This one doesn't have any cheesecake in it, but I put the first one in that category so I have to do the same this time.

Our girls go out for a picnic in the countryside, and they carry their lunches in ammo boxes. Which, if you think about it, makes some sense. Isn't ammo food for a gun? Maybe, but they are eating sandwiches, not cartridges.

The real point is to practice long distance shooting, and "to fire ten rounds into the vitals of a human silhouette target 500 meters away." Which is pretty damned long range. Maybe the SG550 can do that, but I'd be surprised if an M16A4 can; it's not designed to be a sniper rifle.

Ohboy! Chibis! With guns! Looks like Eru is the only one with a scope.

The chibis turn out to be a demonstration of the effective ranges of each weapon (not shown here). The M16A4 is 400 meters, L85A1 is 350, FNC is 500, and the SG550 is claimed to be 700 meters. Winner and new champeen!

And then we hear why the SG is so good. "Switzerland is full of mountains. When you're shooting from one mountain ridge to the next, you need to be able to aim over that distance."

All of them are supposed to be doing this, but the others let Shigu do all the shooting and try to take partial credit. So they're in trouble. Seems that SG550 uses a special "GP90" bullet. (And this makes a different kind of hole in a paper target? I doubt it...) Shigu says, "If I used the same NATO rounds as you, I wouldn't be as accurate." Maybe so, but...

Anyway, Ichiroku, Funco, and Eru are in trouble.

High school. The guns are heavier caliber. These are Ichiyon and Faru, AKA M14 and FAL L1A1, respectively big sisters of M16A4 and FNC. Our middle school girls are going to get stuck in remedial classes all summer (OHNOES) unless they defeat the high school girls.

I had to look it up. M16 and FNC use 5.56x45mm NATO and M14 and FAL both use 7.62x51mm NATO.

So they prepare. The contest will be "steal the flag", which will be defended by the high schoolers. Three middle school against two high school. Or will it be?

So everyone has a helium balloon above their head. If your balloon pops, you're out. Um... the girls are going to firing live ammunition at each other, and their balloons are what they're worried about? Do I have that right? This particular sequence is what made me drop the series the last time I watched it; just thought I'd mention that.

There's the high school. Charging across that killing field ain't a good plan, so we're going to go sideways through the woods.

Only Eru manages to pop her balloon on a branch. She's out of the game.

And some education... Guns with the larger ammunition have more kick when fired and are more difficult to handle in full auto mode. The smaller rounds have less kick and are easier to control. Even more important, the smaller cartridges weigh less so a soldier can carry more rounds. "This gives each soldier the chance to take out more targets effectively. However, because each round is so light, more energy is lost due to air resistance during flight and since the wind affects the trajectory of each bullet, they're not very effective for hitting targets over 300 meters away."

Large caliber guns are high school. Middle sized are middle school. And anything firing pistol rounds is grade school. (Isn't that sub machine gun cute? Aaaawww!)

12.7mmx99 NATO is another name for .50 BMG, isn't it? It's effective to a lot further than 1 km, at least in the right firearm! Barrett M99 is rated max-range of 2600 meters.

Fan Service!!!

Well, sort of. No bikinis this time. These are the three high school girls we're going to be up against. (This was a lot easier to read when it was 1280 pixels wide. I've reduced it to 800 for this post, which is why the print is so tiny.)

Anyway, FNC has closed with the high school building. She thinks she's only against FAL, but JiiSuri ("G3" i.e. G3A3) is also involved. Funco is about to be taken out by G3, except that Shigu (SG550) from the middle school decides she wants to play, too. SG550 pours in some fire to the room where G3 was hiding.

G3 takes cover behind a desk. Except that her balloon is out in the open. (head smack)

SG550 is on top of the middle school building, and she's not exactly covered either. But it's extreme long range, and that's what Shigu does best. In the midst of all this, M16A4 has managed to close to her effective range with M14, and she starts firing bursts at the area where M14 was hiding.

M14 gets mad and switches to full auto. (Danger, Master Robinson!) But she's having trouble controlling it, and sprays her bullets all over the countryside. (Plus she's using a gangster hold.)

Shigu and G3 are engaging in a sniper duel. Shigu has gone inside the building. G3 spots her and fires.

But it's a decoy.

Shigu has moved again. G3 has deployed her bipod. She seems a bit crazy.

Meanwhile, FNC has penetrated the high school. She thinks she's about to capture the flag. Except that the room is full of boys changing their clothes.

RETREAT!!!!

