(L) Girls und Panzer

[Tak]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Actually, it's my belief that World War II DID happen, but it wasn't as total or genocidal as ours.

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Proof of Genderbending?

I tell ya... I will be anticipating:

ERWINA ROMMEL's AMBITION: CAMPAIGNS OF THE 9-TAILED FOX!

- Tak

[willx]

Admiral Spoor approves:

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Tak

I won't deny that IVs were initially designed as a support role against infantry and fortifications. This was indeed true. But the roles for both tanks, I'd argue, was reversed almost overnight.

Rommel's encounter against Matildas in Arras would affirm this, and his experience would probably differ with Guderian's more optimistic view of German tanks. I am sure you know the story. While driving off the BEF counterattack, German crews discovered the IIIs' 3.7cm was inferior and largely useless against British Maltildas. This prompted an act by Rommel that gave birth to the infamous 88.

In 1940, there were only two tanks in the entire world capable of defeating Matilda II armor. Does that make all other tanks, including the Matilda IIs themselves, automatically obsolete?

Pz. IVs weren't given long 75mm guns until 1942. During Barbarossa, the primary anti-tank tanks were still the Pz. III and 38(t).

Originally Posted by Midonin

Girls & Tanks 04 - Dance! Dance! Fish Dance!

I would love to discuss the characters of this show a little more, but with such a large cast in a small time frame, some characters are going to lose out. The main characters, obviously, and the student council has enough personality shown that I can get a lock on them. The historical society kinda has it by dint of the figures they've assumed (will we ever learn their real names?), but the volleyball team and the first years really get the shaft. If it weren't for the fact that Mika Kikuchi is the head of the volleyball group, I wouldn't have my eye on them nearly as much.

Only the main five have received very much attention at all. Even the Student Council's characterizations have been pretty minimal so far. The show has had so much to introduce in terms of unfamiliar ideas and settings that it can't really be helped.

Originally Posted by Midonin

I am glad for what character moments we do get, though. Hana's going to make flower arranging awesome or die trying. (Has there ever been a flower-arranging anime?) And Miho's story continues be intriguing. Lots of stuff happening in quick cuts in this show. The Ankou Dance, which was great, was over with as soon as it begun, and the same for the tournament. No mulling over whether to enter it or not, or trying out for it. They were in thanks to the power of montage and editing.

The music helped an awful lot as well. Girl und Panzer is blessed with lots of flavorful and famous music to help establish the tone and mood.

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

Usually I see this question asked dozens of times by the time a show gets to this point, but the discussions about tank history seem to have warded it off for this series. That leaves me to ask: how many episodes is this series going to be? They could do some much more interesting stuff with a 24 or 26 episode series that I don't think they would have time for with a 12 or 13 one. There's potential here that could easily be used for a full two-cour series, and I feel it would be rather a shame to see it not get the time it deserves.

It may be a heretical opinion, but I wouldn't mind a shorter show. It looks like there are three major fights planned for the show: Saunders, Pravda and Black Forest. If each of these take up 2 episodes and the Anzio fight is given one, then it leaves 1-2 episodes for other stuff. That makes a tightly scheduled series that has the potential of delivering on all its episodes. A longer show will run into more pacing and budget problems and I think that this will weaken it.

Originally Posted by Pen3

Since i do not like the Heavy plates on PzIV H, i hope Miho gets a Panther instead. Not sure how agile the Panther is.

The Panther, after the initial batch, is more agile than any other tank Germany built during the war. Not only is it faster than the Pz. III and IV, it also has wider treads to help with snow and other soft terrain.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Does the Senshado have that much spare resources?

(Answer: yes, obviously. They're at the point where giant carriers are used for school campuses and tanks for high school sports.)

They moved two city-carriers to port and they shut down business in another city just so they could fight a friendly match. The amount of disruption this entails is utterly staggering. I can just imagine how jealous FIFA and the IOC are right now.

Originally Posted by Marina2

I have four questions......

1. How good is M3 Lee's main cannon (on the side)?

2. Can Type 89 do any upgrade from its current form?

3. Is current Type 89 gun powerful enough to destroy a main gun of medium tank or heavy Tank?? (If so, a main gun and tracks are two areas that they should fire at in the future battle)

1. It's a bit weaker than the StuG III's 75mm, but it's not too bad overall. The main problem with it is that it has a very limited firing angle.

2. Nope. It was too old and there were too many problems with it.

3. Probably not. Firing armor-piercing ammunition, you'd have to get a direct hit on a very difficult target - if it can even do much to a main gun to begin with. With HE ammunition, you don't need a direct hit, but the 57mm's high explosive charge isn't very powerful.

[Midonin]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

Only the main five have received very much attention at all. Even the Student Council's characterizations have been pretty minimal so far. The show has had so much to introduce in terms of unfamiliar ideas and settings that it can't really be helped.

The whole thing just leaves me feeling lost at sea. I don't know how many people here are watching for the girls aspect or the tanks aspect, but I know I'm here for the characters. I can't discuss this military stuff on any meaningful level - to me, it's pages upon pages of what might as well be gibberish. I can still understand what's going on in the show without all the nuances, and again, I'm enjoying it very much. It's great at worldbuilding, and the visuals are cute and vibrant. Just that the one aspect I can discuss at length is being drowned out by something I can't. No ill will towards anyone who can, just hoping the balance shifts at least a little bit in future episodes now that the basics are out of the way.

