Miho's secret weapon!

A torrent for the movie just showed up. It's a raw and the torrent is a whopping 15G. It's three files, one MKV and two MKA files, and it turns out you don't need the MKA files. They're alternate soundtracks; but the MKV has one that works just fine.

It is a BD rip, which surprised me; I didn't think the BD was going to be out until like August.

So how is it? Awesome! Tremendous! It doesn't feel like "been there, done that". It's enough similar to not feel like a stranger but enough different to not feel like a guest that's worn out its welcome. Even though I don't speak Japanese, it wasn't too difficult to figure out what was going on.

There are two major battles in it. The first is about half an hour long, and the trailer from last year is all taken from it. What's going on is an exhibition battle with two teams on each side. One side is St. Gloriana and Pravda; the other side is Ooarai and some team I never identified.

Their tanks were crap and they had spirit but no brains and got themselves slaughtered. I thought for a while that their equipment was Italian, but the theme music played for them sounded oriental. Maybe they were using Japanese tanks? Actually, I think they really were supposed to be another Italian team.

So that battle ended after half an hour, and it was so well done and so absorbing that I thought the movie was over. Instead we get about half an hour of plot, and then a second battle which ran fully an hour.

Huge spoiler: Despite winning the championship, the asshole in the government decides to shut down the Ooarai school ship, so everyone has to pack and go ashore. Anzu hasn't given up yet, though, and she recruits a bunch of heavy hitters to go with her to visit the asshole one last time.

One of them is Shiho, Miho and Maho's mother. In this movie she's a good guy, which is really neat.

He gives them one last chance, though he doesn't think it's a chance. There's another team and if Ooarai can beat them, they'll get the ship back. It's a terrifyingly good team, and it shows up on the day of the battle with 30 tanks, of at least two national flavors. And if you think the Maus was scary, this team has two weapons that are even worse.

Anzu has told Miho that she has to win to save the school ship, but even as good as she is she can't beat 30 high quality tanks with her 8. But as she's walking out to greet the enemy commander just before the battle, a bunch of her friends from other teams show up, with their own tanks, and they're all wearing Ooarai uniforms and claim to be part of Miho's team.

And one of them is Maho, with her Tiger I. Which was also really neat. Maho is another good guy.

So the last hour of the movie is the battle, and if we know one thing about Miho is that she loves, loves, loves fighting in cities. There isn't a city this time but there's an amusement park, and that's where most of the battle is fought. And it was awesome. The ducks were the least of the pleasures.

It isn't a capture-the-flag battle, it's last-man-standing. To win you have to beat every tank the other side has.

So how does it come out? You need to ask? You think I'm going to tell you?

It's a BD rip, ultra high quality, and it has Japanese subtitles. (Which should be particularly helpful because in a couple of scenes two of the girls from Pravda speak Russian to each other.) I suspect it won't be long before we get an English sub, but you never know.

Assorted frame grabs below the fold.

St. Gloriana has its Churchill and three Matildas, but it also has a bunch of these guys. I don't know what they are.

Part of the first battle is fought in the town, and they really trash it. (And that golf course will never be the same.) It gets pretty crazy.

Fortunately she doesn't do a lot of damage to this shrine. And this hotel won't ever be the same, either.

This is pretty much the only fan service in the movie.

This obviously isn't period. It belongs to Pravda so I assume it's Russian, though I have no idea what it might be. There's a lot of non-period equipment that shows up during non-battle portions of the film. For instance, Saunders shows up one time with a C5 Galaxy.

Pre-battle briefing by Miho to all her sub-commanders.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 08:04 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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