Girls und Panzer’s biggest strength is its tank battles. The battles themselves have good pacing that allows for the creation suspense that feels appropriate and adds to the entertainment value. Because tankery is a high school club in Girls und Panzer, it comes with rules in its conduct and victory criteria. These rules are simple to understand, internally consistent and clearly allow for upsets to occur. These rules allow the viewer to understand what the girls are trying to achieve in their battle plans and make the upsets that do occur completely believable. The tanks themselves are historically accurate. Tanks with heavy armor will have tank rounds bounce off, but they will also be slow because of that armor. Many of the WW2 era tanks are showcased at some point in the show and tank buffs will enjoy looking for their favorite tanks.
The main characters are solid, though they do not stand out compared to other anime. But with Girls und Panzer’s focus being the tank battles, the main characters are developed well for the time they have and do add to the show. The side characters are ridiculous, but the show is inherently ridiculous so it doesn’t feel odd. They do add a spice to the show that is enjoyable to watch, especially in the first few episodes. The other teams represent various countries in both the tanks they use and the stereotypes of the people on it. Those characters are always fun to watch in the brief appearances they make.
Girls und Panzer also resonates with me for personal reasons. My job is to command tanks in combat. This anime is able to capture the trill of firing the main gun of a tank and how awesome it is to maneuver tanks against an enemy force. Fighting in tanks is fun (at least in war games), and this anime shows that. It even shows how much it sucks to fix a tank when breaks down in the field.
While I understand that not everyone will love this anime as much as I do, I’m sure that most people will enjoy watching Girls und Panzer and have no regrets doing so.
