duty to find a new member.

Rating: 8 (Great)

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 11

Sono tells the C3 club that she’s returning to America soon, so they plan a farewell airsoft match for her. Rento finds Yura in an arcade to invite her, and ends up telling her off. Rin visits Sono, who realizes that throughout all the ordeals in her life she puts up a stoic facade to run from reality. As Sono’s farewell match commences, Yura wanders town aimlessly until she arrives at the shrine, where the human form of Choujirou tells her she must accept herself before others will. When Sono has defeated all the C3 girls, Yura arrives with Choujirou in hand, ready to fight.

Shameless enthusiasm for airsoft: Rin remembers her old friend Sono having it, and Yura has it too. Rin thought she could “save” Yura from going too far, but lost control very quickly, and had to cut her loose (you could call it a defeat for Rin, but ‘discretion’s the better part of valour’, and all that.) Yura didn’t manufacture that enthusiasm; that was just the way she was. Her unrelenting path to airsoft perfection ended up isolating her from everyone, but she couldn’t be forgiven or accepted until she forgave and accepted herself.

She is who she is, and maybe sometimes she’s going to rub some people the wrong way, or hit rough patches with those she’s closest to. She’s going to piss them off sometimes, and they’re going to piss her off. It’s no reason to settle for playing bad video games in the dark corner of an arcade with bags under her eyes. The world belongs to Yura just as much as it belongs to Honoka, Rento, Karila, Yachiyo, Rin or Sono. But while her friends all want her back, it’s Yura who has to actually come back, on her own. Her joining Sono’s farewell match is an encouraging first step.

Rating: 8 (Great)

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 10

Yura joins the Meisei Girls airsoft team, and in her first match with them she distinguishes herself as an all-around outstanding attacker. When they enter a platform medic battle, she bristles when Rin makes her the medic. She trains obsessively, but Rin keeps making her the medic in the next two battles. After the last one a teammate gets hurt while she’s covering for her, and Rin cuts her, convinced Yura only cares about herself.

It’s been long since clear that C3-bu is not so much a wacky metaphysical girls-with-guns series, but an increasingly serious character-driven drama about the different ways people prove their existence. And ever since we’ve understood that, we haven’t minded that transition in the least. This episode in particular – the darkest yet – was an emotional roller coaster as Yura joins the “bad guys”, becomes a crazed villain of sorts herself, and is then dropped just as quickly for being too selfish.

The episode made it pretty clear that Yura was going too far, and her behavior in the medic battles was both loathsome and ultimately detrimental to the team she was on. Rin also made the salient observation that Yura was “forcing her ideals” onto others. But while Yura is ultimately responsible for her actions and her current situation, we couldn’t help but sympathize with her all the same. She was only trying to become a stronger, more useful person.

From the start of the series we knew Yura was socially awkward, and her arc so far confirms that. Whichever social circle she settles down in, it isn’t long before she feels stagnant and restless, and her personality clashes with others. If she’s to have a reconciliation with Sono and the C3 Club (and that seems to be where things are headed) it will be when she realizes there’s no point in being Ultimate Airsoft Machine if no one will play with you, or worse, if it doesn’t make you happy.

Rating: 9 (Superior)

Stray Observations:

• We don’t see much of Sono, but what we do see of her shows us that she’s not losing any sleep over losing Yura (though no doubt she’s miffed).
• The medic battle was a neat idea we hadn’t seen before. We can’t help but wonder if Rin was trying to teach Yura humility by making her the medic. It didn’t work!
• As one of her underlings reports, Yura really is a fantastic airsoft player…on paper. But to use a couple of sports metaphors, she’s a bit of a glory boy.
• Another moment when we were simultaneously loathing and feeling really bad for Yura: when she was shooting blindfolded with bloody hands and giving poor Rento a very cold shoulder.

