Command! Control! Communication! C3-bu!
Yura Yamato has just recently transferred to the prestigious Stella Girls' Academy and discovers that it is difficult to find friends in her first day at school. After a chance meeting with a fellow student named Rento Kirishima, she is recruited to the school's airsoft club named C³-bu.note The story revolves around Yura's experiences as a member of the C³-bu and her interactions with her fellow members.
Preferential Measure Organization Stella Girls' Academy, High School Division C³ Club (特例措置団体ステラ女学院高等科Ｃ３部 Tokurei Sochi Dantai Stella Jogakuin Kōtō-ka C³-bu, often simply called Stella Jogakuin Kōtō-ka C³bu, or Stella C³-bu, or simplier, C³) is a shōnen manga series created by Ikoma and Tomomoka Midori. The anime, made by Gainax, was aired for a season in the summer of 2013.
Viewers living in the following areas may watch the show legally at Crunchyroll
: USA, Canada, South Africa, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
Compare and contrast with Sabagebu!, a shoujo comedy manga about an altogether different girl joining another club focused on model guns.
Tokurei Sochi Dantai Stella Jo-Gakuin Kōtō-ka C³-bu provides the following:
- The Ace: Sonora and Rin. Karila may also count as she's shown at the start of the series to be the only club member capable of matching Sonora.
- Action Girl: Most of the girls work towards this, but the cake is taken by Sonora, who's so good she takes part in shooting competitions in the US.
- Anti-Hero: Yura develops into one. However she later snaps out of it and returns to "fun mode".
- Apologetic Attacker: In one early episode, after shooting an opponent, Yura promptly apologizes for doing so. Lampshaded by Karila.
- Artistic License – Gun Safety:
- Averted. Despite using nonlethal airsoft guns, the C³ members show proper trigger disciplinenote and wear protective gear.
- The club also realises that their recruitment plan will never be approved because of all the safety violations (first and foremost being the use of suppressive fire to prevent the other clubs from setting up at the school hall).
- Really about the only problem that people have noted with any safety issues is that the girls tend to do survival games in their school uniforms or outfits that leave their legs and arms bare. Probably covered under Acceptable Breaks from Reality, since the uniforms and hairdos make them easy for the viewers to pick out when they're in the field.
- In Japan, airsoft guns are required by law to have a muzzle energy figure not exceeding 1 joule of force, with a 6mm .2 gram BB that is about 330FPS (feet per second). Airsoft players commonly use a Coke can to determine if a gun is shooting over that (if it pierces both sides at point blank), a practice that is dubbed the "poor man's chrono". A gun that can shoot harder than that in Japan is actually illegal, let alone a gun that can pierce a steel can like in the show - someone selling an airsoft gun illegally modified to fire with higher muzzle energy than that is a minor plot point before and after the 24-hour tournament.
- In Sonora's flashback about her and Rin in the US, one of the scenes has the two holding airsoft guns with orange muzzle tips. The blaze orange tip is required for import and sale, and many airsoft gun owners outside of Japan choose to keep them to avoid their guns being mistaken for anything other than replicas.
- A-Team Firing: While it's justified at times due to the nature of airsoft guns, at other times you have to wonder how so many characters fire at extremely close ranges, and fail to hit anything. Especially considering the Improbable Aiming Skills demonstrated by several of them.
- Badass Bookworm: Sonora, surprisingly enough. Despite her constantly wacky, energetic behavior and incredible fighting skills, it turns out she is actually an exceptional academic. This leads to her not only winning a scholarship for an American university, but being entitled to graduate high school without taking her finals... meaning leaving the club in the middle of the year.
- Back-to-Back Badasses:
- Rin and Sonora briefly in the second opening, moments before they're split apart and aiming those guns at each other. Of course, being Shisho's disciples, you'd think they also do this quite often when they were in the US.
- Also used on Sonora and Karira, especially in episode 12 when Kari goes to help Sono fight Rento and Yura.
- Battle of the Still Frames:
- Averted with the first and last fight during episode 3, played straight with all of the other matches, which simply shows the girls in various action stances while they progress up the leaderboards.
