Girls Und Panzer follows the story of Miho Nishizumi, and her 4 friends, pictured above. The first episode kicks off with the girls already mid battle, riding in a Pazer 4 tank. Miho is looking out the top of the tank, and radioing orders to several other tanks, which are also full of high school aged girls. As they formulate a plan, we are flashed back to Miho waking up, and heading out to her first day at her new school, Oorai Girls Academy. As the day progresses, Miho meets two girls who want to be her friends right away, one is upbeat and talkative Saori Takebe, who, like most girls her age, is all about romance and gossip. The other is Hana Isuzu, a quiet, polite and pleasant girl from a rich family.
It soon is time for the students of Oorai to pick their elective classes, and while the three initially want to do flower arrangement, a talent Hana's family is known for, after a short assembly in the gym about how the school will be bringing back "Tankery", Hana and Saori have changed their minds. Miho on the other hand seems to want to avoid Tankery at all costs, and feeling sympathetic, the other two select flower arrangement as well for their electives.
The next day, the student council bursts into Miho's classroom demanding an explanation as to why Miho didn't choose Tankery, and then proceed to literally bully her into changing her elective. Thus begins the Oorai Girls Academy's newly revived Tankery class. Once in class, the three meet a girl who's as passionate about tanks as my dad is about cars, her name is Yukari Akiyama, and later on we're introduced to Mako Reizei, a narcoleptic girl who has really good grades, but poor attendance. After nearly running Mako over with their tank in class, she hops on in and drives the thing to safety like a pro. Now, I don't want to give you a play by play of every episode, but after a while the girls are entered into a tankery tournament that gets into Miho's back story and why the Student Council (who also take Tankery) was so adamant about her taking Tankery.
Overall, it's an endearing, comedic story about high school girls in tanks. Don't pass this one up just because of its ridiculous nature, it's animation quality is good, the voices sound unnatural at first, but they grow on you over time, and the theme songs are super catchy! Not to mention, it's only 13 episodes, so it's a really quick watch.
With relate-able characters, a fun, yet emotional story, and good writing, I give Girls Und Panzer very high marks, probably an 8/10.
