One of the more interesting aspects of this series to me that has nothing to do with it as a (completely adorable) yuri story is the profound difference between this imagined world and any real-life historical counterpart. (That is, as we’ve said all along, a place like this would have been unimaginably impossible in early-20th century Japan.)
The theme of questioning the cadets’ personal motivation for a military career that has always been there and has become even more prominent lately is one of those things that would have absolutely no historical parallel—cadets would arrive already fully indoctrinated in the whole love-of-country-is-love-of-Emperor ideology, and any lingering shreds of individual personal motivation would be (literally) hammered out of them double-quick.
I just think it’s interesting that we see the characters pondering a question—“why do I want to be a soldier?”—that in the historical circumstances they would not even be able to think to themselves.
I certainly hope that cuteness as the key to unit cohesion is the military wave of the future.