- Done again in episode 8, showing Stella's C³ group fighting their first and last battles, while skipping the fights that take place in-between.
- Used in episode 12 sparingly, switching between the girls in various action poses, and showing them actually playing the game.
- Utilized again in episode 13, only showing some of the more important duels. Even some of the C³ members are subjected to this, and they either obviously win, or come back later and say they got hit, thereby losing to another opponent.
- Beach Episode: Episode 5, though it's actually an island. The girls do spend most of the episode in their swimsuits anyway.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: The VIP Escort mission in episode 2.
- Bizarro Episode:
- In-Universe Episode 4 (may also qualify as a Wham Episode), as expected of Gainax. Rento gets sucked into Yura's reality marble and freaks out at the sudden change of the temple to an ancient battlefield. The episode by the way, is anime-original. The chapter coinciding with the episode (post-Important Haircut) deals with the club taking Yura to an airsoft supply store, and showing her the other equipment there that might be used for matches, like full-body Ghillie suits.
- Episode 12. While in episode 4 only Rento enters Yura's imagination, in this we see C³ going against all of Stella.
- Bland-Name Product: The anime is sponsored by Tokyo Marui, a prominent brand in airsoft product. Yet, in the 24-hour tournament, a stall with Tokyo Kakui is seen. ("Maru" in "Marui" means something like a "sphere", which is circular; "Kaku" in "Kakui", likewise, can be thought of to mean "angle", which is found on non-elliptical (i.e. not round) shapes.)
- Breather Episode: Episode 4, which is sandwiched between the battles during episodes 3 and 5, focuses largely on character building for Yura.
- Broken Ace: Yura is arguably the most skilled gunslinger in the show, and might just be as good as Sono and Rin, but the path she takes to get there comes at a cost.
- Brutal Honesty: In episode 3, Yura gets it from Sonora, of all people. After Rin chastises her for simply surrendering instead of going down fighting, Sonora adds to what she did, or rather, didn't do during the tournament fight. She tells Yura that she wasted all of her comrades sacrifices and chose to simply run away instead of fight. This causes her to suffer a Heroic BSoD during the bath later that evening, although it does kick in some Heroic Resolve as well for her.
- Busman's Holiday: The participants in the 24-hour airsoft event includes gun salesmen and the US Marines. They all fall left and right to Meisei highschool girls.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Doesn't feature in the story proper, but is invoked during an omake, in which Yura (making a documentary about the club) mentions that Honoka's G-cup breasts are a strong point.
- Call-Back: At the end of episode 12, Yura is walking through the school, with the scenery resembling when she first saw the school in the first episode. She then overhears two girls (possibly the same two she encountered back then) mention how high school sure seemed boring and nothing interesting happened. Yura then approaches them and asks if they want to join C³.
- Calling Your Attack: The Seto clan often does this with their Seto Stream Attack, consisting of firing 2-4 guns (the other two are fired from their feet).
- Cerebus Syndrome: Yura's obsession with convicting Rin for Sonora's injury. Turns out that Rin was not the culprit, but by this point the damage has been done to Yura's relationship with the club.
- Clothing Damage:
- In Karila's duel against her twin brother in episode 13, neither person is able to take out the other in the time limit, so the audience votes who they felt won. At first her brother takes quite a huge lead, leading Karila to understandably get angry. However, during the fight, part of the front of her shirt tore off, revealing part of her breasts. The audience quickly starts to vote for her instead, leading her to win.
- Invoked; to attract visitors to their School Festival booth, they wear paper shirts over swimsuits and have squirt-gun duels. It's...rather effective.
- Cloud Cuckoo Land: The titular C³ club. Yura (with her Imagine Spots) and Rento (see Funny Background Event below) take the cake.
- Coat Cape: Sonora wears her school uniform top this way.
- Color-Coded Characters: All of the C³ club members have their own color eyepro and gloves.
