Girls und Panzer: Remarks on how Ooarai Celebrates Functional Diversity a Decade After The Finale’s Airing and Considerations Regarding Miho’s Future

“Diversity really means becoming complete as human beings – all of us. We learn from each other. If you’re missing on that stage, we learn less. We all need to be on that stage.” –Juan Felipe Herrera

Thanks to her allies’ determination and actions, which allows for Ooarai to draw away all of Black Forest’s tanks, Miho is able to face down against her older sister, Maho, in a final, titanic confrontation at the end of Girls und Panzer‘s original run. Here, the stakes had been high: Miho had transferred to Ooarai from Black Forest for a fresh start, but when Miho was forcibly drafted back into Panzerfahren, she reluctantly agreed and ends up discovering a newfound joy in a sport that had previously been unpleasant to her. However, the fun is punctuated with the revelation that, if Ooarai cannot win the championship, their school is to be shut down. Miho’s eventual victory is the culmination of Ooarai’s efforts in supporting one another, and following the championship, Miho reconciles with her sister. Ooarai’s successes come from a multitude of factors, and while immensely satisfying from a storytelling perspective, the choice of people and tanks composing Ooarai’s team ultimately speaks volumes to the idea of functional diversity. In organisational theory, functional diversity refers to the variety of cognitive resources available to an organisation and suggests that a team composed of individuals with a wide range of skills and expertise is more likely to be successful. In recent years, diversity has become a major talking point, and there has been considerable interest in hiring to create a diverse workforce. However, the definition of diversity is never quite as clear as it should be, and among some circles, diversity is poorly regarded as a result of misunderstandings – the phrase “forced diversity” is representative of such misconceptions and is often thrown around in online discussions, referring to the supposed situation where representation is put first at the expense of everything else, resulting in inferior performance or function. In reality, diversity remains a positive, and Girls und Panzer provides a solid argument for what diversity looks like, as well as what’s possible when it is organically, and properly implemented with functionality in mind. In Girls und Panzer, diversity is most visible with Ooarai’s team composition and their choice of tanks, which, ironically, come from the fact that Ooarai was working with limited resources.

In particular, the tanks are the strongest show of functional diversity: because Ooarai is said to have sold all of their tanks, the school left behind derelict tanks of all sorts, from a Panzer IV and Type 38(t), to a Porsche Tiger. The tanks that Miho and her friends find fulfil different roles: the Panzer IV and M3 are medium tanks with good all-around performance, while light tanks like the Type 89 and 38(t) excel at recon and harassing foes. On the other hand, the StuG III is purely designed to destroy enemy tanks. Later, the Type 89, Porsche Tiger and Char B1 join their ranks, giving Miho more options. Because Ooarai’s lineup is made up of a range of tanks with different properties, strengths and intended roles, Miho is able to assign her tanks to carry out specific functions during a match. Light tanks head out to recon enemy positions and create distractions, while heavier tanks are used in an offensive role. Against opponents fielding one type of tank, Ooarai has the advantage even when at first glance, they appear to be completely outgunned and seemingly lack any means of dealing damage. This was most apparent during the final battle against Black Forest, which had brought their entire heavy arsenal to the party. German tanks are known for their firepower and armour, and in a straight fight, Ooarai stands no chance. However, having a diverse range of tanks means being able to pull off sneaky tricks. When confronted with a Panzer VIII Maus, Miho uses Hetzer as a makeshift ramp and at the same time, sets the Type 89 to block the Maus’ turret from rotating. This buys Miho enough time to hit a weak spot on the Maus, taking it out of the fight. Had Ooarai been composed of medium and heavy tanks exclusively, this act would not have been possible. Functional diversity is ultimately what allows Ooarai to frustrate their opponents: although a lot of people value representation, representation alone isn’t a determinant of success. If Ooarai had found only heavy tanks, albeit tanks from all countries, this might not be especially helpful, since at the end of the day, her lineup would be limited to slow-moving tactics. Instead, by having a range of tanks that can perform different functions, the synergy between each team’s experience with their hardware and Miho’s ability to think on her feet is what allows Ooarai to succeed. The same holds true in reality: a functionally diverse team, one made of members with different skills and backgrounds, will find that it is possible to consider a wider range of solutions and incorporate different approaches towards problem-solving, resulting in innovative and creative solutions. Functional diversity is a force-multiplier, as people of different backgrounds and possessing different skills can each offer something unique. This, in turn, allows a team to perform far beyond what is possible in the absence of functional diversity and respect for everyone’s inputs and contributions.

Screenshots and Commentary

• Although ten years may have passed, I still recall the airing of Girls und Panzer‘s last two episodes with vivid clarity. When the penultimate episode released, I’d been days away from finishing my thesis paper: Girls und Panzer had originally begun during September 2012, but production delays pushed the final two episodes back to March 2013. This was unprecedented, but given that the series had taken viewers by surprise with its unusual premise, excellent characters, attention to detail and rich world-building, viewers were prepared to wait.

• The wait proved to be worth it, since the final battle against Black Forest was of epic proportion and scale: the match against Pravda had foreshadowed how Miho could utilise her resources effectively even against heavier armour and stronger firepower to great effect, counting on the flag tank elimination rules to help them towards a swift and decisive victory. Because of Ooarai’s composition, they’d be at an increasing disadvantage the longer a match drew out, and to this end, Miho uses creative tactics to help her teammates along, such as using smoke and luring foes into close-quarters environments.

• In today’s battlefield, the constant arms race between defensive tools and countermeasures means that regardless of the tools available, there is no substitution for patience and skill. Against smoke, thermal imaging were devised, and to counteract thermal optics, defenders employ IR smoke, which can scramble even thermal optics and laser designators. Watching Ooarai employing creative methods of frustrating and luring their foes was always a part of Girls und Panzer‘s charm. Here against the likes of Black Forest, whose reputation supposedly precedes them, Ooarai finds a team that is fearsome, but still human.

• This was something that a lot of contemporary reviewers missed: because Girls und Panzer‘s themes had dealt with sportsmanship and friendship rather than heroics and courage, it followed that the opponents seen at the national competition, however skilled or formidable they appear, are just people at the end of the day. In composition, Girls und Panzer is a sports anime and not a war film, so the more serious approaches some took towards this series was unwarranted. On my end, I’ve written about this ad nauseum: while such a conclusion should be quite evident, it is quite surprising that a handful of people insist on taking Girls und Panzer seriously.

• Previously, I’ve written about Girls und Panzer‘s final episode on three separate occasions. In 2013, I had impressions of the last two episodes as standalone posts (one for the eleventh and twelfth episodes). Prior to Das Finale‘s second act releasing on BD, I revisited the series again and touched on its core themes. Finally, a year ago, for the Jon Spencer Reviews’ #AniTwitWatches, I re-watched Girls und Panzer with parts of the community and wrote a series of posts to present counterarguments against some of the lingering misunderstandings surrounding the series. When the finale arrived, I focused on how Ooarai’s triumph over Black Forest was necessary to Girls und Panzer‘s themes, since some individuals insisted that this was unrealistic as an outcome.

• To my great surprise, the folks who did participate in that particular #AniTwitWatches event universally agreed with my conclusions on all counts. In particular, Miho’s decision to save her teammate prior to the series’ start, and Ooarai’s success as being well-deserved were not found as being up for debate; Girls und Panzer‘s execution had been appropriate, and the outcomes were logical. The conclusion I reached after that exercise, then, was that there hadn’t been any major subjective leaps in my own interpretation of the series.

• One of the big pluses about Girls und Panzer is that there’s so much happening that, every time I return to revisit the series, there’s always something new to talk about, and in doing so, this allows me to use screenshots that I did not otherwise feature in my previous posts. Except in very rare circumstances, I aim to make sure that no two frames are reused in different posts to keep everything fresh, so this latest Girls und Panzer revisit allowed me to showcase moments I’ve previously not written about, such as the commander of one of Black Forest’s Jagdpanther Sd.Kfz. 173s flailing her arms in frustration after Anzu blows her tracks off, rendering them immobilised.

• The Student Council had received heavy flak during Girls und Panzer‘s earliest episodes for having coerced Miho back into Panzerfahren under the threat of suspension, but once the truth got out, they do apologise to her, worrying that if Miho had been given this burden off the bat, the pressure may have gotten to her. In retrospect, the Student Council’s actions were the result of desperate times, and although perhaps underhanded, they are also justified given the circumstances. By the championship match, the Student Council gain access to a Hetzer and use it to great effect: with Anzu as the gunner, Ooarai is able to use their mini-tank destroyer to frustrate enemies in creative ways.

• For this discussion, I’ve chosen to focus on the concept of functional diversity as it applied to Girls und Panzer. Even thought it’s been a decade since Girls und Panzer concluded, I am surprised that there are no discussions out there on this topic, and I’ve long felt that Ooarai’s lineup is one of the best arguments in favour of diversity, made in a time prior to concepts like inclusion and representation being frontline news. While these principles are being promoted in the present, I’ve long felt that although the verbiage companies use to support diversity and inclusion is promising, there is actually no clear definition of what diversity entails in the context of their statements.

• To put things in perspective, I come from a health sciences background and have studied ecology, as well. There, diversity refers to the variety of species within a given ecosystem that 1) fulfil specific niches and 2) occupy similar niches. By these metrics, an ecosystem is diverse if there are enough species for the different niches to work such that if the environment changes in a way to adversely impact a subset of these species, the ecosystem can still be sustained. In ecology, diversity is good because it both ensures all niches are filled, and that there is redundancy so if a group of species can no longer fulfil their roles, others can provide a similar function to ensure the ecosystem remains in good health (if enough species are eliminated, an ecosystem will suffer and ultimately, collapse).

• Having a clear definition is important to any discussion, and applying this principle to social sciences finds that the same thing holds true. In my case, I define functional diversity as referring to what skills, knowledge and competencies people bring to the table. Then, any organisation or group that is inclusive is one that embraces utilising all of the human capital available to achieve a certain outcome without being hung up on the origins of a particular solution, and simultaneously, regarding all members of a team with respect. I’ll go on a brief tangent here and remark that, after Rabbit team’s tank stalls in the river, and Miho decides to help them in a moment that is, in Hana’s words, “Miho-like”, Yukari breaks out her Em 1m R36 rangefinder to keep an eye on Black Forest’s tanks and their distance.

• If we use tanks as an analogy for people, then Ooarai’s advantage was that they have a varied arsenal, composed of light, medium and heavy tanks, as well as tank destroyers. Each tank type fulfils a different role, and in this area, Ooarai is said to have functional diversity because their lineup is varied and flexible enough to carry out reconnaissance, engage foes at range and when needed, stand their ground. Functional diversity is essential to Ooarai’s success, but further adding to things is the fact that Ooarai’s tanks have different origins. The Panzer IV, Porsche Tiger, StuG III hail from Germany, while the M3 Lee is American. The Type 89B and Type 3 Chi-Nu are from Japan, the Char B1 is French, and the 38 (t) is Czechoslovakian in origin.

• Different nations built their tanks differently, which leads to minor variations in handling and performance. This is where representation comes in. A team could be composed of functionally diverse elements, but if everyone still has the same background, solutions will likely be quite similar. Small variations in each tank’s design alter their roles slightly: the Japanese tanks, for instance, were originally designed for anti-infantry combat. Both the Type 89 and Type 3 are designated as medium tanks, but the lighter Type 89 gives it more mobility, whereas the Type 3 and its 75mm cannon gave it more firepower.

• In this way, it should be apparent that success results from both functional diversity, and representation. A team whose members have different skills, and whose backgrounds can inspire different problem-solving solutions, is one that is successful. Learning to make full use of every individual’s experience and input is the best means of realising this potential, and in this way, Girls und Panzer demonstrates this vividly. Beyond the tanks themselves, Ooarai’s team is also shown as a varied bunch, each with unique skills and reasons for being in Panzerfahren. Besides helping to humanise everyone and giving viewers incentive to root for Ooarai, giving each team a distinct background and identity also reinforces the idea that good ideas can come from anywhere.

• This aspect of Girls und Panzer is especially important  because in today’s society, people place an uncommon amount of stock on who’s giving a message. When prejudice and bias kicks in, people will dismiss otherwise excellent ideas even when it is irrational to do so. In the workplace, this will ultimately be harmful, preventing things from getting done. Conversely, if one is open to ideas regardless of their origin (and giving credit where it is due to encourage people to step up and speak up), things will move along much more quickly. This is seen in Girls und Panzer, where Miho is open to accepting ideas from any of her teammates.

• In this way, the Maus is eventually taken down, and when the first years suggest a diversion, Miho immediately accepts their decision. Here, it is worth noting that had Miho chosen to leave the first years and their M3 behind, they would’ve been taken out of the fight. Instead, by saving them, the first years would come to play a much bigger role in the battle, helping to draw a Jagdtiger and several of Black Forest’s other tanks off Miho’s tail. Although Ooarai’s win came down to the technical skill on Miho and her crew’s part (Miho’s directions, Saori’s communications, Mako’s skillful driving, Yukari’s quick loading and Hana’s sharpshooting all contribute), actions from the others facilitated this outcome.

• The Maus had proven to be quite the surprise, but it was even more impressive to watch Ooarai work together to take it down using unorthodox techniques – after its introduction towards the end of the penultimate episode, my jaw dropped, and I had found myself wondering how Ooarai would respond. The week-long wait would’ve been excruciating, but at this point in March, I’d been up to my eyeballs with my undergraduate thesis paper. The deadline had been just days before the finale was set to air, and I remember the evening I submitted the paper very well. I’d edited and revised said paper to the point where I’d practically memorised it, and after an agonising few moments, I decided to submit it.

• With that done, I took the weekend to begin my thesis presentation, and in this way, the time passed by swiftly. I ended up watching the finale after my Monday lectures ended, and for my part, I am glad to have been a university student; being in class all day meant I was insulated from the spoilers that had begun circulating online after the finale’s airing. Here, Noriko and Akebi retort to the Maus’ commander’s comments about the Type 89 being a light tank. I’ve long wanted to use this screenshot in a discussion for the longest time, but never got around to doing so until now.

• Because I had no spoilers coming in, Girls und Panzer‘s finale became a superb experience, rivetting from start to finish. It took me a few days to settle my thoughts out and write out a post; in those days, I didn’t really use this blog for more than short thoughts. A post of that length is commonplace now, but it took me a bit of time to get things written because at the time, I was also attending the remaining classes of my term and polishing off the remaining assignments. In the end, I published my post, and although the post is a little rough by today’s standards, looking back, it did capture how I felt about the finale.

• After Girls und Panzer ended, a vast majority of viewers were left with an overwhelmingly positive impression of a series that had been surprises at every turn. When Girls und Panzer was first announced, community interest in it was quite low, and most viewers had expected to drop it within the space of a few episodes, as they anticipated nothing more than a crude fanservice story with a superficial message and budget execution. I myself had looked to watch the series because the English-language premise had been vague, and I wondered if girls in tanks would be conducive to moments where viewers would get a good look at Miho’s pantsu and figure, similarly to how Strike Witches portrayed its Witches.

• The gap between expectations and results translated to very strong sales, and since then, Girls und Panzer became a bit of a cultural phenomenon. In previous years, I’ve written about how Girls und Panzer‘s success results from the fact that it took an outlandish concept, ensured that attention was paid to detail and created a compelling (if familiar) story; when taken together, the sum of Girls und Panzer‘s elements gave it wide appeal. Military otaku loved the fact that tanks were faithfully portrayed, and since their real-world performance was factored into how they’d handle, one could on speculate how Ooarai might be able to take on numerically and technologically superior foes.

• Similarly, folks familiar with sports anime would’ve found Miho and Ooarai’s Cinderella story gripping: seeing the large cast of characters and their unique points gave more reason to root for this motley and plucky group of Panzerfahren practitioners. Viewers could also be drawn into world-building aspects, since Girls und Panzer took the time to showcase the world beyond Panzerfahren. Because of its success, Girls und Panzer remained strong after its conclusion, and since then, a film, sequel series and tie-in projects like games and manga have joined the franchise.

• While Girls und Panzer has definitely deserved recognition, the biggest and longest-standing gripe I have with the series is the decision to format the sequel as a series of films. Defenders of this approach argue that every instalment of Das Finale so far has been exceptionally well-animated. Moreover, the tank battles of Das Finale are superior to anything seen in the original series. However, the time-scale that the instalments of Das Finale are being released borders on unreasonable. While one understands the staff’s commitment to quality, the gap between theatrical premières and the home release for Das Finale is outrageous.

• Das Finale had opened with a three month wait: the first act began screening in December 2017, and the home release came three months later. For the second act, a June 2019 screening was followed by the home release in February 2020, an eight month wait. Part three was released in March 2021, and the home released followed nine months later. The fourth act to Das Finale was announced to release “somewhere in 2023”, but at present, there’s no concrete date. At earliest, viewers can expect Das Finale‘s part four to come out this December at the earliest, although 2024 is more likely. If we had assumed a maximum of 21 months between two acts, then part four should have released back in December last year, but this didn’t happen.