[Hata]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

They haven't been shown, but they did talk about a mechanics club.

they were SHOWN during the OP.

Originally Posted by Marina2

1. How good is M3 Lee's main cannon (on the side)?

same 75mm M3 gun in the M4 Sherman, but with limited traverse.

M3 Lee is a temporary stop gap measure for British's need of a 75mm gun tank in Africa when US still not yet enter WWII trying new design to counter the Panzer IV, which with a modified M3 hull and chassis, carrying a newly designed turret mounting the Lee's main gun, eventually become the Sherman.

Originally Posted by Marina2

4. What does "Sodoko" mean? (The word that Mako said to that girl)

Sono Midoriko

shorten nickname, round chestnut.

[LoweGear]

Someone did an alternate translation on that info last page:

In the world of [Garupan], chivalry and bushido are completely alive, and men depending on tanks gives off a wicked/wrong feeling.

Also, men using tanks could lead to a terrible all-out war any time. Panzerkraft became popular instead in this world, were women are the rule in bushido. (can't read the kanji after 大) Tanks aren't something to simply run-over your enemy in war, as it wouldn't be romantic. Maybe in this world, woman are stronger and have a more lively existence than we might think

The alternate translation doesn't carry the "men aren't allowed" as an explicit rule, but simply as a stigma instead. Not sure which of the translations is more accurate in this case.

[Tak]

But stigmas are prohibitive. Nonetheless, whether one follows that or not is really up to the individual.

Though the description explicitly stated that men operating tanks was considered to be evil.

- Tak

[MeisterBabylon]

I hope the Mechanics club is up to scratch. The producers are going to need every help they can get.

Originally Posted by Tak

Well, here is a million dollar question: Are boys allowed in Sensha-do?

- Tak

As I suggested...

Senkido. The Manly Art of Flying WW2 Warplanes.

Stop trying to logitize what's going on in GuP. For all we know this is a post-apocalyptic world in the 26th century where most of the planet is flooded, and people now mostly live on ships.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

It may be a heretical opinion, but I wouldn't mind a shorter show. It looks like there are three major fights planned for the show: Saunders, Pravda and Black Forest. If each of these take up 2 episodes and the Anzio fight is given one, then it leaves 1-2 episodes for other stuff. That makes a tightly scheduled series that has the potential of delivering on all its episodes. A longer show will run into more pacing and budget problems and I think that this will weaken it.

A tighter show could be better, but I believe it would also leave many potentially interesting characters without development. There are people and world-concepts for this series that could use to be explored in more detail, but that requires time a 12/13 episode series just wouldn't easily be able to spare.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

They moved two city-carriers to port and they shut down business in another city just so they could fight a friendly match. The amount of disruption this entails is utterly staggering. I can just imagine how jealous FIFA and the IOC are right now.

It had a small town affair smell to it. It's not like they shut down Tokyo.

[Tak]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

It had a small town affair smell to it. It's not like they shut down Tokyo.

I am more disturbed by the fact that residents of the said small town desire to have their shops run over just so they could get free renovation...

- Tak

[Anh_Minh]

I've seen worse. There was a Dilbert (I think it was Dilbert) series of strips where a country was so poor, it provoked the US into attacking them because they thought of bombs as "free scrap metal".

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

It had a small town affair smell to it. It's not like they shut down Tokyo.

Small is relative. We're still talking about thousands of dollars worth of income and business being lost because a student council president had a whim. That's more authority than any organized sport in the real world could claim.

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

A tighter show could be better, but I believe it would also leave many potentially interesting characters without development. There are people and world-concepts for this series that could use to be explored in more detail, but that requires time a 12/13 episode series just wouldn't easily be able to spare.

I find the tank spectacle part to be a lot more interesting than either the characters (which may change) or the world-building so far. The whys of how this world came to be are just not as intriguing as the sheer amusement factor in taking all the wierdness in. It's like the Utena movie where looking at all the architecture was better than trying to figure out why Ohtori looked like that.

I can understand other viewers being interested in different things than I am though.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

It had a small town affair smell to it. It's not like they shut down Tokyo.

I added the town part more as an afterthought. The idea of diverting the plans of the equivalent of thousands of supercarriers is what boggles my mind.

[PzIVf3]

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by PzIVf3

Hmmm.. Is the tank smaller or bigger???

[PzIVf3]

^^^
Pz IV height = 8ft.
To me the tank is smaller for Europe country. I seen many 7ft. German blonde girls.

Spoiler for I dont know if this is spoiler summary:

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Tak

But stigmas are prohibitive. Nonetheless, whether one follows that or not is really up to the individual.

Though the description explicitly stated that men operating tanks was considered to be evil.

- Tak

Yeah, the misandrism behind it is mindboggling. Like men eat puppies with kitten sauce. We are complete monsters who starts total wars for shits, giggles and profit. Thank you writers.

Protip to writers: The two world wars were intented as short wars, but eventually went out of hand and eventually became those total wars.

[Ingram]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

I've seen worse. There was a Dilbert (I think it was Dilbert) series of strips where a country was so poor, it provoked the US into attacking them because they thought of bombs as "free scrap metal".

Sounds like "Elbonia", although it's been a long time since I last read any Dilbert...

It's not perfect, but I'm having a lot of fun with the series, and it's high on my list of possible imports for this season. ^_^

[Tak]

Originally Posted by PzIVf3

Spoiler for I dont know if this is spoiler summary:

No. That is a complete set of rules in regards to the proper conduct of Senshado.

- Tak