I must say that I really enjoyed your review of Girls und Panzer. I am 63 and GuP was the first anime that I ever watched. I have a collection of anime series and GuP is still my favorite. I found it in a mostly strange way. I enjoy studying WWII. I was looking on the internet for WWII German songs and marches and found "Panzerlied" being played by the Tokyo Philharmonic for a Japanese anime series called Girls und Panzer. The rest is literally history. I have watched the series at least five times and am a big fan. My favorite characters are Yukari and Anchovy. Der Film continues the fun and am patiently (impatiently) waiting for the next part of Das FInale to come out. 1 part every year and a half is a real killer! Wish they would hurry them up! Anyway, thank you for the wonderful review!
This anime got me into anime. Am 63 and found this on the web and was smitten! Bought the entire series and movie. Am waiting for das Finale to continue. You'll love watching it!
Girls und panzer is an anime that seems to be like taking a 183mm FV4002B and seeing if you hit. It's got so much going for it but the... mediocre start might turn you away. And yet once it hooks you it's all but impossible to get out of the cult following. The tank battles are marvelous and even the secondary characters have enough screen time to get a personality. But to the tanks, the physics, the tactics, the sounds, the appearance, even the choice. All of it is marvelous except one scene I'd rather not spoil that just throws out physics. Yet even that I would forgive and believe if they just made it rain in the final duel.
If you want to get closer to the Sensha-Dō experience, hop on War Thunder for some Realistic/Simulator Battle games, the Arcade Battles are fun and mimic the more speedy sensation found on WoT, but it's not quite like Sensha-Dō. Also War Thunder's sounds from tanks to guns all sound much more realistic and actually very similar to GuP! I started playing WT recently after a year of not playing and then I found GuP and now I'm officially re-obsessed with tanks again...for better or for worse, but last time I was this into tanks was back in senior year of high school when I used to play the original WoT way before they added the new physics and HD graphics lol. I too LOVE GuP and especially the movie! OMFG 10/10 DEFINITELY watching again!
I love WT, it's my favorite game, but I think Red Orchestra 2's tanks fit the criteria better, as they are crewed by multiple people and you have to crew it from the inside
Do you think the show's “trojan horse” was intentional, i.e. that the creators wanted viewers to be pleasantly surprised that it was actually a sports anime? Or perhaps it's more the case of that we're so inudated with fanservice anime that we can't help but expect it from a setup such as this one?
I think it's a little bit of both--audience expectations of what a certain setup must mean most likely did more of the heavy lifting, but I'm pretty sure the creators must have been well aware of such expectations and decided to take advantage of them. NOT, granted, for the explicit artistic purpose of subverting them as with something like Madoka Magika, and also not explicitly to pleasantly surprise viewers who would be skeptical of moe/fanservice-leaning shows. They probably did that just so they could build up a starting audience of dedicated moe/fanservice fans that could make their show's success more likely, and then using the extra insurance to allow them to make a legitimately awesome show. "Come for the cute girls, stay for the tankery." In other words, it may have just been business! Someone like me starting it expecting the worst but eventually recognizing how much more there was to it was likely just an added bonus to them.
Great review. I like your attention to the details and that you got the moral message this anime puts across that most would miss. but the angler fish dance wtf is that about :)
2D master race? Lets see those whiners try animating something like the end tank drifting sequence in the last episode BY HAND and we'll see how they feel when they're done... (Also one of the manga/OVA/SOMETHING mentioned an American version called "Tankery Unlimited", which is, unsurprisingly, heavily Americanized, and less about honor and glory and womenly skill and more about "HEY LETS SHOVE THE TURRET OF A FUCKING M1A1 ABRAMS ONTO THIS FUCKING SHERMAN BODY YEAHAHHHHHH!" (No seriously thats a thing. It looks about as ugly as you can possibly imagine it."
I would also pose the minute and a half uninterrupted long shot that is the series' very first shot as part of such a challenge. It's not something I quite brought up in the review, but such feats of interesting camera work and cinematography would be total nightmares to adequately animate by hand, but are significantly more feasible to do on a television budget if 3D CGI gets used. SHIT LIKE THAT is why I'm overall in favor of anime going toward computer-generated animation as a long-term goal. Unfortunately, most series seem to still be ten steps behind GuP when it comes to making 3D CGI work as part of anime, which then continues to tarnish 3D's reputation. I think that is going to get better with time, though progress might still be slow for a while.
Unfortunately, the anime industry has, due to being too humble for its good, learnt nothing from Girls und Panzer at all, resulting in 99% of all anime ending up being mediocre, with only a few exceptions.
I've not seen the movie as of yet, just the series. I REALLY want to see it, though, especially since the fans who I've talked to so far all uniformly say I need to see it as soon as possible. And whenever I do see Der Film, my hope is to do a review of it on its own. :)
![The Arcana - Main Menu Theme [1 Hour-Version]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5folw8fI29Y/mqdefault.jpg)
I must say that I really enjoyed your review of Girls und Panzer. I am 63 and GuP was the first anime that I ever watched. I have a collection of anime series and GuP is still my favorite. I found it in a mostly strange way. I enjoy studying WWII. I was looking on the internet for WWII German songs and marches and found "Panzerlied" being played by the Tokyo Philharmonic for a Japanese anime series called Girls und Panzer. The rest is literally history. I have watched the series at least five times and am a big fan. My favorite characters are Yukari and Anchovy. Der Film continues the fun and am patiently (impatiently) waiting for the next part of Das FInale to come out. 1 part every year and a half is a real killer! Wish they would hurry them up! Anyway, thank you for the wonderful review!