- Two members have this coupled with Curtains Match the Window:
- Sono: Blue hair, blue eyes, blue gear
- Honoka: Green hair, green eyes, green gear
- For the others who don't:
- Yura: Purple hair, purple eyes, red gear
- Yachiyo: Light brown hair, brown eyes, orange gear
- Rento: Brown hair, brown eyes, pink gear
- Kari: Blonde hair, blue eyes, light purple gear
- Stella's students are also differentiated by year through ribbon-tie colour:
- First year: Pink (Yura, Rento, Yachiyo)
- Second year: Green (Honoka, Karira)
- Third year: Blue (Sonora)
- Two members have this coupled with Curtains Match the Window:
- Contrived Coincidence: Yura walks past some display TVs just as they start a news segment about the person who shot at Sonora with an illegally modified gun. Rin (not the culprit) appears on the program, since Yura was planning to talk to her.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Aira can disguise himself to look almost like his sister, and joins the Field Queen Contest as a kunoichi.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The C³ Club is on the giving end during the first battle, and on the receiving end of one during their final one in episode 3.
- Deconstruction: Of the sports anime conventions of victory through pure determination and heroes obsessed with becoming stronger. Such an attitude causes Yura to slowly find airsoft less and less fun and more and more of a duty, alienating her friends who were just looking to have a good time and ultimately leading her down a dark path of cheating, betrayal and callousness that has even the stuck up rival calling her out on it.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Yura displays some in episode 10 after thinking she wasn't doing good enough on Rin's team, and being forced to be the medic repeatedly.
- Every Bullet is a Tracer:
- An Acceptable Break from Reality, as the pellets would be difficult to see, much like non-tracer bullets in real life. Also, each team uses different colored pellets to differentiate who is doing the shooting.
- Glow-in-the-dark airsoft tracer pellets are a real thing, and they come in green and orange. They need specially designed mock suppressors with strong LEDs inside to make them glow, though.
- They can also use specialized magazines that shine light on the BB before it's shot.
- The dialog also specifically states that they are using the special glow in the dark (tracer) B Bs.
- Evolving Credits:
- The opening animation changes after four episodes, specifically the parts that feature Yura in them to coincide with her Important Haircut, as well as her resolve to change her meek self to something more proactive.
- The end credits also change starting at Episode 3 to a more elaborate animation sequence while the song stays the same, probably because they didn't complete it when the pilot aired.
- Food as Bribe: A variation of this is tried with Yura in the first episode. After Yura is scared away from the club the first time, Rento tries to lure her back in with cake. By deliberately leaving a piece of it on the floor in the hallway in their dorms. While it stops Yura, she only pauses to consider getting a plastic wrap for it, although Rento uses this opportunity to snag her and ask her to reconsider joining.
- Funny Background Event:
- In episode four, Sonora, Yura, and Rento go to do some training. Sonora begins giving Yura a sort of Serious Business "philosophy of shooting" speech. Off in the background, Rento gets bored and starts pushing herself along the bench on her back using her feet.
- Episode 13: Honoka lectures Karira and Yachiyo about conserving BB supply (they wasted a lot of ammo for the past week) when Kari uses her hair to tickle a drowsy Hacchan. This actually counts more as Funny Foreground Event.
- Girls with Guns: Airsoft guns. If you want a better example, Sonora has a real Desert Eagle.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Jokingly used in episode 12. Kari is cleaning a part of her airsoft gun, which seems to be giving her some problems. Both Honoka and Yachiyo then jokingly accuse Kari of having an "affair" with another gun, causing a look of surprise on the latter. She then mentions something about looking up info on another airsoft gun online, and moments later, the spring on her gun leaps away, and disappears into the grass nearby. Kari apologizes to the spring while looking for it, saying that gun was the only one for her.
- Group Picture Ending: Episode 5 ends with the C³ club taking their picture together on the beach. Aoi then photobombs them by jumping into the picture as well at the last second, while Sonora looks at Yura's general direction, sensing something wrong's happened to her.
- Guns Akimbo: The original recruitment plan called for Karila to be carrying two machine guns. Sonora can dual wield her DEagles. Then comes the Seto Stream Attack.
- Gun Porn: There are a lot of guns in this show. Just look at the IMFDB page; even Gunslinger Girl doesn't have one that long!
- Hand Signals:
- Rento and Honoka use these to coordinate their attack on Karila in the 1st Episode's Rambo scenario.