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 09

Sonora is discharged early, and congratulates Yura, but when they rejoin the club, she fesses up to zombieing in the final, and calls the organizers,  who contact Meisei, but Rin insists Stella didn’t violate any rules. The C3 club is relieved, but Yura isn’t satisfied. Mutsu and Yachiyo accuse her of sucking the fun out of the tournament, and Yura leaves in a snit.

Yura visits Meisei and talks with Rin, who praises her for her fast improvement. Yura sits out the C3 club’s noodle balloon shoot. Later she meets with Sonora demanding to know more about Rin. Sonora and Rin’s master was killed in action  Rin blamed it on weakness, and vowed to purge all of hers. After thanking Sonora for changing her, Yura tells her she’s leaving the C3 club.

Yura wanted nothing else but a rematch with Rin, not just to avenge Sonora, but to prove to Rin – and herself – that she’s not weak anymore. Then she makes a rookie mistake, and while the best thing to do is to simply move on, she just can’t. Zombieing was an act of weakness, and the fun-loving C3 club are all to happy to forgive it and continue playing around. Yura isn’t playing around anymore. Like Rin, she airsofts to become stronger, not to have fun.

Yura’s turning to the Dark Side was a long time coming; her philosophical differences with the rest of the team were on full display during the tournament, and this week in the aftermath, when they’re sore at her for trying too hard. As soon as that confrontation was over, Yura knew she could improve no further in the C3 Club. Rin’s team might be a better fit for her, now, but who’s to say she won’t grow restless and unfulfilled there as well, or even start to miss the conviviality of her old club? Perhaps Yura can’t remain happy anywhere long…

Rating: 8 (Great)

Stray Observations:

• Rin’s not just good at airsoft, she’s also a master manipulator, and Yura is putty in her hands. But Rin doesn’t have any ill will towards her; it’s more likely she wants a new apprentice to mold.
• On that note, we’re looking forward to seeing how the newer, darker Yura interacts with her Meisei teammates (if that’s where she ends up).
• Yura sees Rin on the news, being named as the person who helped catch the sniper who shot at Sonora.
• Rin gives Sonora a beautiful bonsai in the hospital, which is normally bad luck, but Sonora gets out super-fast, so the quesiton is, did Rin know the bonsai would have the opposite effect on her old friend?
• Having completed the pivot from thinking there’d be more metaphysical stuff in this series, we’re really enjoying Yura’s character arc from wallflower to soldier.

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 08

The 24-hour airsoft tournament commences, and the Stella girls excel, though Yura’s imperiousness irks Yachiyo and Karila. They fight throught the day and night until Stella and Meisei are the last teams standing. Yura meets with Rin before the last flag drop, and Rin half-confesses to shooting at Sonora. In the final showdown, Yura gets hit by a stray pellet, but doesn’t report getting hit, and shoots Rin.

We knew this tourney would go down one of two ways: either Stella would lose by the narrowest of margins but Yura would show rin her new-found fire, or Stella would win but Yura wouldn’t be happy with how they got it. During the truce before the final round, Yura, desperate to learn the truth, seeks out Rin. Through Sonora Yura has learned about how deep airsoft can get, and the lessons it can teach about living life. But Rin has none of it; airsoft is about one thing to her: the simulation of war. And in war, the winners live and the losers die; it’s as simple as that.

Those words don’t wound Yura so much as the ones that follow: because Rin sees this as a life-or-death struggle, she’s willing to do whatever is necessary for victory, including taking out Stella’s ace. She says Yura is no different; and it’s likely she can see it in Yura’s eyes; while Yura doesn’t consider this war, it’s absolutely imperative that she beat Rin to avenge Sonora. And win Yura does, but only by cheating. It would seem the cameras didn’t catch the pellet that hit her, so only Rin knows, and it’s something she’ll always know, making Yura’s victory taste as bitter as defeat.

