Éclair |
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- "My name is Éclair, and I am the commander of Maginot Girls' College."
- ―Éclair introducing herself before the mock battle with Ooarai
- "CHARGE!!!"
- ―Éclair during her last stand
Éclair (エクレア, Ekurea) is the overall commander of Maginot Girls' College's Sensha-dō team and one of the main characters of the manga Fierce Fight! It's the Maginot Battle!.
Profile[]
Éclair is a second-year student from Maginot Girls' College. She is the actual overall commander of her school's Sensha-dō Team and she operates a French SOMUA S35.
Appearance[]
Éclair is a medium-sized girl with long dark hair with blue highlights and a pair of light blue eyes. She is usually seen wearing the Maginot Girls College uniform. During battle, she wears the school's sensha-dō uniform.
Personality[]
Before taking over as the head of Maginot's Sensha-dō Team, Éclair was a rather impulsive girl who seemed to be obsessed with victory. Tired of losing, she goes as far as verbally confronting her commander and provoking her to a duel. After winning that duel and taking over the role of commander, she faces humiliation when confronted by the realization that the role of commander is a real burden to carry. This becomes particularly acute when the 3rd year students refuse to take orders from a 2nd year student, making Éclair cry in frustration and disappointment. It's shown that Éclair is a dedicated, hard-working commander, watching replays of her defeats over and over again in order to recognize the faults of her tactics.
Though an overall competent and charismatic commander, her inexperience is shown by her falling into Anzio's trap during their match, resulting in her defeat ( despite Maginot having an advantage in tanks ).
Background[]
Éclair enlisted in sensha-dō due to her admiration of Shiho Nishizumi (at time she practiced sensha-dō and even after) and her desire to be like her. Unfortunately for Éclair, sensha-dō is different from what she expected due to Maginot's exclusively defensive tactics that disallow tanks to move on to the front-line. Tired of this, she began to question her commander's tactics and skills. Four months before the 63ʳᵈ National High School Sensha-dō Tournament Éclair confronted her commander, Madeleine, accusing her of using archaic tactics that are responsible for Maginot's consecutive losses. She suggests adopting more mobile tactics and, eventually, unable to prevail against Madeleine's will to protect traditions, provokes Madeleine to a duel for the head of the school. She manages, with difficulty, to win, and after the match Madeleine gives her Spade Blue collar patches and the title of "Commander of Maginot Girls' College," saying that she will carry the responsibility for Maginot's traditions.
After becoming commander Éclair tries to impose her new strategy, a strategy favoring mobility inspired by Napoleon's cavalry tactics called the "Saint-Cyr Style", but she learns quickly the harsh realities of being a commander. She's always in conflict with other students; the 3rd years ignore her commands, and the 2nd and 1st years don't do as they're told since they're self-conscious of being watching by their senpais. After a training where she is constantly downplayed by 3rd years, a member of the sensha-dō team named Fondue proposes herself as the vice-commander. Éclair, at first irritated by Fondue's behavior and familiarity, eventually accepts her offer. After Fondue's alliance, the 3rd years become openly hostile towards her. Éclair then learns from her senpai that earning the title of commander doesn't give her the respect of Madeleine's followers. That is the beginning of Éclair's chronic stomachache.
After the conflict with 3rd years passes, Éclair, in her office, is visited by Madeleine, who announces her withdrawal from the sensha-dō team. Éclair is horrified, as she fears that the only reason she is able to maintain her command is because of Madeleine's presence. After Madeleine's departure, Éclair's fears are proven justified when the sensha-dō team loses 51 team members out of 80. Despite this setback, however, Éclair still believes in her tactics.
Four months later, Maginot has suffered regular defeats in various training matches (the last against Saunders) when Fondue presents Éclair with a request for a training match from Ooarai. Éclair gladly accepts, hoping to prove the efficacy of her "Saint-Cyr Style". After gathering intel on Ooarai's team from their previous match against St.Gloriana, she learns that the team is lead by Miho Nishizumi, which makes her more eager to fight Ooarai and defeat the Nishizumi style (as she's a fan of Shiho Nishizumi).
After several training sessions Éclair begins to realize that her new style has its limits, as their tanks aren't suitable for mobile warfare due to the limited number of crew members per tank (FT-17 and R35 have only 2 crew members and the commander have to do 4 different tasks).
During the match against Ooarai, Éclair entrenches four of her tanks to give the illusion that Maginot has not changed their tactics, while putting a R39 in ambush. After Ooarai realizes Maginot's tactics and foils their plans, Éclair suffers a violent stomachache and nearly faints. Collecting herself, she makes a speech to her remaining tank-crews that reunites all her teammates under her guidance. This allows them to take out some of the Ooarai tanks, but in the end Éclair's tank is shot down by Miho's Panzer IV in a valiant charge and the rest of the team is taken out by the M3 Lee.
After the match Éclair congratulates Miho on her teamwork, kissing her three times in appreciation. Despite that good sportsmanship, however, once she leaves for the training grounds she reveals to Fondue that she's still frustrated about losing.
We can assume that Éclair once again uses her "Saint-Cyr Style" strategy during the match against Anzio High School that ends in a defeat (once again !).
She is seen participating in the Tankathlon Cauldron Tournament in the name of Maginot. During the eighth match of the first round she fights Viggen High School in an annihilation match. Unaware of the Yojimbo rule, she fought all the Viggen tanks alone, smashing them in her FT-17, finally proving the efficacy of her "Saint-Cyr Style". She gets her usual stomachache after learning afterwards that she could have had backup.
Éclair also participates in the Winter Continuous Track Cup, where Maginot loses their first round match to Kuromorimine.
Trivia[]
- Her name is taken from the "éclair", a French pastry.
