Awesome / Girls und Panzer

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Anime (Including the OVAs)

• Episode 4. After all the buildup, finally the awesome arrived, and Miho shows her chops:
  • First, she scouts forward, and baits the St. Gloriana girls into an ambush (which they were expecting). Then, once the ambush fails, she successfully leads the survivors into breaking contact and entering the town to force St. Gloriana into urban combat.
  • Team C in the StuG one hit kill a Matilda II from a point blank range side shot. Not to be outdone, the Matilda's partner takes advantage of the battle banners on the tank and kills them by shooting through the fence that Hippo thought was concealing them.
  • The Volleyball Club performed an awesome ambush on another British tank, hiding in an underground parking lot, and then slowly rising up from behind to deliver a point blank shot. Unfortunately, the Matilda's rear armor was sufficiently proof against the weak gun of the Type 89.
  • With their allies down, Team Anglerfish turn into the moe reincarnations of Zvika Greengold, as they singlehandedly take down every single surviving British Matilda despite being outnumbered 4-to-1... sadly, their tank gun didn't do squat to the Churchill.
    • From that very same scene: Multitrack Drifting! Footage of Spanish Civil War tanks exists that proves it can be done over paved surfaces. Which makes Mako's driving even more awesome, since it makes her just that good instead of the maneuver being chalked up to Anime Physics.
• A non-Sensha-do example in Episode 5 happens when Mako gives a snarky retort to Erika that leaves her unable to respond with anything except a glare (by contrast, Erika simply told Yukari to mind her own business when she defended Miho).
  Erika: There's an unspoken rule that everyone knows: schools that will just embarrass Sensha-do should stay out of the tournament.
  Mako: It'd sure be pretty embarrassing if one of those teams beat the veterans that all sat around in their ivory towers coming up with that rule.
• Episode 6 for Saunders. When their flag tank is led into a trap and is being chased by the Ōarai tanks, the Saunders reinforcements arrive in the nick of the time, cresting the hill, firing their cannons, all while The Army Goes Rolling Along is blaring in the background. America FUCK YEAH!
  • Hana taking out Alice's moving tank with superb accuracy in the same episode.
    Hana: "One shell is enough."
  • Naomi, the gunner of Saunders' Sherman Firefly, singlehandedly kills three of Ōarai's tanks, two of them while firing on the move, and landed the killing blow on Miho milliseconds after Hana nailed the Saunders flag tank.
  • Kay's defeat is played as a Moment of Awesome for her. She is defeated in a very close endgame but only after she willingly engaged in copious amounts of fair play, it is acknowledged by Miho and co that she could have curb stomped them at will, she recites her Badass Creed about why she didn't want to do it (eliciting an epiphany in Miho and an In-Universe mixed Moment of Awesome/Heartwarming Moment from Orange Pekoe), and then she dramatically walks towards her team as she literally rides towards the sunset, in a tank. Yes, being a Martial Pacifist IS awesome, thank you for asking.
• Episodes 8 and 9 toss the awesome ball back and forth between the two teams
  • Katyusha's clever trap to encircle the entire rival team in a single killzone shows that her reputation is not an Informed Ability, and her team pulls off the plan flawlessly despite losses.
  • Nonna, Pravda's vice-commander, hits three tanks firing on the move, and her last shot was incredibly close to immobilizing Oorai flag tank.
  • Their rendition of Katyusha manages to be adorable and badass at the same time. Copyright laws within the US prevent said song from being used, but CommieSubs appropriately made subs in Russian as well.
  • Anzu takes over gunnery on the 38(t) and launches a devastating attack against 4 enemy tanks (including the IS-2), taking out two, immobilizing one and damaging the treads of the last.
  • The team's trap is expertly crafted. While Team Anglerfish is pursuing Pravda's flag tank, the History Club hides their StuG inside a snow bank and ambushes the flag tank at point blank range. They manage to hide it in less than half a minute, helped by drifting the tank 180 degrees to pile snow over themselves.
  • Shinobu, the driver of the Duck Team and flag tank in this match manages to pull off some truly insane feats of driving, somehow dancing through a literal hailstorm of gunfire from Pravda's forces to buy time for Team Anglerfish and Hippo to shoot down the enemy flag tank. This includes, at one point, balancing the Type 89 on its nose for several seconds before righting it again. Even better, when the tank finally was hit by Pravda's Cold Sniper at about the same time the enemy flag tank was blasted, it just barely managed to avoid fatal damage that would have made it immobilized, being able to feebly hobble forward a few more meters and thus indicating Ōarai's clear victory.
