T w e n t y S i d e d

As promised! Episode 2 of Girls und Panzer: Tanks, we ride them! We learn almost everything we “need” to know about Sensha-do, or Tankery; in this episode. “How does this thing even work, anyway?” is kept appropriately vague, because there are certain story beats that require more suspension of disbelief than others. But ultimately, how precisely the tank-shaped hole that contains this show is dug isn’t really the point. Our guiding principle is friendship, and “finding your own Tankery;” a concept that will be brought up a couple of times. But while Tankery in the world of Girls und Panzer may be as more gimmick than mechanic, the tanks themselves flip that situation. Mostly outside of battle. This episode ends in a cliffhanger that marks the transition of the series from something like the “slice-of-life” style we’ve seen so far, too; early in the third episode, something closer to a sports anime.

Following the first-time viewing of the full opening song, which I will skip because its primary point is to show most of the characters who appear throughout the series, we pick up right where we left of in Episode 1: all the Sensha-do members being disappointed by the Panzer IV (4) and its condition. But more importantly, someone brings up that obviously the school needs more than one tank, right? Sensha-do is a team sport. The propaganda film showed some kind of simulated battle between teams of tanks. The student council informs the students that even though Tankery was discontinued at Oarai many years ago, the school’s former tanks *should* still be around. As in, on the ship. Somewhere. Anywhere. But there are no records, apparently. Soooo…everybody just go look for tanks.

Plausibility ranking: Sure, why not?

Saori complains this wasn’t what she pictured when she signed up for Tankery. The propaganda film explicitly stated this would make her popular with men and she doesn’t see that happening AT ALL. Anzu (the student council president) tells Saori their Tankery instructor will be arriving in a couple of days, a really cool person, and Anzu can introduce Saori. This gets Saori motivated, at least until her first idea…searching the school parking lot…doesn’t pan out. Hana points out that tanks being in the parking lot isn’t very likely. Probably because she’s too polite to say plainly “if there were tanks in the parking lot, we wouldn’t be looking for them, would we?” A fourth girl is shown watching our protagonists from behind a tree. While fascinated with the entire group she seems to fixate on Miho. Saori suggests searching the forest on the other end of the parking lot as trees are a good place to hide something. The fourth girl starts to follow along, only to dart back to her tree when she sees Miho is watching her. The suspense doesn’t last as Miho works up the courage to…invite the fourth girl to come along. Thus we are introduced to the fourth protagonist, Yukari Akiyama. Yukari is an absolute tank enthusiast and amateur “expert.” That’s no joke, either. While her obsession is mostly played for laughs, she is able to parlay her knowledge of tanks, the sport of Sensha-do, and the other schools that are eventually introduced into a vital scouting role. In fact the Yukari character even hosted several animation “shorts” about tanks and their operation separate from the series and films.

Something interesting happens when our prior protagonists introduce themselves. As we could surmise, Yukari knows who Miho is and addresses her as Nishizumi-dono. This is a medieval form of address not seen in modern Japanese, although the written form is still used in some situations. -dono connotes respect without conveying a legally-significant difference in class. -sama, for example, would be used to address royalty, or to reference a deity. -sensei, of course, acknowledges a person as a recognized master or leader. -dono is less significant than -sama and comes closest to conveying “lord” or “lady” without conveying royal status. How this might relate to the changes over the centuries in Japanese inheritance status is a separate discussion, but a spoken “-dono” mostly communicates archaic use. This, as we will see throughout the series, is in-line with Yukari’s personality.

