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Katyusha
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"You prepared these tanks just to make Katyusha laugh, did you not? All of you are below Katyusha! Your tanks, your technology and your height."
―Katyusha
"Let's go! We'll leave their flag tank and take out every single one of them. We're going to show them just how much stronger we are!"
―Katyusha

Katyusha (Russian: Катюша), also known as "Drifting Snow" Katyusha, is one of the supporting characters of Girls und Panzer.

Profile[]

Katyusha is a student from Pravda High School and the overall commander of the school's Sensha-Dō team. She operates a Soviet T-34/85.

Appearance[]

Katyusha is a girl with short blonde hair and light blue eyes. She wears a green-brown uniform tunic with a Russian red cross and a skirt of the same green-brown colour or, as in the match against Ooarai, a jumpsuit modeled after those worn by WW2 Russian tank operators. Katyusha is also shown to wear a Russian tanker's padded cap when she prepares for battle, which looks gratuitously large on someone as small as her. She has a very diminutive stature, making her age hard to determine; however, canon states that she is 17 years old.

Personality[]

Katyusha is well known for her arrogant and childlike personality; most likely due to her small height, she feels she has to 'stand above' anyone else, friend or foe alike, which she accomplishes by sitting on Nonna's shoulders. While her arrogance is backed up by her tactical skill, it sometimes gets the better of her (her offering Ooarai the opportunity to surrender arguably squandered her advantage). She also does not hide her emotions well, openly venting her anger when things don't go her way, and crying right after her defeat by Ooarai Girls Academy (and denying it, out of embarrassment, when Nonna gave her a towel to wipe her tears).

Concerning her personal relationships, Katyusha seems very close to Nonna, in whose company she is almost always found. Katyusha has a habit of calling Miho Nishizumi "Pirozhki," perhaps implying a fondness for Miho.

Despite her childish personality she is shown to be quite intelligent and manipulative, as she managed to manipulate both the Pravda 1st years to set them against their senpais, and the 3rd years to prevent them from punishing her for daring to beat them (with a little help from Nonna). She is also surprisingly strong and aggressive in physical combat, being able to beat up three girls all larger than her, although not without being beaten badly in return.

Background[]

Katyusha and Nonna

Anime[]

Katyusha led the Pravda Sensha-Dō team against Ooarai Girls Academy during the semi-final round of the 63rd National High School Sensha-Dō Tournament, and it's implied she was in command the previous year, when Miho Nishizumi's actions led to Pravda's victory. During the 63rd Tournament, her strategy of luring Ooarai into an ambush almost worked, and Ooarai's tanks were forced to hide in a dilapidated church to escape the onslaught. After that, Katyusha offered them surrender conditions, among which were that they would have to bow in submission to her. However, after learning that losing the match would cause Ooarai's closure, Miho refused to surrender, instead choosing to fight till the end.

While Ooarai's team was in the church, before they resumed the match, Miho sent scouts (Mako Reizei, Midoriko Sono, Erwin and Yukari Akiyama) to locate all of Pravda's tanks, and even to converse with Pravda team members. Not knowing of this reconnaissance, Katyusha expected that the whole Ooarai team would chase Pravda's flag tank, or possibly strike at the weak point she deliberately left in her line, but Ooarai's tanks instead attacked their vanguard, taking Katyusha by surprise. She then led the pursuit of Ooarai's flag tank, while Ooarai's Anglerfish Team and Hippo Team doubled back into the town in search of Pravda's flag tank.

During Pravda's pursuit, upon Katyusha's instructions Nonna knocked out first the Ooarai flag tank's escorts, and then fired on the flag tank itself. The two flag tanks from both sides were hit at the same moment, but Ooarai's flag tank (Duck Team) miraculously survived, leaving Pravda defeated. After this, despite her immense disappointment, Katyusha revealed a surprising grace in defeat, openly acknowledging Miho's prowess and shaking her hand while standing on her own feet for once. Together with Nonna, Katyusha later appeared as a spectator of the finals, both seeking out Miho before the match to encourage her to "crush Kuromorimine like Operation Bagration!" and then cheering for Ooarai.

Der Film[]

During the first part of Der Film, Katyusha leads the Pravda element of the combined Pravda–St. Gloriana Team during the Ooarai–Chi-Ha Tan vs. St. Gloriana–Pravda Exhibition Match. Again commanding her T34/85, she manages to break through the Ooarai–Chi-Ha Tan delaying force and come to the relief of the St. Gloriana elements pinned down on the golf course. It is implied from Nonna's chiding that Katyusha could have gone around the delaying force, but Katyusha chose to face it head-on. In the pursuit of the Ooarai–Chi-Ha Tan team, she is in the thick of the action, and eventually ends up in pursuit of Anglerfish Team, the Ooarai–Chi-Ha Tan flag tank. When Anglerfish Team escapes down a stairway, Katyusha refuses to seek another, easier route to intercept them, revealing her competition with Miho when she states, "Anything Miho can do, Katyusha can do!" Toward the end of the match, she waits in ambush for the Ooarai–Chi-Ha Tan team as they pursue the St. Gloriana flag tank, knocks out Mallard Team, and again demands Miho's surrender —and again, Miho refuses. Finally, she sacrifices herself by taking a shot from Miho, allowing Darjeeling time to knock out Anglerfish Team and, thus, winning the match for St. Gloriana–Pravda.

