New Testingstan

Aw cool I was hoping Ford knew about it.

Am I right in figuring there's commentary on Japanese society or something similar in the story at points? I feel as if I'm finding hints of it but I'm obviously not familiar enough to know if there's anything there or if I'm making up false positives.

For example, how Squealer talks to the kids seems to be portrayed as a grotesque caricature of the higher levels of politeness in Japanese, but I can't tell if that's just my unfamiliarity having me make baseless assumptions.

Darksi, it's not a shounen fighto series if that's what you're asking. It seems much more driven by feelings of tension and wonder and not by exciting action sequences or anything. The animation (including of how the powers are used) is very beautiful, if that matters to you, though.

Squealer totally debases himself when he talks to Saki and Satoru, but the society is so invented that I haven't really picked up anything beyond general social harmony stuff, tatemae/honne tension etc.

F.J. Prefect, Esq wrote:tatemae/honne tension

I just looked up what this means and assuming wikiped's not misleading me, that aspect's woven throughout. That's pretty neat.

On another note, I was sad to learn that episode 10 was guest-directed because that was a beautiful episode. On the other hand, it's motivating me to find a way to watch Casshern that doesn't involve staying up until 3AM :L

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GfSZlmbUacQ

This show does not mess around COMRADE

saw the first episode of girls und panzer

the end was like

woah

wooooooah

It's science fiction

'hey isn't it dangerous for you to be up there'

'pff naaaah'

ps am i supposed to make anything of the german/japanese meshing going on in here yet (or am i just watching a weird sub that puts german words in there for some reason)

are they just students from germany

or is this an alternate history where the axis won

If you're downloading Commie's sub they have two sub tracks. One for ubermensch and one regular (no fun allowed).

There really isn't that much German in the dialogue outside of Panzer vor!

I've finished watching the three first ep of Girls und Panzer.

Gotta be honest, I'm almost more interested in discovering what kind of society build giant sea colonies and treat "tankery" as sport, than to watch the tankery scenes themselves. I say almost because thus far they've been really entertaining.

Pretty cool anime, will continue to watch.

They don't really go in depth about the WORLD BUILDING but there is a funny exchange where one girl just asks out loud "hey why are we on a ship?"

Yeah, I saw that.

I like how alien yet how mundane the world they live in seems to be. Really cool.

At first I thought it was going to be, like, some kind of "Axis Power Hetalia" where the girls are in fact the tanks, but I've been pleasantly surprised to see that's not the case.

the answer is more or less because it makes the school look kickass

i think there's a lot of potential for worldbuilding and whatnot if they make a second season

which given its apparent popularity seems pretty likely to me

i believe the final two episodes are going to air in fucking March for some reason

Also, it gives more credit to

Also also, it's more definitely Alt-History, given they say Tankery has been practiced since the 20's at least.

Oxymoron wrote:I like how alien yet how mundane the world they live in seems to be. Really cool.

To elaborate on that, people see it as normal to have girls fight in tanks in the city for sport, and one guy not only see it as an honor to get his shop destroyed by a tank, but is even completely cheered by it.

Hey it's just like when your spouse dies in a sports related accident and you get all da insurance monies

"I'll able to get a new place ! Woohoo !"

Yeah, maybe their insurance policies favor that kind of reaction ?

Seems like it.

I recall someone translating a magazine article in where they explain the backstory a bit more. Like men are barred from using military equipment in order to prevent war from breaking out. All of the sea(wo)men on the big ship were girls so maybe there is something to that.

http://www.mangapark.com/manga/girls-und-panzer/c1/5

The manga's version of the film they watched in the gym is also pretty funny

What I'm not sure if I get, is : are all the schools purely japanese, or is it a multinational effort ?

I mean, I'm SURE I'm going a bit too much into depth there, but why would Japan have a culturally american, british, russian or german school ?

Oxymoron wrote:
At first I thought it was going to be, like, some kind of "Axis Power Hetalia" where the girls are in fact the tanks, but I've been pleasantly surprised to see that's not the case.

kinda disappointed now this isn't the case

like the crew of each tank combine voltron-style

AND I'LL FORM THE GUN

Various schools seemed to be from different cultures, based on the tanks, stereotyping, and names. Though not to say the names match real world ones; the British school students are all named after teas :L

Manus Dei wrote:AND I'LL FORM THE GUN

...

Man, Freud would have a field day with me.

Infinity Biscuit wrote:Various schools seemed to be from different cultures, based on the tanks, stereotyping, and names. Though not to say the names match real world ones; the British school students are all named after teas :L

Well, yeah. Though it's heavily implied they are all Japanese schools (after all, they're fighting for the "Nationals").

are you telling me those strong Russian girls who sing the mighty tunes of the motherland are just posers?

Well... Maybe it's an alternate history where Japan conquered the world ?

It does seem to be a bit of a matriarchy at least.