Series Review: Girls und Panzer (8/10)


Instant Summary: A bunch of girls joins the tank club and takes part in a tank battle competition.

When I started to look forward to Girls und Panzer in pre-season, I had no idea what I was in store for. I don't think anyone really did, too. Most people expect something on the lines of Upotte! where literally "girls are guns". Meaning they're the moé anthropomorphism of weapons. It's one of the anime titles where they pair a subject with cute girls and try to run a profit, usually with a crap storyline and half-baked production quality. That was what I'm going for, actually, because Upotte! turned out way better than I expected, and I hoped that Girls und Panzer would be something like that.

But no, Girls und Panzer exceeded expectations by leaps and bounds. What I got was a really exciting, addictive battle anime produced on a pretty decent budget. In a way, it's very close to the common sports anime with a lot on emphasis on clever tactics, growth of ability, and challenging opponents. But we have the very unique tank battle as a sport, and we had the impossible combination of masculinity and femininity with the tanks and cute girls. It's a epic win!

The producers probably didn't expect a big success as well, because the anime still possess the weaknesses you kept seeing in small projects; very forgettable characters, and very little character development. At least they did compensate with real military tactics, traits and jargon. Having been in the army (in a tank company, no less), there's a lot of things I'm familiar with and can relate to.

Now if only the main character (whatshername) would go out of character in the ending and punch her sister in the face, the anime would have the impact to be something truly epic and memorable. Damn, I wish they would be a little more daring.

Plot/Concept: What supposed to be a cheap concept turns out really well-received!
Story style: Exciting battles, forgettable characters.
Audio/visual: Good
Value: 8

2 comments:

  1. Read the Little Army prequel. Maho is putting on an act to please her mom, and make sure that Miho is free from her general nastiness (and Shiho is VERY icy in Little Army). This doesn't mean of course that she's going to let her sister win of course -- Miho has to prove that she's found her way, after all.

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    1. Too bad they didn't show that side of her in the anime. One chapter down, seems pretty interesting (and actually pretty good art). Thanks for the recommend!

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