This anime got me into anime. Am 63 and found this on the web and was smitten! Bought the entire series and movie. Am waiting for das Finale to continue. You'll love watching it!
Girls und panzer is an anime that seems to be like taking a 183mm FV4002B and seeing if you hit. It's got so much going for it but the... mediocre start might turn you away.
And yet once it hooks you it's all but impossible to get out of the cult following. The tank battles are marvelous and even the secondary characters have enough screen time to get a personality.
But to the tanks, the physics, the tactics, the sounds, the appearance, even the choice. All of it is marvelous except one scene I'd rather not spoil that just throws out physics. Yet even that I would forgive and believe if they just made it rain in the final duel.
One of the few reasons why Girls und Panzer succeeded is because it connected with a community of history-buffs
And that is bad?
I mean it's literally (Yukari specially) is the mascots of Many Ww2 based Forums and /K/ equivalent of /A/ lucky star.
117!
Mako is nocturnal
If you want to get closer to the Sensha-Dō experience, hop on War Thunder for some Realistic/Simulator Battle games, the Arcade Battles are fun and mimic the more speedy sensation found on WoT, but it's not quite like Sensha-Dō. Also War Thunder's sounds from tanks to guns all sound much more realistic and actually very similar to GuP! I started playing WT recently after a year of not playing and then I found GuP and now I'm officially re-obsessed with tanks again...for better or for worse, but last time I was this into tanks was back in senior year of high school when I used to play the original WoT way before they added the new physics and HD graphics lol. I too LOVE GuP and especially the movie! OMFG 10/10 DEFINITELY watching again!
Zero-G-Worx 10/10 we are same
I love WT, it's my favorite game, but I think Red Orchestra 2's tanks fit the criteria better, as they are crewed by multiple people and you have to crew it from the inside
Wow...this is probably the best review of this anime I’ve seen so far. Keep up the good work.
Pokémon is also a sport anime, or in this case, game, and Ip Man is the sports movie, and booming similar to Girls und Panzer.
Do you think the show's “trojan horse” was intentional, i.e. that the creators wanted viewers to be pleasantly surprised that it was actually a sports anime? Or perhaps it's more the case of that we're so inudated with fanservice anime that we can't help but expect it from a setup
such as this one?
I think it's a little bit of both--audience expectations of what a certain setup must mean most likely did more of the heavy lifting, but I'm pretty sure the creators must have been well aware of such expectations and decided to take advantage of them. NOT, granted, for the explicit artistic purpose of subverting them as with something like Madoka Magika, and also not explicitly to pleasantly surprise viewers who would be skeptical of moe/fanservice-leaning shows.
They probably did that just so they could build up a starting audience of dedicated moe/fanservice fans that could make their show's success more likely, and then using the extra insurance to allow them to make a legitimately awesome show. "Come for the cute girls, stay for the tankery." In other words, it may have just been business! Someone like me starting it expecting the worst but eventually recognizing how much more there was to it was likely just an added bonus to them.
Great review. I like your attention to the details and that you got the moral message this anime puts across that most would miss. but the angler fish dance wtf is that about :)
Liked your review. Love this series! Can't wait for the new series in 2018!
I just watched it cos I love tanks . loved the series also strike witches was really enjoyable and yeah I watched that cos I like planes :)
2D master race?
Lets see those whiners try animating something like the end tank drifting sequence in the last episode BY HAND and we'll see how they feel when they're done...
(Also one of the manga/OVA/SOMETHING mentioned an American version called "Tankery Unlimited", which is, unsurprisingly, heavily Americanized, and less about honor and glory and womenly skill and more about "HEY LETS SHOVE THE TURRET OF A FUCKING M1A1 ABRAMS ONTO THIS FUCKING SHERMAN BODY YEAHAHHHHHH!"
(No seriously thats a thing. It looks about as ugly as you can possibly imagine it."
I would also pose the minute and a half uninterrupted long shot that is the series' very first shot as part of such a challenge. It's not something I quite brought up in the review, but such feats of interesting camera work and cinematography would be total nightmares to adequately animate by hand, but are significantly more feasible to do on a television budget if 3D CGI gets used.
SHIT LIKE THAT is why I'm overall in favor of anime going toward computer-generated animation as a long-term goal. Unfortunately, most series seem to still be ten steps behind GuP when it comes to making 3D CGI work as part of anime, which then continues to tarnish 3D's reputation. I think that is going to get better with time, though progress might still be slow for a while.
RedStripe118 Is progress in animated media ever a quick thing?
It hardly ever is haha.
Is this on hulu
Yes. Don't ask how I know.
Too bad the tie-in games are mixed bags compared to the anime.
Unfortunately, the anime industry has, due to being too humble for its good, learnt nothing from Girls und Panzer at all, resulting in 99% of all anime ending up being mediocre, with only a few exceptions.
You didn't talk about the movie at all.
I've not seen the movie as of yet, just the series. I REALLY want to see it, though, especially since the fans who I've talked to so far all uniformly say I need to see it as soon as possible. And whenever I do see Der Film, my hope is to do a review of it on its own. :)
It was indeed a lot more awesome. I saw it 6 times, in the same week.
Did you start speaking Japanese when you were done? That happens to me sometimes when I binge watch anime...
I did that with Der Film and well. At least 5 or 6 times in a week. Just had it on in the background. Replaying
Girls und panzer if you havent read the manga: 😍
If you have: Ehh its visually nice. But the manga is *way* better written.