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There is a particular style of fandom. I'm not sure if it is a sci-fi thing, or something wider. But there is a subset that will treat both the characters and the hardware as characters alike. Certain naval based series tend to give the ship a personality of sorts even though the ship is not a life form, rarely if ever speaks (even if it has a computer system, the computer isn't always the same as "the ship"). Eventually the ship gets treated like one of the cast. Or sometimes even the star of the show, when the largest cheer is for when the ship arrives. Not the crew or hero or the captain, but the ship.
The original Star Trek was like this after a while with the USS Enterprise. The ship became a character via the reactions and interactions with the characters (mostly through Captain Kirk and Mr. Scott). Captain Kirk was practially married to his ship. No matter what love potion or hypnosis he might be under, the ship was the first love over any woman of the week (save one, and even then, he had to let her die to save humanity) Mr. Scott treated the ship like his child and babied her.
Another example would be the Millenium Falcon, which was tempermental and it showed in all the Star Wars films she was in.
For anime, there is Space Battleship Yamato, which was said to have a spirit in it. It sometimes seemed almost alive.
GuP on the other hand, the tanks don't generally have a personality, but because of the style of the telling, the tank and the teams driving it becomes their collective personality. Where the tank's personality is the team's personality. Though that, if becomes part of the team, and could almost be a character itself. It works if you can feel for the tank when it is hit baddly just as you would for the girls inside it. Te only difference is that the we know the girls will be just fine due to the carbon coating and the rules against death. The tanks on the other hand, get messed up and abused, so they take the place of the sympathy from the girls when on the battlefield.
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