October 19, 2012

Girls und Panzer trivia

The ANN page for Girls und Panzer has a surprisingly comprehensive "trivia" page for the series, considering that there's only been two episodes so far. But when it comes to shows that feature military hardware, that's to be expected. So I suppose it's not that much of a surprise.

It says that the teacher's tank that made the airdrop is a Type 10, the most modern tank Japan has. It doesn't say that it was dropped out of a C-17 Globemaster. (Ha! I can trivia with the best of 'em!)

They took some liberties with that scene. It actually requires a landing strip to do that trick, because it takes a long time for the tank and the sled to come to a stop. A parking lot wouldn't be long enough. Also, the crew doesn't ride the tank; it would be too dangerous.

One thing I noticed which they haven't yet made much of is that the five teams each adopted a different animal as its mascot. If Americans were doing that, they'd be animals like wolves, lions, hawks, sharks, buffalo, and so on, right?

Well, these girls aren't like that. Best I can determine, the mascots are:

Team 1, Monkfish: Panzer IVD (5 crew)
Team 2, Turtle: Panzer 38(t) (3 crew)
Team 3, Duck: Type 89 (4 crew)
Team 4, Hippo: STUG III (4 crew)
Team 5, Rabbit: M3 Lee (6 crew)

Which is a rather odd set of mascots, you must admit.

And one other comment: when Saori puts on her glasses, she becomes a super-saiyajin.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 07:33 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 262 words, total size 2 kb.

1 The M3 Lee team makes sense.  Americans, especially military, are always associated with rabbits. U.S.A.(G.I.), usagi.  Same reason Ms. Yeagar in Strike Witches has bunny ears, I assume.

Posted by: Mikeski at October 19, 2012 07:43 PM (1bPWv)

2 I had never heard that before. But now that you explain it, it makes sense.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 19, 2012 08:09 PM (+rSRq)

3 Does that also explain Cat Sh*t 1?  (If there was a second episode, I never saw it).

Posted by: Mauser at October 20, 2012 12:22 AM (cZPoz)

4 Yeah, they make that joke in the manga.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at October 20, 2012 02:37 PM (GJQTS)

5 The Cat Shit One was the name given to fresh graduates of an officer academy in U.S. Army, or so the story goes. Perhaps CSO was close to an accronym for 2nd Lt. or a position he typically occupied. I am answering without googling it first.

In the manga, as I understand, CSO was a protagonist, thrown into Vietnam. Of course, significant liberties were taken with historic fidelity, but that was the canvas.

The pilot anime episode was completely reset in that it's not in Vietnam anymore, and GI rabbits aren't even GIs, but private military contractors - emploees of Blackwater essentially. So the title became completely disconnected.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at October 20, 2012 03:21 PM (RqRa5)

6 I think what Mauser was saying is that it explains why the protagonists are rabbits. "usagi" is the Japanese word for "rabbit".

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 20, 2012 03:54 PM (+rSRq)

7

Pretty sure Panzer 38(t) should have 4 crew members.  And it is StuG III, not STUG.

C.T.

Posted by: cxt217 at October 20, 2012 07:23 PM (6Vv/U)

8

Entirely possible that the traditional number of crew for the 38(t) is four, but in the show it only has three listed. (Maybe another will get added later?)

On a lot of tanks, it was possible to operate with one fewer member if necessary. That was deliberate; it meant that the tank could still be effective if it lost a crewman to enemy action.

You didn't actually require a separate "commander"; absent such a person, the gunner would also act as commander. The tank wouldn't fight as well that way, but it could still fight.

The joke about the 38(t) is that it's the three members of the school council running it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 20, 2012 07:33 PM (+rSRq)

9 Yeah, without a commander, your gunner's having to multitask - and before computers, gunnery was not a multitasking-friendly job!

Pete, you're off a bit, but I don't wanna drift the thread. I'll post on my blog about it.

Darn it, I wanna watch ep 2 of this. But I gotta wait... girlfriend wants to watch it too.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at October 20, 2012 10:16 PM (GJQTS)

10 A parking lot wouldn't be long enough.

Well, the tank does plow into a Ferrari F40, maybe that gives enough stopping power. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 21, 2012 06:39 PM (JTE1l)

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