A Russian army squad has attracted nationwide consideration with a viral video of a frontline trophy
A Russian army unit has discovered itself within the media highlight, after humorous movies of the troopers capturing a US-made Bradley infantry combating car from the Ukrainian military went viral. Their reported curiosity in anime has additional stirred up public curiosity.
One of the clips confirmed servicemen from the Kerch unit posing in entrance of an apparently intact piece of US-made weaponry, sarcastically thanking Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky for delivering “this nice vehicle” to them. Another clip confirmed one in every of them making a face to the digicam, with the trophy within the background, and saying: “There you go – glory to Russia!”
The footage appeared earlier within the week and was broadly shared on Russian social networks, earlier than making its manner into the nationwide media. As curiosity grew, some shops reported that the fighters – all of whom volunteered to serve within the military – had been additionally anime followers.
While Japanese animation artwork has a various world fanbase, it is nonetheless seen as area of interest in Russia.
Public photos shared on the messenger app Telegram by one of many squad members exhibits his eager curiosity in anime. In one picture, a Kerch fighter will be seen sporting a helmet with an image of a fox-girl drawn together with her tongue out and eyes crossed – an expression generally known as ‘ahegao’ which options in erotic manga.
Another picture exhibits the person behind the channel, who goes by name signal Lesiy, with a patch on his ballistic vest depicting an armed anime lady in a Russian ‘ushanka’ hat.
After the unit’s sudden rise to web fame, Lesiy reacted with a joke submit exhibiting two anime women standing subsequent to an armored car, captioned: “It seems like we’ve opened Pandora’s Box”.
The anime theme is a part of a working joke for the troopers. Leshiy, whose actual identify is Vladislav, described the unit’s frontline service as attending “an anime festival” in Donbass in one in every of his first posts final yr.
But at the least one member of the Kerch unit is a real fanatic. A 19-year-old serviceman going by the nickname Shmyga was talked about final yr by the chief of a Russian anime fan group, concerned in supporting the Russian troops. According to the news outlet Readovka, the soldier “loves anime girls” and carries with him a ‘dakimakura’ – a Japanese-style giant pillow that includes an anime character.
(RT.com)