Now, we reach the end of the liveblog. I've chosen to call it quits here because I'd been losing interest over the past few months, and felt that it would be good to end it with Der Film. Some chapters have recently been scanlated, in addition to various parts that are unlikely to ever get a fan translation, but this is all I felt like doing.
Now for my thoughts on each entry in the franchise. Since I've mostly covered them in detail throughout this liveblog, I'll be brief here.
The original series is a very good, if not quite great anime. It has quite a few exciting tank battles, and a fairly decent plot, but relatively few of the characters are all that well-developed or original.
The manga has some nice attention to detail, and shows a fair amount of what didn't make it into the anime. That said, I did lose a fair amount of respect for Yukari, given that she tears into Kikuyo(who doesn't deserve it) but fails to stand up to Erika(who does). As such, it seems more like a companion piece than a stand-alone adaptation, but it successfully avoids feeling like a retread. You should probably see the anime first, but you should also read the manga.
Little Army is probably my favorite entry in the franchise. The cast is small enough that everyone gets noticeable attention and development, and it provides enough depth to Maho to make her a likable character, as well as probably the most three-dimensional and well-developed member of the entire cast.
Little Army 2 gets off to a promising start, but in the end, it falls back a bit too much on the original, having a Tournament Arc with relatively thin characterization for most newcomers.
Ribbon Warrior's a bit too zany and action-focused for my liking, as well as somewhat divorced from the spirit and plot of the original series.
I'm more fond of the Maginot manga, since it provides interesting characters for the Maginot group, which makes for a nice B-plot in addition to bridging the gap between the St. Gloriana and Saunders matches.
As for Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu, some of the plotlines it brings up might have worked well if they'd been treated seriously, such as Miho's time at her old school. It's decent comedy that occasionally gets to laugh-out-loud quality, but some of the ideas it touched upon could have been so much more than that.
I shared my thoughts about der Film in the previous entry. To sum it up, it improves on the original's battles, but tends to fall short in terms of character development with a larger cast and less time.
So that's it. Give GuP a try if all this interests you, and you can find it on Crunchyroll for free. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you on my next liveblog.
- THE END
