Girls und Panzer

""This is Tankery, not war. Your tank will cry if you're a bad person!""

Girls und Panzer is a 2012-13 manga (with several ongoing spin-offs, as well as a Twelve-Episode Anime adaptation plus a movie, light novels, and a video game) about girls who operate tanks as a martial art.

Miho Nishizumi is a high-school student who has just transferred to Oarai Academy. On her first day at school, the student council recreates the tankery club, which has been defunct for several years. While she has tankery experience, and her new friends are interested in joining, she doesn't want any part of it. However, pressure from the student council causes her to reconsider, and with her new friends, she joins the tankery club.

"Hana: I don't want to forget that fierce feeling of numbness..."
 * Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Powerful enough to order tanks and ammunition (and C-5M Super Galaxy cargo jets, in Saunders's case).
 * A Mother to Her Girls: Miho. See My Greatest Failure and My Greatest Second Chance below for shining examples. Her mother and big sister disapprove, but the club at Oarai adores her for it.
 * A-Team Firing: All of the Oarai tanks at first (given their relative lack of practice), but Momo never really gets better.
 * Big Damn Heroes: In the match against St. Gloriana, the student council get their tread repaired and manage to get back into the fight just in time to save Team Anglerfish.
 * In The Movie, when packing up their belongings to leave Oarai, the question of what to do with the tanks arises. Cue Saunders and their C-5M Super Galaxy (putting the Big in Big Damn Heroes) -- they pack out the tanks to hold them until the Oarai students get re-settled.
 * Later on in the movie, it's competition day, Miho has her school's 8 tanks and is going out of her mind trying to figure out a strategy to beat a 30-tank elite university team. Just before the match starts, reinforcements roll over the hill -- tanks from every other high school in the country, temporarily transferring to Oarai to make up the numbers.
 * Bling of War: Oarai's tanks' first paint-jobs are rather spectacular. Hot pink, gold, flags...they quickly learn that it's not very practical in their match against St. Gloriana.
 * Chekhov's Skill: Saori is an extremely rapid texter, which she suggests will serve her well in the job of Team Anglerfish's radio operator. Hana doesn't think it'll be that applicable, but it does come in handy when
 * Comically Missing the Point: Commander Nishi of Chihatan sometimes lets her enthusiasm get away from her. When the high schools band together with Oarai, she misunderstands the plan (to bring 22 tanks between the seven schools, to give Oarai 30 tanks to match the University) and brings 22 tanks herself.
 * Conveniently Empty Building / Hero Insurance: Whole towns are evacuated to allow battles to take place in them, and their residents are amply compensated for the resulting destruction. One man is seen celebrating when a tank completely crushes his storefront.
 * Cool Ship: Each Academy appears to be a converted aircraft carrier. Except that no country ever built an aircraft carrier (or any other ship) as freakin' BIG as these; one of the smaller vessels is over seven kilometers long.
 * Crazy Prepared: OVA 5 reveals this about Yukari ... and she apparently keeps it all in Hammerspace; she doesn't seem to be carrying anything, but then she pulls out an insulating wrap for use in Erwin's boots, as well as a handwarmer from a pocket that seemed totally flat, a (military-issue, of course) folding spade, a thermos full of hot cocoa.... Hana and Saori mention seeing her produce scissors, a sewing kit, and bandages, too.
 * Cute Little Fang: Katyusha. Two, actually, but they usually don't show at the same time, and even when they do, one side or the other will be more prominent.
 * Dark Reprise: "A Tense Situation" is a tense, minor rearrangement of one of Oarai's themes ("Panzer Vor"), and it usually plays when the tide is against Oarai.
 * "Stalemate on the Front" is a more melancholy variant. It plays when Mako learns of her grandmother's sudden illness, for example.
 * Drives Like Crazy: Mikko of Continuation School from Der Film, although she actually Drives Like Crazy Awesome, dodging shots with outrageous skill and.
 * Flyaway Shot: At the end of Episode 1, revealing the academy ship for the first time.
