Girls und Panzer

Girls und Panzer (Japanese: ガールズ&パンツァー, Hepburn: Gāruzu ando Pantsā) is a 2012 Japanese anime television series created by Actas.^[1][2] It depicts a competition between girls' high schools practicing tank warfare as a sport. The series was directed by Tsutomu Mizushima, written by Reiko Yoshida and produced by Kiyoshi Sugiyama. Takaaki Suzuki, who has earlier acted as a military history advisor for Strike Witches and Upotte!!, was involved in the production of the anime.^[3] The series initially aired in Japan between October and December 2012, with two additional episodes airing in March 2013 and an original video animation released in July 2014.^[4][5] Nine manga series and a light novel adaptation have been published by Media Factory.^[3] An animated film was initially announced for release in 2014, however was pushed back to Summer 2015.^[6][7] The movie was released in Japanese theaters on November 21, 2015.^[8][9] A six-part theatrical anime series has been announced, with the first film premiering in Japan in December 2017.

Plot

The story takes place in a universe where historical WWII-era tanks are maintained for sports warfare competitions and large carrier ships known as Academy Ships support mobile sea communities. Of the many activities high school girls can participate in, one of the most popular is "sensha-dō" (戦車道, lit. "the way of the tank"),^{[FN 1]} the art of operating tanks, which is considered a traditional martial art. Miho Nishizumi, a girl from a prestigious family of sensha-dō practitioners who became traumatized by a past event, transfers to Ōarai Girls High School to get away from sensha-dō, as she presumed the school was no longer practicing the sport. However, shortly after Miho begins her new school life and makes some new friends, the student council announces the revival of sensha-dō at Ōarai and coerces Miho, the only student with prior experience, to join. While reluctant to join at first, having practically been forced, Miho soon warms up to sensha-dō again and comes to enjoy it, after which the school prepares to enter a national sensha-dō championship, facing off against various other schools.^[3][11]

The spin-off manga, Girls und Panzer: Little Army, follows Miho in her elementary school days as she participates in sensha-dō alongside her friends Emi, Hitomi, and Chihiro.

Media

Manga

A manga adaptation by Ryūichi Saitaniya began serialization in Media Factory's Comic Flapper magazine from June 5, 2012 and ended on March 5, 2014. Four tankōbon volumes have been released. A prequel story illustrated by Tsuchii, Girls und Panzer: Little Army (ガールズ&パンツァー リトルアーミー, Gāruzu ando Pantsā Ritoru Āmī), was serialized in Monthly Comic Alive from June 27, 2012 to January 26, 2013 and was compiled into two tankōbon volumes. Both Girls und Panzer and Little Army have been licensed in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment and were released in 2014.^[12] A second spinoff manga by artist Nii-Marco, titled Girls und Panzer: Motto Love Love Sakusen desu! (ガールズ＆パンツァー もっとラブラブ作戦です！, Gāruzu ando Pantsā Motto Rabu Rabu Sakusen desu!, lit. "Girls und Panzer: It's the More Love Love Operation!"), began serialization in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Alive magazine from May 27, 2013.^[13] A spin-off manga titled Girls und Panzer: Ribbon no Musha (ガールズ&パンツァー リボンの武者, Girls und Panzer: Ribbon Warrior), a collaboration of artist Takeshi Nogami and Takaaki Suzuki, began serialization in Comic Flapper from September 5, 2014.^[14] Another spin-off manga titled Girls und Panzer: Gekitou! Maginot-sen Desu!! (ガールズ＆パンツァー 激闘！ マジノ戦ですっ!!, Girls und Panzer: Fierce Fight! It's the Maginot battle!!), written and illustrated by Ryūichi Saitaniya, was serialized in Comic Walker web manga site from November 19, 2014 to August 19, 2015 and was compiled into two volumes. A sequel manga to the Little Army manga called Girls und Panzer: Little Army II (ガールズ&パンツァー リトルアーミー II, Gāruzu ando Pantsā Ritoru Āmī II), still illustrated by Tsuchii, began serialization in Monthly Comic Alive magazine from April 27, 2015 and ended on March 26, 2016.^[15] A manga adaptation of the Girls und Panzer Movie titled Girls und Panzer der Film Variante (ガールズ＆パンツァー 劇場版 Variante, Gāruzu ando Pantsā Gekijō-ban Variante), written and illustrated by Ino Takashi, began serialization in Comic Flapper magazine from August 5, 2016. Another spin-off manga titled Girls und Panzer: Senshado no Susume (ガールズ＆パンツァー 戦車道ノススメ, Gāruzu ando Pantsā Senshado no Susume), written and illustrated by Midori Hagi, began serialization in Comic Flapper magazine from August 5, 2016.^[16] Another spin-off manga titled Girls und Panzer Phase. Erika (ガールズ＆パンツァー フェイズ エリカ, Gāruzu ando Pantsā Pheso Erika), written and illustrated by Ryūichi Saitaniya, began serialization in Comic Walker web manga site from September 19, 2016.