- Episode 3 starts with Yura practicing the signals for "Advance", "Halt", "Shoot", and "Sniper".
- Imagine Spot: These are a regular occurrence for Yura:
- When arriving at Stella, she imagines herself as Cinderella in a carriage (it's actually just a bus), then imagines the C³ Club to be a club for tea, cakes and relaxing, and then at the end of the game, she imagines Karila as Rambo shooting Rento and her as sheriff's deputies.
- The C³ club enthusiastically imagine their plan of getting more recruits... before regretfully realising it'll never fly.
- In Episode 2 she imagines herself as an actual bodyguard and when cornered in episode 3 imagines post-apocalyptic Urban Warfare is taking place.
- Things begin to get really weird in Episode 4, when it's revealed that Yura doesn't just imagine her Imagine Spots — she actually sees them happening right in front of her. And somehow Rento gets dragged into one.
- D-day and the probably controversial Iwo Jima Pose in episode 5.
- A Showdown at High Noon during the School Festival in episode 6, with bikini and splashers replacing cowboy costumes and six-shooters.
- The lack of these starting from episode 7 shows Yura's Character Development... for the worse. Their return, along with Chojirou (the samurai whose fate was changed by Yura), motivate her to come back right at the end of episode 11.
- Episode 12. Army of airsofter schoolgirls. All-out imaginary airsoft battle. Nuff said.
- Filler episode 13's example probably counts, when Yachiyo ditches her ghillie suit (which somehow has Idiot Hair on it) to reveal a Magical Girl fairy costume in her duel against Aoi.
- Important Haircut: Yura cuts her hair to show her full commitment to the airsoft club in Episode 3 after the disastrous defeat
- Improbable Aiming Skills:
- Firing her P90 on full auto, Karila manages to draw hair and a smiley face with the bullet holes on a paper target.
- This is amped up by Sonora shooting a coin on a string from at least 100 feet away several times in quick succession—even though it's shown to swing wildly with each hit. At the end of the episode, Yura, from the same distance, wedges the pellet into the hole in the center of the coin.
- Rin repeatedly fires shots right through the center of a target. Then she looks away from it and continues firing with perfect accuracy.
- Yura single-handedly beats everyone. Meisei's evaluation of her abilities were off the charts, and she's able to shoot accurately... blindfolded.
- Iwo Jima Pose: Done in the Beach Episode as a victory celebration. Appropriate, since they're on an island, but also rather ironic because it references a major Japanese defeat in World War II.
- Japanese School Club: The C³ club. The KGB as well, combining an airsoft club with a drama club.
- Le Parkour: Karila's tactics often involve wallrunning.
- Live-Action Escort Mission: Episode 2's scenario. The inexperienced Yura has to guard a VIP. Fortunately for her, the VIP is Sonora. Sonora makes it more interesting by deliberately not having a gun; otherwise she would probably win the battle without Yura even having to do anything.
- Ma'am Shock: Happens to Honoka after Karila calls her "an old lady" in episode 13, due to the former's lecture a moment earlier.
- Magic Skirt: Acrobatics while wearing skirts don't cause any problems.
- Magical Realism: In episode 4, Yura talks with the ghost of a 12th-century samurai, is told that her Imagine Spots affect the world, and changes the past.
- Master of Disguise: In the 24-hour tournament, Aira somehow disguises himself perfectly as Karila, complete with fake breasts and a P90; he is only caught because the real Karila wouldn't have come back alone, given she was stationed with Rento. This is especially bizarre because he's her twin brother, but they're not Half-Identical Twins.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Yura's Imagine Spot. The episode where it's displayed to be more than delusion has a surreal feeling to it, leaving both the viewers and the audience wondering. In episode 12 after they hear the school's afternoon bell signaling the end of the school day, all of the girls are in Yura's Imagine Spot, and their opponents are every single other girl at their school.
- Meaningful Name: The club's name, when read in Japanese, is "shi-kyu-bu". This pronunciation sounds like CQB (close quarters battle), and indeed some characters use weapons intended for close-range engagements (Kari's P90, Yura's Skorpion, and Aoi's MAC-10).
