While shooting is a very minor sport in Japan, it is very popular worldwide and is even an official Olympic event. Rifle is Beautiful is the only Japanese work that focuses on this minor sport. The story begins when a group of high school girls revive a disbanded shooting club, and the anime will be airing from October. We would like to introduce the members of the Chidori High School Shooting Club, the main characters of Rifle is Beautiful!
No good at studying! No good at sports! But the main character is passionate: Hikari Ogura
The main character loves shooting, and her passion is so strong that she studied hard and made it into Chidori High School, a school with a strict academic standard. She's a complete loser, with no athletic ability and a terrible academic record, but her shooting skills are below average. She's an idiot with no concentration, so much so that those around her worry about her. But she's a character full of comedic elements, believing she could compete in the Olympics.
A Woman Who's Exceptionally Strong in Real Competitions
Though our protagonist may seem weak, she's incredibly strong in real competitions, despite normally being unable to achieve high scores. She even defeated Erika Meihama, a former junior rifle tournament champion, and achieved a surprisingly high score in the prefectural qualifying round, qualifying her for the national tournament and contributing to Chidori High School's first-place team finish. She possesses the qualities of a fantasist.
A Girl Who Can Get Along With Anyone
She's a friendly character who can get along with anyone, making her a real mood-maker. Though it may not seem like it at first glance, she actually has a hidden bust. She's loved not only by the shooting club members, but also by her classmates at school (who worry about her because she's actually a total loser). She's also a talented reacter, and when something shocking happens, she'll even do a vanishing reaction, almost disappearing.
Shibusawa Izumi, a kind and reliable childhood friend
She's a kind and reliable childhood friend who has supported the clumsy Hikari since elementary school and has been shooting with her ever since. She's a smart student, family-oriented, and a better shooter than Hikari, but she doesn't have the same explosive power, and her shooting results are neither good nor bad. She's stable, but she can't seem to improve. She's like a behind-the-scenes supporter, and it's no exaggeration to say that she's like a guardian to Hikari. She's a library committee member and a book-loving Cultural Revolution girl, so people are surprised when she sees her shooting.
Will she awaken after the national tournament?
Although she displays exceptional steadiness, she failed to place in the top ranks and was the only Chidori High School student to miss the national tournament with a beam rifle. However, she continued to steadily improve, scoring a personal best of 413.2 points after the tournament. However, after switching to air rifle, Shinonome's (careless) instruction paid off, and she awakened in a practice match, scoring 621.7 points. Afterward, she thought she might die tomorrow.
A Talented and Skilled Young Lady: Erika Meihama
Having half Russian and half Japanese ancestry, Erika Meihama has been competing in shooting competitions since childhood, thanks to her father's love of shooting. While she's skilled, she's a bit weak in real competitions, and in middle school, she accidentally lost to Hikari, whom she only saw as a "Henohenomoheji." While she's not the type to perform well in real competitions, the more she's pushed, the more focused she becomes. In any case, she's a talented young lady, not only in the Chidori High School Shooting Club, but nationwide as well.
A showy young lady who plays the straight man
She's arrogant and showy, boasting that "love letters pile up in her shoe locker every day and that she has over 100 bodyguards." However, it turns out that these claims are not just vanity, but the truth. She's weak when flattered, and very kind to those she trusts. Despite this, she's often the straight man in the shooting club, thanks to the useless Hikari and the erratic Yukio.
Igarashi Yukio: A Mysterious, Quiet, and Cat-Loving Girl
Igarashi Yukio is a Pandora's Box-like character who doesn't express her emotions, is quiet, and has many mysteries. Because her thoughts and actions are hard to predict, she sometimes pulls off some pretty outrageous feats, but she's basically just a series of coincidences, and her thoughts are completely unknown. She's the fourth member of the shooting club, possessing a mysterious aura. While some may think she's a genius, topping her grade in tests, she's actually just a lucky find. She's a cat lover and owns a black cat, but it doesn't seem to be very attached to her.
Chidori High School's Precision Machines
She's one of the best players on the team, and despite being a freshman, she has high skill and concentration, setting new tournament records in her first practice match and the subsequent prefectural qualifying tournament, earning her a spot at the national tournament. When shooting, she has a mysterious routine in which she moves her head like a side-to-side jump with eyes like a dead fish, earning her the nickname "precision machine" that's indifferent to pressure. However, she suffers from hay fever, and once it kicks in, it significantly lowers her score.
Teacher Yuko Tsurumaki, the new shooting club advisor
When circumstances forced her to stop being the shooting club advisor, this teacher stepped in to take over. Although she's a beautiful, bespectacled teacher, she's timid and lacks self-confidence. Hoping to find something she could contribute, she volunteered to be the club's advisor. She's a high school girl who's loved anime since childhood and has practiced shooting, and it seems she was inspired by the numerous hit anime with military themes that inspired her to run for the position.
The Advisor, But a Useless Adult
As the shooting club advisor, he wonders if there's anything he can do, but of course he can't provide technical guidance. He doesn't even know the rules, and he doesn't have any particularly witty comments. But maybe that's what advisors for minor sports are like. While he makes his presence felt as a useless adult in the regular story, he's completely ignored in the story where the shooting is serious. However, he does contribute by bringing in a junior with experience in air rifle shooting as a coach.
I'm a Advisor, but I'm a Useless Adult
I love anime and other otaku culture, and I even got into doujin activities during my student days. My house is overflowing with that kind of merchandise, and I'm a useless adult who can't organize things, and I love alcohol so much that I sometimes get drunk. As a hardcore fujoshi and doujin artist, I'm good at drawing anime-style illustrations.
Hazuki Minamo, the cool coach who became an air rifle shooting advisor
Hinata, who is aiming for the Olympics, switches to air rifle after realizing that beam rifle shooting is not an official Olympic event. This leads to a coaching problem, but her advisor, Yuko Tsurumaki, who had no hope of such a thing, makes a brilliant move by introducing a junior experienced air rifle player to her as her coach.
Her skills are real!
Hazuki continues to shoot even after entering the workforce, demonstrating her true talent. She demonstrated her skills by defeating Shinonome, who placed fourth in the air rifle competition at the high school inter-high school championships, and successfully earned the trust of the Chidori High School team members as their coach. As such a cool senior, she is well-respected by the team members.
The Stained Woman
Because she was particularly close with Tsurumaki during her school days, she has become a fujoshi, a lover of otaku culture, especially BL. Even now, she never misses an event and seems to collect otaku goods. However, she is cautious about letting the club members know about this fact.
[Rifle is Beautiful] Chidori High School Shooting Club Summary
This work features many cute and unique characters, and is likely to create a new sensation in the "high school girls doing something" genre, which has had many hits to date. I have a feeling that the shooting sport itself will become a huge hit once it's made into an anime, so I'm already looking forward to it! We'll probably find out whether shooting sport will become popular after the anime starts airing in October.
