Live Blogs Valiona's Liveblog of Girls und Panzer

Valiona2016-09-02 20:48:59

Hello, and welcome to my liveblog for Girls und Panzer, the show in which tank combat is a sport done by high school girls.

It's been about two years since I was first introduced to the anime, after seeing a video about Katyusha. I found it quite enjoyable, with good action and an interesting cast of characters, even if I'm not into tanks or military history as many of the show's fans are.

Girls und Panzer is a multimedia franchise, and consists of the following entries, listed in the approximate priority I gave each. Next to each, you can see how far I got in each.

1. The main anime series. Complete
2. The manga adaptation. Complete
3. The Little Army prequel manga. Complete
4. The OVAs. Complete
5. The Little Army sequel manga. Cancelled
6. The Maginot manga. Complete.
7. The chapters of Ribbon Warrior that have been released thus far. Cancelled
8. Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu. Cancelled
9. Der Film. Complete

The next entry is the first episode of the anime.

UPDATE 1(November 26, 2014): I've had a change of plans, and will be liveblogging the manga adaptation around the same time as the anime, partly because it mainly covers the changes, and it's easier to liveblog the manga with the anime somewhat fresh in my mind. Expect them to be done at approximately the same pace, and I'll altenate between each version.

UPDATE 2(December 24, 2014): To celebrate Christmas, I decided to release Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu Chapter 9's entry early, and temporarily put it after Chapter 16's entry.

UPDATE 3(January 6, 2015): I have completed the main series anime and manga, and have added the Maginot manga to the list. I'll do it after Little Army and the OVA series.

UPDATE 4(January 22, 2015): I have completed the Little Army manga. Updates may be somewhat slower from here on out.

UPDATE 5(March 18, 2015): I have completed all the OVAs.

UPDATE 6(March 27, 2015): I have completed all of the Maginot chapters so far. I'll add the rest as they come in.

UPDATE 7 (April 2, 2015): I have also completed the Ribbon Warrior chapters so far.

UPDATE 8 (May 3, 2015): I have completed all the chapters that have been translated into English. I will update as new chapters are released and translated.

UPDATE 9 (October 30, 2015): I have completed the Maginot manga.

FINAL UPDATE (September 2, 2016): Having completed der Film, I have decided to officially stop updating this liveblog, as per the plan I made when I started doing der Film. Thank you for reading, and any comments are appreciated, since I'll still check for them from time to time (remember- DO NOT include apostrophes, or your comment will not show up).

Comments

erana Since: Dec, 1969

Jan 23rd 2015 at 9:17:37 AM

Regarding the timeline of the OV As, the guys who fan-translated them made a rather exhaustive analisys of WHEN they happen. The short version is: OV As 1, 2, 3 most likely happen during episode 5 (right before the training montage), OVA 4 happens neccesarily betwen episodes 7 and 8, and the nemaining OV As need no guessing, being explicit. Full details here

erana Since: Dec, 1969

Jan 23rd 2015 at 9:23:09 AM

(can't delete nor edit comments) link above is for an archived imageboard thread and should link to an specific post (this seems not to work in some browsers - if it loads the tpo of page, search for three consecutive posts made by "Ye Olde Sub")

Valiona Since: Dec, 1969

Jan 23rd 2015 at 12:52:31 PM

erana,

Thanks for the link. Those sound like plausible settings for all of the OVAs.

I'm personally curious as to why OVA 4 was put there, apart from not wanting to "spoil" the story by having the teams that hadn't joined yet in on the dance, although Anteater and Leopon Teams are featured quite prominently in the opening, and the Auto Club had appeared occasionally by that point.

erana Since: Dec, 1969

Jan 23rd 2015 at 5:18:24 PM

I have a theory (wel into WMG territory) that it was a "filler" ova. I mean, its likely that when they decided to make 6 ovas they soon came with ideas for 1, 2, 3 and 6, yet 5 is (or so they said) inspired by the unexpected fan popularity of Yuki no Shingun; if that's true, it means they had NOT come with six good ideas for ovas right from the beguining. Meaning 4 (an amusing but scriptless ova) could perfectly be a case of "Hey, no idea what to do for the last ova slot we need to fill - what if we make ANOTHER song-inspired one?".

Valiona Since: Dec, 1969

Jan 23rd 2015 at 7:48:22 PM

erana,

I do suspect that the OVAs were conceived and animated after the entire story was thought out. That may be why the Anglerfish Dance video was made, as something that's fun, if not enough to stand on its own.

Jamibu Since: Dec, 1969

Jan 23rd 2015 at 11:14:11 PM

erana and Valiona,

For me, I appreciate that they did the Anglerfish Dance OVA since I(and some fans) wanted to see how the dance was done. We only got a glimpse of it on the series proper. Though if you've noticed that they made a slight change in a certain dance move(the hand waving) so it's a little easier to follow/do. Though I wish they had a version of the song where the Oarai team were singing the song since I like their version when they sang the Ankou song in episode 9.

erana Since: Dec, 1969

Jan 24th 2015 at 3:02:25 AM

Jamibu,

you could ask the fansubers - they're known for making fan ovas themselves.

Valiona, that gets me to ask - will you cover the fan-made "Tank Wars" ova?

Valiona Since: Dec, 1969

Jan 24th 2015 at 8:54:32 AM

Jamibu,

You have a good point about the OVA showing how the dance is done, and that's an interesting observation about the handwaving.

erana,

I'm not sure I'll cover the fan-made "Tank Wars" ova, since it's not part of the main canon.