M16A4 has been firing almost continuously since we last saw her. Evidently she has a huge ammo store somewhere. Hey, Ichiroku, where do you keep all those magazines? "None of your business, Sam."

She takes cover behind a tree. Problem is, it's a chestnut tree, loaded with nuts covered with sharp points. Ooops!

M16 gets mad, and demonstrates her baseball skill. Swinging the rifle like a baseball bat, she knocks one of the nuts into Ichiyon's balloon, just before her own balloon is hit by a falling nut.

So we're down to two on each side.

G3A3 and SG550 are still engaged in a sniper duel. G3 still isn't covering her balloon.

And that means it's all down to FAL versus FNC. It's like something out of a western, except that they didn't have fountains in westerns. FAL fires and her round makes it cleanly through the water. FNC fires full auto but her bullets go every which way after passing through the water. That's a drawback of smaller cartridges.

So FNC is pinned down; her cover is no good, but it's even worse to either side. What to do?

Stick your barrel through the water and fire. It almost worked, but her aim was off.

Game over.

So M14 and M16 neutralized each other, both out. G3 and Shigu neutralized each other, but neither got hit. And FAL beat FNC.

And the good news: "I found out later that the game was our remedial course, designed to test how good we really were, and we didn't have to take any extra classes."

Except that Eru took herself out of the game before it even began, so I guess she's stuck.

And we get to find out the secret technique used by G3 to fire full auto without spraying the countryside. M14 begs to be shown. I have a suspicion that they didn't invent this for the show, because it looks like it would really work. Can anyone tell me?

So... last time I think this was as far as I got. But I think I looked at part of the third episode; I remember an exposition about why L85A1 was a piece of crap. And I vaguely remember seeing a grade school class, and hearing that the teacher was named Thompson. I guess I'll find out on my next foray into insanity.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Cheesecake at 11:28 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 1314 words, total size 9 kb.

1 Hehe!  Got the Sam & Max ref!

I suppose this makes the second episode more interesting than the first (the only one I've watched so far).  Although if class is based on caliber, these girls are never going to graduate.

I imagine the Barrett and Denil KTW will be in college.

Posted by: Mauser at July 18, 2012 12:50 PM (cZPoz)

2

I'm going to be interested to see if we run into anything that uses .50 BMG. My guess is that if so, it'll be a husky male gym teacher in the high school, not a student.

I've never seen one in person but I've seen film of people holding .50 BMG rounds, and those suckers are immense.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 18, 2012 01:25 PM (+rSRq)

3 I have a few empties that I found in Blackrock desert. In the 50s, the Navy used Blackrock Point as a target for practice strafing. In places, you can still find cases and chain links. We also climbed the Point and found a .50 bullet where it struck the rock.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 18, 2012 03:09 PM (5OBKC)

4 Dummy 50BMG rounds are a common gun-show keychain. Hard to lose, hard to carry in a pocket, hard to explain...

-j

Posted by: J Greely at July 18, 2012 03:10 PM (fpXGN)

5 BTW, Russians accepted a machine-gun into inventory that fires 12.7x103. It is not only man-portable, but can be used by a 2-man team and fired by one. It's is the only practical "lightweight heavy maching gun" in existence. As you can see, progress occurs since Soviet times

Sadly, we're not going to see a Russian girl who never washes in this anime. Sorry.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 18, 2012 03:14 PM (5OBKC)

6 As for the firing live ammunition at each other, it's going to be handwaved explicitly in ep.5 or so. Not going to spoil it under the tag, not worth it. You'll see it soon enough.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 18, 2012 03:19 PM (5OBKC)

7

I think I'm fine with that. IIRC the next episode does include the opposite: M16A4 will be shown washing herself very, very thoroughly.

I must have watched that one. I wonder why I didn't keep it?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 18, 2012 03:19 PM (+rSRq)

8 Excellent episode review! I actually liked this episode more than the first, despite the stupidity of using live rounds to shoot balloons. As Pete says, the handwave is not worth the spoiler, and there'll be more handwaves toward the end of the series.  Which also suck.

You're pretty sophisticated to avoid a joke using "pole" in regard to FNC "penetrating" the high school boys changing room to capture the flag.  A better man than I, you are.

You also gave me a hankerin' to play another Telltale Games series with your Sam & Max reference.  Not that I wish to derail anything (but I will do so anyway), anyone played Hector: Badge of Carnage?

Posted by: wahsatchmo at July 18, 2012 06:07 PM (gY5xe)

9 No, you won't. Thread closed.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 18, 2012 06:36 PM (+rSRq)

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