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Forum - View topicWhy Girls und Panzer Works So Well
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omiya
 Posts: 1849 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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Not mentioned in the article is the fact that Ooarai is a town in Ibaraki prefecture which has used the series as a tourist drawcard.
Seen in Ooarai shrine, May 2013: 
While the stamp-pad course only had 8 locations to visit, there were 54 characters from the anime as cut-out displays around Ooarai, plus a group cut-out at the viewing platform of Ooarai tower. |
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Sleipmon4
Posts: 54 |
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I liked the concept, but the execution was a little lacking.
Last edited by Sleipmon4 on Wed Apr 20, 2022 2:40 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Zen119
 Posts: 84 Location: Illinois,USA |
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As someone who got interested in the anime since it was announced back in 2012, I agree with the article author's assessment about why Girls und Panzer worked well. It doesn't matter how bonkers/absurd the premise is, it's the execution of it that matters. Also, it was the sleeper hit of the Fall 2012 anime season when it wasn't on anyone's radar until the series aired and got popular through word of mouth. It encountered production delays that it had to delay the last 2 episodes until March 2013. But instead of failing, the last 2 episodes delivered and worth the wait. So I have tons of respect for this franchise.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5499 Location: Iscandar |
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I innitally dismissed GuP as yet another military fetish anime for otaku. I knew it was popular, but it took me like for years to finally watch it. I eventually came to really like the show in large part thanks to Sentai's English dub.
The thing that I like the most is Miho's friendship with her 4 best friends and tank mates. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18421 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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GuP is a fun and enjoyable series, and as a history buff I enjoy the WWII references, but "the peak of military-themed anime" (in the blurb on the front page) seems a bit much. 86 certainly tops it, and I'm sure I could come up with a few other worthy candidates.
And the main anime series wasn't just a sleeper hit in Fall 2012; it was one of the biggest hits in Japan for the whole year. (IIRC, it was notable for its tank aspect drawing in audiences beyond just normal anime viewers.) Have not gotten around to seeing the movies yet; that may be a summer project for me. |
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 314 |
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Being free of the rampant Nationalism that many other military themed anime have definitely puts it a cut above to start. Not to mention all of the references, battles, and just plain fun. Der Film continues to be one of my favorite anime movies for how expertly it pulls everything off. And the same group of friends I watched the anime with in 2013 still get together to watch the latest OVAs as they come out.
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thadec
Posts: 45 |
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It was tongue-in-cheek. It isn't even the best military-themed anime for a 99% slice-of-life studio KyoAni (that would be Violet Evergarden) let alone studios that do military anime all the time like Sunrise. Also, I am not buying that this show is "subversive" at all when things like Strike Witches, Ikki Tousen and Queen's Blade long preceded it. Gaining a male audience by taking traditionally guy genres and replacing the male cast with a skimpily dressed female one only gives guys even more of what they want. Or you could say that far from challenging male fantasies, it merely switches one male fantasy for another. A better candidate for subversiveness: Symphogear. Even though female idols have mostly male fans, the shonen audience avoids female idol shows because they are "too girly." But Symphogear has attracted a large number of male fans by being a sci-fi/hard hitting action idol show. Also, Minami-Ke demonstrated that CGDCT shows can indeed have plot-relevant male characters (indeed it had several) as did Nichijou. I wish that both had spawned some imitators. One thing that never made sense about Azumanga Daioh - for example - is how an entire 3 years of high school passed with not a single male showing them the slightest bit of interest except the creepy adult teacher. At least Non Non Biyori had an explanation: extremely rural setting where its cast was literally the only school age kids in the whole town. And Lucky Star was self-aware enough to point out and make fun of how the "no guys" dynamic depicted in the show would never exist in an actual coed middle, junior high or high school. |
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Northlander
 Posts: 911 |
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And it did a Monty Python reference. I will always love the show for that.
Granted, that was in the OAV shorts, but still.... |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5574 |
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Blows my mind it's been almost 10 years already. Still one of the most fun anime ever
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Rogueywon
Posts: 264 |
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I think a big part of the secret to GuP's success is that it keeps its battle sequences highly "readable". You don't need to know a lot about tanks to follow the tactics that are used in the battles and to follow how each battle is unfolding. More remarkably still, it does this without masses of dry exposition.
That's something that a lot of sports anime - almost all of which cover sports that will be far better understood by the layperson than tank warfare - could stand to learn from. |
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thedarkemissary
Posts: 88 |
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Still waiting for Girls und Panzer x High School Fleet crossover.
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iamthevastuniverse
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I could never get into Girls und Panzer just don't find it that appealing.
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Themaster20000
 Posts: 870 |
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I thought the show was cute. The thing that kept it from being great for me was the character writing. All of them are just your standard archetypes. It was enjoyable,but not something I cared to rewatch.
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1460 |
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One of Girls und Panzer's strong points is the way it shows us that Miho is both a brilliant tactician and someone who works very hard to get there. Portraying brilliance is hard, so what usually happens is short-hand: one character tells another that a third is a genius, that they graduated from some prestigious university at twelve, etc.
Instead, GuP shows Miho staying up late thinking how to array her rag-tag forces against their opponents, and then shows her plans (mostly) working flawlessly (one of the only other series that pulls this off is Starship Operators, which has an equally implausible setup but nowhere near the charm of GuP). Plus the series just has a ton of heart. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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What everyone fails to appreciate about GuP is how well plotted the whole series is. One off comments become the basis for entire matches, unique skills become the key to victory. The theme up to the movie: Yesterday's enemy becomes today's ally! And the finale series?
Yesterday's ally becomes today's enemy. The way I picture the final fight, things will come to a head between Miho and her longest ally/supporter Darjeeling who with a single pre match move will utterly destroy Miho: Fair play. Darjeeling with match Miho's forces right from the start to throw her off her defense game.... with an added condition that it will not be a flag battle but a total annihilation match. It'll be a rematch of their first battle, using everything that's been learned and I don't think Miho's going to win. Momo, on the other hand... |
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