So I spent a decent portion of the last week rewatching most of the Girls und Panzer anime franchise. This includes the (only) original season of that show that kicked things off like ten years ago, the OVAs (six shorter episodes produced later that cover a weird variety of tones and topics, the best of which is an examination of the working and history of the aircraft carrier that the girls’ school and surrounding town rests upon), the recently procured special The Real Anzio, the 40 minute special that actually portrayed the battle against the “Italian” school that was just glossed over in the original series, and also the recently procured first chapter of Girls und Panzer Das Finale. The second part of this is also out on Blu Ray now, but I haven’t bought it yet.
(So the only thing I have access to that I haven’t rewatched yet is the the full length movie.)
Anyway, I was under the impression that Das Finale, which you may have gleaned will end the anime adaptions, was three parts, which had been released over the last few years to theaters in Japan and which are now slowly making their way here. These also are like 40 minutes in length. So after watching the first part I was a bit bummed to think that I only had two chapters left of new material. However, I just learned that Das Finale isn’t three chapters, its six. The final three haven’t hit theaters in Japan yet, so I still have probably a few years before the whole thing wraps up.
Objectively, I can’t defend the show as great by any means. I mean, it’s no K-On! But man, it sure scratches an itch I never knew I had (and that apparently many others have as well). The whole cute girls doing tanks battles thing continues to amuse. And if the writing and the characterization aren’t particularly sharp, the CGI tank battles are great (if ridiculous), the world building is utterly gonzo in a way I adore, and much of the humor–especially the highly stereotyped “foreign” schools our heroines have matches against–really strikes my funny bone. Especially the Italian school.*
(*The ridiculous stereotyping actually makes internal sense. The schools aren’t actually made up of Americans and Brits and Soviets and Italians and so on, they are all Japanese schools and students who have adopted the most cartoonish conceptions of those countries and it’s peoples…World War II era, of course.)
Anyway, if anyone actually read this, sorry. I just love this show and feel like I got a reprieve on it ending. 2022 is looking to be a great year for anime, if nothing else. A fourth season of Overlord, a second season of Bofuri, and the third season of Kaguya-sama Love is War and as it turns out three more chapters of Girls und Panzer before it ends. Second seasons of Super Cub and The Idaten Dieties Only Know Peace sadly don’t look to be in the cards, but still, that’s a lot of good news for me.
