The more I sit and think, the less I’m surprised that Girls und Panzer der Film was the number-one box office seller in Japan when it came out, despite being a sequel to a late-night anime. There are small things to get people over the barrier, such as the fact that despite being a sequel there is no real need to watch the original show, except for maybe keeping names straight. Then there are the bigger things, such as being part of a franchise that has a history of consistently delivering the thrill of tank fighting packaged with the hilarity of little girls behind the wheel. Even looking at the original Girls und Panzer show it is clear that the two years of time before the movie came out were well spent, with both animation upgrades, focusing on the more well-received and well-written characters, and developing an even more biting sense of humor. The result? The most entertaining and rewatchable new movie I have seen in years.
Once again we return to Nishizumi Miho and the rest of the girls at Ooarai Girls School tank unit, fresh off their victory in the high school tank fighting tournament and having a friendly practice round with their eternal rivals, the British team St. Gloriana and the Russian team Prava. They are finally freed from the specter of having their school shut down due to downsizing, or so they would be, but there needs to be a movie, so the big man behind the desk once again tells them they’re going to be shut down, leading to some negotiations that in turn give them one more shot at salvation: beating the top university tank fighting team. Structurally this movie can be reduced to three parts, namely a solid tank fight at the beginning, a half hour or less of shenanigans and some plot-related nonsense to set things up, and then a whole hour of more tanks. The part in the middle is plenty fun, with the ever-strict Ooarai Morals Committee going off the deep end and turning delinquent, the nerd team getting beefed up, the American team airlifting the Ooarai tanks for safe keeping before dropping them off with parachutes, and a run-down museum devoted to a cartoon bear who gets horribly beat up all the time. But the meatiest parts of the movie, as they were with the show, are the tank fights, and oh are they glorious.
To face off against the thirty tanks of the university team, all the high schools we’ve met along the way band together to save Ooarai in hopes of one day getting their revenge at the high school tournament. With Miho as the commander, we get a thirty on thirty annihilation match between the Pershings of the university side and the ragtag force of Ooarai, the Brits, the Germans, the Americans, the Italians, and the Russians, plus the newcomers of Japan and Finland. Here we see not how their individual styles play out when against one another, but rather how they cover for one another as allies. Japan’s addition, of a force that longs to run suicide charges at the first possible moment who learn the value of hit-and-run tactics, is somewhat weak against the rest of the cast we met in the show, but the single Finnish tank led by the philosophical kantele-player Mika, whose voice provided by Noto Mamiko is the best possible compliment to her lofty character. There is a running joke of whether the music in the movie is non-diegetic or if it is just Mika’s wistful strumming, but when she finally steps up as a serious force in the fight we get a musical scene that brings the comedy of Girls und Panzer’s “Katyusha” to a whole new level of perfection.
And while the movie can be thoroughly enjoyed by non-fans (and even people who have no interest in anime), there's an endless supply of references and callbacks to the fights from the first season. The original battle between St. Gloriana and Ooarai is replayed bit by bit in the movie’s opening skirmish, doubling down on the garage door bait-and-switch scene and the hotel-destroying drift gag that together kicked off the show’s comedy in earnest. Yesterday’s foes are today’s friends, and with them come the strategies that Miho had to plot around in the series, and yet the university team has plenty of new tricks and countermeasures up their sleeves. The roles and characteristics of the Ooarai tanks also get pushed to the extreme, and in particular the one clever use of the Turtle team in the final round of the tournament gets a dozen variations and uses throughout the course of the movie. And of course, there is just the fun of seeing all these ridiculous girls—from the Russian girl who suggests hiding and waiting for winter to arrive to the pasta-loving Italian team, and even to the more serious Germans who came as the series’ antagonists—back together for one last bout.
There isn’t a lot to say that hasn’t been said already; Girls und Panzer der Film is Girls und Panzer done even better. The action sequences are even faster and more explosive due to animation upgrades, and the soundtrack has been streamlined to focus almost exclusively on the national anthems and marching tunes, which now blend together and flow into one another with the alliance between all the nations in place. Everyone from Miho and her tankmates to the other Ooarai tank teams to the leaders in all the other schools are more extreme, more fun, and more memorable versions of their original selves, far less like normal high school girls but overall a better fit for the multifaceted battles taking place. The tank fights are as well thought out as ever, emulating the benefits and drawbacks of actual tanks constrained by physics perfectly, but every once in a while that physics gets tossed out the window in a very purposeful fashion, not to suddenly shift the tide of the battle but to raise the tension, the stakes, and the hilarity through the roof. As is Girls und Panzer der Film is a standard that action shows should seek to emulate: funny, well-written, action-packed, ironic, witty, bombastic, and distilled down to an essence that anyone, even a population that generally regards anime with contempt, can enjoy.