Girls und Panzer

Actually, the title pretty much says it all. This show involves a future/alternative history where teenage girls drive tanks as a martial art, to the point that at one point one of the characters notes 'it just looks weird to see a man driving a tank'.

The tanks are restricted to 1945 and before, with some (probably rather unlikely) restrictions to keep from killing off all the competitors. I suspect someone with an interest in World War I & II vintage military equipment would have a lot of fun watching this show just for the stuff in the background. By all accounts, most of the equipment seem in this show in a good copy of existing WW I & II equipment. On a related note, the various high-schools are all mounted on what look like converted aircraft carriers, so there are some more early 20th century military equipment to check out there.

There are lots of interesting side notes in this show, as well. For example, at one point some crew visit a military version of a Dick's Sporting Goods or Bass Pro Shop type store. (for lack of a better way to describe it) Another time, the team gets a hold of a WWII (I think) French tank that was famous for its unreliability in the field. The team starts up the tank, drives it out onto the battlefield, and promptly gets knocked out of the fighting.

I could go on and on, but I suspect you know by now if you are interested in this show or not, so I'll close here.

How cool is this series? A Hetzer, a Maus and Czech 38t?!! If any of these words make sense to you, then you are truly a fanatic for these tank models as I am. Love the animation and story line. Good healthy fun!!

There is only one reason why you should watch this anime: To watch girls blow the living crap out of each other in tanks!

On the outside it looks adorable, but on the inside, past the surface, they are metal A. F.! (Word-play intended!)

Pros: *This is a must-watch if you are infatuated with tanks or World War II.

*Minimal (if any) fanservice at all.

*The characters' designs are aesthetically pleasing.

*If you are looking for something to watch while exercising on the treadmill, then this would be an appropriate pick. It does not require much cerebral thought or mental involvement, yet it has just enough action in it to get you pumped!

Cons: *There isn't that much of a narrative. They do not really explore anything other than "what would happen if we put high school girls in a tank and have them fight other tanks?" *There is some back story, but not necessarily quite as much as one might hope. The main back story comes in the form of flashbacks.

*The realism goes in and out in places. This anime has particularly become notorious as a meme across the internet community for following "anime logic" with respects to its tank battles. This might be a pro or a con, depending on whichever perspective you view it from.

What makes a girl feminine? Driving heavy tanks apparently. A clash of wills, where kindness and prowess unites resulting in the genius that is our coy and self deprecating protagonist! Still, I will be first to say that the mixture of ludicrousness and bonhomie is a winning combination! A wonderful watch, though in this series the question as to why Japan needs teenage girls to fight simulated tank battles is still not answered. Also, what's up with the gargantuan ships with whole towns and landscape on them? Looking forward for the next romp; where I'm sure all would be elucidated! Panzer vor!

The other reviewers have already explained a lot in back story so I won't bother add more details to it, cuz as to whether you can be convinced by the whole story is pure personal preference. Like there's carbon coating applied on inner side of the tanks so the girls won't get injured by real tank ammunition. I'm totally fine with it given that other isekai shows have much more logics and backgrounds. It's only a matter of taking it or leaving it.

The title might give you an impression of a cliche drama from a bunch of moe high school girls but don't let it deceive you. From 1 to 10 you can rate "moe level" at around 3~4. The girls are cute indeed thanks to designing artists but the director doesn't offer much fan service in the script. On the contrary the most exciting parts in the show are tank battles. It has one of the maturest CGI performance I've ever seen. It's impressive to the point that you won't feel it appropriate at all when the 3D tanks move and shoot in 2D backgrounds.

From the historical perspective those tanks in this anime are made as authentic as possible to match real WW2 tanks. Though velocity are not quite historical accurate, they can do some cool manuevers. Combined with the presentation of tank battles those inaccurate parts can be easily forgiven.

Dialogues, dressing and even the names of the girls are deliberately designed. With a bit of Googling you can find that almost every girl in the protagonist's team refer to someone real back in history. I really appreciate the staff members to do that. Those research must have taken a long time.

GuP is so intriguing that I've watched it like more than 10 times and every time I can find some details that I previously overlooked, maybe a team leader making gestures to order other students to shoot in tank battles, or how those tanks run in different scenarios because of different size and weight. It's a shame that with so many 3D animation works in it the production cycle is longer than you'd expect from a conventional JP anime. Now the staff team release an OVA every 18 months or so. Other than that I'm totally satisfied with GuP.