10 Second Anime - Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 13 [END]

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 13 [END]

The Stella girls make up for the glaring lack of Honoka fanservice. Bladam! Moe Rin and Karila wardrobe malfunction make good attempts, but Honoka is your reward for 12 episodes of angsty Yura. Yay, fua-fua fuansaabisu at the end!

As I thought, this episode was a bit of an extra one, that takes place before Sonora leaves for America, but could have been stuck in anytime before Sonora ends up in the hospital. The jokes here would not have had the same payoff if they had done that though. Appreciating moe-moe shy Rin after seeing her as a cold hardass is full of win. Plus, seeing Karila beat her cross-dressing twin brother by having her girly parts exposed would have blunted the tactic he tried in the tournament of impersonating Karila. So, it was a good call back to an episode from mid-season.

But the revelation (heh) was Honoka, showing off her master strategist skills and the rest of her body. I'm telling you, don't mess with the power of megane-oppai. We were denied a bit of her skin in the water pistol event, since she was the MC, so having us wait until the end of the season for her turn of fanservice made it so much sweeter. No extra fanservice from Sonora, though. As last year's winner of Field Queen Contest, she had commentary duties. And the C³ Club gets another year supply of soft pellets.

Final Thoughts: As a cute-girls-do-cute-things anime, Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu, was anything but. Usually, if there's some dark element, it's external, and whatever faults the characters have, they overcome them by the power of friendship and working together to defeat the enemy. But here, we got some pretty realistic self-esteem issues needing to be worked out, and in the main character, where there was a strong risk of the audience no longer empathizing with her. That may have even been the goal, while relying on the other nice characters to bring the audience back to Yura as she works things out. That kind of emotional writing is harder, I think, than just coming up with quirky side characters and costumes, which is what I expected coming into this show. Well, I stuck it through, and got a fluffy fanservice episode with a double helping of Honoka. Good enough for me.

10 Second Anime - Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 12

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 12

The fua-fua cute-girls-do-cute-things anime is back! The airsoft girls play their airsoft games to their hearts' content. Yura's gift of letting her friends join in her imagination comes back. Sonora leaves for America.

Yeah, having cute girls make funny reaction faces while doing things cutely was the soul of this show, and they finally have it back with one last airsoft game with Sonora before she has to leave for America. The other girls were no match for Sonora on their own, and they were about to call the game early, when Yura shows up and gives Sonora a run for her money.

The other girls watching start getting fired up, and rejoin the action, but then it's sunset, and they can't run around the forest in the dark. Or can they? With Yura's imagination power, she creates a scenario where it's full daylight again, and the entire girls academy is armed and out to get the C³ club. Yay, more fun!

A few days later, the club is feeling a little down because Sonora has already left, but Yura takes it upon herself to start recruiting more members. Boy, that felt like a last episode, but the real last episode is next week. It might be one of those extra episodes that happened earlier in the main story. I really don't know what they're going to do. Sometimes fluffy club shows do that.

10 Second Anime: Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu Episode 11

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu Episode 11

Sonora is going back to America. Yura is shooting zombies. The airsoft club wants Sonora to go out with a bang, with Yura too.

Well, that episode was better, even if there's still some sad elements to it. Sonora is going back to her school in America, and the airsoft club is sad about that. But they want to have a going-away party the only way they know how: one last airsoft game where they can finally take out Sonora.

Rento wants Yura there too, and so do the other members, who acknowledge that even while they're training to deal with Sonora in their last game, Yura would know what to do. Rento takes it upon herself to track down Yura, who is slumming it in an arcade shooting zombies.

The Stella girls decide they need a plan to get her back in the club, like they did when they recruited her in the first place. They figure just letting Yura know when and where the farewell competition will be is all they can do at this point.

Rin comes to pay Sonora a visit before she leaves, and they both lament over Yura's self-image problems. The angsty teenage stuff is that Yura was trying to satisfy some need for approval by pleasing an incorrect interpretation of Rin or Sonora's goals. They wanted Yura to shoot, play, win; not just win.

On the day of Sonora's farewell tournament, the other girls still can't touch her, but after receiving an epiphany to accept herself, Yura shows up after all. Let's see some shooting, playing, winning next week, okay?

10 Second Anime - Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 10

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 10

My fua-fua cute-girls-do-cute-things anime has turned into an angsty coming of age drama. Yura quits one club, only to be dismissed by another.

