Anime Where Girls Fight With Airsoft

August 12, 2018 · ii comments

Past Andy Hanley.

aoharu-machinegun-03 Notwithstanding much you might abominate it, it's hard to deny that armed conflict holds a certain fascination – whether it's the cutting-edge technology bachelor to the military, the awe of seeing the firepower that this technology allows, the strategy of war or the human dramas and friendships. This interest in the machinations and machines of war tin conspicuously exist seen across popular civilisation: in video games, movies and anime. Nonetheless, stories based upon all-out state of war also have some inconvenient disadvantages for those that write them – there's typically little room for normal every-day life to intrude upon the bloodshed, death and destruction.

In that location'due south a handy solution which anime has turned to on several occasions – the existence of so-called "survival games", or Airsoft. The hobby arrived in Japan in the 1980s, around the same time equally paintball boomed in the United states of america and every bit a generation of blockbuster violent action movies excited the masses. The effect was an opportunity to revel in the intricacies of modern weaponry and the thrill of gainsay, but with no mortal danger beyond the possibility a trample or two.

The starting signal for this tendency in modern shows is Stella Women's University, Loftier School Division Class C³, a manga series adapted into animated course by GAINAX (who themselves acknowledged Airsoft otaku as part of their early 1990s classic Otaku no Video). Although its setting of a survival game club residing within a prestigious all-girls school gave enough of excuses for well-realised activeness scenes, the existent thrust of its tale was a very personal ane, following a shy girl named Yura Yamato as she is coerced into joining the survival game society before finding that her dear of this hobby and the friends she practices with threaten to turn into an obsession. The series sums up much of what makes Airsoft a stiff foundation, mixing the camaraderie and competitiveness you lot'd see in other sports anime with a killer instinct and penchant for tense activeness.

On the other hand we accept Sabagebu, a comedy series which takes its Airsoft-loving cast to the contrary extreme. For starters, activity scenes are played out with blood spilled and death around every corner, with reminders from the series' narrator that this is just the result of the delusions of its participants. This is just the tip of a surreal narrative iceberg that throws increasingly crazy ideas effectually in the name of getting laughs, backed up by a cast who take no compunction most unleashing their replica weapons on one another (or using their so-called "friends" every bit human being shields).

aoharu-machinegun-02 Brain's Base'due south Aoharu x Machinegun has more than in common with C³ than Sabagebu. The show'due south protagonist Hotaru Tachibana has a desire to enact justice then overwhelming that marching into a local host club to face-off with a member of its staff seems like a logical step. Unfortunately, this dearest of justice is backed up by an impetuous streak. Conspicuously, Hotaru is going to have to find a way to pay for the damages caused by these rampages, but, unexpectedly, the suggested resolution to this outcome is to join the survival game team run by the flirtatious Masamune Matsuoka.

Known as Toy Gun Gun, this is a squad with a fearsome reputation, merely equally Hotaru discovers an overwhelming honey for the excitement of the brand-believe battlefields of the world of survival games, one of the squad'southward very of import rules threatens to scupper everything at whatever moment. Toy Gun Gun is explicitly "no women allowed", but although she might non wait information technology at first glance the tomboyish Hotaru is a girl.

This setup allows Aoharu x Machinegun to operate on two levels. Nosotros have Hotaru'due south dilemma surrounding her hush-hush – would Matsuoka accept her equally office of the squad if he knew she was actually a girl? Besides, why are girls even banned from the squad in the first place? There'due south both one-act and character-driven drama born from this particular outcome, mixed in with a few early on hints of romance.

Meanwhile, we have the bodily survival games themselves, offer up some slick moves and squeamish flashes of action while also assuasive for stylistic interpretations of Hotaru and company's "killer instinct" during matches and training sessions. Nosotros have characters talking earnestly of "killing" and the malice which tin can easily bubble over during a match, but with enough of an air of pure escapism that one-act or more everyday fare is never far from sight.

To call it "Ouran Loftier School Host Club with guns" would be going likewise far, but fans of that archetype series will certainly find comparable things to similar well-nigh Aoharu x Machinegun, and the show makes smart use of its scenario and subject matter.

Aoharu x Machinegun will exist released in the UK by Anime Limited.