Rating: 8 (Great)

Stray Observations:

• In our books, being a zombie player for a split-second is nowhere near as bad as targeting your rival in the real world with a high-powered rifle, but on principle, she’s correct that Yura was willing to break the rules to win.
• Yura may have been a single-minded tyrant and cheat in this episode, but they wouldn’t have gotten as far as they did without her intricate, highly successful strategy.
• We loved the moment Yura pulled her gun on “Karila”, who was actually her twin brother in disguise. For a split-second, it seemed like she was going to shoot her for losing the flag!
• Rin is voiced by Seto Asami, the voice of the bubbly Chihaya Ayase, but here she’s all serious business.
• Rin is also the latest in a long line of raven-haired, dark-eyed female characters who play the villain, though she pretty much shares that role with Yura this week. Yura’s innocence = zero.
• We have a feeling Sonora envisioned things potentially going this way for Yura after witnessing her obsessive behavior. Maybe she saw the Rin in Yura?

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 07

While walking home from the airsoft supply store, Sonora and Yura are shot at by an unknown sniper using a rifle illegally modded to fire high-pressure shots. Yura runs towards the source of the shots, and Sono has to rescue her from being hit by a car. Sono ends up with a concussion and sprained ankle, and will miss the 24-hour tournament. The rest of the club wants to quit, but Yura compiles comprehensive tactical research and assumes the role of acting leader, whipping the club in shape so they can win the tournament for Sono.

While neither Sono nor the C3 clubmates blame her for Sono’s injury, Yura is still of the age where she shouldn’t be running headlong into traffic, and she should thank her personal god she and Sono weren’t more seriously hurt or killed. This is an episode full of Yura making forceful decisions on behalf of the club, taking it by the scruff of its neck and whipping it into shape for the tournament, Sonora or no. But while she exhibits plenty of charisma and dedication, her head might not be in the right place.

She still kicks herself for surrendering to Haruna Rin in her first skirm, and once her suspicions grow that Haruna was the sniper, her desire to fight her grows even stronger. There’s a fire in her belly, and so driven to victory is she that she can’t even enjoy the festival that accompanies the tournament. She can’t have fun, and Sonora isn’t there to keep her grounded. The rest of the group accepts her as their leader, but by the time they realized the monster they were making by acquiescing to her extreme training, it may be too late. She’s so wound up, even a win over Meisei may not exercise her demons as she hopes.

Rating:7 (Very Good)

Stray Observations:

• We’re really curious what unforgivable thing Sonora did to Haruna that drove her to try to shoot her with a high-powered BB gun (if she in fact is the culprit).
• The diverse airsoft teams include Team Meisei Team Seto, Team Karila’s Brother, Team Cop, and Team Active Marines…tough competition, all.
• It was a nice touch portraying the training montage as a series of (very good!) drawings in a sketchbook that is handed to Sonora in the hospital when it’s done.

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 06

In order to afford the upcoming 24-hour airsoft tournament, the C3 Club must have a profitable school fair. After striking out with goldfish and haunted houses they set up a “cosplay firing range cafe” using what they have on hand. Business is slow due to harsh competition from adjacent clubs until Mutsu implements the “Get Wet Strategy,” in which the C3 members face off against each other in swimsuits with paper targets and water pistol quick-draw. A momentary distraction allows Yura to beat Sonora. By the end of the fair, they’ve made enough to fund the tournament.

It’s clear even before this episode that Yura has long since been accepted by the rest of the C3 Club as one of their own, and her exploits with said club are both fun and formative. And yet she still can’t shake flashbacks to a time when she didn’t fit in anywhere, and her peers took advantage of her meekness to walk all over her. It’s that past, combined with her defeat at the hands of Haruna Rin, that continue to haunt her and fuel the overachieving that could become reckless if unchecked.

She seems to use her “powers” to change her environment (as she sees it anyway) to her advantage, imagining a western duel in defeating Sonora in quickdraw. What followed was a quite awkward interaction to a duel between friends. Yura, who is almost embarrassed to have won, is given the cold shoulder by Sonora either because she was concerned with the girl who ran into Rento, or because she’s sore about losing to a newbie, or a little of both. The fair was fun enough for all, but it didn’t resolve any of Yura’s insecurities, which will surely come to the fore at the 24-hour tournament.

