When one thinks of military themed anime, one would think of series such as Strike Witches, Kantai Collection and Girls Und Panzer. In my opinion, while the first 2 series are great in their own right, Girls Und Panzer outshines both of them. Not only do I find its story engaging, but its animation is second to none. It also has a myriad of fascinating characters throughout the series. It’s a dream come true for people who are tank and anime enthusiasts, as well as being one of the best military themed anime of all time!
The series focuses on Miho Nishizumi as she attempts to guide Oarai High School to win the tank championship in order to prevent the school from shutting down. Even though she was forced to be the leader of her school’s tank platoon by the student council president Anzu, she decides to take the mantle and thus begins a challenging grind to become champions. Numerous events happen throughout the series which will take too long to describe so I’ll make a summary of them instead. Oarai High School ends up winning the tank championship after defeating Saunders, Pravda and Kuroromine High School through Miho’s brilliant tactics.
Of course, they faced countless obstacles along the way, the most challenging of which was against Pravda where they were cornered into a church, but as mentioned earlier, they were able to come out victorious via a moment of Miho’s tactical genius and a stroke of luck as they were able to take out Pravda’s flag tank while theirs survived by chance.
I have to give props to Girls und Panzer for their various use of stereotypes by school. Saunders’s girls are bombastic and very easy going; St. Gloriana’s are composed and have a culture of drinking tea – a very British thing to do; Pravda employs using ambush, envelopment tactics and the cold winter to win their battles – a reference to World War Two where the Soviet army took advantage of the cold Russian winter to launch successful counter attacks against the German Wehrmacht. Kuromorimine relies on using brute force, Blitzkrieg tactics, and strong coordination to win their battles – again another reference to World War Two where the German Wehrmacht used Blitzkrieg(lightning war) to cause confusion among their enemies and overwhelm them through sheer firepower. Of course, these stereotypes may put off a small group of people, but for military and tank enthusiasts, it’s pure enjoyment. I belong to the latter group and I was having a laugh at these stereotypes. It is a marvel that the producers could pull it off without being offensive.
The animation of Girls Und Panzer is top tier for an anime that was produced in 2012. Not only do the 3D tank models appear good, they also look beautiful, high quality and masterful. I must also laud the producers for having a fairly historically accurate representation of the color palette for the tanks of the various schools. St. Gloriana have a brown color palette for their Matilda tanks which was used during the desert campaign against the Germans. Saunders having a green color scheme for their Shermans and Kuromorimine having a yellowish brown for their Panthers. Yes there were some variances in the colors, such as Pravda’s tanks appearing white, but in my opinion that was mainly a camouflage tactic during the match against Oorai which took place in winter. In addition, while the usage of CGI during the tank battle scenes wasn’t perfect, it was generally smooth and even impressed me in some scenes, such as in episode 12 where Miho performed tank drifting in her Panzer IV H to get behind Maho’s Tiger 1 to perform the killing shot. The transition of the tank drift was incredibly sleek without any animation issues.
The music of Girls Und Panzer has gotta be one of my highlights of the show. While I do like the opening and ending songs, the historical military music of the various schools was simply incredible. From “The British Grenadiers” of St Gloriana High School to “Katyusha” of Pravda, and my favorite one of all “Panzerlied” of Kuromorimine, they are all heavy hitters and enhanced the intensity of the battles that Oarai High School fought against the various schools. I can see not only Military geeks, but also average anime fans loving Girls Und Panzer to their fullest because of the music!
I shan’t go into detail of every single character in the series as there’s simply too many, so I’ll just discuss a few standout characters that I love and notice. For starters, my favorite character – Miho Nishizumi. She’s a very interesting person as while she had low confidence and can be a bit of a klutz sometimes, her character development throughout the series shows as she slowly grows with confidence thanks to the support of her friends – Hana, Saori, Yukari and Mako. She is also nothing short of a brilliant tactician. While her strategy and tactics may be unconventional and certainly a disgrace to the Nishizumi style which was instilled into her from young, it allows for a more flexible approach to battles which helped her and Oarai win the tank tournament
Katyusha is far from my cup of tea, but I find her to be a very interesting personality. Despite her dependency on Nonna for her needs, she’s also a tsundere as she congratulated Miho on winning against Pravda, though she also said that she’ll defeat Miho the next time they met on the battlefield.
Maho Nishizumi on the other hand, is a fascinating character as she’s Miho’s older sister. Throughout the series we see tidbits of her and Miho interacting with one another albeit on cold terms. One can conclude that this shows the two sisters don’t have a close relationship, but that’s far from true. She lent Miho and her friends a helicopter when Mako’s grandma had an accident and defended Miho when her mother brushed off Miho’s win against Pravda as luck, touting Miho’s unpredictable and unconventional tactics as the reason for her win. When she fought against Miho in the final of the tank championship and lost to her, she congratulated Miho and even smiled when Miho told her she found her own Senshado. She clearly cares and loves her sister, just that she needs to act tough to shoulder the responsibility of the Nishizumi style of Senshado.
Girls Und Panzer is one of the best CGDCT military anime series I’ve watched. From the action packed plot to the amazing animation, the surreal music and lovely characters, it is an anime that has gone under the radar for many anime fans. However, as it’s still ongoing with its Das Finale series, it’s far from over. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for a niche group of people like me, it’s a gem of a series.
Rating: 8.5/10
