| Spoiler warning! This Wiki contains detailed information regarding the Girls und Panzer universe. Proceed with Caution! |
- "All is fair in love and war."
- ―Darjeeling
Episode 4 "I'll Do My Best as Commander!" "Taichō, Ganbarimasu!" (隊長、がんばります！) English dub: "Captain Does Her Best!", is the fourth episode of Girls und Panzer, and first aired on October 30, 2012.
Plot[]
The battle has begun, the Total Annihilation rules apply. This means that all of a team’s tanks must be eliminated before victory can be declared. After saluting their opponent, the Oarai tanks deploy: once the St. Gloriana Team has been spotted, Teams B, C, D, and E split off for their ambush while Team A goes forth to bait the enemy and lure them into the trap. Team A's first shot doesn’t hit any of St. Gloriana's tanks, but it does get their attention and they give chase.
Team A lures them into the other waiting Oarai teams' ambush, but St. Gloriana expected this and form a pincer maneuver. Team D panics under fire and abandon their tank, and their tank is duly taken out with a single easy shot, whilst the student council team get one of their tracks blown off by a near miss. Taking Teams B and C to provide support, Team A withdraws to engineer a retaliatory attack. They retreat through the town, using the buildings as cover, and successfully ambush two of the enemy tanks.
However, only one of the two St. Gloriana tanks is disabled by its ambush, and Teams C and B are then quickly defeated, leaving Team A to fend for themselves against four tanks. Team A is cornered, but the student council team arrives unexpectedly (after repairing their track) to intercept; however, Momo misses all four tanks at point blank range and St. Gloriana makes short work of the Panzer 38(t). This diversion gives Team A time to retreat through an alley, taking down one of St. Gloriana tanks as they depart. Darjeeling immediately orders a pursuit. Team A uses blind corners to ambush the St. Gloriana's Matilda Mk.IIs, taking another two tanks, but when they fire at the Churchill it takes minimal damage due to its heavy armor.
Team A takes on the Matilda tanks
Miho orders the Panzer IV to turn, charge, and perform a drift turn to confront the Churchill from a better angle. The two exchange fire at point blank range, and when the smoke clears the Panzer IV is showing a white flag, disabled. Oarai Girls Academy loses the exhibition match.
As the disabled tanks of oarai are trucked back to their ship, the girls of Team A are approached by the leaders of the St. Gloriana team: Darjeeling, Orange Pekoe, and Assam. Darjeeling is surprised to learn that Miho is of the Nishizumi family, and before leading her team back toward their own campus ship, comments that Miho is very different from her sister, Maho.
After this encounter, the Student Council approach Team A, reminding them that, since they lost, they must perform the Anglerfish Dance (as threatened in Episode 3). However, the Student Council, in the spirit of fairness, perform the dance with them.
With the dance complete, Team A has a little time to spend before they must rejoin their ship. Mako must visit her grandmother, but Saori leads on a shopping expedition. While looking around in the shopping center, Saori's attention is caught by a handsome young man pulling a rickshaw. To Saori's shock, he turns and approaches them —only to ignore Saori completely, and to be introduced by Hana as Shinzaburou, an apprentice serving the Isuzu family.
The Anglerfish Dance
In his rickshaw is Hana's mother, who requests an introduction to Hana's friends. When Yukari inadvertently reveals that Hana is on the sensha-dō team, Hana's mother is so upset she faints.
They get her mother safely back to the Isuzu household, where, once her mother awakens, Shinzaburou urges Hana to tell her mother about how she truly feels, rather than avoiding her. Hana grew up practicing Ikebana, the art of flower arrangement, and her mother is utterly horrified at the idea of her daughter participating in sensha-dō, and now states her low opinion of tanks and sensha-dō. However, Hana, after expressing her frustration with ikebana and her family's approach to it, refuses to give up sensha-dō. Her mother tells her never to enter the house again.
Team A returns to the carrier, barely making it before departure time. There they find Team D waiting, deeply apologetic for their poor performance, who promise to do better next time. The Student Council also give Team A a gift sent by the St. Gloriana students: a tea set, a token of esteem that they only send to those opponents they deem truly worthy. In her note, Darjeeling tells Miho that their match was more entertaining than the one St. Gloriana fought with Miho's sister, and expresses her hopes to someday meet in an official match.
Finally, it is revealed that Oarai will participate in this year's National Sensha-dō Tournament. At the close of the episode is shown the selection process where they draw as their first opponent Saunders University High School, a favored contender for the championship. Sitting apart from the other students, the Student Council affirm to themselves that they cannot afford to lose. The episode ends with a shot of the overwhelming Saunders tank strength, rank upon rank of their M4 Sherman variants moving in formation.
| Previous episode: | Next episode: |
| Episode 3
"I'll Join the Fight!" |
Episode 5
"The Veterans: Sherman Corps!" |
Characters introduced[]
- Rukuriri (Seen on screen, not named)
- Nilgiri (Seen on screen, not named)
- Yuri Isuzu
- Shinzaburo
- Erika Itsumi (Seen on screen, not named)
- Alisa (Seen on screen, not named)
- Hisako Reizei (Referenced by Mako Reizei, not named)
Tanks appearing[]
- Cruiser Tank Mk.VI Crusader Mk.II (Seen. Not employed in action)
- M4 Sherman
Main events[]
- The match between Ooarai and St. Gloriana ends with the narrow victory of the latter.
