Funny, I’m completing & polishing this Girls und Panzer first impressions while I’m on a European Holiday to pay my brother-in-law a visit. We all know that this series, or rather the fan translation group I chose, dishes an unfair amount of references to Germanic and military terminology due to the main theme and premise for the plot and story. Watching this in Germany, especially with my ultra-dry basic knowledge of the German language, is awkward to say the least. While the Fall 2012 anime season is brimming with decent series, the entire season still lacks an impressive “excellent” series. Is this series the answer to the conundrum? Find out here!

Another series that tries to sway the viewers into thinking it’s bloody great visuals? I’m sick of these kinds of series. Girls und Panzer‘s first scenes, frankly, includes the best lesson on mixing of traditionally-drawn objects with digitally-drawn, -enhanced and -animated objects. CGI usage technically isn’t great, but it’s still excellent, provided that it had mixed elements without sense of roughness nor tackiness; usage for the tanks and their movements on the screen is similar to games made during the early millenium or late nineties! Watching the first part may make the audience dizzy or make the heads ache due to the animation’s pacing. Background and setting art are actually good, but don’t expect impressive scenes here. Character designs are moderately detailed, but there are a handful of scenes with symmetry or proportion issues on the character designs. Animation is thankfully decent and very good at best; thanks to the usage of CGI and digital-enhancement in the animation.

Sounds used in the first two episodes are decent, exude proper sounds for the tanks etc.; but they don’t leave a lasting impression. Voice acting, too, doesn’t leave any solid impression, but it should be noted that this series was able to extract the best efforts and unique voices from the cast. Background music are orchestral music with impressive classical arrangement and composition. The Opening and Ending themes are typical JPop songs which, again, don’t stand out from the rest.

Ranging from bizarre to totally outrageous, Girls und Panzer has content that may confuse or turn-off a handful from the audience. Some characters raise flags for the usage of stereotypes and predictable character development. There are also a handful of military, political, and historical terminology present in this series. Military otakus might not be happy with what this series has to offer, though. Tank connoisseurs might also get disappointed or spot some errors in the information this series offer. Check this series out if you like the sound of this series; don’t expect solidity from this series. Personally, this series had me interested in playing Red Alert 3 again, and spam my enemies with Apocalypse and Hammer tanks…

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