Girls und Panzer der Film

Tsutomu Mizushima's 2015 anime is the feature continuation of the television series of the same name. In the world of the story, tank warfare is a girls' school sport, and the team of Ooarai Girls Academy is forced into an unexpected match to prevent the school from being closed. The film's real strength is not the story but the construction of its battles: the final section, running about an hour, is one long engagement staged so that the position, speed and shell path of dozens of tanks stay followable, and spatial coherence at that scale is rare in animation. The tanks are drawn with period accuracy and the sound design draws on recordings of real vehicles. It stayed in Japanese cinemas a long time and built a habit of repeat attendance. Who it's for: people who watched the series and anyone interested in the detail of military vehicles. Who it's not for: viewers new to it; the film introduces no one and continues straight on.