Saori Takebe

157 cm (5'2")

Ooarai Girls Academy

Anglerfish Team

Student Council (PR Manager) Radio operator Machine gunner

Panzer IV

Saori is a second year student from Ooarai Girls Academy. She serves as the radio and machine gun operator of the Anglerfish Team.

Saori is a medium-sized girl with long ginger colored hair and light brown eyes. In one episode it is revealed she wears contact lenses, and that she uses eyeglasses at home or doing chores. Together with Aya Oono, she is the only Ooarai character to wear black thigh highs, giving her a somewhat more stylish appearance.

Saori is known for her cheerful and bubbly personality and also as a good chatter. She is interested in seeking out good-looking men to be her boyfriend, and claims to be an expert in the art of love and romance, but it is later revealed that she has never actually dated anyone, despite her enthusiasm and charm. She coined Miho's nickname "Miporin" and is popular among the first year students of the Rabbit Team, toward whom she acts like a big sister. While she is usually the first to end up complaining about a given situation and undergo a change of mood among her team, she's also notably good at diverting negative thinking. Especially in the first episodes, she notices quickly when Miho is feeling uneasy and accordingly changes the subject to prevent her from being confronted with bad memories (e.g. when Miho states she isn't very talented in Sensha-Dō compared to her sister and mother, when Ami Chōno asks Miho about her sister, or when Maho Nishizumi is interviewed in a TV show presented in the tank store). Generally, Saori seems to have a very good understanding of her comrades' emotions and is a trustful friend, often being the first to offer advice or support. Cooking and housekeeping are among her talents as well.

Saori, together with Hana Isuzu, are the first classmates to talk and befriend Miho Nishizumi when she transferred to Ooarai Girls Academy. When the student council revealed that it would be reviving Ooarai's Sensha-Dō team, Saori did not hesitate to join because she believed that tankery would gain her popularity among men. When Miho was forced to join the Sensha-Dō team by the student council, Saori reconsiders and decides not to do Sensha-Dō for the sake of Miho, but eventually Miho reverses her decision. Thus, she joins Sensha-Dō together with Hana and Miho.

During the training match against the other teams from the school's Sensha-Dō team, Saori chooses to be the tank commander, but is replaced by Miho after she gets scared in the heat of the battle and is seemingly unable to give proper orders. After the match, Saori is appointed by Miho to become the tank's radio operator, as she recognizes her ability to communicate.

During the first match of the national Sensha-Dō tournament against Saunders University High School, Saori's talent of being very quick at writing SMS becomes useful for the team when Miho spots a radio intercepting balloon operated by Saunders' co-commander Alisa. Miho instructed Saori to use text messaging instead of their radio as communication method to exploit Saunders' radio intercepting. By using their cell phones for communication, Ooarai manages to lure two of Saunders' tanks into an ambush and disable one of them, using Saunders' radio interception against them.

Saori is shown to be quite serious about her duty as radio operator. Before the national finals match against Kuromorimine Girls Academy during the Katsu dinner, she reveals that she has passed the examination for becoming an amateur radio operator 2nd class. In the Anzio OVA (which chronologically takes at the end of episode 7), it is revealed that she was already studying for this back then.