I really like over-the-top spectacle in media. Not that I can't enjoy realism - I enjoy it quite a bit, actually - but exaggeration is something special that only fiction can pull off. Sometimes, however, I want to be pulled into the mechanics of a world, to understand how it works on a deeper level, and truly believe that it could exist as some parallel universe to ours. Such is Secondary Belief, and that impression is what most fiction strives to achieve.

This is not that. This is something entirely different.

"Fun" is the best way to describe Girls und Panzer. It comes from the anime genre lovingly known as CGDCT, or "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things", with the added bonus of over-the-top tank action. It's entertaining as a casual watch, but it also promises a satisfying portrayal of early tanks and their design, aiming to attract both traditional anime fans as well as history buffs in an insane world where high school girls can drive massive war machines without any fatalities. I think it succeeds at this, and if you can handle slice-of-life anime as well as any sports story then you will be blessed with the best tank-on-tank fights in animation.

Personal Score

this criteria uses the DecentFilms rating formula.

Letter-Grade Recommendability: B-
Artistic/Entertainment Value - ★★★★☆
Moral/Spiritual Value - 0
Age Appropriateness: Kids & Up

There's a decent amount of ground to cover here. Girls und Panzer is an original anime, not based on any manga, though it would get several manga later on. The initial series ran for an average twelve episodes, ending in 2013, and it was then followed by three different OVA series, a movie, and six double-length episodes that are still releasing at the time of this review. There's so much more material if we are accounting for the manga, but I have not touched those yet, so I will be sticking to the anime continuity for the time being.

The premise for Girls und Panzer is a bizarre one. In this world many high schools are hosted on gigantic aircraft carriers known as Academy Ships, with entire communities supporting these seafaring schools. The idea behind them is that students - exclusively girls, from what I can gather - can learn discipline and responsibility keeping their designated ship maintained while they study, essentially as one would do at a private school. Our central protagonist is Miho Nishizumi, a quiet and withdrawn girl who is pulled into Senshado, the extracurricular sport of tank-battling. We then follow Miho and her schoolmates as they fight for Oarai Girls Academy and develop through comradery.

While this premise is incredible, I find that the story itself is rather underwhelming. If you have seen many sports movies this will be very familiar to you: the underdog team, composed of newbies and struggling with confidence, is given a leader and a cause that allows them to come out on top every time. What doesn't help is that the battles in this show, while still fun, are not that interesting from a strategic perspective, and it doesn't feel like Miho earns her victories. The fate of their school also depends on their success in senshado, which is again very typical of sports stories. It's hard to get invested in the fate of the battles when victory is assured with little interesting variation.

The saving grace of the anime, however, is the cast. Every girl on the main cast, assigned to Anglerfish Team, is instantly iconic with bright personalities and great chemistry with one another. I could go over each girl, but I would be here forever as all of the tank teams are fun to watch, including the other Academies. Oarai is a distinctly Japanese school, but the other academies are based off of other countries, including Britain, Germany, Italy, and the USA; this makes the actual chemistry between teams more interesting than the battles themselves. These strong characterizations are what made many people, myself included, really enjoy Girls und Panzer as a very fun CGDCT anime. It's very entertaining to see how each nation's culture is seen through a Japanese lens and personalized to compliment the WW2-period tanks involved, which all correlate to the appropriate academy.

The anime, that being said, is the worst part of the franchise. I do not mean that in a negative light, but merely to illustrate how good the sequels and spin-offs are.

The Girls und Panzer Specials immediately begin to compliment the anime, filling out parts that could just not be covered with the runtime of the original. There's more downtime with the cast, tours of the Academy Ship and its functions, and additional scenes relating to battles. These improve the main story by a lot, especially Anzio War! where we get to actually see the fight with Anzio Girls High School, which was skipped over in the anime. We also get very fun history lessons in the form of Akiyama Yukari's Tank Course, which provides the history of just about every single tank that appears in the franchise. These OVAs are an excellent addition and only cement the appeal that the series was shooting for in the first place.

Girls und Panzer der Film is the 2015 movie that almost feels like a second finale for the original series. Oarai is shutting down, and the girls are desperately trying to keep it open with one last tank battle. Support comes in from just about every school in some form, taking full advantage of the excellent cast to band together against All-Stars University, a very formidable opponent unlike anyone Miho has fought before. The runtime of a full movie allows this ensuing battle to actually breathe, and I really enjoyed seeing how the strategies changed on both sides throughout. I also liked the main antagonist, Alice Shimada, who has a nice dynamic with Miho outside of the match and proves to be quite capable commanding the tanks. The final moments of the fight are quite tense and are a welcome evolution of the original's finale. It's a very good sequel that expands on all of the strengths of the series.

With Girls und Panzer das Finale (these are all german pronunciations if you couldn't tell) we see a new change in the status quo. The objective now is to get Momo Kawashima into college, and to do so she needs to get a scholarship through senshado. Everyone obviously agrees to help, placing Momo as the new leader with Miho assisting with strategy, changing up the chain in command. In reality this often means Momo is a puppet leader with Miho still providing leadership, but the heart is in the right place, and that's ultimately what matters. das Finale continues the theatrical runtime of der Film, with each entry clocking in at about 47 minutes. This again does wonders for the pacing, allowing each episode to breathe and focus on the battles in full, and this allows for the best matches in the franchise to take place. There are plenty of great scenes here that really test both sides, and we get more changeups to the status quo that flesh out Oarai a lot, especially in Part 4. I was very pleased with das Finale and would say that it is the best part of the franchise from a quality standpoint.

Part 4 is currently the latest in the series, leaving two more to go. Each entry has taken about two years to release, which likely sets Part 5 for 2026 and Part 6 for 2028. The thought of that long a wait is boggling my mind, but I will patiently wait that long if need be. I thoroughly enjoyed Girls und Panzer, and while I don't think it's the best thing I have ever seen I don't think there's any franchise I am willing to wait on like this. Until then I will satisfy my wait with the manga, and maybe I will end up reviewing Ribbon Warrior in the future.