Yura joins Rin's airsoft club at her school, and quickly gains the reputation of being reckless and too focused on individual kills instead of group tactics. Uh, just like why she left the fun-loving Stella girls. Rin notices this, and uses the tactic of forcing Yura to play medic in competition until she learns to support the overall team goals. Yura learns the wrong lesson, and concentrates on maximizing her killing efficiency in the last five minutes when a medic can shoot back. Rin keeps assigning her the medic position to pound this into her, but even Rento paying a visit and stressing the camaraderie aspects of joining a club doesn't sway Yura. After a teammate sprains an ankle, and Yura only makes sure she's not seriously injured enough to keep getting her shots in, Rin has had enough, and dismisses her from the team. So what is next for Yura?

I don't care what's next, just give me my fluffy school girl comedy back. It's one thing for a fluffy anime to turn serious while the girls fight some external enemy, but fight each other and inner demons? I'd rather watch sparkly vampires.

10 Second Anime - Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 9

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 9

Sonora returns from the hospital. Rin keeps Yura's secret that she cheated. The girls confront Yura about how the competition wasn't any fun. And Yura goes to the dark side!

The tournament organizers called Yura to make sure she wasn't a zombie player in the split-second that she shot Rin and won. She lies. However Rin confirms to the tournament that she saw no rule-breaking, keeping Yura's secret. The other club members, hearing all this, try to reassure Yura that she must have been confused in that instant. But she knows, and wants another shot at Rin to erase that empty victory. The other girls take this opportunity to confront Yura about how she ran things, how the competition wasn't fun, and she didn't even notice Rento was hurt too. They won't have any rematches with any school if they're going to have things done Yura's way.

However, Sonora sees right to the point, and tells Yura, even if she were a zombie, it's okay for a beginner to make a mistake, just not to let it happen again. This seems to harden Yura's heart, and while the other girls practice their aim in a fun way, she pays a visit to Rin to find out why she let the victory stand. Rin wants an obvious victory, not a cheap one that sounds like a loser excuse. And she sees perhaps a kindred spirit in Yura, to win at any cost, that she wants to foster.

It worked. Yura turned. We know this because her pellet tracer switched from pink to blue. So anime.

10 Second Anime - Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 8

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 8

Yura's plan for the airsoft tournament works, but at what cost? Their tactics are sound, but they're not having much fun. And did they really win?

Yura is ruthless. Her leadership style does not inspire, but does get results, and Yachiyo points out there weren't any laughs along the way to the tournament finale. The ultimate burn was when Rin, after conceding their matchup, tells her they are exactly alike. We didn't even get a confession from Rin, that she tried to take out Sono to increase her team's chances of winning, strongly implied as it was. However, Yura cheated, and didn't call out her hit in the split second before she shot Rin for the win. The only two who know are Rin, and Yura herself. Who put all this drama in my fluffy cute-girls-do-cute-things anime?

10 Second Anime - Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 7

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu - Episode 7

Airsoft assassination attempt! With the club president and ace out of action, Yura comes up with a plan, and a training montage. The airsoft tournament sure does bring out some characters...

Boy, this anime didn't give us a lot of time between the foreshadowing and the tragedy. Minutes after being warned about an illegal mod on airsoft guns boosting the pellet speed dramatically, Sono gets attacked with a bb pellet strong enough to pierce a steel soda can. With Yura still acting recklessly in tactical situations, she runs right in front of a car, which Sono has to rescue her from, hitting her head and twisting her ankle. No tournament for Sono-chan, sad-face. Yura, feeling responsible, comes up with a training schedule and simulation regimen to make up for the missing team member. There is some concern this stuff looks like homework, but skepticism gives way to conviction. You know what that means: training montage!

Finally, the day of the tournament arrives, and the Stella Academy girls meet some old friends, some weird themed teams, make serious accusations against Sono's rival Rin, and then psych themselves up for 24 hours of airsoft action.

10 Second Anime: Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu Episode 6

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu Episode 6

For a cute-girls-do-cute-things anime, you must have a school festival episode, and the Air Soft club of Stella Girls' Academy absolutely delivers.

First off, they need to raise money for their next tournament, so they need to decide what event to put on to make a profit. Goldfish catching booth is a staple for Japanese festivals, but a hungry crawfish ends that idea. A haunted house maze is good too, until the crawfish escapes and makes the girls destroy their set. So now they've blown their budget for the festival and still have no money for the tournament. They'll have to repurpose the supplies they already have on hand for their club: toy guns, ammo, and costumes. It's a cosplay firing range café! But the real money comes from hands-on firearm instruction and water pistol show. Big success! Fireworks!