Girls & Panzer: Ribbon no Musha

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It seems like I'll be the first review that actually finished the manga.

Ribbon no Musha is a spin-off manga series that focuses on Tankathlon, a spinoff of Senshado sport in that only light tanks under 10 tons are allowed. This makes matches more flexible and less about number of tanks and who has bigger and better models, but rather about individual skill and maneuvers since obviously, the weight limit does make both parties at a more even playing field.

I like this concept, but Ribbon no Musha goes a little to far in terms of "fun" matches. It basically makes the matches chaotic, with various ... factors that don't even involve individual skill and strategy half the time. This includes exhibition matches and random matches that have different victory conditions and rules in Tankathlon matches. Or wild card tanks coming in the middle of battle just to introduce more chaos or something. Tankathlon also has a lot of "dirty" play, like abusing certain rules, doing things like escaping into a crowd of spectators, or setting buildings on fire, all in part of a "strategy." It's up to the you if you think such novel things are used as strategy, but it is true that these random elements in Tankathlon make the matches a lot more chaotic than Senshado matches.

However, regardless if you like the Tankathlon format, Ribbon no Musha still is a great spin-off of GuP that captures the essence of the series. While there are a few schools like Tategoto high, which are manga-exclusive schools that don't appear in the main series, a lot of the schools that the Centipede team befriends and fights are from the original series. Characters from schools like Oorai, Anzio, Pravda, Kuromorimine, and St Glorias are shown in this manga, and I think that's where a lot of the charm comes from.

While Shizuka and Rin are good characters, the reasons why the matches they're in are interesting is because the characters that they fight are from the main series, and it gradually builds in some of the manga original characters like Tategoto High and Bonple.

Compared to other GuP manga like Pravda Senki, the manga definitely falls short in terms of creating battles that are easy to follow. Many times I lose track of what's going on in a fight because the storyboarding and choreography are a bit disorienting.

The manga, however, clearly goes for more stylistic choices anyway, like showing tanks and their combatants in suits of samurai armor, and when felling a tank, they'll show the person in the tank metaphorically cutting down their opponent in the sweep of their sword. Shizuka, the main character, is obsessed with...Sengoku era I believe, which is why the aesthetic is as such. However, with the aesthetic changes also come the fanservice. There's quite a few scenes where there's half-naked girls being shown. I mean, the imagery for Rin and Shizuka riding in their tank is usually shown as Rin being a horse with little to no clothes on and Shizuka riding on her like a horse. GuP is a lot more less cringe in comparison.

There's also a decent bit of psuedo psychological talks going on about Senshado as a sport, being a bit more serious, with Darjeeling at the head of these sorts of talks. Meh, I felt like it dragged on a bit too long, but it's ok.

It took me over a month to finish this series, so it certainly wasn't something that I was super invested in. Ribbon no Musha is honestly, a series riddled with flaws here and there, and I wouldn't have read it if it were for the GuP name. On the contrary, that means that if you're a fan of the GuP series, this is a good read

Okay, so this manga clearly doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, so let's try to improve the situation a little. If you watched the original show, you know that before Germans gave every crew member radio, commander were just kicking driver's shoulders to tell him when to turn. So in this manga two girls ride small 2-crew tank, and the commander/shooter (Shizuku) rubs driver's (Rin) back to steer the tank. But unlike Russian tank commander, her nimble feet are bare. And through this foot-fetish adventure girls get more intimate and strive to win in unofficial light tank competitions for Senshadou rejects.
Now, you've ... probably already decided if you should read it or not, but there are still a couple of things I want to talk about.

In terms of artwork 2 things caught my attention. Facial expressions are pretty good, like you can feel Kei's unease when she thinks about Alisa's winning chances that should be obvious; or Shizuku's smile after a fight, that goes from putting up a face for Rin to genuine happiness of resolution.
Secondly, legs. Shizuku wears black pantyhose over legs that Rin describes as "slim and beautiful". They doesn't get much thicker as you go from knees to hips and even her jacket wraps her thin body very tightly, accentuating her surprisingly decent-sized chest. Now Rin's legs have more meat on them, so she has the opposite body type, nice and soft.

