[Anime Review]/Girls und Panzer

Alright, this show isn't exactly finished yet and I don't usually like to review them before they are...but you could say that the airing of it's first season is over. A little confusing, right? Well let's just get this out of the way early, shall we? Word from director of the show, Tsutomu Mizushima, says that the animation team didn't meet the deadlines for the last two episodes to air as they should've. The reason for this is mostly due to not wanting to rush the production and put out episodes that weren't up to his standards. Commendable but it can be a bit dangerous to do as the delay of the final two has proven.

Factor this into the incredibly tight schedules that anime series have in Japan and you get a couple of filler episodes (I'll get to that later) instead of the final two episodes in the series. These are confirmed to air in March, however, so just a little wait to be had for the finale to reach everyone.

That said, the trend of putting high school age characters into some weird and militaristic situations doesn't seem to have an end. (See Strike Witches and Upotte)This time around? Tankery, a sport dedicated to using tanks to help young women become better rounded individuals. While the whole thing seems absurd at first...it does start to make a bit of sense as the series goes on (much thanks to episodes 5.5 and 10.5 for some explanation) and the characters are likeable and easy to relate to, in their own special kind of way. It also offers up an interesting take on the whole "overcoming familial pressures in your own way" story as well.

• Genre: Action (with a bit of SoL)
• Length: 12ep (14 if you count the unreleased two)
• Rating: 8/10
• Recommendation: Give it a go, it's not you're typical high school story by any means and there is some well thought out weight given to the characters and their motivations as well. If you like things such as Stripes or Mchale's Navy, you should enjoy it. 
• Where to watch: Crunchyroll and Hulu

The story mostly follows new transfer student Miho Nishizumi, who has come to Oarai Girls High School in order to avoid the entire world of tankery of all things. Why? Oarai doesn't have a tankery club and hasn't for quite some time. I'm sure you can guess where this is going, can't you? If you can't, well...what comes next has a quite bit of a Stripes or McHale's Navy kind of feel to it. It's an endless underdog trying to overcome vastly superior rivals that are much more powerful and well put together kind of thing. Keeping that idea in mind, I found myself more settled. At first it didn't click, but it was pretty apparent a few episodes in and allowed me to settle down into the concept quite a bit more.

The rest of the focus is mostly on the girls who are part of the crew that is part of the tank crew that Miho commands with in the Oarai tankery club. While not all of their back stories are covered, enough time is given to a few of them which helps even things out in a pretty solid way. There's simply no way to cover all the characters too deeply, but due to the "recap/intro" episodes, there is a chance to learn more about the other girls in the club (and even some of their rivals).

Speaking of the rest of the girls from Oarai, they're a rag tag bunch (much like their tanks) and only one of them, Miho, has any experience what so ever in tankery. This is mostly due to a long family heritage that her family has within the sport, and something she isn't overly fond of at first either. It's not immediately known why she's left her former school, so I won't spoil that as it's a nice surprise, but at first glance it appears she's just not very good at it at all due to her personality. Which is completely different than the glimpses early on that we see of her older sister and mother, they're a bit...intense.

The rest of the team is made up of several other tank crews of varying numbers (based on the crew sizes for the tanks), some of them even from other clubs which just didn't have enough members. Those like the school's volleyball team and even online gamers get into the mix at one point. The main push for all of this though comes from the school's student council, rather suddenly at that. It's the short and fiery school president, Anzu Kadotani (pictured at the top), who has pushed all this through for some reason which is not entirely known right off the bat. Perhaps it's just because she knows of Miho's past, or it's for some other reason entirely that's not known (It is revealed, but I won't go there for the sake of it being a pretty big spoiler if I did).

It's kind of nice that they don't reveal everything right away or make every motivation known. This is one thing that I hate with any kind of show or movie. Why? There's no surprise and nothing to learn later on. While many shows have steered away from this idea, it's still pretty common to figure things out in many shows too early. That said, they've managed to throw some wrenches into the works that gum things up and make situations feel much more interesting and dramatic than they would've otherwise. 

As I said before, some things are a bit confusing and the whole idea and settings seem to be a bit absurd, but thanks to episodes 5.5 and 10.5 many things are explained. Not only about the concept of tankery as a sport but some of the characters as well. There's also a couple of other episodes which answer some other questions, almost in the vain of the characters being self aware of the viewers confusion. (Like why some of the schools even exist in their current states). This does greatly help, but also takes some of the tension out of the events that are going on so it's a bit jarring. The fact that the season ended with one of these after a big cliff hanger...also is a bit strange. At least they did take the time to explain quite a bit about the world of tankery and also fill in some blanks to other cast members.

Overall, as I've said, it's quite enjoyable and if you go into like an underdog/against all odds kind of story you should enjoy it. The production quality is amongst some of the best and the director holds that standard very closely (part of the reason for the delay of course). It's also nice to see a series that doesn't have that much fan service and let's the quality of the whole production shine, rather than just over the top pandering to hormones (I'm looking at you Strike Witches). All in all, it's a worthy entry into anyone's watch list that has the inclination and I'm eagerly awaiting to see what comes of the season finale next month!