• Episode 10. In what is indeed an Awesome Moment of Heartwarming, the Student Council offhandedly mentions that many other clubs have forked over additional money to support the team. They use that money to buy a Hetzer conversion kit. Let's say again: the other school clubs pool enough money to buy a tank upgrade kit, complete with high-speed 75mm gun and heavy cast armour. Sometimes, what's awesome is not the ass-kicking but the silent support... And anyone familiar with the usual dynamics between school clubs (most oftentimes NOT so sharing and friendly) will get a warm, fuzzy feeling out of that apparently unimportant line.
• Episode 10, very subtle one that doubles as Heartwarming Moment for Miho's former teammate's simple request to Miho: Do not quit. Anyone with even a passing experience in any sort of competitive sport or martial art will understand what makes it awesome. Also for Miho's simple answer: She won't.
  • The movie takes that theme up a notch when Saunders School clandestinely airlifts the tanks of the whole Oarai team to safety when MEXT wanted to not just close the school, also confiscate the tanks, then LAPES-drops them all to safety: Arisa tells them that such rescue has a price tag, and they ARE calling it: keep practising tankery.
  • This (the episode 10 moment) is a textbook non-combat example of the old-fashioned definition of a Moment of Awesome, the one that marks a character's biggest accomplishment. All the series has been a build-up towards this scene: proving to Miho that Sensha-do really isn't a war, that the rivals are not bitter enemies but fellow competitors, and that her scale of values (lives before victories) is correct. She gets that confirmation, not through a battle, but by being told so by a rival who is rejecting the opposite idea herself because of Miho's actions.
• The Automobile Club is a series-long Offscreen Moment of Awesome, from restoring six rusty tanks to functional condition overnight in Episode 2, to being able to manufacture and install armor upgrade kits (notice plural) from scratch for the Panzer IV, also overnight - twice. They finally get their on-screen Moment of Awesome, as Leopon Team, in episode 11, when they are seen doing repairs on their Porsche Tiger mid-battle and on the run.
  • In Fridge Brilliance, why do you suppose the Type 89 and the Porsche Tiger can go faster than specified? Look who is doing the maintenance on the tanks! A quartet of Wrench Wenches whose goal is to get their tank to drift! Of course they are going to tune up the tanks they work on to go faster than specs.
• The series penchant for scenes being both a Heartwarming Moment and a Moment of Awesome is not surprising, given that its very point seems to be to drive home the notion that you CAN be a badass without being a Jerkass. This is actually Discussed in one such moment in episode 11: When the Rabbit Team's tank gets stuck in the middle of a river crossing and begins to tip over, they unanimously ask Miho to go on without them even though they are in real danger of eventually being dragged down the river by the current (because they need to win or else the school will be disbanded and the whole team will all be separated). Even in the face of the risk of the school being closed, Miho refuses to leave them. Much to Ōarai's credit, there's no talk in the team of doing otherwise: All of her teammates see it as proof of why they follow her. Then Miho Takes A Third Option and jumps across the other tanks to bring a towline to the Rabbit Team's tank, much to the amazement of all of her teammates and the spectators, enabling all the tanks to escape the river before Kuromorimine. It's not only an impressive feat, but it's an instance in which Miho to successfully practices her way of Sensha-do, saving her teammates without jeopardizing the match.
  Mako: (smiling) So she picks helping her friends over moving the panzer forward.
  Hana: That's so like her!
  Yukari: That's why we all follow her, and why we've made it this far!
  Saori: Exactly.
  Hana: I really want to win this match. I want to win to prove there's nothing wrong with Miho-san's approach to Sensha-do!
  • Extra bonus for it being an In-Universe Heartwarming Moment of Awesome for the spectators (complete with Manly Tears)
    • Extra-sugar flavored bonus for Shiho and Erika looking displeased and Maho keeping a poker face in front of her troops (in the anime: the manga continuity depicts her as actually smiling with pride). ^note  There's also fan material depicting Maho secretly videotaping the whole incident.
    • To top it again, the whole team starts up a barrage of fire to cover Miho's handiwork, on their own accord, without need for orders. Given how most other Sensha-do teams seem to fall into utter disarray when lacking direct command, this tells us which team is really better trained when all is said and done.