The "princess" Shizuka herself may appear stoic, but is very passionate during battles (both tank and word fights). Her maniacal smile is invoked by admired images of horse-riding warriors of Sengoku era. Ever imagined yourself as a samurai fighting ninjas on top of cars while listening to anime music in a bus? I've only read 4 chapters, so I can't say that much about Rin, but she appears to be more of a "normal" girl to play off Shizuku's chuunibyou. She is pretty submissive and sees a dream in which her comrade rides her like a horse into battle. And there are lots of cameos from GuP characters.

Also, Rin wanted to try tanks after Nishizumi Miho "became a legend". This is as far as I know the only spin-off that actually takes place after GuP, so you can learn a lot of interesting stuff. Some of you fellow GuP fans probably disregarded this manga because the sport here is not strictly speaking Senshadou, but don't worry - battles are engaging and small tanks are very cute.

Yeah, this manga is super fun (sorry for using pointless buzzword, but since I actually described why it's engaging, I give myself a pass). If you are Girls und Panzer fan or foot-fetishist with yuri tendencies, definitely give this a try.

Much like building a basement gameroom within an existing house, this manga series adds a lot of fun, excitement, and (finally) some cleavage to the solid foundation of the Girls und Panzer Project universe!

I discovered the Girls und Panzer series during the recent (sequestered) winter, and very much enjoyed the original content. Since, I've also soaked up what I could find of the additional content in the universe, some good, some not so much. For example, GuP The Movie was enjoyable overall, but (to someone like myself with a background in engineering) the sidestepping of practical physics took a lot away from ... the experience. As far as the different manga series, I've had the same thoughts. The first couple (especially the mangatazation of the anime) were written with to much emphasis on not disrupting the anime canon, and didn't bring anything new and were boring. Starting with "Little Army II" new characters and story lines were developed and were more interesting. Even "Motto Love Love" used the completely different (shall we say) sketch comedy format that brought new live and added some tasty meat to the established canon characters.

Now, (for the last couple of years, and just now winding up) there has been the "Ribbon Warrior" manga, which has brought the best new content to the project since the original series. Taking a few paragraphs from the earlier released "History of Senshado" essay (I don't have the source, but I believe it was part of the anime DVD package) Ribbon Warrior introduces a handful of new characters and a completely different format for tank combat than the more established and formalized Interscholastic Senshado Federation style matches.

Featuring light tanks and tankettes, with many fewer rules and restrictions, the Tankathalon matches are more like Brazilian Valle Todo (as referenced in ToraDora - look it up) than the structured etiquit of Olympic style Fencing. High energy and much more cutthroat, Takathalon matches (like WRS auto rally competition) allow spectators on the fields of competition, and "tuning" of the competition vehicles. The emphasis of the competition is now on innovation, psychology, and preparation since the ability to dominate the battlefield with armor and firepower has been eliminated.

Even the narrative style is new, as Ribbon Warrior, where the story is told through the eyes of the wingman of the title character, in a manner much like "Sherlock Holmes" is told through the eyes of Dr. Watson. Even the age restriction level (I suppose that's the appropriate term) has been bumped up a level: there is fan service here! Although certainly not gratuitous and never interfering with the story, it adds to the anticipation knowing that for the first time (except for the mentioned Motto Love Love comic strip) there are bathing suit shots, cleavage, and the rare groping within the main work. We are allowed to be aware that the cast of characters or 16, 17, and 18 year old young women with hormones, hearts, and some self-awareness of their bodies. We are also aware that the character designer has a (strong) preferences for slim athletic builds featuring larger bustlines.

Speaking of the character designer, This series (as mentioned in the previous review) is helmed by two of the lieutenants that were part of the anime team. This greatly contributes to the feeling that this work is definitely part of the same universe, but clearly has it's own direction and energy and really builds on the canon material without contradicting anything. The timeline for Ribbon Warrior seems best to fit between "The Movie" and "Das Finale" and gives lots of space and time to answer the larges complaint from the animated works which was that most of the dozens of characters introduced in the animes didn't get much if any developement. So far (I'm less than half way through the total work) most of those side characters have had plenty of feature time already and we have learned a lot more about these dozens of personalities that had so much undeveloped potential.

As you can tell, I am really enjoying "The Ribbon Warrior" manga as a great expansion on the "Girls und Panzer" universe. This is, I feel, the best work in the project since the original anime series. For some readers, it is in some ways even better. It is posted on MangaFarm and other sites I'm sure, and as always, support for the original artists is encouraged. Highly recommended!