During the match, she is shown to have no patience for Nonna and Klara speaking to each other in Russian —which Katyusha apparently does not understand.

In the second part of Der Film, when Ooarai is facing impossible odds in their match against the All-Stars University Team, Katyusha responds to Darjeeling's call to arms and leads an element of Pravda's team to Ooarai's aid, "transferring" to Ooarai and joining the Ooarai Combined Team. During that match, she serves as vice-commander of the Sunflowers, and is the first to experience the Karl-Gerät's bombardment. When the Sunflowers are forced to retreat, Katyusha's fellow Pravda teammates (Nonna, Klara, and the crew of the KV-2), believing in her importance, sacrifice themselves to make certain she can escape. Katyusha is shocked and despondent at losing her teammates, but musters her strength and carries on.

At the amusement park, she is at first part of the team to guard the south entrance, eventually joining the Kuromorimine tanks in a sortie that destroys the feint there. She remains with that team as they try to break the encirclement at the amphitheater, but is unable to gain headway. Once Rabbit Team's diversion with the ferris wheel succeeds in breaking the encirclement, she retreats with the others, but feels the loss of her Pravda teammates keenly and wants to stay behind and make an aggressive and perhaps last-stand defense. She is instead convinced by Leopon and Anteater Teams to stay together as a team, and goes on to destroy several enemy tanks with them, despite them teasing her and nicknaming her "Geronimo." Her tank is one of the last knocked out, being defeated by the "Bermuda Trio" as she, Leopon Team, and Erika try to stop Azumi, Rumi, and Megumi from rejoining Alice.

She is seen at the very end of Der Film together with the rest of the Ooarai Combined Team, both congratulating Miho on the victory and, in her cheerfully arrogant style, personally accepting the gratitude of Ooarai for the assistance of all the other schools.

Das Finale[]

In Part 1, Katyusha is seen riding on Klara's shoulders as they watch the match between Ooarai and BC Freedom High School.

In Part 2, Katyusha is seen leading Pravda's team through a snowy forest on a fast, radio-silent attack on Viking Fisheries High School.

In Part 3, Katyusha is again seen leading Pravda's team against Kuromorimine Girls Academy. Katyusha had planned for the Kuromorimine team to pull the same tactics of forcing an attack and marching against their enemies with their heavy tanks. However, Erika, the new commander of Kuromorimine, had other plans. Erika swapped from her Tiger I to a Panzer III and led a detachment of medium tanks on a flanking move against Pravda's now dug in tanks. Katyusha caught Erika's moves a little too late and due to the inflexibility of her bunkering down plans, it turned into a massive panic with every tank suddenly reacting to the encroaching flanking tanks. With Katyusha dashing towards Erika hoping to delay her, the flag tank, an T-34/85 comanded by Klara got stuck in the pit and could not get out which saw Erika hitting a bank with her tank at maximum speed, soaring above Katyusha's T-38-85 and shooting at Klara's T-34/85 mid-air at the top hatch, destroying it in the process which lost Pravda the match and the competition.

Quotes[]

  • (Der Film) "Double envelopments, of course! Then we wait for General Winter to ally with us! Annihilation matches have no time limit anyway!"
  • (Der Film) "Operation Beef Stroganoff" is the best! Can't beat the combination of onions, beef and sour cream!"

Trivia[]

