Panzer Vor (If You Know What I Mean)!

One of the many surprises involving the recent series Girls und Panzer was the lack of heavy fanservice.  Oh, don't get me wrong, the girls are cute and pleasant to look at, but pretty much the only true fanservice shots are for the tank aficionado.

And that's fine, great even.  It's a wonderful thing when shows take the high road and avoids blatant pandering to succeed upon its own merits.  I mean, I love the Strike Witches franchise, but there's no way to use it as an example of the fine art of anime... there's just not enough pants in that show.  However, a casual glance at a well-known repository of anime-related fanart (link ridiculously NSFW) makes it clear that there's a demand for Girls und Panzer fanservice.  Which is why it should come as no surprise that the Blu-Ray release of the first volume of GuP in Japan contains an OVA...

Being devoted to my readers, I've decided to take on the challenge of providing suitable coverage of this OVA for your edification.  Join me, won't you, in an excursion into GuP OVA #1: Water War!


For reasons that are flimsy, even to the participants of the OVA, it's decided that the next battle will be held on a tropical island where there's got to be a beach!  And if there's a beach, there's gotta be swimming, and that means swimsuits!  It's quickly decided that the Ooarai Girls High School Tankwondo team simply must make a run to a swimsuit store immediately!

Of course, there just happens to be such a place on the Mega-Aircraft-Carrier that doubles as a high school, but it's no ordinary swimsuit store, oh no!  No, this one prides itself on carrying anything that could be worn as a swimsuit.  Anything?  Anything.

There does appear to be something of a disconnect between what the Production Staff considers "fanservice" and what everybody else in the free world and Canada considers fanservice.  There's some quick discussion about what looks cute and it's thought that the panzer-inspired swimsuits will be huge hits this season.  Panzer-inspired?  What, they have turrets?

Please note the "Afrika Corps" insignia on the left hip.  This makes it "panzer-inspired."  While everybody in Team Anglerfish tries to figure out what to make sleepy Mako wear, the rest of the Tankwondo club is out there, looking at suits as well...

Team Hippo's Erwin unsurprisingly also gravitates towards the Afrika Corps collection.  Over in some other part of the store...

...things are getting really weird.  I'm not exactly sure what Team Duck is up to here, but it's best that we don't actually think about it too much and quietly move on.  Let's see what Team Rabbit has decided upon, shall we?

On second thought, let's go back to Team Duck... they seem substantially more well-adjusted in comparison.  I did find the chainsaw kickboard to be clever, though... which worries me to no end.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but what swimsuits have the Student Council Team Turtle decided upon?

They're... surprisingly normal.  I have questions about the boots, though.  Everybody gets suits, and all is right with the world.  So finally, it's time for their trip to the beach, and it looks like Team Anglerfish have modified their tank a bit.

Somewhere, Heinz Guderian weeps.  Everybody switches into their swimsuits, there's a lot of long, slow pans over the scantily-clad crewmembers of Team Anglerfish, and one final group shot, though I'm not sure how they wound up here:

...the terror on their faces is palpable as they plummet from hundreds of feet in the air towards a blue ocean that will be as hard as concrete when they hit.  None of the members of Team Anglerfish will be present for their next battle, as they will all be crushed and broken, then eaten by sharks.  Or it's a concept shot thrown in to show how happy they are as a team, one of the two.  And then, in true Girls und Panzer tradition...

...the weather changes in the space of two frames.  The end.

Now, this was nice, I guess, but I would have rather the Production Staff devoted the time to actually finishing Ep11 and 12 so they could have been broadcast.  Oh well, they do have to make money, don't they?  I suppose.  There were no hints about what OVA #2 would be about, so we'll just have to wait and see.  Toodle-loo!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:45 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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