- The Mentor: "Shisho", a US soldier, and Rin and Sonora's airsoft teacher when they were young and in the US. Somewhat true to the traits of an Obi-Wan, he's killed in battle, his demise influencing Rin to grow into who she is now.
- Mexican Standoff: The girls have one in episode 12 right before the school bell rings at the end of the day. Yura "prevents" this by using her Imagine Spot ability to let them have more fun.
- Ms. Fanservice: Sonora and Honoka are this. The former isn't afraid to show up naked in front of another girl she first met, and the latter flaunts it to win votes at an airsoft beauty queen contest.
- Modesty Towel: The first time Yura (and the audience) meet Sonora, she's just come out of the shower and is wearing nothing but a towel. The scene is then practically repeated in a later episode.
- Mood Whiplash: Happens every time since episode 7. The opening shows C³ (with Yura) in saccharine-sweet BB-pelting airsoft action, in between the Darker and Edgier Cold Open and the main storyline. And then there's unhappy episode endings, immediately followed by the hyper-peppy ending theme. Even so in the after-credits blurb, where random chatter by the characters are followed by increasingly depressing titles for the next episode, as well as the previews that aren't going to cheer you up either. This doesn't start changing again until episode 11, and only in episode 12 is the trope truly averted as dramatic theatrics make way for six girls to have truckloads of fun.
- More Dakka:
- Most of the girls make use of automatic weaponry, though Kari takes the cake with her P90. Then the M60 comes into play.
- The Seto team takes this one step further. Their strategy focuses on confusing the enemy by dual wielding and quad wield SMGs.
- Naked First Impression: Yura's first view of Sonora. Both anime and manga versions as well.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Rin claims Yura would do anything to win, just like her. She proves it by goading Yura into cheating to win the tournament.
- One-Steve Limit: The Seto team, their last names are… Seto. Might be siblings, might also just happen to be friends having the same surname.
- Pink Means Feminine: Most of Stella Girls' Academy is drenched in bright pinkness, even the students' uniform coats are pink, contrasting the duller realistic colorings of C³'s play areas and clubroom.
- Pyrrhic Victory: C³ wins the 24-hour tournament, but only because Yura cheated by shooting Rin after being hit. The rest of the team doesn't know and starts celebrating around Yura, who is horrified. Yura does later informed the officials, but Rin denies the cheating claim, therefore Stella still keep the trophy.
- Readings Are Off the Scale: Rin's measurement of Yura's shooting accuracy goes far past the top of the graph and nearly off the page entirely. Given her insane feats of Improbable Aiming Skills (by that point she practices shooting while blindfolded and still has near-perfect accuracy), this isn't too surprising.
- Recycled In Space: Frequently referred to as "K-On! with airsoft guns".
- Revenge: Rin thinks Yura's ambition in episode 8's tournament is fueled by this. She's not completely wrong, as Yura wants to pay back Rin from her humiliating loss in episode 3. Yura also highly suspects the former of causing Sonora's accident in episode 7, causing her to miss out on the 24-hour tournament.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: In episode 4, only Yura remembers that Choujirou the samurai (the historical Nasu no Yoichi), was supposed to have died young. Everyone else remembers him as a samurai with long and illustrious career.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
- In episode 4, Yura helps a young samurai avoid his death, allowing him to reach the peak of his career. Well, it's either this, or extra-strong delusion on Yura's part.
- She does this again in episode 12, when she realizes that her extreme desire to win at any costs was making the game much less fun for others.
- Shout-Out:
- Much of Episode 1 is a shoutout to Rambo, which is to be expected, given that the girls are using a scenario based on First Blood. note
- Episode 2's Imagine Spot seems to be a reference to The Bodyguard; there's even a
Suspiciously Similar instrumental version of "I Will Always Love You" playing in the background during the climax. - Shout-Out to K-On!: Some of the girls' plans to make Yura join the club: lure her in with cake, and throw a roll of money at her face. The latter is most certainly a K-On! reference, as Yachiyo, the one to suggest slapping Yura's face with a wad of cash, is voiced by Madoka Yonezawa, who also voices K-On!'s Ui Hirasawa. In one episode of K-On!, Ui's sister Yui (who is very similar to Yura, in both personality and being the main character), fantasizes about getting slapped with a wad of cash by Ui. (Also, Yura's round face is reminiscent of K-On!'s art style.)
