Don reports that there's going to be a new entry in Girls und Panzer. Not yet clear if they're talking about a movie, or an OVA, or a new series.

Sequels are hit-and-miss. Sometimes the basic series concept can support innumerable sequels, or at least the customer base will. There have been about 47 Gundam series, and maybe 39 Pretty Cures. Case Closed has run an astounding 833 episodes so far plus more than 20 movies.

But sometimes the fundamental story idea just can't reasonably be stretched into a sequel, and they try anyway and bomb. There was an American TV series called Twin Peaks, which was a mystery story about a murdered girl, and at the end of the first season they revealed who the killer was and wrapped up the mystery. Problem was it got fantastic ratings, and the network paid for another season. And there wasn't any more story to tell. They did do another season but it stunk.

Sometimes it can't be reasonably stretched to another season and they recognize that fact and do something else instead. That's what happened with Mahou Tsukai Tai. The OVA was outstanding and at the end the aliens left and promised never to return. There were hooks that looked like they were trying to leave the door open for the aliens to return. But when they did a sequel, they told an entirely different story, that had nothing to do with the aliens. And it was really good, too.

Sometimes there's enough story for a couple of seasons, even three. I'm glad we got three seasons of Dog Days and I enjoyed them all. I see enough story potential there for one more, if they choose to do it. (Basically: what and where do all the demon swords come from, and can we end it?) But if they don't do another season, I'll be fine with what we have.

I'll take anything they want to give me in the Nanohaverse. It was a disappointment that VIVID didn't finish the story, and they don't seem to want to continue it. The new show coming up this fall (Vivid STRIKE) is placed in the same era as VIVID but isn't a continuation of that story, so far as I can tell. (Team Nakajima are in it but the story isn't centrally about them.)

I'll take a new Mouretsu Pirates series too, please. Plenty of story there left to tell.

Which brings us to Girls und Panzer. The plot driver for the TV series was two-fold: the school was going to close and as a desperation measure Anzu got a sleazy government official to agree that the school could stay open if Ooarai won that year's senshadou high school tournament.

Which seemed impossible but it was the only hope. And then she discovered that Miho, of the famous Nishizumi family, had transferred into the school. It's like trying to form a new basketball team in your school and then discovering that Michael Jordan's teenage son just transferred into your school.

Except that Miho has grown to hate the sport and she transferred to Ooarai precisely because it didn't have a senshadou program.

So they won, and the school was saved, and hugs all around and Momo couldn't stop crying.

For the movie they used the same plot hook. The sleazy bureaucrat said, "Just fooling; I didn't sign anything so the school is going to close anyway." Anzu pulls some strings (she's got a great future in politics, you know that?) and gets him to agree to another match which, if Ooarai wins, really will mean the school stay open, and Anzu got his signature on the dotted light.

So if there was going to be another OVA, what would it be? Actually, they did to another half-hour OVA; it was included on the BD for the movie and it was about Alice Shimada visiting Ooarai. Basically a comedy, and it worked.

But for the upcoming show, I don't see what they could do that would actually make sense. They can't go back to the "OMG the school will close" well for a third time because it would be a ripoff. There are a lot of stories which could be told about those girls, but it isn't obvious how senshadou would be central to them. For instance, Miho could reconcile with Shiho; it would be a huge change for Shiho but it's not entirely implausible.

For the upcoming professional league, someone could scout Miho for one of the pro-teams. (I think it's a foregone conclusion that someone will considering everything Miho has done so far; she's definitely an ace.) But they wouldn't scout the entire Ooarai team, so the audience wouldn't get to visit Rabbit team again, or Anteater, or Hippo, or Leopon, or any of the other eccentric groups which are as much a part of this series as Miho is. They might not even scout Miho's crew from Anko.

I don't see it. Unless someone gives me a tremendously pleasant surprise, I'm afraid this new show is going to be really derivative and stale.

So give me more Vivio. Give me more Natsu and Lucy. But I think I don't want any more Girls und Panzer.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 06:18 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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