Despite losing their first official match, the
resurrection of Ooarai Girls High School Tankery Class has become a resounding
success. With a determined and excited
group of students manning the Tanks, Ooarai enters the National Tankery
Tournament, which will pit them against the best Tankery crews from across the world. Thrown back into the Sport she thought she’d
left behind, Miho Nishizumi is tapped to become the Commander of her entire
team. But up against the likes of a gung
ho American and a battle crazed tiny Russian, will her experience be enough to
carry her team to victory?
Anime continues to surprise the hell out of me.
I’m sitting here watching a show about school
girls ridding around in vintage tanks mostly from World War II and it is
working, it really is.
Maybe it’s the
fact that the Tank action is top notch and nail biting at times.
Maybe it’s the laid back and feel good
attitude and the extremely likeable cast.
Maybe its because somehow action and slice of life have been blended
together so well, I wasn’t sure it was possible til i watched it.
And yet here we are, our second review of
Girls und Panzer and I’m actually kind of sad it’s only a 12 episode
season.
Great binge but besides The
Movie that I’ll be reviewing after this is done, that’ll be it for the Ooarai
Tankery Club (at least until the Der Finale film series is done).
But that’s Monday’s problems.
Let’s take a look at what we covered today.
One thing I didn’t touch on in my first review is the
Familial aspect of Tankery.
Everyone’s
got their own views on Tankery, love it or hate it (though mostly it’s the
former).
Each of the main five girls
have their own ties to the sport.
Miho
in particular comes from a family of Tankery vets and we learned this week that
during last years tournament, she sacrificed victory for her old school in
order to save a tank team that almost drowned.
Apparently, her Mother wasn’t ok with this (Tankery is supposed to be a
safe sport how again?).
Momma Nishizumi
seems dead set on kicking Miho out of the family for what she sees as a
dishonor to Tankery.
Thankfully, Miho’s
older sister, Maho, seems to be a bit more level headed and understanding.
She’s being built up as the final opponent
Ooarai will have to take on.
Yet when
Mako gets word that her Grandmother is ill and needs to get to the hospital ASAP,
Maho has no problem making her smart ass and annoying second in command fly her
there.
Miho’s family isn’t the only one with an high opinion of
Tankery.
On the negative side there’s
Hana’s mother, who feels Tankery is destroying the delicate hands of her
daughter meant for Flower Arranging.
Mako’s grumpy granny (who could be the sister of Toph from Avatar: The
Last Airbender theyre way too similar) doesn’t think Tankery will do much for
Mako’s future…but she’s happy Miho and the others are watching out for
her.
Yukari’s been in love with Tanks
all her life and that’s cost her a social life.
Now, however, she has made friends through Tankery and it’s upped her
confidence so much she infiltrates the Saunders Academy to spy on the US Team
before a match in what’s definitely one of the funniest scenes in the
show.
Sadly, Saori’s the odd one
out.
While she’s always gonna be there
for her friends, to Saori, Tankery is about picking up as many hot guys as
possible…that’s it.
She’s the only one
whose family we don’t see, nor do we know their opinion on their daughter
taking Tankery.
Like I said, Saori’s
still cool but it would be good to see her get as much attention in the family
department as Miho, Hana, Yukari and Mako have gotten.
Beyond the family drama, there were two matches waiting
for the Ooarai girls in this set of episodes, well more like one and a half
since we paused in the middle of the second match.
First up was the Saunders Tankery Team.
Sporting loud and gung ho members, as
expected, they were led by the cute Kay, who seems like the kind of leader who
could easily make Tankery fun and exciting.
What I liked most was she was honorable.
When Kay learned one of her team was listening in on Ooarai’s
communications, she cut her forces in half to even out the playing field as a
result.
It might’ve cost them a victory
but Kay still applauded Miho for pulling her team through.
And then there’s KATYUSHA!!!! Oh man this
girl is hilarious.
She’s the tiny
commander of the Pravda High School Team and she’s loud, she’s arrogant and
talks about herself in the third person.
Katyusha even has to occasionally ride on the shoulders of her second in
command, Nonna, just to be the tallest in the room (very Master Blaster from
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome).
Everytime
Katyusha spoke I was cracking up.
I cant
wait to see her get taken down a peg but also could watch her antics all
day.
Fun Fact: The Pravda battle theme
is the 1860s Russian folk tune "Korobeiniki", or as you might better
recognize it, the theme song to Tetris.
Other odds and ends for this set: so the girls have an
“Instructor” named Ami Chodo and I put parenthesis around that name because…what
has she done or taught in this show?
In
her first appearance last time, she just told the girls to drive the tanks on
their own and not show them how to even do just that.
At one point in this set, all of the Tankery
girls crown Miho looking for advice on all things Tankery but thankfully her
own crew steps in to help.
Miho handles
strategy; Hana supply inquiries; Yukari provides Mechanical insight; Mako is
teaching everyone how to drive (again by speed reading the manual like she’s
downloading tank specs from The Matrix); and Saori is giving love tips to girls
who have lost their boyfriends by joining the club.
Clearly this is a self taught class so why
the hell is Chodo even around?
Supervision?
No the girls seem to
be doing that just fine on their own too, or at least Anzu and the Student
Council seem to have a better handle on being in charge.
I like how other Tank Squads are putting
their own skills outside of Tankery to use in battle, like the Volleyball team
spiking smoke bombs to lead the Saunders Flag Tank into a trap (also good on
Saori for using a group text chat as a work around for the communication
hack).
It also looks like Darjeeling,
the leader of the St. Gloriana’s Tankery Team, has become Ooarai’s #1 fan girl
cause she’s been at both big matches between Saunders and Pravda, chilling out
(literally in Pravda’s case) and enjoying the show while sipping tea.
Don’t know why this bothers me somehow.
Maybe if Kay were with her too, to show that
Ooarai’s rivals are all on her side…but it just seems odd, eh maybe I’m griping
just to gripe.
Oh and speaking of
rivalries, we never get to see the match between Ooarai and the Anzio High
School Tankery Team…eh?, do we really need to keep this episode count down for
a reason?
We close out Part 2 of Girls und Panzer with Katyusha’s
forces bearing down and the Student Council revealing a secret they’ve been
trying to keep under wraps for a while now (though theyd have to explain why
Momo was demanding they had to win no matter what eventually).
I think it’s safe to say Miho will pull the
girls out of the fire once again and I’m looking forward to seeing her take on
her sister.
But man, I’m having K-ON
flashbacks with this show.
I’m not ready
with Girls und Panzer to be over so soon.
Well, whatever happens, happens and the girls of Ooarai aren’t going
down without a fight.
The final showdown
arrives Next Monday, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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