 * Friendly Enemy: Even though schools have their rivalries, most of the teams and commanders are on good terms with each other (and the ones that aren't come around from the power of Defeat Means Friendship). When Oarai is threatened with shutdown in The Movie despite their victory in the high school tournament, everyone else pulls together to help them -- Shiho Nishizumi uses her influence to get Oarai a last-chance match against a university team, and the commanders of all the other high schools join Oarai for the resulting battle and bring enough tanks to make the strengths equal.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Not sure whether it counts more as this or Refuge in Audacity, but the mascot painted on Hippo Team's StuG-III grins over its shoulder as it presents its backside -- with a star-shape for an anus, just to rub it in -- to the viewer. Hippo is mooning anyone who looks at it.
 * Gratuitous English: When a gunner on one of Saunders' tanks realizes (too late), she exclaims, "Jesus!"
 * Also, when the army officer praises Oarai's first practice match, she uses the English phrases "good job!" and "Very nice!"
 * Gratuitous German: The production company itself is called "Girls und Panzer Projekt", and the commands "Panzer Vor!" and "Panzer Halt!"
 * The Movie is entitled Girls und Panzer: Der Film.
 * Ludicrously, the first time "Panzer Vor!" is spoken, Saori mistakes it for a remark about "Pantsu".
 * Gratuitous Japanese: Of course most of the dialogue is Japanese, which is not gratuitous, but the girls of Chihatan (themed after the Imperial Japanese Army) use Japanese commands to advance and halt, rather than German phrases as the others do. In fact, the commander doesn't recognize their meaning during a friendly match with Oarai against St. Gloriana and Pravda, and has to have them explained to her.
 * Gratuitous Latin: Takako Suzuki, one of the history-buff girls of Team Hippo, uses Latin phrases. She has the fitting nickname of "Caesar".
 * Gratuitous Russian: Clara (of Pravda) converses almost exclusively in Russian, much to Katyusha's irritation. The subtitles get pretty intense: her lines (and Nonna's, when she replies in Russian) are given in Cyrillic, romanized Cyrillic, and English.
 * Heir to the Dojo: Miho and Hana are heirs to family schools of tankery and flower arrangement, respectively. Neither of their mothers are entirely satisfied with them; see Inadequate Inheritor.
 * Hidden Heart of Gold: Maho has a severe, stoic demeanor, but she cares about Miho and her team in her own way. When she heard that Mako's grandmother was hospitalized on the mainland, she immediately offered the use of her school's helicopter.
 * Shiho Nishizumi shows a bit of one during The Movie. When the minister dismisses Oarai's victory in the tournament as luck, she slams her cup on the table and retorts that "There is no luck in tankery!"  She also presumably gave permission to Maho and some of her squads to join Oarai for the subsequent battle.
 * Inadequate Inheritor: Hana's mother is distraught that her daughter is involved with tankery (which she views as the antithesis of the delicacy and femininity that Isuzu flower arrangement should embody), to the point of telling her to not come home until she quits.
 * Miho herself is viewed as the inadequate inheritor to her family's tankery legacy. Her mother is threatening to completely disown her because she's not ruthless enough. Mom describes Miho's way of adapting tactics to circumstances and fostering Team Spirit as "heresy" that must be broken.
 * In Medias Res: The first episode begins with the opening stages of the match against St. Gloriana. Then, after a scene that looks as if Miho is about to get hit by a shell, the story cuts back to her first day of school at Oarai. The St. Gloriana match isn't seen in full until episode 4.
 * Instant Win Condition: In the tournament, the goal is to immobilize the enemy's flag tank. This allows Oarai to defeat their numerically-superior opponents.
 * Lampshade Hanging: After the tankery club is announced, one of the girls in the background says "I wonder if any boys drive tanks? It's just so weird to think about, when only girls do it!"
 * Luminescent Blush: Hana gets one whenever she thinks about a tank firing. As she says when she asks to be the gunner:


