Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Girls und Panzer: Complete TV Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Tank Girls.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 24, 2013

It might be evidence of some sort of societal evolution that the Japanese, who during their actual wars tended to shunt women to the background (or even worse, forced them take part in the horrifying “comfort” activities), now are casting young women (albeit in animated form) in all sorts of battle themed anime, ironically at times with at least a tangential relationship to World War II. Some of these outings (Strike Witches springs to mind) tend to recast actual historical events in a decidedly revisionist manner, one which some people find entrancing while others (including this reviewer) have found at least slightly questionable, given Japan’s actual history. Girls und Panzer’s title might seem like its yet another rosy hued trip down an alternate universe lane where World War II was really lots of fun, but despite the perhaps somewhat misleading moniker (which, after all, actually refers to Germany), the series is a rather fanciful entry that kind of dances around traditional mecha lines by having teams of high school girls compete in tank battles. That might seem to be slim pickings to hang an entire series on, but Girls und Panzer actually manages to be quite a bit of fun, at least most of the time. The series is characterized by an almost ludicrous enthusiasm, and its combination of passing fan service with what might be termed the “fetishization” of World War II machinery is certainly one of the oddest anime mash ups in recent memory, but it also gives this show a distinctive (if patently bizarre) tone that may in fact recommend it to fans who are sick of seeing the same old anime tropes dressed up in slightly new clothing.

There’s a kind of funny “D’oh” moment early in Girls und Panzer, when the series’ chief heroine transfers into a new high school because she wants to avoid any contact with “Sensha-dō”, or “tankery”, as it’s translated in the series. Miho Nishizumi comes from a long line of tankery experts, and she’s trying to escape from the long shadow cast by her ancestors. She matriculates into Ōarai Girls’ High School for the sole reason that the establishment doesn’t have any connection to tankery. Unfortunately for Miho, she finds out a bit too late that Ōarai has just reconstituted its tankery activities and of course Miho’s family connections mean that she’s a prime target for involvement. That little conceit sets up the gist of Girls und Panzer’s chief plot arc, which finds Miho integrating into her new environment (in what is really a fairly traditional shōnen approach) while leading her classmates in various tankery exercises.

In a way, it’s almost odd that Girls und Panzer even includes a battle motif as one of its major plot elements, for in this particular iteration, there’s no real danger per se, as the girls’ tanks are all outfitted with “dummy” rounds and are further protected by specially formulated armor in order to insure that no harm comes to the participants. What ends up happening, therefore, tends to concentrate more on the relationships rather than the actual skirmishes. That doesn’t mean that Girls und Panzer is devoid of action, however. Quite the contrary, in fact, for virtually every episode has some kind of battle that takes place, usually with various strategies being bandied about as Miho attempts to figure out various ways to confront her “enemies”.

And it’s in the relationships where Girls und Panzer actually finds its greatest strengths. From the first episode, Miho is befriended by Saori and Hana, and the series deserves kudos for not making Miho an outcast trying to finagle her way into a closed social circle. In fact, Girls und Panzer actually has Miho’s first two friends backing her up when Miho initially tries to refuse the Student Council’s insistence that Miho take part in the newly offered tankery course the high school is offering. It’s this very act of selflessness on the part of her friends that ultimately convinces Miho to take part in the tankery activities, which then sets up the series for the bulk of the rest of its episodes.

At this point Girls und Panzer at least partially gives way to the military geek side of things, as the girls begin to hunt down vintage tanks in order to participate in the tankery competitions. The series utilizes some rather well done CGI mockups of various actual historical machines. It’s really a kind of odd balancing act that Girls und Panzer attempts to do, with what might be thought of as the feminine (i.e., relationship) and masculine (i.e., the tanks) aspects vying for attention in any given episode, but the anime actually does manage to put both elements to good use. Girls und Panzer never really plays its cards that close to its vest in terms of the overall dramatic arc of the series, but Miho and her team do have to suffer at least one relatively ignominious defeat before they get their strategizing act together and move on to bigger competitions (with a series of not very surprising outcomes).

While there are a couple of unneeded sidebars sprinkled throughout the series (Miho is more or less bullied into Sensha- dō, and later it turns out that Ōarai is in danger of shutting down), Girls und Panzer keeps a fairly straight and narrow track charting the combat course of the girls as they take on two increasingly difficult opponents. Through it all, the need for teamwork repeatedly arises, and while the series doesn’t really offer anything new in that regard, it does offer the worthwhile sight of kids working together to achieve a noble outcome—without anyone getting blasted to smithereens in the process.

Girls und Panzer: Complete TV Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Girls und Panzer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The most distinctive thing about this series' animation style is undoubtedly the nice CGI renderings of the tanks (as well as some environments). The almost photorealistic accuracy of these renderings really sets this series apart. However, some of those same CGI elements sometimes display anomalies like pretty noticeable motion judder when the camera pans across certain environments. The character animation is much more traditional, though line detail, color and general clarity are all well above average. Some scenes have been intentionally "distressed", with a kind of faux grainy look and other "aging" elements added to the picture. This is actually one recent Sentai release that does not suffer from the banding issues that have minimally hobbled some other offerings by the label.

Girls und Panzer: Complete TV Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Despite "only" having DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in Japanese and English, the tracks on this Blu-ray are really surprisingly vivid, with good lower end and some nice, fairly wide stereo separation (you can clearly hear shots and explosions emanating from only the left or right channel at times). Dialogue and music are well mixed into the proceedings. Things probably would have been considerably more visceral with a surround mix, but what's here boasts excellent fidelity and has no issues of any kind to report. I will say that my personal preference was for the Japanese language track, where the voices seemed to fit the characters more closely than the English dub. This is also another recent Sentai release that requires going to the Languages submenu to make appropriate changes (rather than just toggling with your remote's Audio button), with English subs only available on the Japanese track.

Girls und Panzer: Complete TV Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introductions! (1080p; 25:50) is a kind of odd compilation of snippets from the series (in Japanese with forced English subtitles). These aren't necessarily even in chronological order, but I'm guessing the idea behind them is to give a little bit more information on the main characters in digest form.


• Introductions! 2 (1080p; 25:56) is more of the same.


• Japanese Promos (1080p; 5:23)


• Japanese TV Spots (1080p; 00:49)


• Clean Opening Animation (1080p; 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animaiton (1080p; 18:52). As might be guessed from the length of this supplement, it's actually several different closing animations.

Girls und Panzer: Complete TV Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Girls und Panzer frankly caught me a little off guard. I still wouldn't claim this anime is any great masterpiece, but it's so decidedly weird that it kind of ingratiated itself over time and I found myself almost hypnotized at times by the bizarre mash up of tank battles and high school hijinks. The series has a fairly ungainly cast, all of whom kind of blend into each other after a while, but the distinctive animation style with regard to the tanks and the unusual basic plot set up are able to maintain interest in spite of a few kind of tired missteps along the way. Recommended.