Rating: 6 (Good)

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 05

Yura wakes up on a yacht with the rest of the C3 club, heading to an island for a friendly skirmish against Kansai’s Team Seto, led by Aoi. C3 storms the beach and claim victory in the first skirmish, with Yura notching three hits. After barbecue and various activities, she goes to bed, but has a pessimistic dream she tells herself to ignore. The next day Yura is even more aggressive, taking a leadership role and giving orders in a center flag match. They’re victorious once more, but while Yura is ebullient, Sonora looks concerned.

The C3 Club obviously can’t happen upon a shrine inhabited by a wayward spirit for Yura to assist every week, so we’re back to gunfights, only this week mixes it up with an exotic island field, and, for the second of two battles, are fighting in swimsuits. Yura’s cute little two-piece belies her newfound confidence. The first battle is reminiscent of a WWII amphibious landing, while the second battle ends with the girls striking a pose not unlike the American soldiers at Iwo Jima. This could suggest Yura is actually creating these worlds, though it remains ambiguous whether transforming her surroundings gives her advantage here or if it just adds to the excitement.

In any case, despite Yura’s great success on the trip, Sonora projects her concern with subtle facial experesions that Yura is too busy being awesome to notice. The efficacy of Yura’s metaphysical powers aside, is she simply taking all of this way too seriously? It’s understandable after two past events: letting her team down by surrendering, and having an real, if slight, impact on history last week. It’s good to celebrate a win and one’s quick growth in the sport, but one gets the feeling when (not if) she loses, she’ll be just as devastated as she is ecstatic when she wins. Living between such extremes is stressful. As the Seto leader remarks, it’s better to be of the attitude where you have fun regardless of the outcome. Victory isn’t everything.

Rating:7 (Very Good)

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 04

Yura is having fun in the C3 Club, but her technical skill is limited, so Sonora decides to train her at a shrine. Sonora gives her a Scorpion vs. 61 and her first lesson is to hit a 5-yen piece from a distance. Yura sees a white fox while climbing thr shrine’s stepes, and the coin becomes a warrior Sonora mentioned died young and was enshrined there. When they call it a day, Yura leaves the gun behind. When she goes back for it after dark, the young warrior confronts her, calling himself Choujirou.

He tells her her the world in which she sees “delusions” is a real realm that is resonating with his own. He transports her to a medieval battlefield on the day and moment he is to be killed by an arrow. A real vz 61 in hand, he asks her to intervene on his behalf. After discussing her ordeal with Sonora (who tells her the gun’s name is Choujirou)Yura returns to the shrine with Rento, and both are returned to the world. Rento watches Yura shoot the arrow down, and in the real world, the airsoft pellet lodges in the hole of the coin. Back in the clubroom, her friends tell her Choujirou died an old man.

We’ve seen the shy new girl trying to find a place where she belongs, watched her participation in the club stir up passion, and watched her battle a rival club. None of those things are all that different from what Miho experiences in Girls und Panzer. But this was the episode that separated the women from the girls (und Panzer). This week, the ancient surroundings have a powerful effect on Yura, and there she not only discovers “her idea of airsoft”, but also manages to change history itself.

One could dismiss the awesome, fantastical elements of this episode as just that: Yura’s delusions but only at first. That all goes out the window when Rento goes side with Yura and sees the same scene as Yura – and is so freaked out she doesn’t speak of it to anyone! And when Yachiyou tells her Choujirou died an old man, that seals the deal: shooting down that arrow saved Choujirou’s life and ended his need to “fight forevermore”. And thus all of Yura’s past “delusions” so far in the series, and going forward gain deeper significance. The ramifications are positively spine-tingling, and elevate C3-bu to a whole other level.

