[OOC][PLOT] Planning for Arc 2 - Crisis on Infinite Earths

[robkelk]

Did a bit of research on the Girls und Panzer school ships today. (Okay, I watched the GnP OAVs.)

Things that we know about Ooarai, as revealed in OAV 3: "School Ship War!"

• Grade school students attend classes on land; Hana assumes that this is because they're too young to be away from their families. The implication is that middle-school students attend classes aboard the school ships. And that means my earlier estimates as to how many students are present in the fleet were off by a factor of 1 - we have to double my estimate of three-quarters of a million to include the middle-school students. (The fact that the high school Student Council runs things implies that Ooarai doesn't have a university... but IRL the city of Ooarai doesn't have its own university, either.)
  

Wait.  I thought we already were including middle school students.  ??

Well... Ooarai's full name is 県立大洗女子学園 / Kenritsu Ōarai Joshi Gakuen / Ooarai Prefectural Girls High School, so I thought middle school wasn't included.

Other schools' full names:

• アンツィオ高校 / Antsio Kōkō / Anzio High School
  
• BC自由学園 / BC Jiyū Gakuen / BC Freedom Academy
  
• 知波単学園 / Chihatan Gakuen / Chihatan Academy
  
• 継続高校 / Keizoku Kōkō / Keizoku High School (a.k.a. "Jatkosota", depending on the source)
  
• 黒森峰女学園 / Kuromorimine Jogakuen / Kuromorimine Girls High School
  
• プラウダ高校 / Purauda Kōkō / Pravda High School
  
• サンダース大学付属高校 / Sandāsu Daigaku Fuzoku Kōkō / Saunders University High School
  
• 聖グロリアーナ女学院 / Sei Guroriāna Jogakuin / St. Gloriana Girls Academy
  

There's a lot of implying that the middle-schools and universities are elsewhere. Except for Saunders.

And, now that I'm looking at that list, I see that only Ooarai, Kuromorimine, and St. Gloriana are specifically listed as being girls' schools. The gender imbalance might not be nearly as bad as I thought originally.

• Ooarai offers eight course streams at the high-school level: General, Ship (presumably "ship operation"). Intelligence, Tailoring, Nutrition, Engineering, Fisheries, and Agriculture. (Miho mentions an "Armored Forces Course", but goes on to say that Ooarai isn't Kuromorimine, implying that Kuromorimine has a cadet/ROTC program if we don't assume Miho was joking.)
  

Honestly, it would not surprise me if at least some of the school ships had certain specialty tracks.  The Nishizumi House being what it is?  I'd be shocked if Kuromorimine didn't have a Military Cadet track.

Also, apparently whoever did the translation didn't know the right word.  What they wanted for "Ship" should be "Seamanship", as the entry level position on most ships is "Able-Bodied Seaman".

Considering Ooarai is a prefectural high school, I wouldn't be surprised if Agriculture and Fisheries were its specialty courses. The real-world high school appears to me (if Wikipedia can be believed) to be the equivalent of an A&M in the States or a Technical College in Ontario. (But, if that's the case, how do the larger school ships stay fed?)

"Ship" -> "Seamanship" is now fixed on the wiki's copy of this list. Thanks.

• Agriculture and Fisheries are both carried out below decks. Fish are farmed in large tanks. Crops are grown in soil, under grow lamps; no hydroponics were shown.
  

Huh.  So everything on the weather deck is just there for the sake of recreation?

Recreation and mental well-being. Mako mentions once that living below-decks 24x7 caused mental issues in some people.

And if you're carrying around your own parkland, you don't need to make port for crew leave quite as often. (You can't eliminate shore leave altogether - there are more places to go, people to see, and things to do on land than there are aboard ship - but we don't need to tell you that. )

• Ships are modular, built from 300x300m blocks of various types. There is little coordination done regarding transit between blocks below decks; it is sometimes necessary to go topside to get from one block to the block next to it.
  

I'm going to assume that this is how they contain a hull breech should one ever occur.  As deep as the drafts on these ships are, the force of the water coming in through a breech can kill a person.  So standard operating procedure would probably be to evacuate the module, let it fill up, and then repair the breech.  Once that is taken care of, they can dewater the module, but I can imagine it'd be one hell of a clean up afterwards - and probably regarded as being similar to a natural disaster.

Makes sense.

Sheesh.  Magic doesn't have to be the answer to everything.  Like I said before, The United Federation of Planets has the perfect solution: Project Genesis.

When all you have is a (magical) hammer...

As for using the Genesis Device, after Washuu-chan debugs it, please.

Unless somebody's planning on using Genesis Torpedoes against Deathstars and Basestars... but I have to agree with Dr. McCoy here about the morality of doing something like that.