  • Her name means "Little Kate" in English.
  • Her favorite flower is Chamomile and her favorite tank is the Soviet KV-2.
  • Her name comes from the Katyusha multiple rocket launcher fielded by the Soviet Union during WWII, which was the truck on which Katyusha and Nonna arrived to greet the Ooarai team before the battle. In turn, the rocket launcher was named after the famous traditional song "Katyusha", which is the song Pravda's team is seen singing, led by Katyusha and Nonna, at the beginning of the semi-final round (in the original release; that song was cut from the English dub for reasons of copyright).
  • It is implied that she already knew Kuromorimine had a Maus tank, since when the Maus appeared she responded with, "Oh no! Their Maus is here!", perhaps suggesting that Pravda had faced the Maus in the previous year's Tournament. However, this element of the episode is the subject of considerable speculation among fans, as Miho Nishizumi's apparent unfamiliarity with the Maus, after her recent history as a Kuromorimine vice-commander, is difficult to explain, and makes Kuromorimine's use of the Maus against Pravda during the previous Tournament unlikely.
    • It is possible that she was able to obtain this information via alternative means, such as witnessing a practice battle involving the Maus or obtaining the information via word-of-mouth.
  • Ironically, the name 'Katyusha' is a diminutive variant of the name 'Yekaterina', further adding to her childish nature.
  • Katyusha is the shortest character to appear in the show thus far. This could be in reference to Joseph Stalin, Premier of the Soviet Union during World War II, who stood at a mere 163 cm, or 5 ft 4 in.
  • Part of her daily routine is trying to get taller.
  • Nakajima of Leopon Team nicknamed her "Kat-chan" and later "Geronimo," in keeping with the Ooarai girls' curious habit of shortening someone's name.
  • Even though she is both the overall commander of Pravda's Sensha-dō team and the Student President, she doesn't know many things about the school.
  • In an anime episode from Genshiken, two extras characters can be seen cosplaying as Katyusha and Nonna and their piggyback ride.
  • Her dream of getting taller is shown in the video game Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Match, at the end of Pravda's Domination Match.
  • Although Katyusha does not approve of Nonna and Klara speaking Russian, she herself sings "Katyusha" in Russian in episode 8.

Gallery[]

Main article: Katyusha/Gallery
Characters
Ooarai Girls High School Anglerfish Team Miho NishizumiSaori TakebeHana IsuzuYukari AkiyamaMako Reizei
Duck Team Noriko IsobeTaeko KondouShinobu KawanishiAkebi Sasaki
Hippo Team ErwinCaesarSaemonzaOryou
Rabbit Team Azusa SawaAya OonoAyumi YamagouYuuki UtsugiKarina SakaguchiSaki Maruyama
Turtle Team Anzu KadotaniMomo KawashimaYuzu Koyama
Mallard Team Midoriko SonoMoyoko GotouNozomi Konparu
Leopon Team Reira NakajimaKeiko HoshinoMaria SuzukiTsuchiya
Anteater Team NekotaMomogaPiyotan
Shark Team OginMurakamiCutlassFlintRum
Miscellanous Taiga OuSadokaMazoe
St. Gloriana Girls High School DarjeelingOrange PekoeAssamRosehipRukuririNilgiri ♦ Vanilla ♦ Cranberry ♦ Earl Grey
Saunders Girls High School KayAlisaNaomiHelmet-Chan
Anzio Girls High School AnchovyCarpaccioPepperoniAmaretto ♦ Gelato ♦ Panettone
Pravda Girls High School KatyushaNonnaKlaraNinaAlinaEkaterinaOlgaPolina ♦ Natalia ♦ Lisa ♦ Mo ♦ Zemlya ♦ Neba
Kuromorimine Girls High School Maho NishizumiErika ItsumiKoume Akaboshi ♦ Leila Rou ♦ Emi KojimaGeshikoSangouMaukoSheskaManami HimuroRuna Onizuka ♦ Kirishima
Chi-Ha-Tan Academy Kinuyo NishiHaru FukudaTamaki TamadaShizuko HosomiSetsuko NaguraNoriyo HamadaTomiko TeramotoEmi IkedaRin KubotaYasuko NishiharaChiyoko UenishiTatsu HasegawaHanako Hirai
Jatkosota High School MikaAkiMikko ♦ Touko ♦ Lili
BC Freedom High School Ribbon Warrior AsparagusMouleBordeaux
Das Finale MarieAndouOshida ♦ Sofue ♦ Isabe
Blue Division High School ElTristanaViridiana ♦ Andalusia
Koala Forest High School WallabyPlatypus
Bonple High School Ribbon Warrior JajkaUszka ♦ Pierogi
Das Finale Maiko
Maginot Girls College Éclair ♦ Fondue ♦ Galette ♦ Madeleine ♦ Colombier
Count High School Noemi KohiyamaAnna MasukuraNachigami SistersMarina ConstantinescuMizuki Ikarashi
Tatenashi Girls High School Shizuka TsurukiRin Matsukaze ♦ Haruka Endou
Tategoto High School Aung
Maple High School Trout ♦ Amber ♦ Oleo
Kebab High School Bosphorus
Bellwall Academy Tiger I Crew Emi NakasugaHitomi YuzumotoKitaTakamiNagisa 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 ShimadaAzumiMegumiRumi
Japan Sensha-dō Federation Ami ChōnoShiho NishizumiRenta TsujiChiyo ShimadaShichiro KodamaKikuyo IdegamiKanon SasagawaHibiki InatomiRemi Takashima
Non-Affiliated Yoshiko AkiyamaJungorou AkiyamaHisako ReizeiShinzaburoYuri IsuzuChihiro YusaBoko
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