Rating: 9 (Superior)

Stray Observations:

• Yura receives her gun, and it’s a beaut. She also almost whips it out on a train…not a good idea considering what a realistic replica it is!
• Sonora’s whole lesson at the shrine is a succession of awesome lines…”You fail because you seek success” and such.
• Looking back, the tone of the battle and Yura’s mood in the moment all determine the nature of the “delusions” that form around her. Very Suzumiya Haruhi-ish.
• The moment the gun in the battle scene suddenly changes from plastic to metal – and becomes much heavier in Yura’s hands – is one of our favorite moments of the episode. Shit’s literally gettin’ real.
• We’re eager to see how Rento processed what she saw, and whether she’ll ever bring it up to Yura or the others. Then again, other club members near Yura may eventually see what she’s capable of anyway.
• The series could always downplay this “power” of Yura’s but we hope it doesn’t drop it altogether in favor of more battles with rival clubs. That would be a huge shame.
• These developments mean Yura can now visit any shrine with a restless spirit and help them out…as long as marksmanship is required, of course!

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 03

Yura participates her first high school airsoft tournament with the C3 Club. She’s the one to capture the flag in their first battle and things go fairly easily in the others, but their last opponent is Meisei Girls’ Academy, led by Haruna Rin, a partner of Sonora’s in America. Stella launches an all-or-nothing attack, and get picked off one by one until Yura is all that’s left. She runs, hides, and surrenders when she realizes Rin is going to hunt her down. She disappoints Sonora, but the rest of the club tells her not to worry, as there will be plenty of chances to redeem herself. She resolves to improve, cutting her hair short as a symbol of her desire to change.

On the one hand, airsoft is all fun and games; a means of sharpening coordination, teamwork, and general killing skills, which can then be applied in other, less military areas of life, while developing bonds with one’s teammates. On the other hand, for some (like the likes of Haruna Rin) airsoft is not a game at all, and fun is the mind-killer, along with fear, doubt, and hesitation. Yura still has all of those qualities in spades, making her the one weak link in Stella that Rin and Meisei mercilessly exploit to win. And exploit they do: they not only won, but shook Yura to the bone, ruining a day that was supposed to be (and started out) fun.

Every rival club or team seems to have a Haruna Rin, and we 100% agree with Karila: her obsession with form over fun makes her boring, and her unseemly mind games make her a bitch. Airsoft is supposed to be fun. If she really finds Yura’s wavering and forfeiture in her very first tournament to be “despicable”, then she needs to kindly get a life. Sonora isn’t mad at Yura because they lost because of her, but because Yura gave up. Rin expected to be able to overwhelm a rookie, and Yura played right into her hands. It was a depressing loss, but Yura learned a valuable lesson that’s as important in sports as it is in life: the only thing to fear is fear itself, not one’s own imagined limitations.

Rating: 8 (Great)

Stray Observations:

• Han Solo has a few words for Yura after winning her first battle: “Don’t get cocky!”
• We like how all the mock battles trigger Yura’s vivid imagination, and when things turn sour, it turns into a sinister war scene that overwhelms her. Maybe skip the ‘shrooms next go around?
• Karila does her Matrix-like acrobatics again, while we see Sonora kicking ass for the first time. We like how everyone has their own unique style of fighting to go along with their unique weapons.
• Whatever Rin won’t forgive Sonora for, Sonora doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to apologize.
• After two episodes with an ED featuring crudely-scrawled illustrations, this week we get a far better-produced sequence.
• As part of her makeover, Yura will not allow herself to be addressed as anything other than “Yura.” We were finding all the nicknames a bit distracting, too…though we kinda liked “Lil’ Yura.”

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 02

Yura meets her senpai and roommate, senior Kashima Sonora, who has returned from sharpshooting in America. Meanwhile, the C3 Club continues its attempts to recruit Yura, who remains unsure of what to do. Karila proposes a battle, and “escort mission” with Yura as Sonora’s bodyguard against the other four members. Sonora guides Yura throughout the mission, and they end up winning, meaning Yura doesn’t have to join the club. But having had so much fun, she decides to join anyway.

