| Erika Itsumi |
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- "Don't look down on Kuromorimine!"
- ―Erika Itsumi
Erika Itsumi (逸見 エリカ, Itsumi Erika) is a supporting character in Girls und Panzer and a main protagonist in Girls und Panzer: Phase Erika.
Profile[]
Erika is a second year student from Kuromorimine Girls' Academy, the current vice-commander and has been appointed next in line for the position of overall commander after Maho Nishizumi graduates. She operates a German Tiger II in combat, she can also fly the team's Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 and their LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin. As a first year, she commanded a Pz. 38(t) during practice sessions. Erika is presumably from Kumamoto City, Kumamoto. She is the overall commander of Tankathlon team Schwarzwald Kampfgruppe operating a Panzer II.
Appearance[]
Erika is a medium-sized girl with platinum blonde hair up to her shoulders, and a pair of light blue eyes.
Usually seen wearing Kuromorimine's uniform, wearing the jacket and hat during matches. Was briefly seen wearing the Ooarai uniform along with the rest of the reinforcement crews during the match against the All-Stars University Team.
Once dressed up in a reindeer costume for Maho's Christmas party, and subsequently the infamous Anglerfish Dance costume, a Christmas gift from Ooarai's Anzu Kadotani, as well during the course of the festivities.
Personality[]
Erika throwing a tantrum when her Tiger II has mechanical issues.
Erika is initially shown as quite an arrogant character, constantly insulting the Oarai team for their lack of experience and constantly wishing to crush them herself. She has an extremely short temper, and has a tendency to become enraged whenever things don't go her way, similar to Katyusha. She bore a serious grudge against Miho ever since her first year at Kuromorimine, up to and including Miho "abandoning" Kuromorimine and then betraying them by becoming the commander for a different school, despite her previous claim to abandon Sensha-Dō entirely. By the end of the anime however, she does show some decency when she (and Maho) admit defeat to the Ooarai team, happily saying that "We won't lose next time".
She is shown to have mellowed significantly by the events of Girls und Panzer: Little Army Two, berating Sheska for running off and boasting about Kuromorimine's prowess to Emi Nakasuga. She also showed humility after their victory against Bellwall, acknowledging that the enemy team had outsmarted and cornered them at one point in the match, despite having fewer tanks.
Background[]
Erika, along with Maho, criticized Miho intensely for their humiliating defeat from Pravda Girls High School during the previous Sensha-Dō finals that stopped their championship run to only just nine consecutive years. Since then, Miho left Kuromorimine and transferred to Ooarai Girls Academy to avoid Sensha-dō.
In Girls und panzer: Phase Erika, her hatred for Miho stems back during her first year at Kuromorimine since she witnessed Maho promoting Miho as the vice-commander even though Miho was only a first year. She thinks that Miho is incapable of being a vice commander and her position there is a huge insult to the Nishizumi style and especially to Maho's name. Erika thinks that Miho has a poor decision in choosing her crew and that Miho chose to ignore their unpleasant experience with her crew during training rather than to reprimand them was a poor decision as a vice commander. Not only that but she also hated the fact that at Miho's age she was still collecting and bringing a Boko stuffed figure to school.
She challenged Miho in a match that will decide their faith in Sensha-Dō, to which if Erika wins Miho will quit Sensha-Dō and when Miho wins Erika would be the one who will quit Sensha-Dō. Erika managed to defeat Miho by a close match. After the match; during the assembly Maho dropped Miho then appointed Erika as a vice-commander but she refused since she thinks that she defeated Miho through luck. They happened to come across to each other at the locker room and Erika asked if Miho gave her all. Miho replied that she did not fight at her full potential since losing that match would be a good thing for her. Feeling insulted, Erika slapped Miho's face. By sheer coincidence, Maho decided to pair Erika with Miho, so that Erika's more strict acctitude can compesate some of Miho's weaknesess.