• While it was possible that the global health crisis pushed the gap between theatrical premières and screenings from three months to nine months, with things slowly returning to their pre-pandemic states, one can only hope that publishers will reduce the gap back down from nine months; at the current rate of progression, it’ll likely be 2026 before Das Finale concludes. When I had finished Girls und Panzer ten years earlier, things had wrapped up on a solid note (only one element was not covered), and even though I had hoped viewers would get a continuation, the story had concluded in a manner such that no sequel was technically needed.

• The one-on-one between Miho and Maho was ultimately a show of growth on Miho’s end: boxed in, Miho and her friends have no choice but to square off against Maho head-on. By leaving Black Forest, Miho had been running away from her issue, so having her confront Maho in an environment where the only way out was winning or losing was to give viewers a chance to appreciate the fact that after her experiences, Miho is no longer one to run away from her problems. This is why when Miho and her crew land a winning shot against Maho’s Tiger I, Maho accepts her defeat graciously: she’s happy that Miho’s found her own way.

• Girls und Panzer‘s greatest weakness in its original run was its twelve episode format, which omitted many details and only showed the most pivotal of moments. With some details lacking further context, some viewers at immediately jumped to conclusions regarding some of the characters. All of these conclusions are incorrect: the student council’s decisions were made out of desperation, and the Nishizumi Style is more intricate than people give it credit for. Similarly, Miho’s decision to save her teammate was unambiguously correct. These particular points are not up for discussion, as Girls und Panzer sought to convey very specific messages in its delivery of the story, but the fact that fierce (and oftentimes, uncivil) debates at shows the importance of providing context and making things clear so there’s no room for misinterpretation.

• Had Girls und Panzer taken a twenty-four, or even sixteen, episode approach, there would’ve been more time to flesh things out. In the absence of more episodes in its original run, ACTAS was able to produce several OVAs. Although some of them are purely intended for fun, some OVAs extend the world-building further and explain the school ships, while others show how Miho managed to determine the location of Pravda’s tanks. The OVAs add a great deal to Girls und Panzer and should be counted as essential parts of the experience. Following Girls und Panzer‘s finale a decade earlier, I found myself continuing to derive enjoyment in this series through the OVAs, and a year later, the missing Anzio battle was presented to viewers in full.

• Once Girls und Panzer ended back in 2013, I was free to focus all of my waking time towards the single most important exam I would partake in since the MCAT. Without the distraction of Girls und Panzer, I put in my fullest efforts towards preparing for the undergraduate thesis defense, which had been modelled after a graduate defense in structure but scaled back in duration. My semester was winding down at this point, and with all assignments and projects in my other course finished, this gave me all the time I needed to properly prepare. How this presentation turned out will be left as an exercise for the near future, but it should be no surprise that I did well enough to pass the exam and earn my honours degree.

• It is doubtful that Girls und Panzer would have negatively impacted my studies had it been delayed further, but ultimately, I am glad that it concluded when it did: the ending gave me a bit of inspiration to do my best. The series retains all of its charm and quality in the present day, and here at the ten year mark, I remark that my enjoyment of the series has only deepened with the passage of time. The accruement of an additional bit of life experience has led me to see details in Girls und Panzer I previously missed, leading to a richer experience. With this bit of reminiscence in the books, we’re entering the final days of March. Viewers will have to bear with me as I reminisce a bit more about my honours thesis: this project was an integral milestone for me, shaping the path I would take, so I do wish to properly acknowledge what came out of my undergraduate program. Beyond this, I’ve got two more posts lined up for this month: Itsuka Ano Umi de‘s finale released today, coinciding with Girls und Panzer‘s finale a decade earlier, and I’ll be writing about this on short order. In addition, I’ve also been following Mō Ippon! and found myself sufficiently impressed that there is merit in sharing what I made of things.

Girls und Panzer was ahead of its time in illustrating the worth of functional diversity in a team environment, and in conjunction with a meaningful story, relatable, well-written characters, exceptional world-building and uncommon attention to detail, the series proved to be the single biggest surprise of its time. The series is a veritable masterpiece, telling a compelling tale that appealed to a wide range of viewers, and when it concluded a decade earlier, left viewers with a conclusive feeling of satisfaction and closure. Almost every detail had been addressed, and Ooarai’s victory would ensure Miho would be able to continue living out her days in happiness, knowing her school and time with her friends was secure. However, by Der Film, it became apparent that Girls und Panzer had left one critical element deliberately unresolved. Throughout Girls und Panzer, themes regarding the importance of family periodically appear. Yukari and her parents get along very well; the latter are very supportive of their daughter despite her eccentricities. Mako’s only family is her grandmother, and while her grandmother can come across as abrasive, she ultimately wants what’s best for Mako, who is well aware of this and loves her grandmother very much. Hana’s mother had initially disowned Hana for joining Panzerfahren, feeling it an insult that Hana would shun flower arrangement, but Hana stuck her course and vowed to one day reconcile with her mother. After seeing how Panzerfahren improved Hana’s flower arrangement, her mother becomes proud of her daughter. Saori’s family is never shown on screen, but she is implied to get along well with her parents. This leaves Miho, who’s on very rocky terms with her mother, Shiho, and even though Shiho applauds Miho’s success genuinely at the end of Girls und Panzer, Miho is still too intimidated to have a proper conversation with her mother. If Girls und Panzer had wanted to resolve this, a thirteenth episode would have sufficed. Such an episode would have Miho return home and speak with her mother in open terms, before returning to join her friends and classmates for a victory banquet. In the absence of such an outcome, and Der Film‘s portrayal of the remaining distance, Miho’s reconciliation with Shiho becomes a final metric for the former’s growth. This element allows Girls und Panzer to continue, but the gaps between Das Finale‘s releases and the potential of this remaining unaddressed is to Girls und Panzer‘s detriment. Looking back, I would have preferred that Girls und Panzer wrap this up, either in the series proper or in Der Film, as this would have allowed future continuations explore new directions without leaving old stories open. If Miho and Shiho could reconcile, future iterations of Girls und Panzer would be free to portray different schools, or different timelines (e.g. Shiho’s own rise as a Panzerfahren practitioner). For the present, viewers are therefore left wondering if Das Finale will wrap things up for Miho: while excellent tank battles are a given, it would be nice to bring Miho’s storyline to a proper close and begin showing off a universe that has nearly limitless potential. With this being said, one would hope that the timelines are significantly more reasonable: when Girls und Panzer‘s finale released, I was an undergraduate health sciences student who had submitted their thesis paper and was on the eve of graduation. A decade later, I’ve earned a graduate degree in computer science, accrued seven years of industry experience and became a homeowner. Although it’s been reassuring to have Girls und Panzer continue to accompany me throughout life (Das Finale is still going), it would be nice for Miho’s story to conclude decisively – it would not speak positively to ACTAS’ ability to deliver if I finish paying off my mortgage before Das Finale finishes!

Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Match – A Review and Reflection, Über-Micro Meets Panzerfahren and Celebrating Ten Years of Girls und Panzer On The First Day of Spring

“Clear your mind of all things…focus on the micro.” –teh_masterer, Pure Pwnage

After Miho and Ooarai manage to beat the All-Stars University Team to save their school a second time, they invite Alice and All-Stars University Team’s commanders over to help recall the events of their match, so that Anzu and the Student Council can shoot a new promotional video that’s more current. To encourage the other school’s attendance, an Appreciation Festival is organised, allowing the students from the different schools to mingle and share their Panzerfahren strategies with one another. Miho opens the festival with a presentation on their first exhibition match, where Ooarai and Chi-Ha Tan had squared off against Pravda and St. Glorianna. When Miho reaches the larger match against the All-Stars University team, Alice arrives and helps Miho to walk through what had happened. The festival ends on a high note, and Alice thanks Miho for the invitation, promising that they’ll one day face off against one another in Panzerfahren. This is Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Match (Dream Tank Match from here on out for brevity), a game that was originally released in 2018 for the PlayStation 4 and subsequently ported to the Nintendo Switch a year later, which featured all of the expansion content for Dream Tank Match. Dream Tank Match was the realisation of a chance to engage in Panzerfahren in a video game setting, and beyond the campaign that retells Der Film‘s events, the game also includes additional scenarios, a “Festival” mode which allows for players to participate in outrageous scenarios, and a five-on-five multiplayer mode. On paper, Dream Tank match is the perfect chance for fans of Girls und Panzer to finally try their hand at operating the same tanks Miho and her friends do – built as a dedicated Girls und Panzer game, Dream Tank Match allows players to re-live iconic moments from the film and see how their favourite tanks and crew perform, complete with voice lines from the series’ original voice actresses to create an unparalleled, authentic Panzerfahren experience that, until 2018, players could only faintly mimic via Wargaming.net’s World of Tanks. In practise, although Dream Tank Match is a fun game, mechanics in the campaign interrupt the flow, resulting in a rather odd experience where players will drop into a match, and then the game yanks control from the player as the characters share dialogue. In other chapters where the goal is to survive a for certain duration, one cannot prematurely force the segment to conclude by hammering all opposing tanks into scrap metal. Beyond this, Dream Tank Match‘s campaigned proved to be a gentle return to Der Film‘s storyline and Girls und Panzer‘s not-so-subtle reminder to players that the series’ themes of sportsmanship are unshakable; even after the upset victory, Alice and her classmates regard Miho with respect rather than contempt, speaking to the spirit of Panzerfahren as a sport for discipline and respect.

Having finished Dream Tank Match‘s campaign, I’ve now finished something I didn’t think would be possible: at the time of writing, there is no port for PC, but fortunately, Dream Tank Match does have an English-translated version that can be purchased quite readily. Upon completion, it becomes clear that Dream Tank Match is the superior choice for folks looking to experience Girls und Panzer and drive the tanks for themselves – unlike World of Tanks, whose list of shortcomings is so extensive I’ll need a separate post to address all of them, Dream Tank Match provides players with all of the characters and tanks of Girls und Panzer for Panzerfahren. Losses do not punish players excessively (the only thing one takes is a slightly bruised ego), and players cannot pay to gain a massive advantage over their opponents. However, Dream Tank Match remains a lesser choice compared to Battlefield V, which still offers the most immersive and authentic World War Two armoured combat experience. The only challenge about Battlefield V is that the combined arms environment means players have more to worry about than other tanks – infantry have access to dynamite and Panzerfausts, allowing them to harass tanks, while pilots armed with bombs can take one out of a fight instantly. The gap in armoured warfare between Battlefield V and Dream Tank Match speaks to fundamental differences in how Japanese and Western studios approach games: Japanese games have a much larger emphasis on characters, requiring players to listen to the game and give thought to how they wish to approach a problem, while Western games favour individual skill. In the present day, games have blurred the boundary between the two philosophies, combining story-telling with high-skill mechanics to produce an experience that compels players to simultaneously to pay the story mind and master the mechanics. In the case of Dream Tank Match, armed with the skills from Battlefield, the campaign proved to be trivially easy to complete. It became clear that in the face of overwhelming über-micro, it matters little as to whether or not I was playing as the All-Star Team or as Ooarai: all foes were felled without effort.

Screenshots and Commentary

• Dream Tank Match is a love letter to fans of Girls und Panzer: it provides a nuanced retelling of Der Film and provides players a chance to experience different Panzerfahren scenarios. Returning to Ooarai Golf Course, where Miho and her allies have seemingly pinned down a number of St. Glorianna tanks, brought back vivid memories of the summer some seven years earlier, when I’d just about wrapped up my graduate thesis paper. Back then, I was dividing my time between looking after the lab’s new summer students and getting things off the ground at my first start-up.

• Der Film had been a very enjoyable experience, even if from a narrative standpoint, it’d been quite unnecessary: from a practical standpoint, it wasn’t improbable that MEXT could go ahead with reneging on their promise and proceed with closing Ooarai anyways despite their winning the Panzerfahren championship if no signed documents ever existed, but Ooarai’s closure was simply a conflict to drive Miho forward. Girls und Panzer had wrapped up Miho’s story to a satisfactory extent, so from a narrative perspective, the film doesn’t add anything new to her growth as a person.

• On the other hand, from an enjoyment perspective, Der Film absolutely delivered. Dream Tank Match allows players to now drive the tanks, and although the campaign does hold the players’ hands, as well as limits the scale and scope of each engagement, there is still enough freedom for players to approach a problem in their own manner of choosing. It becomes clear that, with the right mindset and skills, Panzerfahren is something that isn’t quite as dramatic or stressful as Girls und Panzer had presented it: any player with the right map and weapon knowledge, coupled with a modicum of decision-making prowess and reflexes, will be able to make short work of things in Dream Tank Match.

• I colloquially refer to this combination of skills as “über-micro”. Urban Dictionary mistakenly defines über-micro as the ability to use a keyboard with “great speed and accuracy” in an RTS game to control multiple units at once, but Pure Pwnage describes über-micro as having enough mastery of skill, reflexes and discipline to excel such that one has an almost supernatural control of their equipment. In this 2004 mockumentary, Pure Pwnage follows the life of Jeremy, a pro-gamer as he navigates the real world for a project his younger brother, Kyle, is working on for school.

• Pure Pwnage is responsible for several of the greatest jokes available on the internet, including FPS_Doug’s iconic BOOM, HEADSHOT! catchphrase, but in addition to creating a rich portrayal of classic gamer culture, Pure Pwnage also proved surprisingly meaningful, cleverly presenting life lessons through gaming metaphors. I myself was introduced to Pure Pwnage through friends, and a decade earlier, I found myself returning to Pure Pwnage as my thesis ramped up. In fact, on this day ten years ago, I was on the cusp of finishing my undergraduate thesis paper.

• By this point in the semester, I had found myself doing reasonably well: besides my thesis project, I also was enrolled in databases, software engineering fundamentals and introductory statistics. Although this term was more difficult and involved than my first term, I managed to balance my time well. Since I had already finished most of my thesis project’s implementation by January, this left me with enough time to work on my paper, and in doing so, I had plenty of time left to ensure I could do well in my other courses. Databases came intuitively enough to me, and I managed to keep up with assignments and exams for statistics reasonably well.

• Looking back, software engineering was probably the toughest course, but even then, recalling the models and practises was sufficient for me to score fairly well in that course. By late March, I’d felt that my undergraduate degree was practically in the bag, and having made an effort to ensure I was caught up in my coursework, I was able to finish my thesis paper with time to spare. It was with great satisfaction that I submitted my thesis paper ahead of the deadline; this represented the culmination of four year’s worth of discovery and learning.

• After sending my paper in, I retired for the evening and awaited the release of Girls und Panzer‘s final episode, which would release a few days after the paper deadline. A decade earlier, the massive delay in Girls und Panzer‘s production had meant the final two episodes would release in March, three months after the tenth episode had concluded, and the combination of Girls und Panzer‘s excellent writing, coupled with where the tenth episode had stopped, resulted in some of the most tangible anticipation I’d seen in the anime community.

• I myself ended up watching the finale after making a beeline home once the day’s lectures ended, and fortuitously, I’d put myself in a solid position, so one evening of not studying or tending to coursework wasn’t going to be too detrimental. The finale had been everything I’d hoped it would be, and I was left with an immensely satisfying conclusion to Girls und Panzer. In the present, however, I do feel that a few minor adjustments could be made to Girls und Panzer‘s original run to address an issue that became apparent as soon as Das Finale began airing.

• This will be left as an exercise for the near future, and I’ll return my focus to Dream Tank Match: from a mechanical standpoint, Dream Tank Match is rudimentary and polished. Tank operation is simple, and players are given a few options to drift their tanks for more daring manoeuvres. Further to this, aiming and firing is intuitive and simple, entailing lining up one’s crosshairs with a target and then pulling the trigger to fire. Reloading entails a mini-game of sorts, similar to Gears of War‘s active reload system, where if one manages to reload at the right time, a speed reload is executed.

• When one becomes familiar with the active reload system in Dream Tank Match, they can greatly increase their tank’s firing rate. There are some comparatively strange mechanics in Dream Tank Match, and here, during a survival round, I found that All-Stars University’s commander couldn’t be harmed: even after getting behind their tank and hitting what would be a weak spot, the game only registered a glancing hit. I ended up deciding that, if the round only required my survival, I could easily camp out of range and simply wait for the timer to run out.

• I’ve found that Japanese games make much greater use of max-min optimisation elements in that, for best results, if one plays a certain way, the outcome with be guaranteed to go a certain way. In Dream Tank Match, for instance, I could have tried to engage All-Stars University and destroy all of their tanks. In any other game, the opposing team would be expected to retreat after some biting remarks about unexpected enemy strength, and the round would end. However, by preventing this outcome through use of unseen mechanics, Dream Tank Match forces players to last the whole five minutes.

• This was most visible when Dream Tank Match returns to the open field, and I selected Darjeeling’s Churchchill VII. With nothing to do beyond hang outside of the All-Star University team’s Pershings and their effective firing range, I took my time in aiming down sights, blasted their treads to slow them down and methodically picked off each tank until only their commander was left. Since the commander wasn’t taking any damage, I simply kept firing to occupy myself until the timer expired. While this does make for some tedium, I also remark that the mechanic was likely deliberate: the campaign is a re-telling of Der Film‘s events, so each chapter has constraints to ensure the story still plays out in a manner that is faithful to the original movie’s outcomes.

• One aspect of Dream Tank Match that I found distracting was the directional indicator, which is supposed to give players an idea of where their rounds are going. However, a part of the skill component in a given game, especially where projectile drop is simulated, is learning how to compensate for gravity; in early games, weapons were hit-scan, but as physics engines became more sophisticated, developers began treating projectiles as physics objects. This adds additional depth in the game, and landing a shot at range becomes a satisfying accomplishment.

• On the other hand, Dream Tank Match does simulate limited tank damage: tanks are weaker at the sides and from the rear, and angling one’s armour allows for some shots to be shrugged off. Similarly, aiming for the treads brings about a partial mobility kill – until repairs are conducted, any tank hit in the treads is rendered immobile for a period of time. Thus, one viable strategy is to aim for the treads where possible, and then get into a position where one can hammer a foe into oblivion. During the segment where I played as Mika, her BT-42’s mobility allowed me to take out three All-Star University Tanks with relative ease.

• Battlefield V‘s implementation of the Tiger I tank remains my favourite owing to the level detail, but in Dream Tank Match, it is the case that Girls und Panzer was not too far behind when it came to getting the details right. One element in Dream Tank Match that is completely absent is tank customisation: in Battlefield V, levelling up a tank gave access to specialisations that allowed the tank to perform in different ways, and while these specialisations were straight upgrades (as opposed to being side-grades with distinct pros and cons), they did push a tank to excel in specific roles. Battlefield 2042 sees the Tiger I and M4 Sherman return, but there’s no options for customisations at all.

• I would very much have preferred to engage my foes at long ranges, but in Dream Tank Match, the game is such that most matches force players into close quarters. Here, careful aim goes out the window, and speed becomes king: a tank with high manoeuvrability and a quick turret traversal matters more than higher damage per shot. In my Battlefield V days, I remember making extensive use of the Valentine Archer, whose initial high ammunition capacity allowed me to fell thirty enemy before I was destroyed. While DICE would reduce the maximum amount of shells the Valentine Archer could carry, the tank remains one of my favourites to use.

• Faster tanks allow for a more aggressive play-style, and this is what motivated my decision to prefer medium tanks in Battlefield V. In Dream Tank Match, tank damage models aren’t explicitly clear, and during the campaign, I found that both Ooarai and Chi-Ha Tan’s medium tanks were more than capable of dealing with heavy tanks. Observant readers will have noted that here, the M3 Lee Rabbit team is operating has two targetting lines, reflective of the fact that the tank had two main guns.

• Aside from its M2/M3 75 mm cannon, the M3 Lee also sported a M5/M6 37 mm cannon: the former was a sponson-mounted gun intended for taking on fortified positions and artillery, while the latter was intended to deal with other tanks. Although Germans considered the M3 Lee to be more than a match for the Panzer IV Ausf D. variants, Americans were dissatisfied with the tank, and it was eventually phased out by the venerable M4 in the European theatre.

• For my play-though of Dream Tank Match‘s campaign, since I played the M3 Lee in a segment whose objective was to reach an objective, I never got the chance to fire the weapons. These missions place a large number of tanks in one’s path, and while it can be fun to stop and engage, given the objective, it is more logical to press forwards to the goal: one can always return later and see if they can approach the same mission differently if they wish, and in most chapters, one can replay as different characters to see things from another side of the coin.

• The Crusader is infamous in Dream Tank Match for having extremely loose handling, to the point where it’s almost impossible to control for novice players. Being the most similar to the Valentine Archer, I decided to go with this tank for kicks. This mission was unusual in that there are waypoints one must hit in order for enemy spawns to happen, and while I get that this was to simulate the events of Der Film and prevent players from being annihilated, it also takes away from the challenge – any gamer with über-micro will have no trouble soloing anything.

• While Dream Tank Match has its limitations, and I certainly would’ve preferred more customisation options (like Battlefield V‘s specialisation), what the game does, it does well. On the topic of Battlefield, I’ve heard unverified rumours that Battlefield 2042 may be getting a second year of support and content. If true, this is exciting news, since it would represent a chance to really bring Battlefield 2042 up to standard with older games in terms of maps and weapons. While it’s been more than a year since the game launched, and no new Portal content has been added, I remain hopeful that more iconic maps, weapons and vehicles from Battlefield 3, Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 1942 are added.

• Here, Miho and Anzu engage the All-Star University Team amidst the narrow confines of a maze in a manner reminiscent of Namco’s 1980 top-down shooter, Tank Battalion, which pitted players against twenty enemy tanks, each of which sought to destroy the player’s base. The player’s goal was to eliminate the enemy tanks before this could happen, and the a top-down perspective made a maze layout appropriate. The game was praised the ability for players to destroy the bricks, allowing them to reach combat areas faster at the risk of giving enemy tanks a quicker route to their base.

• Tank Battalion was later remade as Battle City for the GameBoy, which featured additional elements like power-ups and enemy tanks with different properties. Tank games have (largely) come a long way from humble origins, and I’m certainly glad to have played Dream Tank Match – ever since the game was announced back in 2017 and released in 2018, I’ve longed to play this game. Back in 2013, World of Tanks had been the only viable option for players wanting a Girls und Panzer experience, but I found the game to be asinine for its mechanics.

• My criticisms of World of Tanks are based purely around the premium accounts and damage system, which have a profoundly negative impact on one’s experience. I’d previously noted that my grievances about World of Tanks would fill a small book, but that would be out-of-scope for this talk, and I’ll return in the future to share my thoughts on World of Tanks after ten years. It speaks poorly about Wargaming.net that they’ve not manage to fix the game sufficiently to impress me despite having such a timeframe.

• Of all the campaign missions, my favourite came when the game put me in Alice’s shoes, and I got behind the wheel of the Centurion. This British tank is widely considered to be the first Main Battle Tank, featuring the mobility of a light tank, the firepower and armour of a heavy tank and the profile of a medium tank. Chi-Ha Tan’s tanks stand no chance at all, and I slaughtered my foes in a matter of minutes. Experiences like these reinforce my belief that against undisciplined tankers, like members of AnimeSuki’s Mädchen und Panzer clan, I’d have no problem with taking them to school if I were permitted a MBT to even out the numbers.

• To reflect on the outcome of the battle’s final stages, Dream Tank Match allows one to drive the M26 Pershing as the All-Star University team mounts a comeback. Designed as a counter to the Tiger I, the Pershing was counted as being more than a match for German armour, save the Tiger II, and some variants of the Pershing were equipped with the T15E1 74 caliber cannon, giving it comparable firepower to the Tiger II. In a direct confrontation, Miho’s forces stand absolutely no chance against the Pershing, and I allowed myself to enjoy the moment. The resulting battle had been even more entertaining than when I’d used Battlefield: Portal to create a hypothetical engagement between a single M1A2 and nine Tiger Is.

• With my skill, any confrontation between myself and Mädchen und Panzer would result in what people call a roflstomp: if I have an appropriate tank, I’ll win after a thrilling match, and if I were given a tank with even the slightest advantage, it’ll turn into a one-sided slaughter. I remark here that because Girls und Panzer is a decade old, because general interest in World of Tanks has waned, and because Mädchen und Panzer similarly dissolved from lack of community, any engagement with one of World of Tanks‘ most notorious clans will permanently be a hypothetical one. I’ll therefore satisfy myself with the next best equivalent, which is something that Dream Tank Match offers.

• In this way, ten years after Girls und Panzer, I’ve finally had the chance to experience something I certainly wouldn’t have thought possible: Dream Tank Match is the definitive interactive Girls und Panzer experience, and while it’s no Battlefield V, the game plays well enough to give one a satisfactory chance to see the world that Miho and her friends see. With this post in the books, I’ll be returning in a few days to write about Girls und Panzer after a decade: the series is still engaging in the present, and the animation still holds up very well.

• I’ll wrap up with a screenshot of me engaging Alice in a two-on-one. Whereas Der Film had Miho using fire from Maho to accelerate her Panzer IV into a position where she could slide behind Alice’s Centurion for a killing shot, my attempt simply had me blasting Alice’s tracks off, leaving her immobilised, and then subsequently hammering the Centurion until health ran out. I’ve now completed the campaign mode and unlocked several tanks in a relatively short timeframe, but there is still a few more things to explore before I’ve had a complete Dream Tank Match experience. While I do have a tendency to procrastinate, here, I wager that I could play Dream Tank Match to completion before Das Finale‘s fourth part becomes available: by my original estimates, with a gap of 22 months, the fourth part was supposed to release back in January, and then a nine month gap between theatrical screenings and home release means overseas viewers like myself would get to see things by October. We’re now three months in 2023, and there’s still been no news of Das Finale‘s fourth act.

As enjoyable as Dream Tank Match is, the game is primarily intended for Girls und Panzer fans looking to further their enjoyment of the series: the art of Panzerfahren is admittedly less gripping than combined-arms warfare of the sort that Battlefield offers, and a focus on pure armoured combat means that the mind is not focused in other aspects that tankers must be mindful of. In addition, Dream Tank Match also highlights a limitation in current technologies for implementing a complete Panzerfahren experience. In Girls und Panzer, Miho is so successful against her foes because she has near limitless control over how she wishes for her teammates to operate. On the other hand, Dream Tank Match‘s AI will go off and act according to a decision tree of sorts, resulting in more limited behaviours. There is no way to issue orders, and no way to direct allied tanks to certain positions or act in certain ways. Similarly, while one does have human allies in the multiplayer, matches are limited to five-on-five, a fifth of the twenty-on-twenty action seen in Girls und Panzer‘s largest-scale battles. As a result, even with Dream Tank Match‘s release, there’s still no way to fully test the limitations of the Nishizumi Style (or the vaunted strategies that AnimeSuki’s Mädchen und Panzer clan claim as being infallible) against the might of flexible, fluid approaches styled after Sun Tzu’s Art of War and executed with the skill and precision of über-micro. With this being said, Dream Tank Match is unlikely to displace Battlefield V as the definitive World War Two armoured warfare experience: the latter completely outclasses it in terms of detail, immersion and skill. However, as a game that adds to one’s appreciation of Girls und Panzer, Dream Tank Match is still a worthwhile game to play for fans of the series, providing players with a chance to revisit Der Film‘s battles on their own terms and fight in a variety of scenarios to see how they might fare against various schools’ commanders and crew on the battlefield. The chance to step into the commander’s copula and participate in Panzerfahren to any extent is something that the me of a decade earlier certainly hadn’t been expecting to ever try out – when Girls und Panzer‘s finale released almost ten years ago, I’d been on the verge of finishing my undergraduate thesis paper, and with some time available to me, I suddenly found myself longing to play a game with tanks in it. No suitable candidate ever turned up, but Dream Tank Match winds up being the perfect way to see how the strategies and tactics I wrote of ultimately fared against what the anime community of the time posited, and to nobody’s surprise, irrespective of the chaotic and adaptive style Miho uses, the precision and skill Alice brings to the table or the brute force Black Forest employs, there is no foe that stands a chance against practitioners of über-micro.

Revisiting Girls und Panzer: Celebrating Ooarai’s Victory and Future Directions At The Finale

“It is easy to love your friend, but sometimes the hardest lesson to learn is to love your enemy.” –Sun Tzu

Despite Anteater team’s early exit, they wish Miho the best of luck: Miho directs the remaining Ooarai forces to a hill and they prepare to dig in, using smoke to cover their advance. Maho orders her tanks to hold their fire, and by the time the smoke clears, Ooarai have set up. Having allowed Turtle team and their Hetzer to linger behind, Miho exchanges fire with Black Forest. Although they are outgunned, Turtle team appears and creates enough chaos for Miho to head back down the hill. Miho decides to push fight things out in an urban region, but along the way, Rabbit team’s tank stalls while crossing a river. With Black Forest’s tanks approaching from the rear, Miho makes the call to rescue Rabbit team – she hops over to their M3 with a cable and hitches it to the remaining tanks, who are able to pull Rabbit team out of the water. Their engine restarts to general relief, and Ooarai arrives at the urban centre. Here, they find themselves face-to-face with the Panzer VIII Maus, which quickly disables Mallard team and Hippo team. Feeling that the Maus will continue to be a problem if not dealt with, Miho asks Turtle team to ram the Maus with their Hetzer, while Duck team blocks its turret from rotating. With a carefully placed shot from Hana to the Maus’ engine block, Ooarai takes it out of the game. The Hetzer malfunctions, having taken a beating in the process, and the Student Council pray for Miho’s success. Miho manages to lure the remaining Black Forest tanks into the city streets. Rabbit team and Duck team disperse to draw Black Forest’s tanks off them, successfully disabling several of their tank destroyers, while Miho herself prepares to head off into the high school for a one-on-one with Maho. In a tense showdown, Miho decides to chance everything on the move that had failed against Darjeeling. This time, with everything on the line, Anko team lands a hit squarely to the engine block of Maho’s Tiger I, bringing the finals to an end. After addressing Ooarai and thanking them, Miho heads off to meet Maho, who congratulates Miho on her victory. Erika promises that they’ll meet in Panzerfahren again. Maho is pleased that Miho’s found her way, and in the stands, Shiho gently applauds Miho. The victorious Panzerfahren team later ride through Ooarai in a parade, and the girls promise to unwind in the onsen before riding out on their tanks again. This brings Girls und Panzer‘s TV series to its satisfying conclusion, demonstrating how through unparalleled camaraderie and acceptance from her classmates, Miho’s come to find her own Way of the Tank and proving, beyond any reasonable doubt, that there is room for compassion and empathy in Panzerfahren and reality.

Ooarai’s victory over Black Forest is an integral part of Girls und Panzer; it is a show of how far Miho has come since she made the decision to pick the sport up again, how under her command, Ooarai galvinised itself into fighting for both their futures together and for a commander who plainly shows that she cares about everyone around her. From a narrative standpoint, Ooarai has done everything correctly, and Girls und Panzer had laid down all of the groundwork needed to create a satisfying victory. The sum of Miho’s learnings through her time with the accepting and open-mindedness among her new teammates gives her the courage to lead everyone into battle, and at the same time, treating teammates and opponents alike with compassion is why Ooarai wins every match it has participated in vis-à-vis making friends of opponents. This is a team that deserves its victory because it champions sportsmanship, respectfulness and humility, and together with the fact that everyone is now fighting not for the sake of victory, but for the chance to forge a future together with one another, their spirit is indefatigable. Even a Maus is not enough to shake them from this; once the shock of its appearance wears off, Miho manages to regroup her team and spur them on with a bold plan of taking it out using the hardware they have available to them. Spotting the ingenuity that Miho brings with her into each battle, each of Ooarai’s groups eventually develop a style of their own, too. The Student Council enjoy sneaking up on foes and surprising them at close quarters, while the Volleyball Club use their speed to lure opponents out. The history buffs capitalise on their StuG III’s low profile to snipe foes without being seen, and the first years begin to mind their surroundings and use this to their advantage. As the girls participate in Panzerfahren, they develop a very strong understanding of their preferred styles, as well as a profound connection with their tank’s strengths and weaknesses. Because Ooarai’s entire loadout consists of different tanks, this allows them to fight in highly flexible and creative ways. Adaptiveness is what gives Ooarai such an advantage over their opponents, and with each group having found their own Way of the Tank, in conjunction with the shared goal of saving their school, Ooarai is placed in a position where their victory is deserved: being pushed into a corner prompts everyone to fight harder for one another’s sake, and in this moment, Ooarai wanted to win more badly than Black Forest did as a consequence of their circumstance, which brought out the best in every team. While Ooarai’s win might prima facie appear to be clichéd, a tale of the underdog prevailing in the face of overwhelmingly unfavourable odds, the reality is that this is a team that has sweated, cried and bled for their victory, by placing their faith in, and doing what they can for one another.

The fact that Ooarai advanced through the entirety of the national tournament undefeated does raise an interesting question: what would it take to best Miho and her scrappy teammates in a Panzerfahren battle? With their motley collection of tanks, and a style that is as fluid as water itself, Ooarai fights in a way to maximise chaos, utilising the environment to their advantage and creating scenarios where they can employ divide-and-conquer tactics, breaking up enemy formations and defeating tanks individually. This typically entails drawing foes into close-quarters environments and then allowing tanks to engage foes independently using the methods best suited for the tank and its operators, or otherwise using their own flag tank as bait and setting up scenarios that allow them to finish things off in a decisive, unexpected stroke. Ooarai’s style is succinctly described as a lack of style, and for foes accustomed to entire schools employing a single set of tactics, Ooarai becomes incredibly frustrating to beat – tank crews are trained to act in a coordinated and disciplined manner on the assumption that enemies fight a particular way, so when faced with Ooarai, which frequently uses unorthodox tactics to deceive their foes, it becomes very difficult to overcome a team that is creatively adapting to whatever scenarios one has planned for. However, there is a way to defeat Ooarai nonetheless: because Miho and her teammates are now accustomed to drawing foes in and separating them, understanding that Miho prefers close quarters means not taking their bait. A team could use lighter tanks to employ hit-and-fade tactics from seemingly random directions to confuse Ooarai, and then slowly push them into a kill zone where tanks with longer-range weapons can be utilised. Similarly, knowing Ooarai’s preference for divide-and-conquer means keeping one’s tanks together in small groups to defend against rushes from Ooarai. A combination of light tanks and medium tanks, coupled with one or two heavy tanks, and a small number of tank destroyers would therefore be the best setup against Ooarai. Because Ooarai’s setup is weaker at long-range combat, defeating them would entail thinning out some of their numbers at the very beginning, before Miho can organise a divide-and-conquer strategy, and then as the match does push into close quarters, keeping tanks together in groups of three while at the same time, maintaining mobility and repositioning to constantly ensure Ooarai’s tanks do not box one in to a trap. Miho is definitely not unbeatable by any stretch, although schools would need to be willing to use tricks of their own to gain the upper hand over Ooarai, and this is a direction that Girls und Panzer has indeed taken, through both Der Film and Das Finale, to ensure that battles remain engaging. When opponents also employ deception and mix things up, as Miho is wont to doing, matches become more thrilling to watch because even though the outcome is preordained, it forces Ooarai to really work for their wins, creating situations that are even more compelling and engaging.

Screenshots and Commentary

• Unlike the viewers of 2012, #AniTwitWatches is fortunate in that we’ve got all of the episodes available to us right out of the gates. Girls und Panzer‘s final two episodes aired three months after the tenth episode, and it was here that the series really kicked things up a notch. The general consensus amongst contemporary viewers, and unanimously amongst the folks I spoke with, that Ooarai had done everything conceivable as to deserve their win against a team whose reputation is fearsome, and whose equipment seems overwhelmingly powerful. As such, when I approached the final two episodes, my expectations were that Ooarai would win, but the battle for it would be unlike any other that Miho and her teammates had previously faced. This approach is typical to Girls und Panzer, and the nearest equivalent I can think of is Ip Man (as well as its sequels): the titular Ip Man (Donnie Yen) is never shown as losing, and at worst, only will draw with opponents.

• An unbeatable protagonist works in fiction when the story deals with another facet to their character that sees advancement. For Ip Man, Ip Man is shown as navigating challenges surrounding family and community life as his circumstances change. Similarly, Girls und Panzer‘s focus is on Miho rediscovering herself. Her skill in Panzerfahren is never a concern because it was never the core of the series, and consequently, Ooarai winning would represent more than a mere Cinderella Story: it is a tangible, definitive show of how Miho’s embraced her own style enough to lead an entire team to the top. to see Ooarai take the championship was centred around the fact that Miho had not done enough to earn her victory. However, what counts as “enough” is a subjective measure, and in the context of Girls und Panzer, I counter-argue that Miho has contributed greatly to Ooarai’s Panzerfahren. She is selfless and hard-working, doing everything she can to ensure everyone’s success. She takes responsibility for her actions and looks after those around her.

• After Miho organises her forces on the hill and sends Black Forest into disarray, some folks began to feel that the school as a whole was overrated, a paper tiger. However, I would counter-argue that Black Forest’s performance against Ooarai is a show of when their strategy can be made to fail. Rather than supposing that Black Forest is deficient, Kay puts it best: Black Forest folds when things begin going in a way they’ve never trained for. At the start of this match, initiative rests purely with Black Forest, but after Turtle team use their Hetzer to create a distraction, Black Forests’ crews become so surprised at the fact that no one’s ever driven a smaller tank besides theirs to stay out of fire, that they lose composure and begin to panic. This allows Miho’s team to escape: while it does make Black Forest look incompetent, the fact is that previously, other schools simply attempted to match forces with Black Forest, and since Black Forest has tougher tanks, they simply came out on top.

• Ooarai’s unorthodox tactics creates frustration, and this is ultimately why Black Forest is thrown into disarray. Miho’s intention here isn’t to fight them, since in open fields, Black Forests’ tanks still have the advantage. Instead, with the distraction the Student Council have created, Miho leads all of her tanks back down towards a town, making use of confusion and smoke to mask their escape. Whereas other schools seem reluctant to use smoke, Ooarai utilises it liberally to their advantage: this trait is decidedly ninja-like, and as Christopher Nolan’s Ra’s al Ghul remarks, theatricality and deception are powerful agents, making a single individual feel like ten, and making ten feel like a hundred. Now that I think about it, Ooarai’s tactics resembles those of ninjutsu, counting on a combination of patience and agility to overcome opponents. To the uninitiated, Ooarai is a frustrating opponent to fight because they never go in for a head-on confrontation, which is where schools with superior equipment would fare better in.

• Similarly, because Ooarai runs a motley collection of tanks, each with different properties, other schools cannot simply adopt a generalised set of tactics. For instance, Saunders fielded M4 Shermans exclusively, which means that knowing their armour properties, and their own tanks’ capabilities, would allow another school to devise an optimal style of engaging them. Ooarai’s light tanks can be taken out of the fight in a single shot, but they are highly mobile, and while one is focused on fighting something like the Type 89 or Char B1 Bis, one leaves themselves vulnerable to an ambush from the Panzer IV, StuG III or Porsche Tiger. Here, one of the mechanical club’s members fix the fickle engine on the Porsche Tiger, which begins smoking mid-combat.

• Having largely sat the flame wars at AnimeSuki during the day, by the time Girls und Panzer‘s final two episodes aired, I was largely finished my thesis project and had been quite ready to defend. This project had been a multi-scale model of the renal system, and I was aiming to show how using a common environment would allow for system state to be stored while transitioning between different granularities. While the idea of a singleton is counted as an anti-pattern in software engineering, it is useful to create a single environment when it comes to multi-scale spaces, and with my project, I demonstrated that some patterns in software engineering may not always be practical in every circumstance: using a singleton to store state values allowed my model to compute system-wide values, and then these values would influence how my agent-based model behaved at lower levels. Transitioning between the levels was seamless, because the values were being computed in a shared environment, and in the end, this project formed the basis for my graduate thesis: using similar principles, I built a much more sophisticated model of a cell, even simulating tubule assembly and disassembly in response to environmental factors.

• Watching Girls und Panzer helped me to unwind after days spent writing my paper and keeping up with my other courses (databases, statistics and software engineering), and the series gave me much to smile about. Here, Erika throws a tantrum after her frustrations reach a boiling point when the tracks to her Tiger II become dislodged. The me of nine years earlier enjoyed a cruel laugh at Erika’s expense, but the me of the present understands that Erika had an abrasive personality, because her loneliness led her to constantly want to prove herself to Maho and earn Maho’s praise. The nine year gap between my initial experience and the present has meant that I’ve become a little more understanding of why stories unfold the way that they do, and it is for this reason that I hold the belief that it is unnecessary, and inappropriate, to become impatient with fictional characters.

• The idea that fictional high school students need to be held to the same standard as adults, trained professionals or experts in their field, is absolutely ludicrous: we don’t expect high school students in reality to produce the same level of work or possess the same level of understanding as someone who’s been in a discipline for years, or even decades. During the science fair I adjudicated earlier this month, the instructions had plainly been to offer constructive feedback and appreciate that these are high school students with a keen interest in a topic. As such, while some projects had clear design flaws or a misunderstanding of limitations, my job wasn’t to pick this apart, but rather, to point it out and make helpful suggestions. If a student acknowledges this, then they’ve demonstrated satisfactory understanding of their experiments and its outcomes. This science fair was for one of the city’s most prestigious private academies, and while there will be another city-wide science fair later this month, I’ll have to sit this out on account of my moving.

• Applying the same logic to Girls und Panzer makes things all the more enjoyable: we are dealing with students who are aged anywhere from 14 to 18 – while bright and capable, they’re not anywhere nearly as experienced as an expert or professional, so one has to allow for the fact that sometimes, mistakes will occur. With this being said, high school students are also capable of innovation, considering resourceful and creative manners to problems that professionals might dismiss. Thus, when they get things right, high school students can impress, as well: here in Girls und Panzer, Miho decisively shows that she’s committed to her approach towards Panzerfahren, and when Rabbit team’s M3 stalls, her decision is to rescue them, no questions asked. She asks her teammates to provide covering fire so the rescue doesn’t jeopardise things, and banks on the fact that saving the M3 gives everyone the best chance they have of winning.

• One thing I did notice during the original run was how an anonymous 2chan user claimed that Miho’s jump to reach Mallard Team’s Char B1 Bis from her Panzer IV required a horizontal distance of 5.17 metres. However, this individual’s methodology was completely off the mark, since they measured Miho’s height and horizontal distance based on frames. Inspection of an earlier frame finds that the Panzer IV is parked about 1.8 metres from the Char B1 Bis. My conclusion here is simple: 2chan’s users made a faulty observation, worked with a false assumption, employed inconsistent methodologies and therefore got an invalid conclusion. This is typical of message boards, and the reality of the moment was that ACTAS chose to show the sort of person Miho was through a bit of visual exaggeration. Even if Miho had jumped 5.17 metres, Galina Chistyakova holds the world record of 7.52 metres. Missteps (and the insistence that these aren’t missteps) like these are precisely the reason why, to this day, I do not count message boards like 2chan as having anything approaching credible information.

• After Rabbit team nears the riverbanks, their engine comes back to life. Saori is overjoyed, and this moment, while considerably less perilous than Miho’s rescue of the stricken Panzer III, reiterates to viewers that Miho will continue being herself. In fact, choosing not to rescue Rabbit team would contradict what Miho had stood for: she wants to pursue Panzerfahren in her own way, and sacrificing a team to save the school, while seemingly the “right” thing to do, actually may have unforeseen consequences. Ooarai’s limited tank count means that every working tank is valuable, and needlessly throwing tanks away could very well come back to cost Ooarai later.

• While Maho’s accustomed to Miho’s antics and orders her tanks forward, Erika impatiently expresses a want to crush Ooarai underfoot. Maho rocks the Tiger I, the quintessential German heavy tank of World War Two, while Erika’s team operates the Tiger II, which fits a sloped turret on the Tiger chassis and equips the KwK 43, which could defeat up to 304 mm of RHAe at ranges of 100 metres or less. Despite their firepower, the combination of comparatively inaccurate gunners and the fact that Ooarai’s tanks are comparatively small means that the 88 mm shells Black Forests lobs are ineffectual: beyond Anteater team, Ooarai still has seven of their eight tanks available to them.

• Upon reaching a narrow stone bridge, Ooarai crosses it to reach the urban area: Miho’s feeling that it’s easier if they settle things in a CQC environment, and to buy themselves more time, the mechanical club manages to do a “wheelie” with their Porsche Tiger, destroying the bridge and forcing Black Forest to take the long way around. This stunt reminded me of a scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, where Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin manage to board the Bucklebury Ferry to cross the Brandywine river ahead of the Black Riders, in turn forcing the Nazgûl to cross at Brandywine Bridge some twenty miles (32 kilometres) to the north. With a total distance of 40 miles to cover, and with the average horse capable of sustaining a speed of around 30 miles per hour, taking the ferry gives Frodo and company a one hour and twenty minute head start over their pursuers.

• No such metrics are presented in Girls und Panzer, but with Black Forest’s main force now behind them, Miho focuses on organising her tanks urban warfare using the time available to her. However, in the narrow streets lined with Khrushchyovka-like apartments, Ooarai suddenly spots a lone Panzer III and orders her tanks after it, hoping to neutralise it before it can radio back to Maho’s main forces and give away their position. Here, viewers and Ooarai alike are dealt their biggest surprise in the whole of Girls und Panzer: the Panzer VIII Maus, which was the largest heavy tank ever built. With a maximum armour thickness of 220 mm in the front, and a minimum of 150 mm of armour in the back, the Maus could withstand everything Ooarai had to throw at it: even the Porsch Tiger’s KwK 36 could only penetrate 219 mm of armour at under 100 metres, and this was assuming it was using PzGr. 40 rounds.

• Armed with a 128 mm KwK 44, the Maus could trivially deal with any Allied tank: its 28.3 kilogram armour-piercing shells could punch through 312 mm of armour at ranges of up to half a kilometre. When faced with a Maus, Ooarai stands no chance in a head-on confrontation, and swiftly lose two tanks (the Char B1 Bis and StuG III) here. Attempts to take the Maus on fails: nothing in Ooarai’s arsenal would have been able to even scratch it from the front. Had the Maus been deployed on the battlefield, it is likely that Allied forces would’ve withdrawn their forces from the area and called in an airstrike to deal with these behemoths, which were designed as breakthrough tanks. However, despite their immense armour and firepower, the Maus has several key weaknesses. Its heavy armour rendered it extremely heavy (188 tonnes), and this left it incredibly slow; the Maus could only reach a maximum speed of 20 km/h.

• Because of the Maus’ low mobility, one can readily surmise that Maho had foreseen that Miho would try to draw combat into the close quarters of an urban area, and therefore, placed the Maus here so that Ooarai’s tanks could be eliminated. In this fight, Maho’s advantage is not only in numbers; she knows how Miho will likely respond to things and plan accordingly. Thus, when the match begins, Miho is only aware of the fact that Black Forest is fielding Tiger Is, Tiger IIs, Jagdpanthers and other, better known Wehrmacht tanks. The Maus comes as a surprise even to her, and I imagine this tank had been a recent acquisition. While Black Forest gives the impression of depending on overwhelming firepower to win the day, I will note that Maho is able to set up situations so that these slower tanks do not become a liability, and moreover, the fact is that Black Forest does have several Panzer IIIs in their inventory, which means, at least in theory, Black Forest is able to counter Ooarai where speed and mobility are concerned.

• Wild Goose suggested to the AnimeSuki community, in jest, that it would take an M1A2 Abrams to defeat a Maus, but this would, strictly speaking, be overkill: the Abrams’ greatest advantage over the Maus is its mobility, and spotting this, Miho decides that they must take out the Maus here and now, otherwise, they’ll be put at a disadvantage. The Panzer III accompanying the Maus is swiftly destroyed, and when Saori comments on the Maus’ extreme dimensions as resembling a tank stacked on another tank, Miho gains a stroke of inspiration. She asks Turtle team and Duck team to assist in a bold tactic: Turtle team and their Hetzer will act as a makeshift ramp to jam the Maus in place, while Duck team drives onto the Maus and prevents its turret from rotating.

• In previous Girls und Panzer discussions, I’ve never really featured the volleyball club too much, and while their Type 89’s primary armament was intended for anti-infantry combat rather than anti-tank combat, this team nonetheless remains plucky, utilising their Type 89’s mobility to Ooarai’s advantage. Of the volleyball club’s members, I’m the most fond of Taeko Kondō (front right), who has a friendly personality and acts as Duck team’s radio operator. She’s not quite as hot-blooded as commander Noriko Isobe or gunner Akebi Sasaki, who try to push against their Type 89’s walls while Anko team makes a single, well-placed shot to the Maus’ engine block.

• This takes the Maus out of the game, impressing the spectators and prompting Darjeeling to remark that this is something that St. Gloriana may find merit in trying, too. For schools like Pravda, however, this is quite unnecessary: Katyusha has access to the KV-2 and its M1938 (M-10) 152 mm howitzer, whose 40 kilogram armour-piercing projectiles could punch through 800 mm of concrete. Even a modern tank would likely be mission-killed by a direct hit, and definitely rattled by such an impact, but on the flip-side, the KV-2’s armour was relatively thin (a maximum of 110 mm): although quite protected against early German tanks, the Pak 40 would easily get through it. Contemporary tanks could simply out-manoeuvre it and count on modern shells to one-shot a KV-2. Since Ooarai lacked any direct means against the Maus, Miho resorts to indirect means of taking it out.

• Ooarai’s success comes at a cost: the Hetzer’s on-board computer determines that having a Maus and Type 89 sitting on top of it would be detrimental, and the Student Council’s tank bites the dust moments after they make to rejoin Miho. They’ve done well to make it this far; the Hetzer upgrade has really allowed Anzu to play to her strengths – throughout Girls und Panzer, Momo continued to miss shots, even at ranges close enough for contact shots, and against stationary targets. As Turtle team continued to train, Anzu would swap places with Momo. This was highly effective against Pravda, where Anzu had used the 38(t)’s 37 mm gun to blow tracks off heavier enemy tanks and score mobility kills, buying Miho time to set things up. With the Student Council out of play, Ooarai is down to their last four tanks.

• Amidst the narrow, winding city streets, Rabbit team shows extraordinary ingenuity in their duel against Black Forest’s tank destroyers: in saving the first years, Miho allows them to really find their own way and draw fire away from her flag tank. Inspired by the film Kelly’s Heroes, the first years use the environment to their advantage and, while the Elefant cannot easily turn here, manage to flank it. Although its armour is too thick for conventional assault, Saki suggests hitting the hatch the Elefant uses to discard spent shell casings, taking the Elefant out of the fight. Later, Rabbit team even defeats the Jagdtiger, the heaviest tank the Germans had mass produced. Essentially a smaller Maus, the Jagdtiger also carried the KwK 44: rather than directly trading blows with it, the first years count on the fact the Jagdtiger crew is fixated on defeating them and fails to mind their surroundings. While the Jagdtiger does get a finishing shot off, it tumbles into a dry canal and snaps its barrel off in the process.

• In a final act of defiance, Leopon team parks their Porsche Tiger in front of the school gates, preventing Erika and the other Black Forest tanks from backing up Maho. In a titanic one-on-one duel, Miho and Maho find themselves evenly matched against one another, unable to decisively deal the other a killing blow. While Miho and Maho fight it out, Duck team had been drawing the remainder of Black Forest’s tanks away from Miho to give her a chance to win, but they are destroyed by the pursuing forces. Despite Ooarai’s resilience, a prolonged battle would turn against Miho very quickly, hence her decision to attempt a mano-a-mano battle. Some argued that Miho’s strategy was “ruthless”, entailing sacrificing her entire team for a one-on-one, but this was more of a decision made on the basis that Ooarai never had the resources to go toe-to-toe against Black Forest in a direct confrontation: the whole point had always been about what Miho’s teammates were willing to do for her, after everything she’d put down on the line for them.

• Whether or not Maho’s teammates care about their school, or Maho herself, is ultimately irrelevant to the discussion because this is a story about Ooarai, not Black Forest – from Ooarai’s perspective, and therefore, the perspective ACTAS wanted viewers to focus on, what matters is that Miho has done a satisfactory job of rallying her teammates to the task at hand, against an intimidating foe. Assumptions about Black Forest don’t hold any significance because their role is simply to serve as a powerful opponent standing between Ooarai and their goal of saving their school. The story has no need to establish them further than this: it is therefore counterproductive to consider whether or not they were competent or lived up to their reputation. As it was, Girls und Panzer had done a fantastic job of guiding viewers through what its aims were – when an anime makes its themes as plain as day, the goal in the end is ultimately entertainment, and in this capacity, Girls und Panzer indubitably succeeds.

• In the weeks after Girls und Panzer ended, some spent a nontrivial amount of time attempting to defend claims that Miho had not earned her victory because Black Forest appeared as though they were forcibly nerfed. My final remarks on this are simple: this is plainly not the case, since Black Forest still had the advantage of numbers by the time Miho and Maho were duelling, with all of Ooarai’s other tanks immobilised. The chaos Ooarai had wrought ultimately succeeded in buying them time to set up a one-on-one battle, which Miho had bet everything on. Similarly, Maho’s duel with Miho reveals that both sisters are competent commanders: Maho is a shade more skilful overall, while Miho’s crew is a shade more devoted. Black Forest was not rendered incompetent for the sake of the story as was claimed, and the final outcome is ultimately plausible: Panzerfahren matches are very fluid, and while schools may have their styles, matches always descend into chaos in close quarters, which is why flag tank matches are counted as being the most exciting to watch in-universe.

• When it became clear that Ooarai losing would’ve contradicted Girls und Panzer‘s themes, these individuals contended that the most “realistic” ending given Black Forest’s advantage should have been to have them lose, but for the board of directors at MEXT to recognise Ooarai as having potential and allowing them to remain open anyways. Such an ending actually fails to convey the themes that Girls und Panzer were going for: I’d previously defined “victory” as achieving one’s aims. Miho had stated herself that their goal was to take Ooarai all the way to the championship title, and anything less would show that Miho had failed to fulfil her word to her fellow teammates. On this token, allowing Ooarai to remain open despite their losing would satisfy another theme (i.e. “things work out in unexpected ways in life, but as long as one works hard, things may favour them in the long run”), but this was not Girls und Panzer‘s initial objective, which was to show how people can find their own way and achieve excellence in the company of accepting, open-minded people. By this point in time, I’ve said everything I’ve felt to be relevant regarding the old arguments accompanying Girls und Panzer‘s original run.

• While it is immature of me to be concerned with anime opinions dating back nine years, I’ve long wished to express these thoughts – back then, I deemed it imprudent to waste time on arguing with shallow, stubborn individuals, and for my patience, I did very well in the things that mattered (I made the Dean’s List that year and was offered an NSERC USRA, for instance). A part of me had always wanted to speak up, but I never had the chance: by the time I was done with my undergraduate project, the community had moved on to fighting over other anime, and my thoughts were completely ignored. I’ve never had the opportunity for feedback until this #AniTwitWatches changed that, which finally allowed me a chance to learn more about some of Girls und Panzer‘s most controversial topics. Besides learning more about what others think of said moments, this revisit allowed me to formulate more articulate arguments to counter some of what I thought to be the most gratuitous claims against Girls und Panzer – in many ways, one can consider these revisit posts to be posts I’ve been drafting in my mind for the past nine years, only becoming reality in the present day.

• At the end of the day, Black Forest gracefully accepts their defeat at Ooarai’s hands; Maho and Miho reconcile as fellow commanders, and this moment had left me impressed. It is clear that Black Forest was never meant to be a heartless, ruthless school focused on the single-minded pursuit of victory. Positivity is a major part of Girls und Panzer, and through this #AniTwitWatches with the community, it becomes clear that humility and compassion are plainly to be celebrated. My own enjoyment of the series and its finale was very positive – after the series concluded, I submitted my written thesis and steeled myself for the oral defence. Because this was so long ago, I only remember that during that oral exam, I remained in control the entire time, presenting my work, answering questions, acknowledging improvements and showcasing the implications of this project, without any trouble.

• The outcome of Ooarai’s victory is complete in the sense that Maho and even Erika don’t feel particularly bothered by what happened: Maho’s proud that Miho’s found her own way, and I would imagine that Erika’s happy to have fought a Miho fighting her hardest. We recall that Maho had embraced the Nishizumi Style and its path so Miho could pursue her own future, while Erika’s hatred of Miho stems from a past match against her where Miho had held back to let Erika win. Knowing this history helps to account for why Maho and Erika were the final opponents for Miho; while not antagonistic in and of themselves, they do represent the part of Miho’s past that she’d been seeking to run away from. In standing her ground in battle against Maho and Erika, Miho proves to both that she’s matured, able to take responsibility and do what is expected of her, which makes Maho proud, and shows Erika that Miho respects her as an opponent and as a person.

• Questions of what exactly the Nishizumi Style is have lingered since Girls und Panzer ended, and I imagine that it was originally left as an exercise to the viewers, similarly to how some things in Rick and Morty are left unexplained (such as the precise problem with the Cob World: Rick’s reaction itself is the joke). If, and when I am asked about the Nishizumi Style, it is the practise of being organised and always advancing in a measured, disciplined fashion. During the match against Ooarai, Maho’s tanks never once retreat or fall back. However, while Shiho may not find Miho a successor to the family traditions, she accepts that her daughter is impressive in her own right, as well. The show of Shiho applauding Miho’s victory was meant to indicate that, had Miho sought out her mother in conversation here, she might’ve gotten something meaningful out of things. Leaving this unattended left the one small hole in an otherwise masterpiece-level experience.

• With Miho victorious, and Ooarai’s future secure for the present, Girls und Panzer draws to a close. The me of nine years earlier did not know that we would be receiving a continuation in the form of Der Film and Das Finale, along with three more OVAs on top of the six that were bundled with the original series. I do feel that Girls und Panzer could have ended here; save for Miho having a proper heart-to-heart talk with Shiho, every other detail in the series had been attended to in a decisive, satisfactory manner. When Girls und Panzer ended, I wrapped up my undergraduate thesis defense and entered my summer. Despite having been offered an NSERC USRA and gearing up to build a peer-to-peer module for simulating multiple concurrent processes, I was also treading into uncertain grounds, at the crossroads between medical school and graduate school. The summer would also see to the largest flood to afflict my area in over a century, and said flood brought with it a melancholy I’d never experienced before. However, this is going to be a story for another time: this year marks the ten year anniversary to Girls und Panzer‘s release, and I’ve got one more idea of a post to celebrate this milestone.

With my fourth rewatch of Girls und Panzer now concluded, I would like to first thank the #AniTwitWatches community again for both voting for this series, as well as accompanying both myself and one another through this journey. The inevitable question of what lay ahead for Girls und Panzer would have doubtlessly been on the minds of everyone who’d just finished the series. Girls und Panzer had concluded in a decisive, definitive and satisfying manner; Ooarai had been saved and Miho had found her own Way of the Tank, which paved the way for a future where Miho could continue to train alongside her friends at a school she’s come to hold very dear. Had Girls und Panzer ended here, the story would’ve closed off in a good place, leaving the viewers’ imagination and creativity to fill in any gaps, with the question of whether or not Miho could reconcile with Shiho being one of the larger questions Girls und Panzer had left unanswered. However, viewers were almost immediately assured that ACTAS would be producing new Girls und Panzer content after the series ended: the match against Anzio had been regarded as a hole in the series, and with some viewers jumping to the conclusion that Anchovy was unsportsmanlike, an OVA was needed to indicate this wasn’t true to any capacity. The Anzio OVA thus brought additional depth to Girls und Panzer. Six more OVAs were also released along with the series, giving the characters some downtime, showing a few behind-the-scenes moments and giving viewers a modicum of insight into the world that is Girls und Panzer. It was therefore to general surprise that a movie would be made: Girls und Panzer Der Film would essentially take the events of Girls und Panzer and scale it up for the silver screen. While perhaps not adding anything novel to the themes and messages of Girls und Panzer, Der Film represents what was possible in Panzerfahren matches and was well-received. However, things didn’t stop here: ACTAS announced that another series, Das Finale, would be set after Der Film. Das Finale remains true to the approach that had been so successful for Girls und Panzer: it is written around the premise of securing another championship title so Momo can gain admittance to a post-secondary of her choice. Despite its unconventional release schedule, Das Finale represents a chance for Girls und Panzer to wrap up Miho’s story, as well – besides passing on the torch to the other students so Ooarai can continue to be successful, Miho still has yet to properly have a face-to-face conversation with Shiho. The hope is that Das Finale, per its name, concludes Miho’s story: I am of the mind that doing this would be the surest sign that Miho has overcome her old fears and now sports the confidence to move onwards. In the meantime, it is with some surprise I note that it has now been nine years since I watched Girls und Panzer. In that time, I’ve since earned graduate degree in computer science and have the minimal amount of both professional and life experience to conclude that Girls und Panzer‘s themes of sportsmanship, teamwork, compassion and empathy do indeed hold relevance in the real world, whereas dispassionate, cold and ruthless mindsets only result in isolation, disappointment and failure.

Revisiting Girls und Panzer: Remarks Concerning Family, Reconciliation and Sportsmanship At The Intermission’s Eve

“No family is perfect. We argue, we fight, we even stop talking to each other at times, but in the end, family is family. The love will always be there.” –Unknown

Capitalising on the time Katyusha has allowed for the surrender, Miho sets her teammates with repairing their tanks and asks Yukari, Mako, Riko and Midoriko to help with reconnaissance – in order to plan out their next move, Miho needs to know how Pravada’s tanks are organised. The two teams come back from their assignment with the tanks’ locations plotted out, but upon noticing her teammates beginning to lose hope amidst the cold winter night, Miho begins performing the Anglerfish dance to give her teammates hope. When Pravada’s emissaries return, Miho remarks that they’d prefer to see the match through to the end. Surprised, Katyusha prepares to do battle with Miho, but Miho surprises her by aiming straight for the most heavily fortified position in Katyusha’s cordon. This unexpected move catches Katyusha off-guard, and Ooarai’s tanks are able to disperse. Nonna uses her IS-2 to pick off several of Ooarai’s tanks, and Miho authorises Yukari’s offer to perform more reconnaissance. Once she locates Pravda’s flag tank and learns it’s been circling the village, away from the combat, she relays its position to Miho, who orders the Hippo team into position. Duck team manages to evade a crushing blow from the Pravda tanks long enough for the StuG III to take out Pravda’s flag tank, ending the match. In the aftermath, Katyusa thanks Miho for a match well-played and promises to watch the finale. Ooarai advances to the finals, where they will square off against Black Forest, Miho’s previous school. Black Forest is renowned for fielding heavy German tanks in large numbers, so the student council continue their search for new tanks. They find a Japanese Type 3 Chi-Nu and receive offers from several gamers to operate it; they become Anteater team. By this point in time, the mechanics club have also finished bringing the Porsche Tiger online, and the student council pick up a Jagdpanzer 38 conversion kit. Hana later invites her friends to a flower arrangement exhibition, where it is revealed Hana’s mother has reconciled with Hana after becoming impressed with how Hana is now able to express her own individuality in flower arrangement. On the day of the finale, Darjeeling, Kay and Katyusha appear to wish Miho all the best. As Ooarai and Black Forest greet one another prior to starting the match, Kōme Akaboshi approaches Miho and thanks her for having saved her crew during the previous year, as well as expressing relief that Miho’s still in Panzerfahren. When the match starts, Ooarai find themselves under fire almost immediately. Erika takes aim with the intent of ending the match in seconds, but when Anteater struggles with their tank, they inadvertently take the shot meant for Anko.

Despite its portrayal of Shiho as being a very strict practitioner of Panzerfahren, and Black Forest’s reputation as an efficient, devastating opponent to fight against, Girls und Panzer continues to steer the atmosphere in a direction to remind viewers that at heart, this is a series about sportsmanship and respect for one’s opponents. At the finale itself, Miho has the chance to meet with all of her previous opponents anew: Darjeeling has shown up to greet Miho and compliments her on having found a way of not only winning matches, but winning hearts and minds of those she faces in competition. The reason why this is so important is because this appears to be the heart of Panzerfahren. Kay is similarly excited to see what Miho has up her sleeve, and perhaps most surprisingly of all, Katyusha has appeared to support Miho whole-heartedly, asking Miho to provide the most exciting match that she can. The reason why Miho is able to win hearts and minds of her own teammates and those she faces off against is because she’s humble, considerate and thoughtful. To Miho, what comes first is looking after those around her, and so, when her teammates fight alongside one another with such devotion and conviction, the cohesiveness is visible even to her opponents, inspiring them and encouraging them to improve, as well. Miho’s brand of Panzerfahren isn’t about overwhelming firepower, unwavering defense, relentless advance or gimmicks, returning the sport to its origins and placing an emphasis on supporting one another through teamwork. It is a sincere expression of compassion, sportsmanship and acceptance, one that Ooarai’s opponents do not encounter in matches, and in this way, all of Ooarai’s opponents view Miho as someone who finds ways of rallying her teammates together to create uncommon solutions to problems they face, which in turn, creates variety and excitement in a sport that has previously been very regimented and structured along each school’s themes and their respective doctrines. In having each of Darjeeling, Kay and Katyusha show up, Girls und Panzer similarly reminds viewers that Panzerfahren is not warfare, and that sportsmanship, integrity and honour are the highest traditions of this sport: as important as it is to be adaptive, creative and decisive in matches, treating one’s opponents with respect is even more important. Girls und Panzer would not be able to convey its themes if Black Forest and Shiho stood as the lone exception to this rule, so even as Ooarai takes on Black Forest in the finale, it stands to reason that even Black Forest and Shiho observe these traditions, even if Girls und Panzer has not yet given them time to demonstrate this as vividly as Darjeeling, Kay and Katyusha do.

Screenshots and Commentary

• For this week, and the final round of #AniTwitWatches, I promise that I will not subject readers to another 10k-word post. I’ve said everything I’ve needed to on the matter, and generally speaking, I prefer talking about topics that are more positive. Last time we left off, Momo had revealed Ooarai was going to shut down, hence the importance of winning the tournament: this would be to prove that Ooarai still has merits. The revelation is a shocker, but Miho quickly recovers and tasks her crews with repairing their tanks, as well as sending out scouts to determine how Pravda has arranged their tanks. Besides readying themselves to fight, keeping busy also has an important psychological advantage in keeping the teams from thinking about what happens if they should fail.

• This is something that Les Stroud has constantly reminded viewers of: when times are difficult, keeping busy and finding a purpose is what provides one with the will to survive. The two teams that go out to recon are Yukari and Riko (Erwin), and Mako and Midoriko. Yukari and Riko end up singing “Marching in the Snow”, and the adventures that solidify their friendship are detailed in an OVA. While Midoriko and Mako don’t get along quite as well, to the point where their antics are spotted, they nonetheless manage to find the Pravda tanks.

• Knowing where Pravda has placed their armour allows Miho to work out a plan of how to break through enemy lines and mount a counteroffensive. As the winter storm sets in, the match organisers consider postponing the match as a result of adverse weather conditions – such comments indicate that Panzerfahren matches can be stopped for safety reasons, providing a bit more evidence for my stances from the previous post. Small details like these are often overlooked, but become invaluable in the world-building process. This is why re-watching anime such as Girls und Panzer is so enjoyable; going back and combing through the series allows viewers to gain a much better insight into the level of detail and thought that makes some anime particularly standout.

• To give viewers a sense of what Miho is up against, the camera pulls out to give an aerial overview of the battlefield. Katyusha has arranged her tanks in such a way so that there is a side that is deliberately weaker than the others, and her hope is that Miho will go for this feint, allowing her to surround Ooarai and put an end to the match. Sun Tzu argued that in war, whoever can respond to and produce surprises well will take victory. Had Miho taken the bait, surprise would have been with Katyusha, leading her to win. Conversely, if Miho has a surprise of her own, then she might be able to continue fighting. This is why knowing Pravda’s tank placement is so important: Miho now knows what Katyusha is thinking, and is able to bet everything on a surprise. While the storm rages on, an instrumental version of Polyushko-polye (По́люшко-по́ле, “My Fields, Oh, My Fields) can be heard playing, reminding viewers that Pravda is in their element.

• Pravda, being a school based out of Aomori, is accustomed to snow and cold: Ooarai’s only brought a limited amount of provisions and blankets that seem like they’re barely suited for the job, but a glance over at Pravda’s students found that they’ve made borscht, a cabbage soup of sorts that’s perfect for warming up. When I think about it, I’ve never had Ukraine borscht before: the only borscht I’ve ever had is the Hong Kong version, which uses regular cabbage and plenty of tomatoes. Real Ukrainian borscht is made from red beets and is served with a dollop of sour cream, while the Hong Kong style borscht originates from Harbin. The dramatic gap in preparation for the winter night causes morale to plummet for Ooarai: while they’ve got a game plan, and their tanks are repaired, the weather proves to be as much of a foe as Pravda.

• For me, this is the definitive magic moment in Girls und Panzer, the moment that convinced me that the series was truly onto something special. Normally shy and bashful, Miho takes the initiative to motivate her teammates by performing the Anglerfish Dance. This surprises her own teammates, but once Yukari joins her, and Mako, Hana and Saori follow suit, the entirety of Ooarai’s Panzerfahren team begin singing and dancing along Miho. In a post I’d written six years ago, I stated that the reason why this was so powerful was because it was the moment that demonstrated Miho earning the trust of her teammates. Whether it be dancing an embarrassing dance, or fighting to the finish, the extent that Miho cares for her teammates means they’re willing to fight for her any time, anywhere.

• The scene with Ooarai dancing alongside Miho thus becomes a brilliant visual metaphor for how Miho has won the hearts and minds of her own teammates. In this way, it is fair to say that, even though Ooarai is on the verge of closing, Miho’s teammates are no longer worried about what should await if they fail. All they know is that in this moment, they want to do their best for both Miho and their own sakes. Thus, when Pravda’s emissaries reappear, Miho turns down the surrender offer – everyone’s fired up, Ooarai’s existence is on the line, and no one is ready to give up without at least giving it a go. In doing the Anglerfish Dance, Miho consolidates Ooarai’s second wind.

• Like hockey, Panzerfahren is a game of momentum, and momentum has returned to Ooarai. Thus, Miho tells Katyusha there will be no terms, and more importantly, no surrender. It typifies Miho’s kindness and ability to use this trait as a means of raising her allies’ morale: at Black Forest, it would appear that Miho did not have any chance to be her best self owing to the need to uphold her family name, and while I can’t quite remember the paper I read regarding this, I recall reading that when one’s own morals and beliefs conflict with the job they are required to do, one’s performance and willingness to do well will suffer.

• When the match resumes, Miho chooses to bet everything on punching through the most heavily defended part of Katyusha’s cordon. The resulting chaos sees Ooarai disable several more of Pravda’s tanks, and it is in this battle that the Student Council begin proving their worth: using the 38(t), they manage to disable T-34s at extreme close quarters and keep their fire off the main group, which is protecting Duck Team. This ruse works, at least until Nonna snipes the 38(t). While Miho’s tactics buy Ooarai some time, there is no denying that Pravda is a strong team, and once the shock wears off, things will begin to favour them again owing to their superior firepower and numbers.

• To this end, Yukari offers to go scouting again. Miho immediately spots the value of this and accepts, feeling it imperative that they end the match before things begin favouring Pravda again. While this initially sounds like a bad idea because it leaves Anko team down a loader, Miho’s goal here isn’t to keep her own tank alive, but rather, keep Duck team alive and help locate Pravda’s flag tank. If Miho goes down but buys enough time for the others to take out Pravda’s flag tank, that will be more than enough. As an aside, while Yukari’s role of being the loader is often seen as being the “newbie” position in a tank, I’d read a segment from a tank commander who respects loaders because they still have enough training to operate the radio or fire the 50-cal on top of the tank. In a pinch, the loader can also act as a driver. This is a clever show of respect to Yukari: while her role may seem smaller than that of the commander, driver and gunner, she’s no less important, and in fact, Yukari likely chose the loader role precisely for this reason.

• While shells rain down around Ooarai’s remaining tanks, it appears that Pravda has regained the initiative, although Ooarai’s resilience has surprised Katyusha. Regarding the choice of flag tank, they seem to vary match-to-match – from what I remember, judges make this assignment to ensure balance. This means that a school cannot simply have their most-heavily armoured tank, which would be to the detriment of schools that completely lack the hardware to damage said tanks. For this match, Ooarai’s flag tank is Duck team’s Type 89: Japanese tanks were originally designed as infantry tanks. They therefore lacked the firepower and armour to participate in anti-armour combat, and in the Pacific War, American M4 Shermans would find that their AP shells would actually punch holes clean through Japanese tanks without destroying them.

• To further accentuate the fact that Miho’s response during the championship match a year earlier was correct, after their tank gets immobilised, Miho asks for an update from Rabbit team and hears that everyone’s still fine. It is clear that Miho communicates often with her team, and therefore, is able to make split-second decisions with the information she receives: knowing that Rabbit team is in good shape allows Miho to concentrate on the fight, and the ninth episode did leave viewers off on a bit of a cliff-hanger: Ooarai’s Type 89 is fired upon at roughly the same moment that the StuG III shoots at Pravda’s flag tank.

• In previous years, I’ve joked that the StuG III’s camping would be the height of dishonour – camping is a technique in video games I’ve come to despise, since the approach is contrary to the spirit of a game. Hiding in a spot and waiting for enemies to come by gives one an unfair advantage, indicating an unwillingness to play with honesty and integrity. These tactics are especially common in battle royale games, and this is the reason I have little interest in picking up things like Valorant or Warzone: nothing is as tiresome as spawning into a map, dying to a camper and then being forced to leave since there are no respawns. In other titles, respawns do allow me to get back at campers. In Girls und Panzer, however, since Pravda’s flag tank was technically engaged in a form of camping, it is amusing that Miho’s thought of a way to counteract their camping with camping in its purest form.

• In the end, Ooarai walks away from the match triumphant, and Katyusha expresses her respect for Miho, who fights in a continually unexpected and entertaining way. This moment was yet another sign that Girls und Panzer‘s opponents are friendly rivals rather than hated foes – even someone as haughty as Katyusha is able to acknowledge when she’s faced someone worthy, and this becomes critical in setting the tone for the remainder of Girls und Panzer. Contrary to Pravda’s imposing presence, as seen when they beat Bonpole so bad one of the tanks had to raise a second flag to signify their defeat. While this was doubtlessly meant to intimidate viewers, when Pravda shows up as an opponent, they’re not more terrifying than Saunders or St. Gloriana.

• Thus, even with the knowledge that Ooarai is facing off against Black Forest, Girls und Panzer indicates to viewers that Maho’s team is still human despite the fact that Maho is renowned for her craft, and the fact that Black Forest operates some of the most powerful tanks around. I will remark here that I’ve taken to calling Black Forest as such because Kuromorimine is a pain to spell out, and the abbreviation, KMM, isn’t particularly meaningful to me. Habits from nine years earlier have stuck, and according to my blog’s archives, I actually crossed the stop line in January: when my winter term started, I’d made enough process in my research project such that I had enough of an opening to marathon Girls und Panzer.

• I ended up taking advantage of this time to catch up, and instead of a three month wait, mine was more of a two month wait. For some anime fans, the wait would’ve been excruciating, but on my end, I focused on my research project and by the time the final two episodes aired, my thesis paper had been submitted, and my presentation was ready to go. Here, Ooarai’s Panzerfahren team continues their hunt for new tanks, and it appears everyone’s skipped over a Type 3 Chi-Nu tank sitting in the parking lot: it was assumed that a tank in the open wouldn’t work. I’ve operated the Type 3 in Battlefield V – it is an upgrade of the Type 97 Chi-Ha with a modified turret and a 75 mm Type 3 tank gun, making it capable of going toe-to-toe with the M4 Sherman, and I’ve used this tank to great effect previously. The gamers offer to operate this tank, and Miho accepts, happy that more people are taking an interest in their Panzerfahren team,

• Meanwhile, the automotive club have finished restoring the Porsche Tiger: compared to a standard Tiger I, the Porsche Tiger utilised an innovative gasoline-electric drive pairing. Each individual drive would push the tracks on their respective side of the tank, and while on paper, it’s a good idea for a larger tank where both treads may have different traction based on the ground, in practise, the drive was very prone to malfunction and left the Prosche Tiger harder to handle than the more successful Henschel model. Such a tank would be very difficult to operate in combat, since the fickle drive system means a tank could be easily rendered immobile by its own complexity, rather than enemy action. However, the automotive team see this as a challenge to overcome, and they agree to operate the tank, whose KwK 36 gives Ooarai hitherto unmatched firepower.

• The student council’s 38(t) had proven quite reliable previously, allowing Anzu to snipe enemy tanks and trouble them. Having secured some funds from other departments, they’re able to convert their 38(t) into a Jagdpanzer 38 by mounting a different top onto the 38(t)’s chassis. The Jagdpanzer 38 is more informally referred to as the Hetzer and mounts a 75 mm Pak 39, a considerable upgrade that allows Anzu to do more damage in battle: at close ranges, when impacting from a 30º angle, the Pak 39 could penetrate up to 106 mm of armour, making it well-suited for driving up to foes whilst remaining hidden, and then opening fire. Battlefield V‘s 38(t) could not be configured in this way, and upgrades only made it more effective as an anti-infantry weapon. Although useless in anti-tank combat, the 38(t)’s mobility made it great for giving infantry a hard time.

• To better prepare Anko’s Panzer IV, Schürzen skirts are added, turning it into the Ausf. H model. Miho had found the Panzer IV in its Ausf. D configuration, and the addition of a KwK L/40 transformed it into an Ausf. F2. The latest addition improves defense and survivability, a vital addition when it comes to Black Forest and their overwhelming firepower. Battlefield V similarly started players off with the Ausf. D Panzer IV, but with the side skirts, and Pak 40, one could approximate Miho’s Panzer IV Ausf. H. AP rounds further improved Battlefield V‘s Panzer IV against tanks, and in this way, the Panzer IV actually became my second-most used tank in Battlefield V after the Valentine Archer, speaking to its efficacy.

• For me, Hana and her mother reconciling was one of the most standout moments in the whole of Girls und Panzer because there are so many parallels between Hana’s situation, and that of Miho’s – both Hana and Miho were born into families with a very well-established tradition, and both their mothers are proud practitioners of said tradition. Both Hana and Miho yearn to do things in their own manner of choosing, but this clashes with family values, leading both mothers to disown and distance themselves from their daughters. For Hana, when her mother sees the flowers Hana is able to now arrange, she has a change of heart and is impressed that Hana has found her own way while at the same time, respecting family tradition. That Hana and her mother could make amends sets an important precedence: that Miho could do the same with Shiho.

• I will acknowledge here that this reconciliation does not happen in Girls und Panzer – while Panzerfahren with Ooarai allows Miho to make several strides in helping her to rediscover her love for the sport, and the confidence to lead those under her command, it has not yet imparted in Miho, the sort of courage to speak up for herself in front of her mother just yet. Because the events of Girls und Panzer are set over a few months, it is natural that something like this would take a little while longer, so I am hoping that Das Finale addresses this in full: it is most logical for the story to show this as being the end-point for Girls und Panzer‘s story. Back in Girls und Panzer, after training and spending the evening with their respective teammates, Ooarai finally arrives at the vaunted site for the finals, which is set in the shadows of Mount Fuji. Yukari is excited to be here, as this was the place where numerous matches had previously taken place.

• As it turns out, everyone from Miho’s past matches have come out to watch. Darjeeling greets Miho and expresses her best wishes for Miho, while at the same time, remarking that Miho’s victories in Panzerfahren aren’t just simple wins in matches, but rather, are more whole and complete in that Miho wins her opponents over, too. Kay similarly swings by, excited to see how this finale will unfound. I’ve been referring to Miho’s victories as “winning hearts and minds”: this is a concept I first picked up on while studying for a course on the Cold War a decade earlier, and while the idea was initially described by Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey regarding his proposed means of handling the Black Flags Rebellion in 1895, it became particularly famous for its use in Malayan Emergency in 1955. Quite simply, winning hearts and minds is to win a war not though superior force of arms, but through emotional and intellectual appeal. What Miho is doing isn’t quite in fitting to the original definition of winning hearts and minds, but the way she approaches matches and treats opponents earns their respect.

• This is explored a little further in Das Finale, in which Miho enters her first-ever match with an opponent who respects Ooarai and therefore, is able to put up an impressive fight despite fielding weaker tanks. For the present, however, one of the highlights of the moments leading up to the fight against Black Forest was Katyusha coming to greet Miho personally and wish her well in this match; in particular, Katyusha is excited to see what sorts of inspiring and wild techniques Miho and her crew will employ this match. For Katyusha to openly suggest this shows her respect for Miho, a far cry from her haughty, dismissive perspective of Ooarai earlier. These learnings make Katyusha a better leader, and in turn, will help Pravda be a better team, as well. Notably absent is Anzio’s Anchovy and her teammates. Contemporary viewers assumed Anchovy was a poor sport, but the OVA shows what really happened: after putting on a wild party the night before the match, Anchovy and her teammates exhaust themselves and completely sleep through the match.

• The moment of truth has finally come: in this finale, Miho faces off against her past for the future. The symbolism in Girls und Panzer has never been subtle, and many of the series’ most important messages are out in the open. This element contributed to making Girls und Panzer as successful as it was – while there are plenty of small details in the tanks, and references to World War Two, the overall story and its presentation is highly accessible. The fact that there is something for everyone means those unfamiliar with World War Two armour can still appreciate the themes and characters, while those with an interest in World War Two and its weapons will find numerous things to enjoy, too. Anime typically makes use of weather to help impact the emotional tenour around a match, but Girls und Panzer actually forgoes this: besides the match against Pravda, all matches are set under sunny skies during the TV series. This choice is to ensure that events are the highlight of every match.

• The final bit of evidence that suggests Miho had acted correctly comes in the tenth episode, when former classmate Kōme Akaboshi thanks Miho for having saved her and her crew during the previous year’s battle. That Girls und Panzer would go out of its way to incorporate this moment was meant to erase any lingering doubts about the validity of Miho’s actions, and this meant that, in the knowledge this scene had occurred, willx and Sumeragi’s refusal to accept Miho likely spoke to their own positions, rather than any shortcomings from those who believed Miho did the right thing. To accentuate this point, I ran a pair of polls during the previous #AniTwitWatches week, and voters unanimously agreed that 1) Miho was right, and 2) willx and Sumeragi were not effective in presenting the other perspectives. With this, I am satisfied that my views about Miho did not come about as a result of my lacking life experience or professional development.

• With this, my nine-year-old question finally has a definitive answer, and I am content to move on – Girls und Panzer has provided the answers to all of the unanswered queries that may have lingered after the series had ended, including what Black Forest and the Nishizumi Style actually entails. This issue was a major one at AnimeSuki, where proponents and detractors of the Nishizumi Style respectively argued for and against Maho’s way of doing things in the near-total absence of evidence: those who opposed the Nishizumi Style supposed that it was dependent entirely on overwhelming force, while those who supported the Nishizumi Style suggested that Maho was shown on-screen to be every bit as competent as Maho, and that Miho herself is effective because of her learnings. Whether or not this is true is neither here nor there; given the themes in Girls und Panzer, what the Nishizumi Style is precisely is irrelevant.

• Approaching things from this angle, what does matter is how Miho treats both her teammates and the match itself – with everything on the line, and an imposing opponent, the deck is plainly stacked against Miho and Ooarai. Moreover, Erika’s lingering grudge against Miho leads her to desire nothing less than the total destruction of Ooarai. These feelings of hostility are what lead Erika to attempt a shot on Ooarai’s flag tank moments into the match, and while Girls und Panzer provides a viable account of why Erika dislikes Miho, supplementary materials indicate she’s jealous of Miho for the attention she receives from Maho, and doubly so, because Miho’s considerate nature led her to throw a private match against Erika. Owing to the pacing of its run, and focus on Ooarai, Girls und Panzer had skipped these details, deliberately tipping things so viewers would be inclined to root for Miho.

• There is absolutely northing wrong with this approach, and stories that want viewers to feel a certain way will often take a more direct approach in communicating which characters viewers “should” be supporting. The idea is that, while there is a fantastically detailed world to explore, viewers needn’t concern themselves with certain details because at the end of the day, Girls und Panzer had intended to communicate a very specific message through Miho. Whether or not Black Forest is competent, or other minor details in the story are consistent, is not of concern because at this point in time, the focus is on Miho saving her school.

• Because the story is so focused on Ooarai, things will unfold in such a way so that their story can be told. This is why Erika’s attempt to take Miho out so early on fails: when the gamers and their Type 3 Chi-Nu become bogged down, the driver attempts to change gears, only to have the tank back up and take the shot meant for Miho. This is what allows Ooarai to enter the next phase of their plan: to draw out Black Forest’s forces for a bombardment. With Anteater team out, viewers would be forced to wait a total of three month for the series’ outcomes. The wait hadn’t been a concern for me – I finished the series late in January and turned my attention towards my software engineering, databases and statistics course, while at the same time, wrapping up the renal model I’d been working on. It is with some satisfaction to note I did very well during that particular term.

• Keeping busy ensured that the wait for Girls und Panzer was never too bothersome, and this was the same approach I took for 86 EIGHTY-SIX: the latest episode aired this past weekend. However, I’d been so busy that there hadn’t been a moment to even catch my breath, much less watch the episode. Things are at a point where my workdays are actually more easy-going, and today represented a pleasant slowdown in things. I ended up having dinner from the city’s premiere Chinese restaurant yesterday evening (crispy chicken, sweet and sour pork, stir-fry with Chinese doughnut and fresh crab on a bed of snow pea leaves, plus their house yi mien and wonton special). Things were a ways quieter, so I was able to enjoy the leftover wonton soup with a side of crackers during today’s lunch break. I’ll aim to have a talk for my final thoughts on 86 EIGHTY-SIX towards the end of this month, and in the meantime, I am going to write out a discussion of 2019’s Wataten!, before wrapping up all discussions of Girls und Panzer with next week’s instalment of #AniTwitWatches. With this latest episode set in the books, I leave with viewers the question that AnimeSuki counted as discussion-worthy: does Ooarai deserve a victory here in Girls und Panzer‘s final moments?

Besides sportsmanship and integrity, Girls und Panzer also does one exemplary play prior to the match against Black Forest – earlier in the series, Hana had left home, resolute on finding a way to reconcile Panzerfahren with her family tradition of flower arrangement, even though her mother had been expressly against Hana’s participation in Panzerfahren. At the flower arrangement exhibition, Hana’s mother praises Hana for having brought new life to her creations: before taking up Panzerfahren, Hana’s flower arrangement had been identical to that of her mother’s: exacting, precise and flawless. However, because her craft had been a mirror image of what her mother had done, Hana’s mother had wished for her to continue in the craft to find her own style. Although Panzerfahren prima facie appears contrary to flower arrangement, the sheer power Hana experiences here influences her flower arrangement, and she is able to breathe new life into her pieces, combining the style her mother practises with her own unique approach. Spotting that Panzerfahren has helped her daughter to improve her craft, Hana’s mother no longer opposes Panzerfahren and welcomes Hana back, admitting that there is merit in Hana finding her own way. Similarly, Mako and her grandmother’s relationship has improved since she’d taken up Panzerfahren, and Yukari’s parents are happy she’s amongst good company now. Family has been subtly a part of Girls und Panzer, and save Miho, everyone’s familial bonds have strengthened as a result of Panzerfahren. The fact that Miho remains estranged from her family remains one of the largest unanswered questions in Girls und Panzer, but by this point in the series, having seen everyone improve their relationship with family, it stands to reason that Miho can also reconcile with her mother, much as Hana had. However, being the central character, this path is one that is understandably a little bumpier; this is one of the elements that Girls und Panzer‘s original run did not fully address, and as such, I am hoping that Das Finale answers. While Girls und Panzer is a superb series, this was one of the largest omissions. To accomplish this within Das Finale will therefore be a thematic triumph more so than any victory on the battlefield, although whether or not this occurs is something that is so far into the future, it remains as elusive as Half-Life 3. Here in Girls und Panzer, viewers were left with a 90-day wait between the moment Anteater team take the shot meant for Miho; while this was doubtlessly an excruciatingly long wait, the gaps between Das Finale are even lengthier such that by comparison, the wait between Girls und Panzer‘s tenth and eleventh episode feel like the blink of an eye by comparison. Here in #AniTwitWatches, we no longer have that issue, so participants are most fortunate in that the outcome that awaits Ooarai will be swiftly addressed.

Invalidating the Mother of Japanese Tanks, Daigensui: Examining What Battlefield Portal Requires To Model What Happens When Ideology Meets Reality

“平時就牙刷刷, 依家出埋清都攪唔掂條𡃁仔, 抵佢死!” –九叔, 半斤八兩

With a muzzle velocity of 1575 m/s, a single 120 mm M829 APFSDS round slices through the air and slams into its mark, a Tiger I tank, from a distance of two kilometres. In a single shot, Sumeragi is unceremoniously removed from the fight as the M829’s stopping power kicks the Tiger I back like a child’s toy, flipping it onto its side. Had this APFSDS round been live, it would have torn through the Tiger I’s 120 mm frontal armour as though it were cardboard, turned the Tiger’s interior into a hell on earth as the penetrator vapourised metal and created molten shards that instantly perforated the crew. However, this is a friendly Panzerfahren match; on impact from a shell, a microprocessor in the Tiger I’s armour quickly determines that this round far exceeds anything the Tiger I can handle, and instead, Sumeragi’s Tiger I is simply rendered impotent, immobile. A white flag pops up to signify that this tank has been taken out of the fight. Six seconds later, the report of a distant Rheinmetall Rh-120 gun can be heard. Sumeragi had been leading the Panzerkiel formation in keeping with the Nishizumi Style, and the remaining eight Mädchen und Panzer Tiger Is reform their line, intent on maintaining formation as they travel through an open field until they reach their foe, a lone M1A2 Abrams designated “Icarus”. However, a second shot from Icarus punches into Leo Xiao’s Tiger I. The platoon’s commander, Tak, orders smoke to be launched as the surviving Tiger Is retreat into a forest and disperse to escape the enemy fire. Two kilometres away, Icarus’ commander calmly orders for the FLIR camera’s polarity to be changed from White-Hot to Black-Hot. The Tiger Is, hidden away behind a cloud of white smoke, suddenly become visible, as clear as day. Icarus’ gunner takes aim and fires again, disabling Hooves’ tank. With the Tiger I formation now behind cover, Icarus begins moving: while the Abrams enjoys seventy years of advancement over the Tiger I, including NGAP composite armour that gives the equivalent of an estimated protection of 900 mm Rolled Homogenous Armour equivalent (RHAe) against armour piercing rounds and 1320 mm of RHAe against HEAT rounds from the front, all it would take is one lucky shot to the Abram’s engine block to bring about a mobility kill. Sitting still is the one surefire way that a lone M1A2 could lose to six Tiger Is, but this is provided that the Abrams is daft enough to allow for this: with its Honeywell AGT1500 gas turbine engine, an M1A2 is capable of a maximum off-road speed of 40 km/h, giving it enough mobility to run rings around the slower Tiger I, which plods along at a paltry 25 km/h on a good day whilst off-roading. Minutes later, Icarus’ commander spots two of the remaining six Mädchen und Panzer Tiger Is that have exited the forest, in a not-so-subtle attempt to launch a pincer attack. The Tiger Is fire, but their 88 mm shells travel wide of their mark. Icarus responds in kind: its stabliser allows the gun to track moving targets and hit them reliably even when the Abrams is on the move, and in this way, RRW is taken out of the fight. Ascaloth’s Tiger I attempts to back up and flee, but its heavy tracks get stuck in the mud. Ascaloth too is immobilised from a single round to its front. The four Mädchen und Panzer tanks left belong to willx, Myssa Rei, Kimidori and Tak, and predictably, they’ve attempted to flank Icarus: Myssa Rei and Willx come from the rear, while Kimidori and Tak are approaching from the side. Icarus’ driver hits the gas and accelerates into a turn so the Abrams can face its foes: the four Tiger Is that are now coming in head-on. With a lurch, the Rh-120 sends its sixth M892 shell down range. Capable of penetrating an estimated 540 mm RHAe at two kilometers, this round hits Kimidori squarely on the turret, and its immobilised flag pops up: the Tiger’s armour is simply inconsequential. During the exchange of fire, a stray 88 mm round from Myssa Rei’s Tiger I glances off the Abram’s front turret, scratching the paint and marking the first time Mädchen und Panzer had hit anything during this match. Moments later, Icarus’ gunner lands yet another kill with grim accuracy. This time, platoon commander Tak is taken out; only Myssa Rei and willx remain. The gunner trains Icarus’ turret on willx’s Tiger I, pulls the trigger, and after the smoke clears, willx is downed. Seeing this, Myssa Rei orders her driver to stop, and closes her eyes while allowing the inevitable to happen: one Tiger tank is no match for an M1A2. Within the space of ten minutes, all nine Tiger Is are immobilised, and the only sign that the M1A2 had gone through combat is several superficial scratches on the turret’s front armour. The match is over; Icarus’ commander climbs out of the cupola and surveys the carnage, reflecting on how seven decades’ worth of technological advancements meant today, this was no victory – this is bullying.

Such a scenario has lingered in my mind for the past nine years, ever since Girls und Panzer had finished airing: I’d finished writing about a post on Battlefield 3‘s seventh mission, Thunder Run, and AnimeSuki’s Wild Goose had stopped by to read about my impressions of Thunder Run, one of Battlefield 3‘s most impressive missions. After I destroyed a group of T-72s and commented on how this would be the result were I to solo Mädchen und Panzer “on skill alone”, Wild Goose remarked that using an M1A2 to beat on World War Two era tanks would be cruel and unnecessary to the point where the mere suggestion would earn me a Vlad Tepes award. My original assertion had been that if given an era-appropriate tank, such as the Sherman Firefly or Centurion MBT, my patience and strategies would have allowed me to overcome Mädchen und Panzer, an AnimeSuki World of Tanks clan that had prided itself on using the Nishizumi Style. The me of nine years earlier was plainly less learned with clarity, and I had mistakenly given the impression that I wanted to solo Mädchen und Panzer with a modern MBT. However, the thought of trivially mopping floor with Mädchen und Panzer (and proving the weaknesses of the Nishizumi Style as I’d known it then) remained. Over the years, I’ve had the chance to become more familiar with simulated armoured warfare through an option superior to World of Tanks, and this is how I come to greatly enjoy how the Battlefield franchise handled armoured warfare. Nine years after completing Thunder Run for the first time, Battlefield Portal has arrived, and while both Battlefield 2042 and Battlefield Portal have seen considerable difficulties following launch, the latter has come the closest to allowing me to experience something that had, until now, only been possible as a thought experiment. Battlefield Portal allows for custom matches to be created, where different factions and eras can go against one another, and the revelation that the Wehrmacht could be made to fight the modern US Army had been intriguing. So far, Battlefield Portal allows one to effortlessly pit the two factions against one another in a match of conquest, and with a bit of tweaking to vehicle rules, tanks can be made to reflect the vast disparities in their performance, in turn allowing me to definitively answer the question of whether or not a number of Tiger Is could, in conjunction with the Nishizumi Style, defeat a single M1A2. The outcome shouldn’t surprise anyone: it’s “not a chance in hell”. Battlefield Portal plainly offers the base for satisfying a nearly-decade old question, but with the flexibility and versatility DICE had advertised, the question inevitably becomes, is it possible to re-create Panzerfahren with Battlefield Portal in order to create a more thrilling, fail and tactical experience? Unfortunately, the answer for now remains a resounding no – game modes and the logic editor remain quite limited in functionality. Similarly, the small number of factions and maps means that iconic Girls und Panzer Panzerfahren matches cannot be easily remade. However, the elements are all here for Panzerfahren modes to be created: Battlefield 3 had introduced the idea of Air Superiority, in which players would spawn into jets and fly around the map to capture points. In this mode, players could only spawn into jets, and could not bail under any circumstances. With this in mind, opening Battlefield Portal‘s mode editor to accommodate this behaviour for tanks, and generally increasing the number of tanks one could spawn onto a map at any given time would be the first steps. Subsequently, to facilitate the two Panzerfahren modes (elimination/annihilation, and VIP/Flag Tank), the rules editor would need to be extended. Elimination matches are the simpler of the two to create, requiring that one set the match up such that downed players cannot respawn in, and then, when a team has no more players, the match ends. VIP matches would require randomly assigning a single player the role of “flag tank”, and on this player’s defeat, the match ends. Cosmetics, such as a visible flag or unique tank camouflage, can be utilised to denote a flag tank. To provide win/loss logic, one would need to set things up such that score is counted only if the flag tank is killed. It becomes clear that a more versatile logic editor and larger option set would easily accommodate for Panzerfahren matches to be conducted purely from within Battlefield Portal, which in turn would highlight just how powerful Battlefield Portal and the Frostbite Engine are.

Screenshots and Commentary

• The idea behind pitting a single M1A2 against World War Two tanks came about when Wild Goose first mentioned that, when confronted with a Panzer VIII Maus, the M1A2 would be his preferred weapon of choice – in Girls und Panzer‘s penultimate episode, Black Forest brought a Maus to the fight, and its armour was so heavy that not even the Tiger I’s KwK 36 had a chance of punching through its front. Moreover, the Maus rocked a Pak 44, which could defeat any armour any World War Two era tank had (even the T28 Super Heavy tank the Americans had built). However, the Maus’ biggest shortcoming was its slow speed: thanks to its sheer bulk, it was only capable of reaching a top speed of 20 km/h. This is something Miho exploits during Girls und Panzer‘s final match, but in its first appearance, it was a terrifying foe. For the average Abrams crew, however, a Maus would be a joke at all ranges: modern ammunition can burn through 540 mm RHAe at two kilometres, and between a computer-assisted fire control system, plus gun stablisation technology, and a superior engine, an M1A2 would simply out-drive a Maus and disable it before the Maus even had time to blink.

• Furthermore, even if the Maus could hit the M1A2, the composite armour would allow the tank to survive and keep fighting. In short, the Maus stands no chance at all against the M1A2. This hypothetical match-up remains unlikely, and in reality, had the Maus been deployed, the Allies would’ve likely targetted it with artillery strikes or bombs rather than waste any tanks on it, using combined arms approaches instead of attempting to take the tank head-on. Combined arms is a doctrine in which multiple disciplines are used to strike an enemy in a way as to be complementary, such that if an enemy were to defend against one measure, they would be rendered vulnerable to another. For instance, if an enemy were to defend against attack by tanks and places an emphasis on armour, they would leave themselves open to attack from the air. Today, air support is a vital part of warfare: ground forces designate targets for air and artillery assets. Had Panzerfahren included combined arms, the entire sport would disintegrate, since all one would need to win was to send out spotter helicopters like the Kiowa, and then Hellfire missiles can be launched from a distance. In this way, an entire column of tanks could be rendered ineffectual in a matter of minutes.

• However, since Panzerfahren only allows for tanks, Wild Goose had wondered what it would be like, and I myself began wondering if a single M1A2 or modern equivalent would be able to solo Black Forest. After doing some reading, I found the answer to be a decisive yes, to no surprise. Battlefield Portal allowed me to, after a minor bit of modification to the game rules, re-create this experience. By default, all tanks are balanced against one another so that it takes three solid hits to take one another out, but this actually creates a jarring situation where it takes the M1A2 three or more shots to take a Tiger I out, whereas the Tiger, which would have no way of harming an M1A2 besides hitting it in the back, could also take an M1A2 out with three good shots.

• Once things were fully configured, I would describe the match ups as “boring”. Even assuming a fully competent foe that utilised everything in their environment and arsenal to its fullest, the disparity between a modern tank and a World War Two tank means in effect, the latter has no solutions against the former save overwhelming numbers. In Battlefield Portal, after everything is set up, every engagement with a Tiger I or Panzer IV entailed lining up the sights, pulling the trigger and watching as the tank exploded. There was absolutely no skill involved in this, and the conclusion here is simple: had I actually been given a chance to take on AnimeSuki’s Mädchen und Panzer in a “M1A2 vs Nishizumi Style” showdown, the results would have been indisputable.