Hana soon smells flowers in the distance. And…iron. And oil. In that direction. Hana briefly described in the first episode that her family was deeply-involved in flower arranging, and Saori suggests that history has provided Hana with a sensitive nose. “Maybe,” responds Hana.”or maybe it’s just me.” Which I think is a very understated contribution to one of this series’ major messages: people can be unique and special and interesting APART from “what they do.” It’s fundamental to the “find your own Tankery” message. Your individuality is much more important than the roles family and society try to push into you. Hana leads the group to a CKD LT vz. 38, a Czechoslovakian tank. This is just about universally known as the Panzer 38(t), since Germany incorporated the tank into their own resources in 1939 and even continued production, considering the 38(t) superior in many ways to the Panzer I’s and II’s (1’s and 2’s) that formed the bulk of their tank forces in the first few years of what would become WWII.

In quick succession we see the remaining four members of the former Volleyball Club (constantly wearing their Volleyball outfits) find a Japanese Type 89 I-go (ee-go), also commonly called a Chi-Ro (chee-ro). Then the History Club spots a Stug III (3) at the bottom of a pond. The Stug III is also called a Panzer III Assault, and I’m not going to tell you what Stug is short for, because it’s unimportant. What *is* important to know is what a Stug is:

Most people consider the big gun in a turret a primary feature of tanks. You will STILL run into people who insist that a vehicle that is a tank in every other way except the gun not being in a turret is NOT a tank. In that regard, a Stug is not a tank. A Stug III is a Panzer III that has a large, fixed gun on top rather than a gun in a turret. This arrangement typically allows you to use a bigger gun than the vehicle would normally be able to accommodate. The Stug III mounted a 75 millimeter assault gun and was originally intended as a mobile artillery piece. Only later was the Stug III implemented as a tank destroyer, which is what most people associate this tank with.

Finally the six first-years find an American M3 Lee medium tank in a metal barn. I love this vehicle, but I concede the Lee was a rushed stop-gap that exceeded at very little. It turns out to be an appropriate vehicle for the timid first-year students.

The Vehicle or Automobile Club, the terms seem to be used interchangeably, does one of many feats of magic and transports all the tanks back to the Sensha-do Club-grounds. Anzu suggests each team ride the tank they found, volunteering the three members of the Student Council for the Panzer 38(t) and assigning Miho and her now-three friends to take the Panzer IV. This conveniently puts the three-person crew in the only tank that, at least in its original incarnation, was designed for a three-person crew. The Panzer IV is short by one, the Type 89 and the Stug III are both fully crewed at four, and the Lee is *technically* under-manned by one with only six first-years. The hand-wavey part is that the British implementation of the Lee, the Grant, combined the Commander role and the Radio Operator role into one person by modifying the turret. But secondarily, radio communications were neither universal nor consistent among these tanks…but it’s required for Sensha-do. So these tanks do not have period-correct radio sets, nor are they used in a period-correct manner. So, you can throw all sorts of hands up to render this point moot. This seems less-relevant for the Panzer IV, but considering there is at least one character we’ve been shown repeatedly who *is not present* yet, maybe this will be resolved via plot point.

The team members all wash and clean their tanks (re-assembling the Panzer IV apparently took place sometime during this period, too) after which Anzu dismisses the club saying “the vehicle club will take care of the rest of the maintenance tonight.” Even considering these vehicles aren’t literally World War II tanks but semi-fictional vehicles meant to look and act like the WWII tanks they’re based on, “the vehicle club will take care of the rest of the maintenance” is doing A LOT OF LIFTING. But, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly, this isn’t really important. It’s FUNNY to think about, but it’s not important.

Interesting to see is the interplay between our newest protagonist, Yukari, and Saori. We get to see several examples of Yukari “geeking-out” over tanks, which Saori finds extremely weird and off-putting. However, when Saori gushes about meeting the cute tank instructor soon Yukari recoils similarly. The four eat dinner together in Miho’s apartment, where once again Saori boggles when Yukari pulls out a full set of camping utensils to cook rice. Saori ends up taking charge of the cooking, remarking that “everyone is unexpectedly useless.” This is, of course, after removing her contact lenses and donning a pair of thick, red half-frame glasses. She explains that knowing how to cook meat and potatoes is necessary for attracting a man, which Yukari questions as nothing more than an urban legend.