Anime

The anime series produced by Actas began airing in Japan on October 9, 2012 and was simulcast by Crunchyroll.^[17] It is being directed by Tsutomu Mizushima and written by Reiko Yoshida, with original character designs by Humikane Shimada. Due to production delays,^[18] the final two episodes were postponed to a March 2013 airing, with recap episodes taking their place.^[19][20][21] Original video animation episodes are included with the Blu-ray Disc/DVD releases, which were released between December 21, 2012 and June 21, 2013.^[22] The opening theme is "DreamRiser" by ChouCho whilst the ending theme is "Enter Enter MISSION!" performed by Mai Fuchigami, Ai Kayano, Mami Ozaki, Ikumi Nakagami and Yuka Iguchi.^[23] The series has been licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks who released the series on December 3, 2013,^[24] and the OVAs on February 25, 2014.^[25][26] A scene in episode eight, which featured the song "Katyusha", was absent in the Crunchyroll simulcast and was replaced with an instrumental version of "Korobeiniki" in the Sentai Filmworks release due to licensing issues.^[27] Five character song single CDs have also been released, along with the original soundtrack of the anime. Five Drama CDs, a Fan Disc CD, and BD/DVD called Girls und Panzer: Heartful Tank Disc were also released after the anime aired. An OVA episode featuring the battle against Anzio was released on July 5, 2014, in 12 theaters across Japan^[28][29] and was released in Blu-ray Disc/DVD on July 25, 2014. A six-part anime theatrical film series was announced,^[30][31] titled Girls und Panzer: The Final Chapter, which is set after the anime series. The first film will premiere in Japan in December 2017.^[32]

Film

An animated theatrical film, acting as a sequel to the television series,^[33] entitled Girls und Panzer der Film (ガールズ&パンツァー 劇場版, Gāruzu ando Pantsā Gekijō-ban), premiered on November 21, 2015 in Japanese theaters,^[8][9][34] after being pushed back to a Summer 2015 release from the initial premiere date of 2014.^[6][7] Sentai Filmworks has licensed the film in North America for a theatrical and distribution release.^[35] MVM Films has licensed the Film in the UK.^[36]

Light novel

A novelization of the series, written by Yuu Hibiki and illustrated by Humikane Shimada and Shin Kyougoku, was released by Media Factory on November 22, 2012.^[37] It ran for 3 volumes that ended on June 25, 2013.

Video game

A video game based on the series, titled Girls und Panzer: Senshadō, Kiwamemasu! (ガールズ＆パンツァー 戦車道、極めます！), was developed by Namco Bandai Games and released for the PlayStation Vita in Japan on June 26, 2014.^[38] The game is a third-person tank shooter, which features a game mechanic where the player is able to switch between different tanks on the battlefield in real-time, in order to control multiple tanks on the same team.^[39] The player is able to control the tank via both third-person and scoped views during combat.^[40] The game features a story mode, in addition to a "Battle Royale" mode where the player can form teams as they desire.^[41]

Collaboration projects

A collaborative project between the Girls und Panzer animation team and Belarusian computer game developer Wargaming.net was unveiled in 2013, aiming to promote the online multiplayer video game World of Tanks in Japan.^[42][43][44] Part of the collaboration involved the promotion of the game in Japan in the form of advertising and local events, as Wargaming.net focused to penetrate the Japanese market.

The South-East Asian game server for World of Tanks featured a tutorial documentation in the form of manga, titled Hajimete no Senshado - WoT for Beginners (はじめての戦車道～ WoT for Beginners). Drawn by Midori Hagi,^[45] it features Girls und Panzer characters as they learned how to play the game.^[46] The manga game tutorial is available in English, Thai, Traditional Chinese,^[47] and Japanese; it depicts the five members of Ōarai Girls High's Anglerfish sensha-dō team as they learn how to play World of Tanks, intending to explain the game's basics to new players in an entertaining and interesting manner. The tutorial manga also had a side effect of introducing Girls und Panzer to many World of Tanks players, increasing its popularity amongst the players in the Asian region.

