Twelve Days of Anime – The Brilliance of Girls und Panzer

Girls und Panzer was one of those series that I initially looked at as something silly, which I might enjoy in an ironic fashion. However, it quickly became one of my favourite anime of that year, and is now one of my favourite anime ever made. There is an intangible quality to this series, one set in a universe that seems utterly ludicrous at first, and yet works so well it is hard to find any real faults with it. By positioning the operation of tanks, and engaging in tank warfare as something only done by women the series is able to overturn particular attitudes and assumptions regarding tanks, and warfare. For a significant period of our history warfare has arguably been the domain of men, not because they were superior, but because that is what society proscribed. Tank warfare is similarly portrayed as inherently masculine – we just have to look at WWII films that involve tanks (Kelly’s Hero’s, Battle of the Bulge, and so on) to see lots of gruff men driving tanks and blowing each other up. While the realities of war have always been different from those portrayed in popular culture – men, women, and children are all affected, and take part in war in different ways – it is the popular perception of warfare, and particularly tanks that has remained within the public consciousness.