As soon as they meet, the tomboyish Sonora intimidates Yura – she first encounters her butt-naked, fresh from the bath after a jog after a transpacific flight. But when Sonora tries one of Yura’s onigiri, she knows she could well be dealing with a natural marksman. You see, the perfect rice ball is one that is firm but not stiff, which apparently is also the best way to hold a gun. It’s a connection made by someone whose marksmanship master made her make onigiri again and again until she got it right. That master, by the way, used an airsoft gun to casually prune his bonsai, which just might be the best fucking thing we have ever witnessed.

In any case, while the rest of the club falls over themselves trying all-too-obvious and high pressure methods to get Yura to join up, Sonora, having gleaned Yura’s potential, sits back and lets whatever will happen happen. If Yura is meant to join, she will join, even if she wins the battle that will settle the issue. It’s an awesome battle, just like last weeks, too, albeit a totally different kind of battle, one in which Yura is the hero who must lead Sonora, her VIP charge, to safety from the four others. Just by being the badass she is, Sonora shows her just how fun the club can be, and shows her that she’s welcome and has a place there if she wants it.

Ultimately Yura decides being in the club is preferable to continuing to eat her lunch on the toilet, which is a no-brainer if you ask us, but teens are weird.

Rating: 8 (Great)

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – 01

Yamato Yura is excited to be starting her sophomore year of high school at Stella Women’s Academy, but has troulbe making friends and doesn’t like big groups. However, when she’s walked in on by a member of the “C3” club, they take an instant interest in her. She meets Hatsuse Karila, Hinata Yachiyo, Kirishima Rento, and Mutsu Honoka, who participate in mock battles akin to war games using airsoft rifles and pistols. She’s initially weary of joining, but Kirishima insists. She participates in a “Rambo”-style battle with Karila as Rambo and the other four as sheriffs. As the battle heats up, Yura starts to get it, and “steps in to a new world.”

Ahh, Girls With Guns. For some people, it will never get old. We’re some people. Especially since they’re not real guns; it’s all good clean fun with “airsoft” weapons (and candy bars for knives), while the club drinks tea and eats cake when not going to war. Parallels to Girls und Panzer are inevitable, but this episode felt a lot less “aw shucksy” and earnest than that series, with more of a chip on its shoulder and a potential for more comedy. We’re still learning the girls’ names (and their guns of choice), but the C3 club has a looser vibe to it; no one’s getting disowned and the fate of the school isn’t on their shoulders.

And yet, once the battle begins, the girls are all business, with Karila operating as a one-woman wrecking crew and the others working together like a well-oiled machine. Yura, who is searching for somewhere to fit in, knowing it’s not with the cliques of chatty, gossipy “normal girls”, is in awe of the spectacle before her, and the moment she gets into the swing of things, triggering her vivid imagination, is the moment she realizes she may have just found that place where she’s accepted for herself. She only has to embrace the weirdness…and learn to hold her gun correctly!

Rating: 8 (Great)

Stray Observations:

• Yamato Yura’s roommate, senior Kashima Sonora, only appears at the very end, showing great proficiency with the always menacing Desert Eagle .50. They’ll meet next week; the others warning that she’s the biggest weirdo out of all of them.
• Yes, all six members have famous Japanese battleship family names. Those Japanese love their battleships. So do Americans, for that matter…we named most of our states after them! :D
• Everyone has their own pet name for Yura: Karila calls her “Lil’ Yura”, Yachiyo calls her “Yuracchi”, Honoka calls her “Yurara”, and Reno calls her “Yurapyon.”
• We’re not familiar with Kirishima’s rookie seiyu Nishizaki Rima or Yamato’s seiyu Makino Yui, but the other girls: Kayano Ai (Karila), Yonezawa Madoka (Yachiyo), Saito Chiwa (Honoka), and Sawashiro Miyuki (Sonora).