Upotte!!

Plot

The series takes place at a school known as Seishou Academy. Unlike an average school, all the students are actually personifications of guns, training to one day become a useful weapon, and is divided up into elementary school (submachine guns), middle school (assault rifles & shotguns), and high school (battle rifles & sniper rifles). They are capable of drawing the weapons they represent from out of thin air and using them, and any student or his/her manifested gun can suffer from any gun-related problem the other might have. All students in Seishou train to shoot their target (literally) using live ammunition. The series mainly focuses on an FN FNC assault rifle nicknamed Funco and her friends with their human teacher.

Characters

Assault Rifle Class

Funco (ふんこ, Funko)

Voiced by: Iori Nomizu (Japanese); Genevieve Simmons (English)

The main protagonist, an energetic girl who is a Belgian FN FNC. She is the younger sister of Fal, and she is noted to write in Dutch (as opposed to French). As the real FNC has a skeleton stock, she wears a thong instead of panties, much to her embarrassment and occasional anger. Ever since their first meeting, she has displayed an affection towards her homeroom teacher, though the feelings are one-sided.

Ichiroku (いちろく)

Voiced by: Misuzu Togashi (Japanese); Brittney Karbowski (English)

Funco's best friend, who nicknames her Fukko (ふッこ) due to a spelling mistake. She has an energetic personality and a foul mouth with Osaka dialect, but is very kind. She is an American M16A4 assault rifle (her name literally means "one" and "six") and has a large number of fans, as she is usually photographed for the cover of specialized gun magazines. In non-combat action, she tends to rapidly alternate between bursts of activity and sudden rests, relating to her namesake's three-round burst fire only capacity. She is Ichihachi's own sister, who was adopted by the Colt family, and Ichiyon's younger foster sister-in-law.

Sig (しぐ, Shigu)

Voiced by: Kaori Sadohara (Japanese); Emily Neves (English)

Another close friend of Funco. She is a Swiss SIG SG 550 assault rifle. Her grades are top notch and she's an honor student, but a bit out of it at times. She sports exceptional firing accuracy at mid-to-long-range (using improved 5.56×45mm GP90 rounds instead of standard 5.56×45mm NATO rounds) and able to survive in freezing temperature (similar to real SG 550), and doesn't like to lose. She appears to have feelings for Funco and gets jealous when others get close to her.

Elle (える, Eru)

Voiced by: Misato (Japanese); Nancy Novotny (English)

Battle/Sniper Rifle Class

/ Fal (ふぁる, Faru)

Voiced by: Mina (Japanese); Shondra Marie (English)

Funco's elder sister. She is an English-made L1A1 battle rifle (named as FAL L1A1 in manga and anime, not to be confused with the original Belgian FN FAL). The natural leader of her class, Fal has it all: excellent grades, popularity, and beauty. In the manga, Fal is almost destroyed during the mission to rescue the Modern Literature Teacher from Red Steel High, and although the broken parts were replaced, the bolt, the part of her body containing all her previous memories, is still in possession of Akagane, which she uses as a leverage against Funco and the others. As it turns out, Funco has two sisters that are both, FALs. One follows the traditional pattern of metric measurement FN FAL being her original sister while the imperial measurement L1A1 "FAL" is Funco's guardian "sister".

Ichiyon (いちよん)

Voiced by: Saeko Zōgō (Japanese); Kara Greenberg (English)

Ichiroku's elder sister-in-law from the Springfield Armory family and Fal's roommate. She is an American M14 battle rifle (her name means "one" and "four"). She has a tomboyish personality: beautiful if she stays quiet, but she's often crude and rowdy. She has an ear for corny jokes, which she perceives as coming off silky smooth, but in reality have a husky delivery that annoys the other characters.

Jeethree (じーすり, Jīsuri)

Voiced by: Mami Kosuge (Japanese); Chelsea Ryan McCurdy (English)

Jeethree is a German G3A3 battle rifle. Despite her strict appearance, she is actually very caring. She has many little sisters in the Submachine Class, and an effective but embarrassing posture that improves her full-auto shooting capability without worrying much about the recoil. Her sniping skill is top class, and she often wears dark pantyhose.

Type 64

Submachine Gun Class

Empi (えむぴ, Emupi)

Voiced by: Chika Horikawa (Japanese); Brittany Djie (English)

She is a German MP5A2 submachine gun and one of Jeethree's younger sisters. Despite Jeethree having several sisters, Empee seems to be the favorite one, owing to her as one of the most popular Submachine Gun. Also nicknamed Chithree (Chi for Chibi, a little Jeethree). Her elementary sisters family consists of MP5K, UMP45, MP7 (who happens to have the same vs Uzi rivalry towards FN P90, HK53)

Emten (えむてん, Emuten)

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese); Brittany Deans (English)

She is an American MAC-10 (M-10) submachine gun. Similar to her namesake gun, she talks rapidly in one stroke, leaving her out of breath afterwards.

Gossan (ごっさん)

Voiced by: Kayoko Tsumita (Japanese); Genevieve Simmons (English)

She is a German HK53 submachine gun (her name meaning "five" and "three"). As a submachine gun designed to fire intermediate rounds, she is much taller and looks much older than her classmates.

Uzi (ウージー, Ūjī)

She is an Israeli Uzi submachine gun and Empi's self-proclaimed rival, referencing to the fact that the MP5 replaced the Uzi in many military and police applications.