      Saori: "Everyone! Cover Commander Miporin!"
    • It gets more awesome in light of the "Fierce fight: It's the Maginot Battle!" manga spin-off, set betwen the St. Gloriana battle and the tournament start, which shows us exactly how useless Saori used to be as commander. That girl who managed to be taken out by the Type 89, of all things? She's the one now volunteering to take the helm of the entire team and doing a superb job of it.
• The Student Council shows how awesome they are by Hetzer trolling. Bonus points for doing that after Anzu and Miho invoke almost verbatim the meme Hetzers gonna Hetz. To elaborate, Miho leads Ōarai's tanks to break contact from Kuromorimine's ambush. They proceed up a hill, releasing smoke, and towing the heavy Porsche Tiger with them. Kuromorimine chases after them... and then the Student Council's Hetzer ambushes them from the side, tracking a Jagdpanther and Panther.
  • Later, as Ōarai are dug in on top of the volcano, and the Kuromorimine tanks are in a firing line, the Student Council show up, track a Jagdpanther (the same one they ambushed earlier), drive right up to the Kuromorimine tanks, and park right in the middle of their formation. Cue the Kuromorimine crews panicking and breaking formation to try and kill the Hetzer, which nimbly dances through their fire. Then, while Kuromorimine are preoccupied with the Hetzer, Ōarai takes the opportunity to knock out a few more tanks, as they exposed their weaker side armor.
  • The Student Council make a third attempt at Hetzer Trolling, but this time Maho's ready for them and has a tank fire as soon as they show up... Good thing Yuzu managed to evade the shot and run off to fight again.
• A non-spoiler for episode 11: the Auto Club performs the world's first functional tank wheelie.
  • Doubly awesome in that the sheer weight of Leopon doing this causes the stone bridge they're crossing to collapse behind them - preventing Kuromorimine from following.
• The final episode has only one moment of awesome; a Troperiffic 24 minute long one. Every component awesome moment will be described here in all its glory because they're just that goddamn awesome. Before we enter into detail, let's mention that this is not at all an Indy Ploy, but a pre-meditated strategy stated on-screen, then flawlessly executed, in a very rare aversion of the Unspoken Plan Guarantee. Ōarai team just rolls this way.
  • Firstly, the five teams bring the Maus to the road outside the town after some further combat, line up, and charge it. Turtle's Hetzer barrels right towards the Maus, rams it, and lifts the heaviest tank in history clean off the ground^note Bonus awesome points for the Hetzer having been the basis of a heavy tank recovery vehicle, showing that the above is not an Ass Pull but the little Czech tank being that badass, preventing it from moving. Rabbit and Leopon provide distracting fire so the Maus turns its turret towards them, and Duck ramps the Type 89 up the Hetzer's back, landing on the front of the Maus and preventing its turret from rotating back forwards, exposing the air slits on the rear. As Turtle and Duck struggle to keep the Maus in place, Team Anglerfish angles their Panzer IV on a hill, and Hana proceeds to fell the Maus with just one shot to said identified weak point. The Hetzer, placed under the full weight of the behemoth, walks away... at least for a few hundred meters.
  • Secondly, the Rabbit Team and Duck Team are tasked with drawing away elements of the enemy force, and the former find themselves deep within a town with Kuromorimine heavies pursuing them. Through baiting them, they have the Elefant pursue them around a block, using the M3's superior speed to get behind them. They fire at point blank range into the tank's rear... which fails to knock it out, but it gets stuck as it tries to turn to face them, mirroring Kelly's Heroes. The crew start to panic... until Saki speaks for the first and only time in the series, indicating its weak point to the crew. Not only do they manage that, but after running headlong into a no less than the Jagdtiger, they keep close so as to keep the barrel away from them, and even though they are finally taken out, the Jagdtiger proves incapable of stopping its charge, and falls into a storm drain, lands on its cannon (breaking it) and blowing out its engine. Through most of all of singletankdedly destroying Kuromorimine's second and third most potent units, the freshmen display nothing but guts. Team Killer Rabbit earns their stripes.