- Among the hairstyles Yura is experimented with in Episode 3 include Usagi's odango and Belldandy's hairstyle.
- Episode 5 gives a shout to D-Day, and World War II in general.
- Additionally, episode 5 seems to drop a reference to the original Gundam with two of the opposing team executing the 'Seto Stream Attack,' which is phonetically almost identical to the 'Jet(to) Stream Attack' of the Black Tri-Stars.
- Episode 6 pays homage to Western cowboy flicks with a Showdown at High Noon.
- Episode 8 features two men dressed up as Ghost and Captain Price from the Modern Warfare series. Ghost is a bit different in that he wears a hoodie over his skull balaclava. And as expected both wear sunglasses/goggles as standard airsofting protection.
- Episode 8 also features two characters dressed as Eva and Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. When they first arrive at the tournament the Metal Gear cosplayers pose as people take pictures of them.
- Shown Their Work:
- The first episode shows an excellent example of bounding overwatch by Rento and Honoka, complete with Hand Signals to coordinate, as they advance to Karila's position, shifting smoothly into fire and maneuver once they come under fire.
- Most characters practice good trigger discipline (keeping your finger off the trigger when you're not firing) despite using less-than-lethal airsoft guns.
- The guns sound effects are spot on with airsoft guns, the automatics have a distinct sound and while firing semi-auto the pump of the piston is perfectly accurate.
- The gas pistols not only show the gas valve on the bottom of the magazine, but the sound effect of the propane "popping" to shoot the BB is dead on as well.
- The first episode shows an excellent example of bounding overwatch
- Lady Swears-a-Lot: Karila's vocabulary is positively filthy by Japanese male standards, let alone that of a teenage girl's. Partly averted in the fansubtitling, as she never goes far from using 'damn' and 'bitch'.
- "Stop Having Fun" Girls: In-Universe, Rin being this is a major contributing factor to Sonora's estrangement from her. Yura eventually slides into this too.
- Super-Deformed: The girls during the ending credits, and anytime they're just having plain, uninterrupted fun.
- Theme Naming:
- The three schools' names are based on translations of the word star. Stella is the Italian/Latin translation, and Sei from Seikou and Meisei one of the Japanese translations.
- Some of the characters' surnames are based off Imperial Japanese Navy battleships:
- The Hatsuses Karira and Aira - Shikishima-class battleship Hatsuse
- Kashima Sonora - Katori-class battleship Kashima
- Haruna Rin and Kirishima Rento - Kongou-class battlecruisers Haruna and Kirishima
- Hinata Yachiyo - Ise-class battleship Hyuuga (Hyuuga and Hinata being two different pronunciations for the same word: 日向)
- Mutsu Honoka - Nagato-class battleship Mutsu
- Yamato Yura - The famous Yamato-class battleship
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In episode 12, Yura spots a grenade landing near her feet, tossed by Sonora. While that one alone would have been deadly enough, several more then also land nearby, and she vanishes in the ensuing "explosion".
- To Be a Master: Deconstructed with Rin and Yura.
- Tomboy: Unusually for a Schoolgirl Series, which sports a token single Tomboy amongst the heroine's ensemble, C³ has two Tomboys, namely Karila and Sonora.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Sonora (Tomboy) and Yura (Girly Girl), Karira (Tomboy) and Honoka (Girly Girl). The pairing of Sonora and Rin plays with this trope. While Sonora looks every bit like a tomboy, and Rin being the feminine-looking one, both are equally capable of kicking ass, and are leaders of their own airsoft clubs.
- Wham Line: Yura tells Sonora she's quitting the C³ club at the end of episode 9.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Rin, of all people, delivers this combined with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Yura after she abandons a seriously injured teammate and continues trying to win the game.
- World of Badass: Akimbo Desert Eagles? Check! Akimbo M60s? Double check! Two people, each quad-wielding MAC-11s, for a total of 8 simultaneous bullet barrages? Heck yes! A team of high school airsofters beating the crap out of older foreign teams and soldiers? Fuck yeah!
