Girls & Panzer: Saishuushou Part 3

--- The review contains spoilers ---



Far better than Das Finale Part 1 and 2!

The story continues with Chihatan vs Oarai.

But we also get to see the other schools battle it out.

Kuromorimine vs Pravda, Keizoku vs Sanders, and Gloriana vs Anzio.

It’s pretty obvious who is gonna win but SPOILERS (stop reading if you don’t wanna be spoiled)

Ok, so obviously Oarai wins because they are the main characters, but the match was really close. In fact, Oarai loses more tanks than Chihatan and almost loses. The long chase scenes inside the tropical forest was amazing. I got a lot of WW2 Pacific vibes.

Gloriana beats Anzio (obviously)

Kuromorimine defeats Pravda because Das Finale is as much about Erika learning to command her forces in the absence of her beloved senpai, as it is about Miho trying to get her senpai into university. Erika learns to stop trying to imitate Maho, and find her own identity and tactics. It’s obvious Erika is gonna beat Gloriana and be the final boss battle character of Das Finale.

Keizoku defeats Sanders, because the plot demands so. Das Finale is about Oarai fighting schools they previously haven’t, so this was also obvious. However, the way in which they won was a pleasant surprise. Apparently they have a character based on the “White Death” who can snipe using tanks from really long range.

Das Finale ep 3 ends with Oarai vs Keizoku, and Miho’s tank being taken out by this new sniper character.

Overall I really enjoyed Das Finale 3. I think it was far better than 1 or 2. It was really surprising to see Miho’s tank taken out twice in the same episode.

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Overall, 10/10. Singlehandedly the best installment in the entire Girls Und Panzer (GuP) franchise. Is that a very bold statement to make? Yes. But it does not come without fair reason and much thought. I put below a tl;dr below alongside my full review.

tl;dr The third installment to the Girls und Panzer: Das Finale is by far the single most enjoyable 40 minutes of this entire anime that I've come in contact with. From start to finish it is a nonstop action sequence, filled to the brim with glistening art and sound effects that made me pause numerous times to rewatch. The settings and ambiance created in the episode shook me to my very core, and I couldn't believe what I was viewing. The story is pretty standard, continuing directly where the second installment left off, we see our favorite tank girls in their full glory, and we get to see our fan favorites return to the screen in full effect!

Here is the segmented part of the review.

Story: 9/10
The story is a direct continuation of part II, as expected. However, instead of focusing on just one battle the entire time, we get to see 4 different battles from over 6 different schools. Basically, if you've been craving just an hour of just the finest battles, trick shots, tactics, and more, this is probably the rawest form of that in the entire anime. There isn't much more to say about the story other than it just continues on with little bits of remembrance to the past, and if its been a while since you've last viewed part II, no worries because they go over the issues that you'd need to remember anyhow. From start to finish, it is just a cluster of some of the most intense (and downright hilarious) battles that the anime has presented.

Art: 8/10
Compared to the rest of the anime installments, which I'd give probably a 6-7/10, the art in this one was glorious. Amazing settings with unique battlefields and animation of tanks so beautiful it'd make a full tank enthusiast quiver. It felt so smooth the entire time, with lots of care and attention to detail scattered throughout the anime.

Sound: 9.5/10
Oh, the glorious glorious soundtrack... I cannot begin to just say the chills I got listening to the country's themes playing over their respective tank battles, it's always such an amazing joy with this anime whenever I just hear German or Russian war songs blasting over the intrepid sounds of tank bullets hitting metal... *ahem* The soundtrack returns in full force in all its glory to deliver an engaging and phenomenal listening experience the entire time, that ost never misses a beat.

Character: 10/10
Probably my favorite part about this installment was the characters. We get all our fan favorites returning all at once in their own respective battles. Head-to-head battles against our favorite teams, full of lively banter, insults, kawaii moments, and more. The characters in this movie felt so real that it made me feel like I was a part of this anime, fighting alongside them as they cried of joy or quivered in fear. Absolutely amazing job.

Overall, 10/10. My enjoyment was through the roof the entire time, I felt a sense of pure enjoyment while watching anime that I hadn't felt in a long time. To part IV! Panzer Vor!

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What a great way to start off 2022. I've been waiting for this short movie about a year til it got a proper sub. And I must say, Girls & Panzer never disappoint even after so many ovas and seasons, their production quality and story-wise still hold up and imo, even improved. Which I can't say for many other anime or TV shows.

For a 48 min movie, Das Finale Part 3 is heavily action packed. Start right where it left off in Part 2, the battle between Ourai and Chihatan is hotter than ever. What I really love that now after many season, these tank battle has evolved, they definitely have better strategies, the teams have better motivations and they're still pretty consistent with the over the top anime tank physics. That led to some ridiculous but extremely impressive situations. We also get a glimpse of other battles in the quarter finals and got introduced to some very interesting characters. But I'll leave it at that for you to enjoy.

I do find some directing choice for this movie kinda efficient. The way they use the POV of the tank rider really elevate the emergent feeling of the battle. I love it. Also they tend to use many realistic shot of nature blending in with the 3d model of the tank, while it's nice, sometimes you will feel the scenery is pretty out of place. The Osts is very fitting. Up with the mood and catchy ed.

I may be a bit bias here. But I do think Girls & Panzer: Des Finale Part 3 deserved a very high score. It has everything to entertain a viewer like me. And even better, it ended with a bang. A Big Bang. And leave me wanting for more. Can't wait til Part 4 arrived. See you in a year, hopefully...

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Not long before the Blu-Ray release of episode 3, Bandai Visual released a teaser (first 10 minutes?) on YouTube, continuing the heavy action of the second round battle thus far. This teaser showed Chihatan clearly trying to isolate the Panzer IV from the rest of the team, which makes tactical sense as it's the brains of the operation and one of the strongest tanks in the team. But having knocked out Ooarai's 3 heaviest tanks (Mk IV, B1 bis, Porsche Tiger), Chihatan's mobility advantage is diminshed, making the odds more even. I predicted that if they focused too much on the Panzer IV (which wasn't even the flag tank), they would leave themselves open to an effective counterattack since they're losing sight of threats like the StuG III and Hetzer.

Yeah, spoiler warning. I thought it was just hilarious that the typically sleepy Mako is hyper at night, and Azusa as expected is becoming second only to Miho as a tactician. In the interlude part featuring the other teams' round 2 matches, I rather liked the fight featuring Erica, who finds her groove after a frustrating standoff with Pravda, and the scene in the lower deck bar where Mako enjoys a melon soda float. The 3rd round fight against Keizoku concludes the episode with a surprise, though honestly knowing Keizoku's commander and the 2nd round match against Saunders, anyone could see it coming.

As if to make up for the lack of anime physics from episode 2, the episode 3 fights turn the tank-destroying physics to the next level, from the super-fast Matilda IIs to the ever-ridiculous BT-42. There's no song number like in the previous 2 episodes, and the soundtrack is largely the same as before. There's a fun yet even more ridiculous extra episode on the Blu-ray, but that's a review for another day.

Next episode will probably become available in at least a year, and Ooarai will again be at a disadvantage. All signs point to St. Gloriana as the last boss, so it will be up to teamwork.

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