 * Meaningful Name: Hana means "flower"; probably deliberately chosen by her mother, as the Isuzu family is known for their school of flower arrangements.
 * Commander Darjeeling, Assam, and Orange Pekoe of St. Gloriana are all named after teas.
 * Miko: In the manga, the "recruiting film" shows tank operators dressed as miko, rather than like soldiers as the anime does.
 * Military Salute: Of course, military buff Yukari will do this. But she does it, too, in situations where real soldiers wouldn't consider it required.
 * My Greatest Failure: Miho has an odd one. During her last mission at Kuromorimine (before joining Oarai), one of the tanks under her command slipped into a river and sank.  Miho jumped out of her tank to save the crew.  She succeeded, but without her leadership during that critical moment, her team lost the mission and broke their winning streak.  Most people (including Miho's friends at Oarai) would call that a fair trade, but to the ruthless Nishizumi philosophy, it's a failure, and the pressure caused her to leave tankery for a while.
 * My Greatest Second Chance: During the tournament final (against Kuromorimine, commanded by Miho's big sister Maho), it happens again. Oarai is crossing a river with Kuromorimine in hot pursuit, and Rabbit Team's tank stalls.  Does Miho rescue them and allow her force to be caught, or abandon Rabbit to let the rest of Oarai get away?
 * National Stereotypes: All the characters are actually Japanese, but most of the schools have "national" themes and their students tend to play into stereotypes of those nations.
 * Eagle Land / Yanks With Tanks: Saunders has more tanks than most schools, and Commander Kay fits the Phenotype Stereotype: blonde, blue-eyed, tall and well-endowed. She's also the friendliest and most boisterous of the commanders.
 * St. Gloriana's leader, Commander Darjeeling, enjoys a Spot of Tea and bears a Stiff Upper Lip as every good English Rose should.
 * Germanic Depressives: Kuromorimine (which translates as "Black Forest Peak") uses the Iron Cross as school insignia. It's the school that Miho left because she couldn't stand their "Win at all costs" philosophy.
 * That Russian Squat Dance: Some of the girls from Pravda do it. Pravda also goes into battle singing in Russian.
 * No Endor Holocaust: When one of Oarai's tanks ends up getting thoroughly trashed, there's always a shot of the girls inside or a radio conversation to confirm that everyone's okay.
 * Not a Morning Person: Mako. Five alarm clocks, a friend trying to pull the blanket away, and a bugle call from just outside her window couldn't get her eyes open. Even after the 75mm cannon fired a blank round, also just outside, she remained pretty sluggish. She says it's due to low blood pressure.
 * Parting Words Regret: Mako and her mother had a big fight as their final conversation before Mako's parents died in an accident. After she learns this, Miho starts to think about the last conversation she had with her family...
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Oarai's tanks have some of this vibe about them. The best were all sold off when the school gave up tankery, so what's available are the odds and ends too "worthless" to sell, and there's no national theme as with the other schools shown. Wait, a StuG III and Panzer IV were "worthless"?
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: The student council threatened Miho with having to publicly do the embarrassing "Anglerfish dance" if she, the council president said it was a collective responsibility -- so the student council danced, too.
 * Regional Riff: In the anime, most of the schools get musical themes associated with their tanks' countries of origin. St. Gloriana gets The British Grenadiers, Saunders gets The Battle Hymn of The Republic and The U.S. Artillery March, and Pravda gets Polyushko-polye, complete with vocals (replaced by Korobeiniki, better known in the West as the Tetris theme, in the English dub). Bits of Tchaikovsky also play during some of Pravda's non-battle scenes -- when Katyusha first comes to meet Oarai, there's a snippet of "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy." Kuromorimine gets Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein and Panzerlied.  The Movie adds the Finnish-themed Continuation High School with Säkkijärven polkka, Italian-themed Anzio High School with Funiculì, Funiculà and Fiamme Nere, and Japanese-themed Chihatan Academy with Yuki no Shingun.
 * Serious Business: Tankery. Serious enough that   In The Movie, it is revealed that promoting tankery is a matter of Japanese national policy.
 * In the Isuzu family, flower arrangement -- to the point that Hana's mother all but disowns her over joining tankery.
 * Tank Goodness: But of course.
 * Technician Versus Performer: Miho used to be a tankery technician (like her family) and came to hate it. The breaking point was when she abandoned her command tank to rescue the crew of a tank sinking in water; she rescued the crew, but was blamed for the loss of the match and breaking her team's winning streak.  Joining the new club at Oarai showed her the performance side of the sport, which let her get back into it.
 * Oarai as a whole is an academy of quirky, plucky performers up against technically superior opponents.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: During a conversation with the minister of education in The Movie, Shiho Nishizumi says that Kuromorimine is intending to fight Oarai again (and defeat them) -- and she's not about to let some bureaucrat take that chance away.
 * True Companions: Team Anglerfish. Miho is quickly befriended by Saori and Hana on her first day, and when the student council threatens to expel her for not joining the tankery club, they're willing to get expelled with her -- even though they'd been enthusiastic about taking tankery.  This is part of what causes her to change her mind.
 * When Miho is threatened with having to do the "sea devil dance" ("Anglerfish dance" in the anime) if, her friends quickly reassure her that they'll dance with her in that case. In fact, when the time comes, the entire club dances!
 * Viewers Are Geniuses: In OVA 5, expanding on a few scenes in Episode 9, Yukari and Erwin march through the snow, singing a cheery song ... about being lost and out of food in a snowy wasteland. While holed up against a brief blizzard, Yukari addresses Erwin as "Captain Kanda," leading to an exchange of comments that seem to have nothing to do with scouting Pravda's positions, and then both start laughing. The song, "Yuki no Shingun" (Snowy March), is about a military training disaster in 1902 in the Hakkoda Mountains (199 out of 210 men died). A movie about the same incident included a Captain Kanda. This is never spelled out for the viewer. What brought the Hakkoda Death March to the girls' minds? The Hakkoda Mountains are in Aomori Prefecture -- which is where Pravda High School has its home port, and presumably where the current match takes place.
 * "Well Done, Little Sister / Daughter" Girl: Two of the five main characters.
 * Miho feels tremendous pressure from her mother and older sister to live up to the Nishizumi school of tankery. In fact, she initially transferred to Oarai Academy because they didn't have a tankery club, even though this required her to live alone. Impressing her family becomes part of her motivation in the tournament.  In the end, they acknowledge her strength.
 * Hana took up tankery because she wished to become a stronger woman. Unfortunately, it didn't work; her mother thought delicacy was a more valuable trait.  Her tank-inspired flower arrangement turned things around.