  • Thirdly, Miho is leading Maho further into the city, aiming to face her one on one. Naturally, Maho is followed by every single remaining Kuromorimine tank, save those distracted by Duck. She reaches her target and lures Maho in. Maho's team is on the verge of flooding in after her, when Leopon moves their Tiger(P) across the entrance and opens fire. What follows, albeit mostly off-screen, is the Porsche tanking round after round from several late-war German tanks and tank destroyers and absolutely refusing to budge or move a fraction of an inch from the entrance of the Nishizumis' makeshift arena. When it does go down, it goes down firing, taking a number of enemy tanks with it, and the Automobile Club having nothing to say to their adversaries but lighthearted taunts. ^note Bonus point for Leopon team for having angled their hull to improve armor deflection and for taking the tanks to their left and right first to use them as cover, both things showing they were not Mistaken for Badass Bonus points for Erika as well, who, through sheer zeal and determination, managed to break through Leopon's blockade, all in an attempt to help Maho.
  • Last and certainly not least, Anglerfish Team pulls off the most awesome drift to get around Maho's tank and deliver a round solidly to their rear, with a tank. The drift is so furious that Mako destroys the Panzer IV's suspension while doing it. It's a much more successful recreation of their tactic against St. Gloriana.
    • For an extra awesome-overlapping-with-heartwarming touch, notice how the actions of Rabbit Team in the second point allowed the decisive third point. Otherwise, the two heaviest tank destroyers (both of them equipped with guns able to punch right through Leopon's armor, even angled as they were) would have made quick work of their You Shall Not Pass! moment, allowing Erika's tanks to overcome Miho with sheer numbers and denying her the duel with her sister. Let's repeat and explain this just in case it wasn't clear enough: Miho's decision of saving Rabbit Team in episode 11 was the single pivotal factor in her team's victory. Check the entries for chapters 10 and 11 for details about why this is her crowning awesomeness in the series.
• Overall, what makes really makes the whole Kuromorimine match a CMOA for Ooarai is that this is the first match where they didn't have to change plans mid-way through the match. From the initial fight on the hill, then eventually drawing Kuromorimine into the city. Every problem they encountered was just a roadblock to their plan of eventually isolating Maho's flag tank (even the Maus), at no point did they ever have to stop and think up of a new overall battle plan. A school with no recent history of tankery was not only able to win a match against one who previously held a seven year streak, but they did so while taking control of the entire match.
  • Miho's plan involved whittling Kuromorimine's force down to a more manageable size, first by the fight up the hill, then by forcing them to chase her tanks to the town on the opposite side of the field, hoping that the extended maneuvering would bog them down while she took down the bridge to slow them down even more. The closest her plan ever got to being disrupted was when the Maus came out, but even that wasn't enough to stop Miho's plan.
• All of the Awesome scenes of the series were made even more awesome by the amazing music composed by Shirou Hamaguchi.
• Believe it or not, ''Anzio'' gets two doses of awesome. First, their plan to use placed decoys to draw Oarai's attention away from where their tanks were, then managing to split the team with their fast and maneuverable tankettes. The second is when Carpaccio's Semovente 75/18 goes head to head with Hippo team, and manages to tie against the vastly heavier Stug III thanks to the smaller tank's speed. It eventually becomes sword fighting with tank cannons.
  • The same OVA shows us Anzio's tankette crews effectively using the Carro Veloce L3/35's main drawback (their very light weight and tendency to tumble) as a God Mode by letting their tankettes roll with the impact. Literally. Also do 180-degree turns, fire at their pursuers, then drift again back forward. Repeatedly.
  • Duck Team also gets its own awesome by scoring in that battle a total of 12 hits (firing on the move) out of 13 shots against the fast-moving tankettes. Consider that this doubles in a single firefight the number of on-the-move hits achieved by all other top gunners of the series combined.
• Rabbit Team rises to the occasion during the Anzio OVA. They improve rapidly during training, and during the match, they end up in pursuit of two of Anzio's Semovente tanks and manage to eliminate them, despite having spent most of the match evading enemy tanks.

Manga (Including Little Army, Ribbon Warrior, and MLLSD)

• As timid as Miho often is throughout the series, in Chapter 7 of Little Army, she summons the nerve, with the help of her friends, to confront her mother and ask whether it was necessary for Maho to shoot the German flag tank when it was trying to rescue some of her teammates. Shiho is unfazed by this question, telling Miho that the Nishizumi style expected Maho to do so and that Miho will understand one day^note The fact that Miho doesn't ultimately accept the Nishizumi Style but instead pursues her own, becomes more awesome in light of this. Maho notices how surprising and unlike Miho it is for her to do so, and apologizes for driving her to that point with her aloof behavior when the issue had first been brought up. The question might not have gotten much of a response out of Shiho, but it fulfilled Miho's ultimate goal.
• Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu is not the kind of publication where you'd expect to watch a crash-and-grab rescue operation done by the numbers (good intel gathered without discovery, quick entry, target secured within seconds, secondary objectives (plural) achieved, clean exit, no casualties, 100% sucess, everything exactly as planned) that would make any OPERATOR shed a single tear of joy. Yet that's exactly how Momo-chan's rescue goes.
  • Helps put in context exactly how awesome this is, that in a much later chapter we learn this level of competence isn't part of the regular Sensha-do training when we see a similar operation done in an amateurish way (no recon, no plan, "just barge in") by other adult players, which are plainly far less well trained for that kind of operations than Duck Team.
  • What's even more amazing is what the target did to Anzio. Not only did she own them verbally for being too lax about their operations; she later on became the new duce.
• In Little Army 2, Bellwall almost brings Kuromorimine to their knees, coming within inches of taking the latter's flag tank, which was only saved by another tank taking the hit for them.
  • What's amazing is that Bellwall was able to take control of the match from the start, by deploying scouts from each tank, basically applying what Yukari occasionally does for Ooarai and taking it up to eleven. All this, while commander Emi is indisposed and unable to join the fight.
  • When Emi is able to join in, she's able to come up with plans to counter Kuromorimine's counters to their scouting. Realizing that the latter team won't see a Panzer II as a threat, she uses that to disrupt their lines by taking out the tracks of on one of their tanks forcing them to try to plug the hole, giving her an opening.
  • Their efforts leave Kuromorimine's flag tank so open that they're able to rush it with only three tanks against the latter's seven. They would have won too had another tank not taken the hit for Kuromorimine's flag tank.
• The repechage between Ooarai and Bellwall in Little Army 2 serves as one for both teams.
  • Miho has Mako jump the Panzer IV off an overpass. Not to be outdone, and wanting to keep fighting Miho, Emi has her crew do the same. What makes this more impressive is that Emi's team does it in a much heavier Tiger I.
  • With the childhood friends now dueling each other, the rest of both Sensha-do teams start to step up. Everyone on both teams does their best to not have their respective commanders have to worry, so that they can have their one on one duel.
    • Special mention goes to Asuza, who's taking over for Miho is implied to be the reason Ooarai eventually wins.
• Ribbon Warrior has no shortage of awesome moments.
  • For starters there was the time that Shizuka SETS A FREAKING VILLAGE ON FIRE just to win a match against Kuromorimine.
  • BC Freedom gets one when they become one of the few schools in the series to actually beat Kuromorimine in a straight up fight.
  • Said victory wouldn't have been possible without their detachment of M22 Locusts, which utilized classic "gank" tactics to turn the tables on Kuromorimine. There's a reason why many WarThunder players see it as an even bigger troll tank than the Hetzer.
  • Duck Team getting to show just how dangerous they can be when placed against tanks as crappy as the Type 89.
  • Shizuka taking on the entire BC Freedom team and winning by exploiting poor visibility and the team's lack of trust with one another in order to trick them into firing on their own team mates.
  • Bonple's rematch with Pravda shows that Ooarai isn't the only school capable of defying the odds. Although Jajka may be a Card-Carrying Villain most of the time, it's hard not to cheer for her when she uses ambush and infiltration tactics to win against an opponent that outnumbered her more than 3 to 1.
  • The entire Cauldron match counts as one Moment of Awesome for Tankathalon. A massive 24 hour team battle with some of the most skilled tankers in the series.
  • Shizuka's fight with Maho was truly a sight to behold, with the manga portraying it as a fight between two samurai rather than some boring old tank duel. One of the panels even goes so far as to recreate a famous scene from The Hidden Fortress.
  • Darjeeling getting to show just how much of a Magnificent Bastard they are with their many behind the scenes dealings. While Anzu was merely trying to save her school through backroom deals, Darjeeling plans on changing the entire sport of Tankery by making Tankathalon the next big thing.
  • Team Oni proves that Tankery isn't just a sport for high school girls. This trio of old ladies deliver an absolute Curb-Stomp Battle on their much younger opponents during the Cauldron Match.
  • Shizuka showing just how batshit insane she can be by shoving her face in front of the cannon of Ooarai's Panzer IV and daring Miho to shoot.

The Movie

See Girls und Panzer der Film

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