Kinuyo Nishi

Kinuyo Nishi (西 絹代, Nishi Kinuyo) is the commander of the Sensha-Dō team of Chi-Ha-Tan Academy. She, along with other Chi-Ha-Tan Academy students, became an Ooarai temporarly transferred student in order to join the Ooarai team against Selection University . Kinuyo is a student of Chi-Ha-Tan Academy and also the overall commander of her tankery team. She operates a Type 97 Chi-Ha. Amongst her peers and the nation, Kinuyo is extremely popular. Her classmates have been known to jump at any chance to get closer to Kinuyo, purposely leaving their hair undone so that she could braid them, as well as another instance where they chased after her, after misunderstanding that charging at her would get them a kiss from her. Nationally, Kinuyo has had at least one article written about her beauty, with several of her classmates mentioning her popularity with the country. Kinuyo is not technologically savvy, having to learn about the internet from Fukuda. Kinuyo is a medium-sized girl with long dark brown hair and a pair of brown eyes. She wears a Chi-Ha-Tan commander's jacket, a variation of the standard Chi-Ha-Tan jacket, with a white collar instead of a red one. Under the jacket, she wears a tank top or an undershirt. On at least one occasion, and to the delight of her compatriots, she has forgotten to wear the undershirt itself. Kinuyo is a graceful and polite girl. She seems to love to learn new things as she gets excited when Miho tells her about what "Panzer Vor" means. She appears to be a bit too self-assured and competitive at times, but seems to quickly get lost (maybe overwhelmed) when there is too much move around her. Her teammates don't seem to listen to her a lot and usually charge while she tells them not to do so. Also, her communication skills aren't the best : when her radio breaks right when Duck team tell her to retreat, she reads on their lips and understands "charging", causing her to get shot. She's also forgetful in some way : Darjeeling tells her the team will be composed of 22 tanks in total, while Kinuyo brings 22 Chi-Ha-Tan tanks, proving she has forgotten a bit about what was said. She gladly listens to Fukuda's plans, though, showing that she's open-minded. Despite her popularity, Kinuyo remains both polite and generous, without becoming conceited or arrogant from her fame. This can be seen when she willingly braids Fukuda's hair for her, and shows embarrassment after realizing that she has had an article written about her beauty. It can be noted that she takes failure very hard and is extremely sensitive. When she reports tank losses, she exclaims that, "it's shameful (for her)!" In addition, she bows and apologizes to Miho Nishizumi when she reports the inadequacy of Chi-Ha-Tan's performance during the battle. Finally, when Tamada accidentally slashes at Kinuyo while practicing with her sword, she interprets this action as Tamada saying that Kinuyo's commands during battle were bad, and that she was useless. This has her on the verge of tears, and on the point of relinquishing command to Tamada. In battle, she expresses an uncanny level of military formality, reminiscent of the behavior exhibited by the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces. This can be seen in the way she reports things to her superiors, as well as formal apologies and the returning of gratitude during the movie. In the Drama CD, it's shown she has a big interest in foreign languages and history as she helps her friends in these subjects. She seems to have some skill as a teacher or tutor, showing her classmates how to use memetic phrases in Japanese to remember Western history and vocabulary. In the drama CD it appears that she leads the class that Tamada, Hosomi and Fukuda are attached to.