Erika shows during practice to be a cold and effective teammate, but shows to be cold and harsh to Miho outside practice. Maho then announces that their school will take a practice match against Keizoku High School, commanded by Touko, the trickster, as training for the 62nd National High School Sensha-Dō Tournament. Shortly after the match starts, Miho, Erika and Koume get separated and ambushed, while the main group is sieged. Finally, Erika's group manages to destroy their enemy, but Erika's tank is destroyed. When Miho aproaches to help her and her crew, she orders her to save Maho. She obeys, leaving them and saving Maho's tank from the BT-42, and eventually they win the match. Erika congratulates Miho and they seem to become closer.
After they lose the 62nd National High School Sensha-Dō Tournament to Pravda after Miho got out of her tank to save the Panzer III crew (Koume included), Miho prepares to leave when she gets confronted in her room by Erika, who tackles her and accuses her of being a traitor and tells her that she will become a loser if she leaves now. She leaves her room angry and the stumbles with Koume, asking her why she did not leave the school. She responds that if she wishe to fight with Miho in the future, she must get stronger, asking Erika if she will get stronger too. Erika then realizes that that sort of strengh, distinct from all others, is what Miho left behind. Disgusted at herself for not being stronger, she takes the decision to get closer to the Nishizumi style and the commander.
Despite her hostile feelings towards Miho, she reluctantly lent a helicopter ride for Miho's teammate Mako Reizei with Saori Takebe to visit the former's sick grandmother.
During the finals, Erika often lost her temper as her opponents used unconventional tactics, such as a smoke screen to cover their escape, and threw a tantrum when her tank's left track broke down and lost the opportunity of immobilising Ooarai's flag tank . After desperately trying to reach Maho to help her, she was shocked to see Miho defeated her, but nevertheless, she accepted defeat and resolved that her school wouldn't lose in the next national tournament.
When she became overall commander of Kuromorimine after Maho Nishizumi graduates, Erika On advise of Maho Nishizumi whose say her before that she should found her own way of Sensha-do, changed during Winter Continuous Track Cup in match with Pravda her strategy. Erika changed her tank with Emi Kojima then she did side attack on Pravda's position on hill and she mannage to dodge Pravda's bullets by swift maneuver, so she get behind position of tanks with protected Pravda's flag tank. Since Pravda alredy rely on knowledge of existing Kuromorimine strategy, it do not work with such scenario so flag tank do not been prepared to change position therefore Erika olthough still been somewhat endangered she mannage to destroy Pravda's flag tank with barely got out of the trench.
Erika appears to have grown up in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto and went to the same middle school with Maho and Miho. In the official spin-off comic, a very young Erika (roughly 7 or 8 years old) is seen insulting the Nishizumi sisters as being immature when they were riding tanks, threatening to tell "Sensei" about it. Based on her attire at the time, it is possible she came from a well-off family.
Quotes[]
- (Der Film) "We should break through the enemy lines!"
- (Der Film) ""Operation Glühwein und Eiswein"!"
Trivia[]
- Erika's favorite flowers are moth orchids, and her favorite tank is the German Sturmtiger assault gun, armed with a 380mm rocket-propelled mortar.
- Erika's birthday, March 6th, marks the following events:
- The beginning of the Battle of Medenine, in 1943. This was an Axis "spoiling attack" launched at Medenine, Tunisia, in an attempt to delay the British military advance on the Mareth Line. This was to be the last battle commanded by German general Erwin Rommel in the North African campaign, and he returned to Europe for good three days after its conclusion.
- The beginning of Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen (Operation Spring Awakening), in 1945. This was the last major German offensive of WWII, with the aim of securing oil reserves and preventing the Red Army's advance towards Vienna, Austria. The Germans were unable to advance as far as they had planned, and the offensive ended in failure.
- Erika is named after the German marching song of the same name. Also known as "Auf de Heide" (On the Heath), it was written by military composer Herms Niel, and published in 1938 during the Nazi regime. It became the most popular marching song of any country during WWII.
- Erika has an older sister.
- Erika's favorite food is Glühwein und Eisbein (corned ham hock, paired with mulled wine). [1]
- Erika is one of the few characters not from Pravda High School to carry Katyusha on their shoulders. [2]
- Main article: Erika Itsumi/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 | |