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

[Black Aeronaut]

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.

Something else to consider:

One may think that the schools and the ships are altogether a single entity.

But that's not the implication I'm getting.  Not when Oorai's ship is clearly stated to be Zuikaku and Kuromorimine's to be Graf Zeppelin.  With the schools being named as though they're separate entities from the ships they're on, I would think it is distinctly possible for there to be middle and even elementary schools.

Here's another way of looking at it that scans well from the Watsonian perspective:

The crew can't entirely be school girls.  There has to be adult faculty, staff, and seamen on these ships.  And as large as they are, saying that these people can't have their families aboard is absolutely ludicrous.  It'd be like as if the University of Texas banned the faculty from having their family living within five miles of the campus.

Which means that there absolutely would have to be not only a middle school, but also an elementary school.  If only for the children of their employees.

"But why do we not ever see any of these other children?"

Simple.  Most of everything we see is on the high school campus.  The middle and elementary schools have their own campuses, and be located in the residential district of the town on the weather deck.

For smaller, state-run schools like Oorai, the middle school would only be for the children of the employees.  But for larger, more affluent schools like Saunders, Kuromorimine, and St. Gloriana, I can easily see the middle schools being open for enrollment to all comers as well, and only the elementary school is reserved for the children of the employees.  We just don't hear much about them because sensha-do is only for the high schoolers.

• 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?)

Simple.  They also have their own farms.  But as agriculture/aquaculture isn't their focus, these are all maintained by adult employees.

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.

Yeah, weaponized uses will be strictly forbidden and considered a war crime.  And Washu-chan debugging it will definitely be part of the deal.  Though Dr. Carol Marcus will probably still be at the head of that effort, with Washu-chan only fulfilling the role of a consultant.  Which would fit, really.  Dr. Marcus is good at what she does, and she never had any ulterior motives with Genesis.

As for debugging...  Apparently that was in-part the fault of Dr. David Marcus, the son of Cpt. James Kirk and Dr. Carol Marcus.  Behind his mother's back, he included protomatter into the Genesis matrix and this played a major factor in the destabilization of the Genesis Planet.  The implication was that this was a quick-fix on the part of David in order to keep the project from stalling out and losing support from the Federation Council.

The other factor was theorized to be that the Genesis Planet was composed of elements of the Mutara Nebula, and not an actual pre-existing planet.

The first issue I think Washu-chan can definitely resolve.  The other is just a simple matter: don't use it on anything other than rocky planet, otherwise you risk introducing elements that can destabilize the Genesis Matrix.