Speaking of missing characters, the next morning Miho sees something strange: a short, dark-haired girl in an Oarai High School uniform staggering all over the sidewalk. This turns out to be Mako, another second-year student I mentioned in the first episode. Mako doesn’t do mornings, or waking up. It’s never really established what time she prefers to rise, but we do get to see her operating at 120% in the middle of the night in some later media. But getting up to go to school is effectively beyond her limits. Miho helps Mako to the school gate, where the head of the “Public Morals Committee,” acting as a type of Hall Monitor, scolds Mako for being late to school 245 straight days. If you remember, one of the benefits one gets for taking Sensha-do at Oarai is “get out of jail free” cards for tardiness. This clearly appealed to Mako, but exertion before the afternoon is simply too great a task. Miho is instructed to leave Mako behind next time.

In Tankery Class the entire group is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new instructor. The instructor makes quite an entrance being dropped from a Kawasaki C-2 transport in a Japanese Type 10 Main Battle Tank (destroying the headmaster’s Ferrari F-40-looking car in the process.) Captain Chouno Ami is the Special Instructor of the Tankery Training Unit, whatever that is. And in keeping with everything we know about Tankery as a sport, presents as female; even wearing a uniform based on the (current in our world) Japanese Self Defense Forces female uniform. Saori is crestfallen, but, as Hana points out, Captain Ami does indeed look very cool.

Captain Ami, like Yukari, knows exactly who Miho is, who the members of Miho’s family are, and their importance to Tankery. Her attention to Miho lets the entire team know that Miho is, actually, a bit of a celebrity. Earlier a newscast had shown an interview with Miho’s sister, Maho, that Miho reacted very negatively to. Especially when her sister said “never run away.” Hana and Saori understand enough to know Miho really doesn’t want her past or family brought up, but the cat’s out of the bag now.

Ami, knowing most of the students have NO EXPERIENCE operating tanks, decides the first thing they should all do is a practice battle. She hands each team a map of the area (in the woods, not the city thank goodness. That comes later) with marks for each of the five teams to indicate where they should start from. She tells each team to figure out how to start and drive their tanks to the designated area, at which point their goal, when the battle starts, will be “last tank standing.” This is accomplished with some humor over the next few minutes. In the protagonist Panzer IV, Miho vehemently turns down the commander role, leaving the assertive Saori in charge. Hana drives and Yukari fires the main gun, leaving Miho to fill the role of loader. Saori, as the commander, tells Hana to drive toward the Student Council’s 38(t), as she wishes to attack the President for misleading her about the Tankery instructor. It’s at that point they discover the other four tanks have ALL decided to attack the Panzer IV as the perceived biggest threat to each of them individually. Saori and Hana panic over getting the tank moving and out of the way, until Miho instructs the two on communication and calms the situation down.

Only to look outside and realize the tank is about to run over Mako, who is napping by a rock in front of them.

That’s the end of Episode 2, but the beginning of the “scrimmage” illustrates something important. Sure, Miho has experience. She did organized Sensha-do last year in school, even if that ended in some kind of tragedy. And being from a prominent Tankery family, who knows what experience with tanks she had before that, even. But it is clear in these early few moments that even if she doesn’t particularly want to be here, she’s a natural leader. She cares about her new friends, and not just in the “commiserate with them” way. She is able to stay calm and think, and even plan. She obviously doesn’t *want* to be responsible for the resources around her, yet she knows how to use them anyway. We see Miho studying the map Captain Ami gave them, a concerned look on her face. This could be in reference to any number of things at that point, but I wonder sometimes if she’s looking at an unsolved jigsaw puzzle, knowing she has all the right pieces, but they’re in the wrong order. Her family taught her one way to solve the puzzle, every time. Miho is trying to figure out a new way.

Next up is Episode 3: We’re having a match!

Paige Francis He/him