Panzerfraulein Alteseisen (Kōtetsu no Shōjo-tachi, "Steel Girls") is a
manga written by Tezuka Kazuyoshi and drawn by Nogami Takeshi (under the name of Shiketamiga).
The story sets in another world, where the Kingdom (which is not
The Kingdom) is fighting a
Hopeless War against the powerful
Federation. In order to change the tide, the Kingdom deployed its Wölfin tank, which is still relatively new to the world. However, because of the small size of the tank, all of the tank crews have to be young girls. These newly-conscripted green units are then mocked as Iron scraps for their lack of training. The story focus on the everyday life (and more often than not, strife to survival) of one of these unit.
Although categorised as a
Shōnen manga, there are no heroes in the manga, and most of the manga is used to depict everyday life of the titular girls in the army, often with the harsh battles they encountered. It also depicts a lot of gruesome death and injuries on the field, as well as atrocities commited by both sides of the war.
This show provides examples of:
- A Father to His Men - General Anton is implied to be this.
- Armies Are Evil - Apparently all federal soldiers with faces are all evil, and the Royal Army is not composed of saints either. The Imperial Army "Police Garrison" is probably the only army which has not eat a kitten.
- Bittersweet Ending
- Black Shirt - Seems to have a big influence on the Kingdom, with most high-ranking officers joining them. They later triggered a mutiny and killed most of the high-ranking officials in the Kingdom.
- The Captain - Lieutenant Eona, the leader of the tank unit. She does get promoted to Captain afterwards. Rita, the platoon leader of the first platoon also counts.
- Child Soldier - The Kingdom employed an unit of pre-teen child soldiers as a last resort. Fortunately, they are quickly disbanded and never fought the war.
- Fan Disservice - Most senses with naked girls will make you disgust rather than turned on.
- The Federation - The Federation might be this or The Empire.
- Gorn
- Government In Exile - The Dukedom of Rania after the Kingdom takeover. Implied to be a puppet regime of the Federation.
- Gratuitous German - The title means "tank miss*
as in, young lady
old iron". - Hopeless War - The Kingdom is fighting against the entire world, and the situation worsen as the story progress.
- Interservice Rivalry - Between the Infantry and the Tank units of the Kingdom.
- Magnificent Bastard - The Police Inspector from the Empire. Lieutenant Colonel Argaia might also counts.
- One Federation Limit - There are one Kingdom, one Federation, one Empire (technically part of the Federation), one Free City and one Dukedom mentioned in the story.
- Pointy Ears - Which mysteriously can wear headphone without any problems.
- Rape as Drama - An occurring theme of the manga, mostly after some of the girls get captured by the Federal Army. Also leads to the plot of the last chapters.
- Redshirt Army - Both sides suffer from it more often than not.
- La Résistance - Formed by the locals after the Kingdom annexed the Dukedom of Rania.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism - Surprisingly slightly towards idealism. Despite all the horror on or off the battlefield, most of the protagonists and main characters are shown to be good.
- Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder - The Iron Scraps, later renamed as the Steel Girls, is an in-universe example.
- Tank Goodness - Most tanks in the manga falls into this.
- Trapped Behind Enemy Lines - Chapter 5.
- War for Fun and Profit -Apparently one of the reason the war is degenerating into Forever War is due to the fact that weapon manufacture is the cornerstone of the industry of the Kingdom.
- War Is Hell
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