TMP

She is an Austrian Steyr TMP and Aug's younger sister. Due to being a stockless submachine gun, she has the habit of wearing no panties, and just like her older sister, she idolizes Funco.

Jatimatic

Red Steel High School

Akagane

The leader of the Akaganekou Group. She is a Soviet / Russian AK-47. Also an ex-student of Gengoku.

AKM

Co-leader of the Akaganekou Group. Vicious fighter with a no-nonsense attitude.

Nanayon (ごっさん)

Voiced by: Ayahi Takagaki (Japanese); Margaret McDonald (English)

She is a Soviet / Russian AK-74 assault rifle, a school leader.

AN-94/Akaban

She is a Russian AN-94 assault rifle, wounded by Sig at the Battle of Atami.

Tantal

She is a Polish kbk wz. 88 Tantal assault rifle.

Type 86 (86式自動步槍, 86 Shì Zìdòng Bùqiāng)

She is a full-auto version of the Chinese Type 86S rifle, wounded by Elle at the Battle of Atami.

Saiga (サイガ)

Voiced by: Akemi Kanda (Japanese); Tiffany Grant (English)

She is a Russian Saiga-12K shotgun.

RPK

Voiced by: Akeno Watanabe (Japanese); Brittany Deans (English)

She is a Soviet / Russian RPK light machine gun.

Teachers

Modern Literature Teacher (現国, Genkoku)

Voiced by: Takayuki Kondo (Japanese); David Matranga (English)

The homeroom teacher for Funco and the others, and the only human character other than the Colonel at Red Steel High, whose real name and nationality is unknown at the start of the series. He was appointed to Seishou Academy unaware about the girls' nature. He often gets into misunderstandings with Funco (usually regarding her underwear), leaving him at the receiving end of her anger, but Funco cares about him and sometimes dreams about being chosen as his personal weapon. Later it is revealed that he is an American who is a descendant of John Moses Browning and despite not having any knowledge of firearms designing like his ancestor, he is kidnapped by the students of Red Steel High School for unknown reasons.

Ms. Fujiko (ふじこ先生, Fujiko-sensei)

Voiced by: Yuu Asakawa (Japanese); Shelley Calene-Black (English)

A teacher of the Battle rifle class, she is a German FG 42 battle rifle. She has heterochromia and wears on eye patch on her right eye. Due to her usual appearance being similar to a World War II German Wehrmacht serviceman, more leaning to the Paratrooper division, even the Japanese Teacher did not recognize her when she removes her eyepatch and loosens her hair on one occasion.

Ms. Thompson (トンプソン先生, Tonpuson-sensei)

Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese); Cynthia Martinez (English)

A teacher of the submachine gun class, she is an American M1928 Thompson submachine gun and a very easy-going personality. In the anime, it is noted that she speaks Japanese with a slight American accent. She is also photographed for the cover of specialized gun magazines. Revealed to have worked with the FBI by Suomi before joining Seishou as a teacher (the FBI used Thompson SMGs from the late 1920s to the 80s).

Headmaster Springfield (スプリングフィールド校長, Supuringufīrudo Kōchō)

Others

Shiiro

She is a Heckler & Koch HK416 who was called in by Ms. Fujiko to assist in the conflict in Hakone with Red Steel. Shown to be very stable when bipods deployed.

PSG

An exchange student from Germany, she's a Heckler & Koch PSG1 sniper weapon system called in to assist in the battle against the Akagane Group at Hakone by Ms. Fujiko.

Media

Manga

The original manga by Kitsune Tennouji began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace magazine from July 4, 2009, before moving over to Shōnen Ace from June 2011. To promote the manga, Kadokowa uploaded a short video on its YouTube account in June 2009.

A 4-Koma sideseries entitled "Upotte Nano" ran in 4-Koma Nano Ace from 2011 to 2013, when the magazine folded.

As of 2023, 14 volumes were published. Kitsune Tennouji previously disclosed on his Twitter account in July 2023 that the manga would end after the 17th volume.

Upotte!! Sisters

In October 2017, a new manga spin-off Upotte!! Sisters was uploaded on the Young Ace UP digital manga platform. The story follows the perspective of a super-tall (190 cm) Lisa Browning and super-chibi Julia when they transfer schools.

Anime

An original net animation series by Xebec was streamed on Nico Nico Douga and Crunchyroll between April 8, 2012, and June 9, 2012, also streaming on the Anime Network from May 9, 2012. A television broadcast of the series began on July 4, 2012, through TOKYO MX and other TV stations throughout Japan.

The opening theme is "I.N.G." by Iori Nomizu, Misuzu Togashi, Kaori Sadohara and Misato under name Sweet ARMS while the ending theme is "Calendar" (ひめくり, Himekuri) by Kaori Sadohara.

The anime was released in Japan with five Blu-Ray/DVD volumes from August to December 2012. The show has been licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks.

A Blu-ray containing an extra episode of the anime series was bundled with limited editions of the fourth volume of the manga series, released on October 13, 2012. Sentai Filmworks later released the series on Blu-ray and DVD on March 18, 2014.

Reception

THEM Anime Reviews criticized the suspense of disbelief, arguing that the anthropomorphized schoolgirls firing their guns in Japan should be a concern by the police and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.