Girls und Panzer-themed mods for the game were announced at the 2013 Tokyo Game Show; these game mods were distributed as free downloads for players in the South-East Asian server, mainly targeting the Japanese-speaking community.^[48] Initially, there were six voice packs released, featuring the voices of all five members of the Anglerfish team, as well as a special voice pack for Nonna, the vice captain of Pravda's sensha-dō team; each of the five crew members of the Anglerfish team voices the five different crew positions in World of Tanks: Commander, Gunner, Loader, Radio Operator, and Driver. The voice packs replaces the standard crew voices with the Girls und Panzer character voices, when tank commands such as "Target acquired!" or "Reloading!" sound in the game. The voice packs, however, are only available in Japanese. Afterwards, a garage mod was released, where players could change the regular game garage to the sensha-dō garage square in Ōarai Girls High's Academy Ship. Another mod that was released allowed players to change the skins of a few select tanks in the game to the paint jobs of the tanks in the Girls und Panzer anime. Tanks include the Panzer IV H of Ōarai Girls High, the Churchill VII of St. Gloriana Girls Academy and the Jagdtiger of Kuromorimine Girls High. The last mod that was made available changed the look of destroyed tanks for certain vehicles; instead of a smoking wreck of metal that is shown when a tank is destroyed, the tank is shown in a moderate condition, with a white flag on top, similar to when tanks are knocked out in Girls und Panzer, to indicate that the tank is destroyed.^[49]

These mods were later made available together in a mod pack that is free to download on the South-East Asian server of World of Tanks.^[50] On 31 January 2016, the World of Tanks South-East Asian server released an updated version of the Girls und Panzer-themed mod pack, in celebration of the release of Girls und Panzer der Film. It features the voices of the Anglerfish sensha-dō team and replaces the standard game garage with the Ōarai Girls High School Tank Garage. It also features a host of new tank skins, such as the Panzer IV D of Ōarai Girls High, before it was converted into the Ausführung H model, and the T95, M24 Chaffee, and the M26 Pershing of the university's sensha-dō team, in addition to all the previous ones released in earlier mods.^[51]

Reception

The initial television airing of the first 10 episodes within 2012 received favourable television ratings and strong viewership.^[52] The relatively earlier airing timeslot of the show allowed the series to gain better exposure to more viewers. Blu-ray sales of the first anime volume in Japan reached third place on the Oricon charts in mid-February 2013,^[53] whilst sales of the second anime volume Blu-ray reached second place in late February with 24,733 copies sold within the first week of release.^[54] The third Blu-ray volume met with similar success during March, with 23,528 copies sold within the first week, peaking at third place behind Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 2nd A's.^[55] The first week sales of the 4th Blu-ray volume reached second place at 28,410 units, behind Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo, which had its debut Blu-ray release the same week.^[56] The first week sales of both the 5th and 6th Blu-ray volumes placed first in the weekly Oricon chart, having reached 33,450 units^[57] and 32,385 units^[58] respectively. The first week sales of the Girls und Panzer: This is the Real Anzio Battle! OVA Blu-ray placed third in the weekly Oricon chart, having reached 35,909 units.^[59]

Plastic models of tanks based on those within the anime have topped sales charts in Japan.^[60]

In celebration of the popularity of the anime series and to promote local tourism, on 24 March 2013 the town of Ōarai in Ibaraki Prefecture held an event themed along the Girls und Panzer anime, as part of its yearly spring festival. The event featured live tank demonstrations and the sale of anime-themed merchandise.^[61][62]

An opinion piece published on 22 January 2013 in the China National Defense Newspaper, a subsidiary of the state-owned PLA Daily, criticized the anime for promoting "militarist sentiments behind the guise of cute characters"; overall, the opinion piece was ridiculed by the majority of Chinese netizens online, many of whom criticized the paranoid attitude of the writer, and were skeptical of the intentions of the opinion piece.^[63]

Famitsu gave the video game adaptation Girls und Panzer: Senshadō, Kiwamemasu! a review score of 23/40.^[64] PlayStation LifeStyle gave the game 8/10, highly praising the tank battles for their simplicity and the story for its charm.^[65] The game sold 31,526 physical retail copies within the first week of release in Japan.^[66]

Footnotes

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Official website (English) (via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine)
• Girls und Panzer (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia