I think the biggest trick Girls und Panzer pulled on everyone was the aircraft carrier reveal. While there was foreshadowing in Episode 1 to suggest they were on a military installation or even a ship (the normal Japanese school bell being replaced with what sounds like a naval ship alarm), we barely had enough time to process the insane idea that they could quite possibly be on a ship. Which even if we did correctly assume was the case, I don't think anyone could have possibly foreseen that they were living on a MASSIVE AIRCRAFT CARRIER WITH AN ENTIRE SCHOOL ON IT.
@@jjimlee7009 It is a small thing that no one would pay any mind to. Also that promo art was released a bit of time before it aired, so people were thinking that maybe the navy will help them transport the tanks to various places around the world. No one expected a whole school and functioning town to be on the carrier itself. It had been done before in anime, often as giant mecha being used as mobile bases (Gundam and SDF Macross being prime examples). But a slice-of-life anime having a beautiful town situated on top of an aircraft carrier was definitely a unique idea Mizushima and his staff came up with.
My understanding is that, according to supplemental materials only available in Japan, senshadou being a girls-only sport is related to three issues. First off, it apparently started out when Gottlieb Daimler, Karl Benz, and Ettore Bugatti's wives all bought tankettes in the early 20s and started absolutely terrorizing the roads of Europe by racing all over the continent in them, with doing so becoming popular to the point that the 24 Heures du Mans (24 Hours of Le Mans) ended up adding a tank/tracked vehicle category by the end of the decade, and as soon as people start having tanks, they're going to start having war games in them with paint rounds, too. Secondly, there was apparently a case of letting men participate in one match in the late 1930s, but they took it far too seriously and started fighting for real; while it's never specified, it's somewhat implied that this is actually what set off World War Two in Europe in the GuP universe. Third, and most importantly, senshadou is girls-only in Japan because it's seen as a feminine martial art in much the same way that kyuudou (the way of the bow) and naginatadou (the way of the naginata, a Japanese polearm) are traditionally seen as feminine and teaching feminine virtues. That said, much as the gender divide in real-world martial arts styles has been eroding heavily in Japan in the postwar era, the "feminine" mystique of senshadou has been eroding in the GuPverse for the last few decades--witness one of the freshmen commenting, during the lunchroom scene in episode 1, that her boyfriend left her because he was sick of hearing about tanks, for example. So I'd say that while the Student Council did create the narration for the propaganda film from whole cloth, I'd also say that their extolling its femininity and benefits in learning feminine virtues wasn't a complete ass-pull on their parts; they just brought up the traditional attitude towards it as a way to try and better sell it. ...and now I'm suddenly pondering. Do you think, given the skill she's since showed at video editing, the Student Council might have actually drafted Yukari to put together the B-roll for that narration?
But I suspect that would end up with you frantically "looking" for your wife if you ever got her angry. As in "Oh crap, she's in the tank now, I'd better hide!" Scene in Court: "Honest, Judge, you can't see very well in a tank and I "accidentally" ran over my husband...... after the big argument". 😯😀
@@KillerOrca Yup. My Wife has a Prius and on more than one occasion that silly thing has snuck up on me in EV-mode. I'm not saying that she WOULD run me over, but she certainly could. I try to not upset her...just in case.😉
Also make sense for Nishi to be the only one to enjoy the Oorai video. From a school who is deeply rooted in traditional values of course she would be sway by a propaganda video about traditional values.
@@rdfox76 Momo: "Let me put it this way. Do you really have that much faith in your team mates?" Miho: "No. I do, however, have faith in Yukari." Momo: "Yukari? What...Oooooh no!" Prisencolinensinainciusol
@@janslavik5284 Hana: "You put a bomb on it, didn't you?" Miho: "What? Of course I didn't. Are you insane?....I just...syphoned the gas a little." *SPLOSH* Hana: "Well, they're dead."
@@landscapedetective4064 Yukari (on video): "Ah, shit, I spilled the sauce all over me!" Miho: "Oh, so THAT'S why you look like someone tossed a grenade into a nursery." Yukari (live): "Not *all* problems have to be solved through violence." Anzio student (video): "Ey, she spill-a da sauce! GET HER!" Yukari (live): "This one, however, did."
Anzu played 4d chess on us all! I knew she was brilliant and cunning, but not this much. It guess it was a miracle anyone joined the Oarai team, yet we, the fans, all, or at least many, reacted in the opposite fashion. I kinda took the video at face value, but heavily questioned how driving tanks could make a girl more womanly. Anzu really played the longest con in the series, even tricking fans watching the show into believing the fabricated propaganda video. That's how cunning Anzu is, to break the 4th wall to con us fans as well. We really needed to watch out for Oarai's devious dried sweet potato snacking student president.
I believe in suplimentary materials it's stated that it became an all girls sport around ww2. My theory is that, despirate for manpower, Japan desided to monilize women as tankers in their universe (encouraging the remaining men to be the more physically danding jobs like infantry and engineers) and they continued this trend during the cold War due to the manpower discrepancies between Japan (and other American allies in East Asia) and the communists there. And now it's just tradition.
There's also a massive Su Tsu vibe there, where if the option to flee is forcibly removed then the only other option is to fight. So Orai being forced to fight to ensure their school isn't closed down played a major part in them becoming a major a player. This forced to fight response became even more apparent due to the fact that the tanks they had were leftovers that the other schools didn't want, so not only were they forced to make do with the tanks they had they were also forced to employ tactics and strategies in unconventional warfare in order to survive. Compare that to the other schools that not had the money to buy the tanks they specifically wanted to field, but each had a very distinct approach of conventional warfare that was ill-suited when going up against the unpredictable methods Orai employed throughout the series. In a way, one could say that Girls und Panzer unintentionally (perhaps indirectly) reflects how conventional armies of the Western powers have difficulties fighting against opponents in the Middle East and Asia who rely on unconventional tactics in order to win. (E.g. The Vietnam War, the Aghanistan and Iraq War, etc.)
The funny thing is that it is easy to believe that all the schools are required to show that video and/or it is the one shown at Kuromorimine with the script to be read off by the team captain for that year. Also, if you take note, the woman central in that propaganda film is none other than Shiho Nishizumi herself at a younger age.
I questioned it. When I first saw it, I was like, "Wouldn't this give the girls PTSD or something like that. Why say it will make a girl a better wife or such when that said girl or girls were being shot at by all different calibers of tank guns"
Now that I really think about it, it does kinda make sence, with the whole Western idea of Feminism, Traditional values are seen as increasingly "oppressive". How they took irl stuff and put it in an anime about girls driving WW2 tanks is beyond me, im assuming that they are playing the long game.
imagine if the purpose of the sport is actually so japan can have a list of people who are already trained in using tanks that can be conscripted if a war breaks out
I just realized 😁 anzu force miho to join the tankery and save the school. Anzu was kinda selfish pushy that time but yeah she also drag everyone to join their club so it works
As I understand it (and I may be wrong here), the video makes an appeal to more conservative, traditionalist values - and Nishi is from the one school that lionises the older Japanese cultural elements. That's my interpretation, anyway.
I mean, I figure the reaction is as extreme as it is because it's a funny gag. And I figure the whole "womanly virtues" thing is a part of the sport, but hasn't been a big thing in it since their equivalent of the 60's but is still part of the cultural zeitgeist around the sport.
Did you just figure that out? Seriously? It was a *propaganda* video. And what did our history classes teach us about propaganda videos? To never take them at face value. If you found this shocking Starship Troopers is going to be a real mindf***.
One thing that bugged me about Girls und panzer was the part as shown here about the girls learning the skills and traits of the maiden but when you see the other schools with their students they don’t seem to show those traits well maybe St Gloriana does, Kuramorimine on the other hand shows more strict girls always serious don’t to seem to show much emotions or feeling like Maho shows but that’s mainly because of the expectations of the Nishizumi family and style, then you have Erika who shows more arrogance to others like in the cafe scene when she talks to Miho, Saori, Hana, Mako and Yukari That’s just my thought about this anyway
Anime as a whole is under greater threat of potential censorship from the LDP then the average western fan realizes. So it wouldn't surprise me of that aspect of the Pilots Exposition was in part there to placate the LDP for the time being. But now that the franchise is essentially to big to fail they can expose how they actually feel about. The lead writer of Girls und Panzer is Reiko Yoshida who in my view has a good track record of being a progressive writer but not preachy about it.
I always thought it was an actual video from 1939 that got colourized As for Yuzu I just thought she was reading the video's script This led me to the belief that in WW2. All armed forces were unsegregated for men and women, as the video always struck me as being a German production because of the tanks, uniforms and buildings
Wait i just had to rewatch episode one to see that yuzu was speaking and not a pre recorded video as i always thought oh the animators were good with hiding that she was talking or i am just stupid
GuP is just another CuteGirlsDoingTheirThing anime. Its like watching K On or BtR. Its an entertaining anime and thats my reason why i keep on watching GuP.
This anime freaking annoyed me i was a Sherman tank gunner in my past life seeing those women not handle that tank right pisses me off or when they painted the tanks pink made me angrier you dont paint a tank pink your basically putting a bullseye on your tank use the original camos or tank factory colors plus not having any third reich items on the tiger tank made me sad the panzer tiger mk1 was used by hitlers panzer division
I don’t even know what’s going on. I keep meaning to watch that show but then I forget to as something else comes up usually Isekai. I heard fooled and Girls und Panzer and for some reason all I could think of was a small very girl cute boy dressing up like a girl in order to bust into the sport because he really loves tanks and the sport and turns out he’s some kind of tactical genius. Then of course his team finds out but they want to win so they try to keep it quiet that he’s actually a guy, and it just kind of progresses along the same lines from there. Obviously there are some problems, primarily being that if it’s a girls only sport and he’s found to be a guy all their progress would be taken away from them and the team will be busted back down to zero. But maybe that could explain why it’s a girls only sport. Anyway that’s what I was taking from the “fooled us all” title. (Yes, I’m also aware that this is a complete flip on the trope of “girl dresses up like a boy to enter boys only sport and then wins everything“, But because it’s a flip it brings more attention to it.)
