The Battle of Italica (イタリカの戦い Itarika no tatakai) is episode 5 of the Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There! anime.
Plot[]
As the 3rd Recon team travels to Italica, the recon team notices a smoke plume that is coming from the city. They enter a battle mode as they slowly progress toward Italicia. Meanwhile in Italica, the city is under siege by remnants of the Allied Army, who have turned into banditry. They attack the southern gate, though they realize that they cannot break through and retreat. Princess Piña, who was commanding the defense forces, feels relieved for the time being and retires to the mansion in the city. On her way there she gathers her fellow knight Hamilton. In the mansion, the clan Formal's servants take care of Piña as she rests after the gruesome battle. Before she goes to sleep she asks the countess to throw water on her in case there is trouble again.
In Piña's dream, she remembers how she started her order of knights. As a little kid, Piña was determined to start an order of knights and trained her friends from a young age. Grey Co Aldo, a knight, was assigned to protect and train Piña and her small order, which was treated like a joke by many royals. Hamilton is seen as a clumsy person, especially since she tripped as she tried to figure out how to march. Although Grey admits that he does not really like the job, he understands that because of his birth family, he can only move up the military ranks by training Piña. After 7 years of hard training, Piña's order becomes a legitimate group as the Rose Knight Order, although they are more of a honor guard. Piña resents this fact that the group is only a honor guard and thirsts for real combat. Soon, after the failed defense of the gate she gets her chance.
Piña is splashed awake by the countess, as there seems to be some unknown vehicles outside the walls of Italica. As she assess the nature of the group that approaches the gate she quickly realizes that if an Emroy was on the bandit's side, Italica would have been captured. Therefore she concludes they may be neutral and the best way to get them on their side would be to befriend them. In her rush to open to gate she fails to notice Itami standing on the other side and smacks him unconscious with the door. The three heroines wake Itami up inside the walls and at the same time berate the princess for hitting Itami in the face. As Itami wakes up from his slumber, he is greeted by the sight of Rory looking at him and the Kuwahara shouting over the radio if he was safe. After this the princess, as a gesture of kindness, shows them around the mansion and explains the social economical history of the city. After conveying his urge to defend the city, Princess Piña assigns 3rd recon to defend the south gate, which was heavily damaged by the enemy assault.
3rd Recon sets up in the southern gate, as NVG (night vision gear) is distributed. Itami struggles to put the NVG on his helmet, so Rory helps him out. Rory asks Itami why he is defending an enemy city, to which Itami replies that the JSDF want to befriend the people of the Special Region and show Piña that she should negotiate with them rather than fight a pointless war. Itami also knows that Piña has placed them in a bad position, but does not seem to mind. Rory is content with the fact that she can go "crazy" again.
At 0311 hours, the bandits attack Italica again; however, rather than going for the south wall, they attack the east. The defenders are caught off guard and are quickly killed. The bandits drag the bodies of the slain defenders to the secondary wall, greatly angering the defenders there.
Anime-Manga Differences []
- When the bandits were provoking the secondary defenders they used the bodies of the defenders on the wall. In the manga, they drag the corpses of naked women through the gate and violate them in front of the defenders, immediately enraging them.