- Hana is formally expelled from her home by her mother.
- The National Tournament begins, and Ooarai draws Saunders as their opponant for the first match.
Trivia[]
- The ending credits feature Team B (Duck Team) in the Type 89B.
- Saori mentions that Mako is quite lively at night, in contrast to her early morning lethargy.
- St. Gloriana is the only team to face Oarai with an equal number of tanks.
- Miho tells Hana the width of a Churchill is 3.25 meters, which is correct.
- This is the only elimination match in the anime series (fought under Annihilation Rules).
- As the Oarai girls do not receive their sensha-dō uniforms until Episode 5, they fight the battle in their regular school uniforms.
- On the playing cards Team D is using to pass the time waiting to spring their ambush, the face cards all display a panjandrum.
- A retail outlet in Oarai's Shopping District is named "Market Garden": a reference to the failed 1944 British operation to invade Germany by passing through Holland.
- This outlet appears again in Girls und Panzer der Film as a no-fire zone: Duck Team and Fukuda are pursued through the complex by Rukuriri, eventually successfully ambushing her outside the shopping district.
- This episode features the only instance of Darjeeling spilling her tea.
- In Girls und Panzer der Film she is seen using a different pattern of teacup, presumably because the one seen in this episode was broken when she dropped it.
- Whilst in pursuit of the Panzer IV, the lead Matilda Mk.II loses control on a hard corner and crashes into a hotel. This hotel makes an appearance in Girls und Panzer der Film under identical circumstances.
- This hotel, Sakanaya Honten, is in fact a real life hotel in Oarai, and has since become one of the primary pilgrimage spots for Girls und Panzer fans visiting Oarai, complete with a life size panel of Darjeeling at the front door.
- Boko makes an appearance on one of the warning signs at the roadworks.
- The drift maneuver Team A uses to position itself to hit the Churchill's lighter side armor is the same maneuver Miho eventually uses against the Tiger I in Oarai's final match against Kuromorimine.
- The Panzer IV ends up losing its treads both times this maneuver is used in the series; by contrast, in the movie Girls und Panzer der Film the Bermuda Trio from the All-Stars University Team execute similar maneuvers multiple times and their Pershings don't lose their treads.
- Anglerfish Team later attempts the same maneuver two more times in der Film. The first is once again against Darjeeling in the opening match, with the drift countered by a shot from Nonna's IS-2 knocking the Panzer IV away at the last moment, while the second is against Alice Shimada in the finale, however, Alice's Centurion Mk 1 rotates in the opposite direction to the drift and thus denies the Panzer IV a shot at its rear armor.
- It is implied that Team A gained their subsequent moniker, Anglerfish Team, from the profoundly-embarrassing Anglerfish Dance they are required to perform as penance for this first loss against St. Gloriana.
- In OVA 6, it is stated that the Anglerfish Dance is Team A's "forte".
- In the spin off manga, Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu!, it is revealed that none of the Oarai girls are very good at using the tea set given to them by Darjeeling.
- Miho draws number 8 for Oarai's opening slot at the National Championship tournament.
- In the Audio Drama, Darjeeling mentions that Rosehip, the commander of the Crusader platoon, wasn't allowed to participate in the battle because she lacked the gracefulness of a St. Gloriana student.
- During the final scene one can count no less than 47, possibly even more, M4 Shermans rolling forward: this is the highest number of tanks possessed by any one team shown in the series.
- In the scene where all four remaining St. Gloriana tanks aim at the unexpectedly-arrived Student Council's 38(t), the Matilda knocked out by the Panzer IV as it flees has a destroyed fuel tank, showing it to be the one to have previously encountered by the Type 89B (Rukuriri's).
Gallery[]
| Girls und Panzer Anime | |
|---|---|
| First Anime Season Episodes | Episode 1 ♦ Episode 2 ♦ Episode 3 ♦ Episode 4 ♦ Episode 5 ♦ Episode 6 ♦ Episode 7 ♦ Episode 8 ♦ Episode 9 ♦ Episode 10 ♦ Episode 11 ♦ Episode 12 |
| Recap Episodes | Episode 5.5 ♦ Episode 10.5 |
| OVA Episodes | OVA 1 ♦ OVA 2 ♦ OVA 3 ♦ OVA 4 ♦ OVA 5 ♦ OVA 6 ♦ OVA 7 ♦ OVA 8 ♦ OVA 9 ♦ OVA 10 |
| Animated Movie | Girls und Panzer der Film |
| Final Chapter | Part 1 ♦ Part 2 ♦ Part 3 ♦ Part 4 ♦ Part 5 ♦ Part 6 |