AR-18

The AR-18 is an assault rifle at the Seishou Academy in the Upotte!! anime and manga series. While the rifle was designed in the USA and initially manufactured by Armalite and Sterling armaments, the AR-18's design was later sold to Howa Machinery Co . Being one of the AR-18 rifles manufactured by Howa makes Seishou's AR-18 one of the few native Japanese characters in Upotte. She is usually one of the most reasonable characters around and gets visibly perplexed at others' antics. She seems to be very motherly, especially towards Galil AR. The two became close friends after AR-18 rescued her from drowning during the tournament is chpt. 15. Since then, the two have been inseparable, with AR-18 being Galil's BFF and caretaker. One explanation for her motherly nature may be that while the AR-18 was not adopted by any country, it spawned numerous derivatives such as G36, Howa Type 89, SAR 80, SAR 88, T2, MK5, T91 and Elle (although the two characters are not related). Appearance-wise, AR-18 looks similar to her cousin M16, since the AR-15 (M16's original design) and AR-18 were both manufactured by ArmaLite. Compared to M16 however, AR-18 has shorter, close-cut hair and does not wear any hair ornaments. She also looks very similar to AR-10. In the anime, her pants and panties have a tendency to slip down. This refers to one of the most problematic parts of the AR-18, namely, the poorly made fixation system of the gun's folding stock, which makes the stock wiggle when extended giving one the impression that it is about to unlock on its own.