- Éclair can also be the French word for lightning, highlighting her preference for a fast and mobile style, rather than a slow defensive one.
- Her stomachaches may be a reference to Napoleon's peptic ulcer and fatal stomach cancer.
- She like to read books, and is pleasured when she see book classified on shelf.
Gallery[]
- Main article: Éclair/Gallery
Characters | ||
---|---|---|
Ooarai Girls High School | Anglerfish Team | Miho Nishizumi ♦ Saori Takebe ♦ Hana Isuzu ♦ Yukari Akiyama ♦ Mako Reizei |
Duck Team | Noriko Isobe ♦ Taeko Kondou ♦ Shinobu Kawanishi ♦ Akebi Sasaki | |
Hippo Team | Erwin ♦ Caesar ♦ Saemonza ♦ Oryou | |
Rabbit Team | Azusa Sawa ♦ Aya Oono ♦ Ayumi Yamagou ♦ Yuuki Utsugi ♦ Karina Sakaguchi ♦ Saki Maruyama | |
Turtle Team | Anzu Kadotani ♦ Momo Kawashima ♦ Yuzu Koyama | |
Mallard Team | Midoriko Sono ♦ Moyoko Gotou ♦ Nozomi Konparu | |
Leopon Team | Reira Nakajima ♦ Keiko Hoshino ♦ Maria Suzuki ♦ Tsuchiya | |
Anteater Team | Nekota ♦ Momoga ♦ Piyotan | |
Shark Team | Ogin ♦ Murakami ♦ Cutlass ♦ Flint ♦ Rum | |
Miscellanous | Taiga Ou ♦ Sadoka ♦ Mazoe | |
St. Gloriana Girls High School | Darjeeling ♦ Orange Pekoe ♦ Assam ♦ Rosehip ♦ Rukuriri ♦ Nilgiri ♦ Vanilla ♦ Cranberry ♦ Earl Grey | |
Saunders Girls High School | Kay ♦ Alisa ♦ Naomi ♦ Helmet-Chan | |
Anzio Girls High School | Anchovy ♦ Carpaccio ♦ Pepperoni ♦ Amaretto ♦ Gelato ♦ Panettone | |
Pravda Girls High School | Katyusha ♦ Nonna ♦ Klara ♦ Nina ♦ Alina ♦ Ekaterina ♦ Olga ♦ Polina ♦ Natalia ♦ Lisa ♦ Mo ♦ Zemlya ♦ Neba | |
Kuromorimine Girls High School | Maho Nishizumi ♦ Erika Itsumi ♦ Koume Akaboshi ♦ Leila Rou ♦ Emi Kojima ♦ Geshiko ♦ Sangou ♦ Mauko ♦ Sheska ♦ Manami Himuro ♦ Runa Onizuka ♦ Kirishima | |
Chi-Ha-Tan Academy | Kinuyo Nishi ♦ Haru Fukuda ♦ Tamaki Tamada ♦ Shizuko Hosomi ♦ Setsuko Nagura ♦ Noriyo Hamada ♦ Tomiko Teramoto ♦ Emi Ikeda ♦ Rin Kubota ♦ Yasuko Nishihara ♦ Chiyoko Uenishi ♦ Tatsu Hasegawa ♦ Hanako Hirai | |
Jatkosota High School | Mika ♦ Aki ♦ Mikko ♦ Touko ♦ Lili | |
BC Freedom High School | Ribbon Warrior | Asparagus ♦ Moule ♦ Bordeaux |
Das Finale | Marie ♦ Andou ♦ Oshida ♦ Sofue ♦ Isabe | |
Blue Division High School | El ♦ Tristana ♦ Viridiana ♦ Andalusia | |
Koala Forest High School | Wallaby ♦ Platypus | |
Bonple High School | Ribbon Warrior | Jajka ♦ Uszka ♦ Pierogi |
Das Finale | Maiko | |
Maginot Girls College | Éclair ♦ Fondue ♦ Galette ♦ Madeleine ♦ Colombier | |
Count High School | Noemi Kohiyama ♦ Anna Masukura ♦ Nachigami Sisters ♦ Marina Constantinescu ♦ Mizuki Ikarashi | |
Tatenashi Girls High School | Shizuka Tsuruki ♦ Rin Matsukaze ♦ Haruka Endou | |
Tategoto High School | Aung | |
Maple High School | Trout ♦ Amber ♦ Oleo | |
Kebab High School | Bosphorus | |
Bellwall Academy | Tiger I Crew | Emi Nakasuga ♦ Hitomi Yuzumoto ♦ Kita ♦ Takami ♦ Nagisa Shiratori |
Jagdpanther Crew | Neko Yamamori ♦ Yano ♦ Koharu Sakai ♦ Kanbara ♦ Hirono | |
Elefant Crew | Chifuyu Doi ♦ Terauchi ♦ Wakasugi ♦ Kunihiro ♦ Nogata ♦ Enami | |
T-44 Crew | Youko Minami ♦ Saionji ♦ Azuma ♦ Hokuto | |
Panzer II Crew | Kashiwaba Sisters | |
West Kureouji Grona Academy | Kiri Shiratori | |
All-Stars University Team | Alice Shimada ♦ Azumi ♦ Megumi ♦ Rumi | |
Japan Sensha-dō Federation | Ami Chōno ♦ Shiho Nishizumi ♦ Renta Tsuji ♦ Chiyo Shimada ♦ Shichiro Kodama ♦ Kikuyo Idegami ♦ Kanon Sasagawa ♦ Hibiki Inatomi ♦ Remi Takashima | |
Non-Affiliated | Yoshiko Akiyama ♦ Jungorou Akiyama ♦ Hisako Reizei ♦ Shinzaburo ♦ Yuri Isuzu ♦ Chihiro Yusa ♦ Boko |