Title: Girls und Panzer: The Complete OVA Series
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Studio: Acras
Author: Reiko Yoshida
U.S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks / Section 23
U.S. Release Date: February 25, 2014
Format and Length: Blu-ray / 6 Episodes / 74 Minutes
Genre: Action, Comedy, School, Military
Industry Age Rating: 14 and up
Overall Personal Rating: D
Similar Series or Titles to Check Out: Girls und Panzer: The Complete Series
Synopsis:
The girls in tanks are back, in six special episodes. And whether they are shopping, or partying, they bring their own special way of doing things to the task they plan to accomplish. Including a water war, survival war, school ship war, snow war, banquet war, and talent war, as never fought before.
Commentary:
I absolutely loved Girls Und Panzer, and was very happy to hear that more was on the way. I was practically drooling in anticipation. That dried up rather quickly. The Girls Und Panzer OVAs are quite different from the actual series. In essence there are a lot less tanks, war games, battling, or strategy. Okay, there was nothing at all like that, but there were a lot more swimsuits, beaches, bathing, hot springs, camping, eating, and a talent show. The first thing you will notice is that fan service is way up from the little to none found in the original series. They started off with the cliché beach episode as the first one, so it quickly set the tone for what was to come. The second thing you notice is how quickly the episodes go by. With six episodes in 75 minutes you can only average twelve and a half minutes per episode. That time does include the opening and ending animations which remain unchanged. Well maybe a little shortened. The couple long episodes take 15 to 17 minutes and one was a quick as 5 minutes. Episode 4 was only 5 minutes and consisted of the opening, a quick goose fish dance with the entire main cast, in the weird costumes you will remember from the original series when they lost a bet, and then a quick closing and credits. I swore the credits took longer than the actual episode.
The only two episodes that really related to the original story was the recap of what Yukari and Erwin did when they left camp to spy on Pravda School forces in the original series, which was not covered then. I actually found that quite interesting and to be a meaningful addition to the original story line. They also had scenes with the Pravda girls and expanded a little on what I thought was the most interesting school other than of course Oorai High School. And they also included an episode that revolved around the celebration of their final victory in the original series, which included a feast and a talent show that made me chuckle a little.
Unfortunately that was about it and I found it sadly disappointing that they failed to expand on the original story line any more. They did use the time to expand the other characters besides Miho Nishizumi a little, but fell well short of adding anything meaningful. In the end I thought it left much to be desired. Everything they did fell short of expectation, and “a little” was all I got from it, which as you saw was mentioned more than once above. Ultimately, Girls und Panzer: The Complete OVA Series felt more like is should have been included in the original as a special feature, instead of being a separate release.
Extras:
Girls und Panzer: The Complete OVA Series includes clean opening and closing animations, Sentai Filmworks trailers, and DVD Credits as special features.
Overall Grade: D
If you really wanted to see the girls in bathing suits, partying, and doing nothing at all related to tanks and war games, this one is for you.