• As a bit of background, Mädchen und Panzer is a World of Tanks clan for AnimeSuki’s players. Founded in late November of 2012, the group was intended to allow AnimeSuki members to live out their Girls und Panzer fantasies – clan members created a tightly knit clique and spoke of their exploits fondly at the height of their activity, swapped advice and compared their experiences to what was seen in Girls und Panzer. Although Mädchen und Panzer generally maintained a low profile, things changed when Akeiko “Daigensui” Sumeragi temporarily joined their tanks and used his premium perks to help them to a few wins here and there. These premium perks supposedly came as remuneration for Sumeragi helping Wargaming.net to research Japanese tanks. For the Record, a World of Tanks fan blog, translated an interview Sumeragi had with the Korean World of Tanks community regarding his contributions to the game’s Japanese tank line. This post painted Sumeragi as “the mother of Japanese tanks” because Sumeragi considers tanks as his “daughters”, a strange term of endearment, and here, Sumeragi alleged that he had access to original Imperial Japanese Army documents through family contacts, and was exposed to military hardware from a young age for similar reasons. While I am skeptical that Sumeragi has connections of this level, it is plausible that Sumeragi could have simply been a shade more skillful than the average person at finding information pertaining to World War Two Japanese tanks.

• This interview also gives insight into how Sumeragi reached the conclusion that he did pertaining the Nishizumi Style: when the interview had asked Sumeragi what he thought the main appeal of World War Two era tanks were. Although Sumeragi did not elaborate further, his respect for the older weapons of war appears to come from the fact that without technology to guide and manage things, everything people did boiled down to their own skill:

If we look at the tanks of [World of Tanks], they are from an era before computers started fighting wars. These tanks are what humans, men, would control and fight with. A man controling [sic] directly the large metal, a man directly aiming and firing the gun, a man directly looking for the enemy…in a way the tanks of [World of Tanks] from an era where the last romances of war still lingered. It’s similar to how [Girls und Panzer]’s Hana felt the thrill of firing the gun. The vibrations passing onto your hand, the vibrations of a live engine…it’s a feeling only people who worked with such machines can feel. That is what I think of as the appeal of a tank.

• Aiming and firing the main gun accurately came down to knowing the marks on the sights and using one’s experience to estimate distance to determine how much one should compensate for gravity. Smoke and poor sight lines forced commanders to position themselves smartly. Thus, from a certain point of view, tankers of old did have to cultivate a large number of skills in order to be effective in their roles. However, this, in no way, shows that modern tank crews are inferior to World War Two crews in any way: modern crews simply train for different modes of combat and under different conditions than crews from the Second World War.

• It should be evident that, given how wide the gap is between modern tanks and World War Two tanks, Mädchen und Panzer would not have likely accepted the match against a single M1A2, no matter how strongly members agreed with what Sumeragi had said about traditional values and the romance of fighting with older ways. The march of technology would’ve resulted in what netizens colloquially call a “roflstomp”. Whereas I have no moral qualms about reducing Sumeragi’s “daughters” into scrap metal with a single well-placed 120 mm round, I cannot imagine that I would have accepted this match, either. This wouldn’t be on ethical grounds, but simply because, if Battlefield Portal is anything to go by, it would’ve been so one-sided that there’d be no fun in things.

• In a hypothetical match with Mädchen und Panzer using Panzerfahren-sanctioned tanks (which would make things more interesting), I would likely go with a Sherman Firefly if engaging any clan member in a one-on-one: the 17-pounder would give me enough firepower to deal with heavy tanks, while the fact that the M4 is a medium tank would afford me with additional mobility, which I’d use to evade shots rather than attempt to absorb damage. Conversely, if soloing Mädchen und Panzer, the Centurion would be my pick: the 1945 Centurion also has a 17-pounder, while at the same time, possessing armour traits rivalling that of a heavy tank despite maintaining the handling traits of a medium tank, making it suited for me to appear, hit my foes and move to a better spot before retaliation can be dealt. One other factor affecting my confidence is Mädchen und Panzer’s average win rate, which is around 51.23 percent. Of its members, RRW has the best performance at 54.08 percent, while Sumeragi holds a win rate of 52.02 percent, and willx’s win rate is 51.10 percent.

• On virtue of skill alone, my odds against Mädchen und Panzer should be quite good; to put things in perspective, my win rate is 61.3 percent in Battlefield V, so I am reasonably confident that when push comes to shove, I could hold my own against Sumeragi and the remainder of Mädchen und Panzer to an extent as to set them straight. This comes about because I adapt to the situation and do what I can for my team, whether it be playing the objective or supporting teammates, rather than worry about playing in a specific way. The numbers alone indicate that contrary to talking a big game, Sumeragi could be proven wrong where skill is concerned – this is what lends itself to the post title and page quote. The latter is a line taken from Sam Hui’s 1976 comedy, The Private Eyes: when one of the minor crooks get stomped by Lee Kwok-kit, Uncle Nine remarks that the guy normally swaggers around, but gets beat by some random kid here even though he’s got a knife, and that this serves him right for being so arrogant half the time. Although Sumeragi’s poor World of Tanks performance is amusing, my dislike of Sumeragi stems from the fact that, despite being wrong more often than not, he still had a large number of people supporting him.

• Longtime readers may be familiar with my long-standing grievances surrounding this individual: Sumeragi would put on an act as the mature onee-sama, doling out advice to people and acted as the kawaii “reliable older sister” figure with those in his good graces. However, whenever Sumeragi was challenged, even in face of overwhelming evidence, he would become a foul-mouthed, vehement and unyielding individual who would defend untenable positions vociferously. Whereas some praised Sumeragi for these attitudes as being “sharp-tongued, quick-witted, and knowledgeable, and impatient with the ignorant”, my dealings with Sumeragi found an individual who was not only unknowledgeable, but outright unqualified to discuss matters ranging from what the essence of martial art is, to romantic relationships. Frustrated with Sumeragi’s refusal to respond to my counterarguments regarding topics like Girls und Panzer, I dug a little further and learnt that Sumeragi was actually someone from Vancouver, British Columbia, going by the name Kang Seung Jae.

• Kang Seung Jae had claimed to be a very intelligent, overachieving individual who graduated from both Tokyo and Yonsei Universities, worked at a Fortune 500 company his parents owned, possessed a net worth exceeding ten million dollars and was distantly related to the Japanese royal family. The reality was very different: I’ve long known that Kang was an ordinary citizen, albeit one with a history of self-aggrandisement and holding contrarian perspectives of history that would lead to his getting banned from virtually all online communities of note. It was ultimately by fabricating a new identity in Sumeragi, that Kang was able to continue propagating such perspectives – Kang found that his Sumeragi identity allowed him to accrue credibility. However, even then, as Sumeragi, Kang crossed numerous lines, eventually becoming banned from both AnimeSuki and most recently, from Sufficient Velocity. This was because Kang espoused highly revisionist claims regarding the second Sino-Japanese war, in particular, suggesting that Imperial Japan won a decisive victory over the Chinese and operated under the (incorrect) belief that Kwantung Army were a paragon of combat excellence.

• In reality, China lost their early battles and opted to retreat inland, giving up port cities in the coastal region in preparation for a war of attrition. In doing so, Imperial Japan was drawn into a protracted war they could not win, and even in areas they captured, they were frustrated by resistance efforts to the point of committing atrocities: their actions meant that the Kwantung Army stands among one of the most barbaric and ruthless armies to have ever existed. Even without American intervention, and despite the lack of capacity to mount as counterattack on the Japanese home islands, over time, the Chinese forces would have bled dry the “crack” Kwantung Army and forced a ceasefire. A Chinese victory was not possible, but it was also not possible for Imperial Japan to win out, either. Kang’s ignorance and arrogance meant he understood none of this, and the technique that he used to persuade people of his harmful beliefs were, in fact, are the precursor to the sorts of behaviours that dominate social media today, especially where politics is concerned, and is informally referred to as the nekama phenomenon (i.e. males assuming a female persona online).

• This approach has gained popularity in recent years, with many people utilising this as a means of garnering approval (especially regarding political opinions) in social media. Psychologists agree that a desire for approval and validation is precisely why the nekama phenomenon exists, and for me, learning about this actually ends up invalidating everything Sumeragi/Kang Seung Jae stood for, lending this post its title. While most of AnimeSuki’s user-base have gone inactive, a few of the remaining users did end up learning the truth – one user indicated that any apparent reverence and respect the AnimeSuki community had for Kang was strictly role-play, which is telling, being akin to a total disavowal of any association the community may have previously had with this individual: Kang himself was kicked from Mädchen und Panzer shortly after Girls und Panzer ended. While I am unlikely to see how Kang’s most ardent supporters, like willx and Leo Xiao, respond to this news, it gives me some closure that at the very least, the sorts of perspectives that Kang held were not accepted at AnimeSuki.

• The fact that Kang was ejected from Mädchen und Panzer means that the beatdown I describe here will permanently remain within the realm of the hypothetical. With this, I will not make further mention of the name Akeiko “Daigensui” Sumeragi here in the future, as I believe that I’ve now said everything that needs to be said of the matter: a quick search for some combination of “Sumeragi”, “Daigenui”, “World of Tanks” and “Girls und Panzer” finds this blog at the top of the results, with the implications that no one will be reading about, or agreeing with, whatever Sumeragi had to say. This leaves me with the reassurance that my arguments alone will be what people find. While the technology has long accommodated for Panzerfahren-style matches since the Battlefield V days, and Battlefield Portal, with a bit of elbow grease and care, could also prove to be a good Panzerfahren venue, even if I were to play on their terms, I doubt that Mädchen und Panzer’s members would switch over to Battlefield owing to the price tag and system requirements.

• In the nine years since I’ve entertained thoughts of soloing Mädchen und Panzer, both with period-appropriate hardware and something like the M1A2, Battlefield‘s system requirements have increased to the point where, if one were still running a PC from 2010 that had been geared for World of Tanks, they’d almost certainly need an all-new new system to keep up. On the topic of newer hardware, circumstances have led me to move up my plans to put a machine together, and earlier today, I ended up going in and placing the order for my parts. While my current machine is just holding together, I’ve caught wind that hardware prices could spike in the near future owing to current events: SSD prices are expected to jump 10 percent in April, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company announced a similar increase in price owing to rising manufacturing costs. In conjunction with the fact that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia puts neon gas and palladium exports in jeopardy, building a computer could become even more challenging.

• As such, while the local retailers still have microprocessors and SSDs on discount, the time seemed prudent to expedite things and pull the trigger sooner, rather than later. I’ve been saving for a new build since this time year, and while the ongoing GPU shortage meant I was unable to pick up a current-generation video card, the remainder of my build is solid. With a new computer, I should be able to handle things like Battlefield 2042 and DOOM Eternal without worrying about the CPU approaching its TJunction under load. Conversely, no matter how powerful my hardware becomes, I adamantly refuse to set foot in World of Tanks. The reason why I never got into World of Tanks was precisely because the game was very beginner-unfriendly: there are no respawns, so if one is destroyed in battle, that’s it for the match. Moreover, destroyed tanks require a certain amount of in-game currency to repair, but if I’m being destroyed in battle often enough, I wouldn’t be accruing the funds to repair my tanks, leaving the game quite unplayable unless I were to go the Premium Account route (which is what Mädchen und Panzer ended up doing). I’ve always found that the best games out there punish players for making a bad decision and then encourage them to learn from said mistakes by giving them opportunity to try again.

• This is precisely why Battlefield has always been something that appealed to me: if I made a mistake and died, I would be allowed to respawn and try a different approach. Dying costs my team tickets and impacts my KDR, but I have as many attempts as I need to get things right, so over time, I’m able to improve my movement and strategies to help my team out. Conversely, if I were allowed to just drop money on a Premium Account and get perks that offset my lack of skill, I’d never improve in the game. My reasons for staying away from World of Tanks are, in short, about as strongly-held as Mädchen und Panzer’s refusal to play on fairer terms (i.e. within Battlefield, where there is no Premium ammunition), and for this reason, my facing off against Mädchen und Panzer remains quite unlikely even though the technology now exists to do so.

• While many will disagree, I have found that Battlefield 2042 and Battlefield Portal, despite dropping the ball in key areas, remains a superior game to World of Tanks because the game’s paid content is purely cosmetic. All of the skill-based components in Battlefield are available to players, and those who buy cosmetics are not conferred a performance advantage over others. Similarly, while playing Battlefield allows for one to unlock customisations for their weapons and vehicles, and some customisations favour certain play-styles more than others, the stock configurations that weapons and vehicles come with are quite viable. This ensures that experienced players can customise their vehicles and weapons to fit a specific play-style, but even in the beginning, the stock setup is sufficient for even a moderately skilled player to hold their own while learning how things work. Moreover, Battlefield Portal overcomes this barrier outright: all weapons, vehicles, attachments and customisations are available to players right out of the gates.

• Altogether, I’ve found that the foundation for Battlefield Portal is solid, and as such, what’s really needed is additional content. However, for the present, it is difficult to ascertain where Battlefield 2042 and Battlefield Portal will end up. This is a shame, given that Battlefield Portal had, when it was first announced, sounded like it was exactly what the series needed: it was intended to give players the ability to tailor Battlefield experiences to their liking, and the potential for this was immense. In fact, had Battlefield 2042 just released with Portal, but at least eighty percent of the maps, weapons and vehicles to each of Battlefield 3, Bad Company 2 and 1942, it would’ve proven massively successful for bringing back everything that players had come to love about the series. While I’ve been able to partially recreate the scenario in which I solo Mädchen und Panzer in a single M1A2 using Battlefield Portal, the mode creates the tantalising potential of allowing me to recreate Panzerfahren matches. I’m not confident that such a possibility will ever be realised, but as it turns out, a few more additions to the logic editor, and the addition of new content is all that it would take.

• Playing proper Panzerfahren in Battlefield Portal would be considerably more fun that curb-stomping World War Two tanks with modern hardware, and despite the doubt surrounding Battlefield 2042, it is of some consolation to me that, nine years after Girls und Panzer finished airing, we’re the closest we’ve ever been to both recreating iconic Girls und Panzer experiences and messing around with outlandish scenarios like seeing if Mädchen und Panzer could indeed live up to their claims that Sumeragi’s interpretation of the Nishizumi Style is a match for decades of technological advancement. I’ve long held that operator skill trumps hardware performance, but I accept the reality that, when two competent operators are separated by hardware differences, the superior machine will win out. I’ve been running my current desktop for nine years, and while this machine has performed very admirably during its run, its twilight is also here. This desktop saw me through graduate studies and everything else for the past nine years, so I will be sad to see it go, but at the same time, I also recognise the need for an improved desktop that will continuing assisting me over the next several years.

Assuming that the logic editor and options provide freedom of modification to this level, DICE would then need to greatly extend the factions available and vehicle customisation choices in Battlefield Portal. At minimum, the Soviet Union and United Kingdom would need to be added, along with their corresponding tanks (T-70, T-34, IS-2 and KV-2 for the Soviets, Crusaders, Matildas, Churchills and Valentine Archer for the British), and additional tanks for both German and American factions are required, as well. Bringing such as the 38(t), StuG III and Panther to the German faction, and the M3 Lee, plus the M26 Pershing and M18 Hellcat, would provide enough variety for players to kit out their tanks in an authentic manner. Since Battlefield V already had assets for Japanese armour, it would be nice to bring tanks like the Type 89, Type 97 and Type 3, into the game, too. Once the appropriate factions and their corresponding tanks are present, a deeper customisation system would need to be added for each tank. Currently, tanks offer limited modifications to their primary and secondary weapons, as well as two slots for equipment. Allowing players to switch out the Panzer IV’s KwK 37 L/24 for a KwK 40 L/48 would increase firepower and accuracy at the expense of blast radius, or adding a turret skirt would increase damage resistance at the expense of top speed, could offer meaningful ways of altering the way one’s tank handles. To provide aesthetic customisations, limited cosmetics should be available, altering one’s tank cameos, hull logos or accessories like flags. Battlefield V had actually done a fantastic job of armoured warfare, introducing limited turret traversal rates, and simulated deflections through its ricochet mechanic: if players hit an enemy tank from a shallow angle, the shell would simply bounce off armour and head in a different direction, dealing minimal damage to the first target hit. With its variety of vehicles and a relatively involved upgrade tree, plus deeper tank mechanics, armoured warfare in Battlefield V was the best it’d felt in any Battlefield game. The variety of what was seen in Battlefield V, in conjunction with an expanded version of what Battlefield Portal allows, show that it is very much possible to, with a little creativity, re-create Panzerfahren in the Frostbite Engine and do something that Bandai Namco Entertainment continues to lack the courage to do: Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Match has been out since 2018, and to this day, only is available for PlayStation 4. DICE has the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that the Frostbite Engine can step in and fill this void by providing players the power to create their own Panzerfahren matches. At present, the fundamentals are all in place – a little bit of elbow grease and creativity could very well allow DICE to do something that Bandai Namco Entertainment refuses to, and a Panzerfahren mode in Battlefield Portal would confer one the ability to experience Girls und Panzer in a novel way. In the meantime, having spent a few matches trivially blowing Tiger Is and Panzer IVs away with the M1A2 in Battlefield Portal, the word that best describes this experience isn’t so much cruel, as it is unnecessary, from my end – as formidable as the Tiger I is, and as revered as certain interpretations of the Nishizumi Style is, there comes a point where reputation alone cannot carry a battle; one must learn to adapt and embrace change as Miho has, or risk being rendered irrelevant by the times.