Girls und Panzer is a hugely popular anime about high school girls who ride tanks and practice the martial art known as "Sensha-do." Along with a wide variety of unique characters, the anime also features many high schools with strong school spirit. This time, we'll be introducing the high schools that took part in the 63rd National High School Tankery Tournament.
High Schools Featured in the TV Series
Oarai Girls' High School
This is the high school where the story takes place and where the main character, Miho Nishizumi, is enrolled. It is located on the Academy Ship, an enclave of Oarai Town, Ibaraki Prefecture. It has a junior high school and a senior high school, each with 9,000 students. The high school has four departments: General Education, Information, Marine, Business, Clothing, Nutrition, Engineering, Fisheries, and Agriculture. The General Education department is further divided into three departments: Department 1, Department 2, and Department 3. Due to its small size as a school ship and lack of notable achievements in recent years, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's School Ship Education Bureau informed the school that it was in danger of closing. President Anzu Kadotani revives the tank team for the first time in 20 years and attempts to prevent closure by winning the national championship and achieving success. Compared to other high schools, the school lacks distinctive features and, for better or worse, feels like a regular girls' school. In tank racing, the team is made up of a mixed team of tanks from various countries. Because it was relaunched after 20 years, everyone except captain Miho Nishizumi is a beginner, and initially only had the minimum five vehicles required to participate in tournaments. Despite this, they practiced hard and won the 63rd National High School Tank Racing Tournament.
St. Gloriana Girls' Academy
The school's name is pronounced Saint Gloriana. It's a prestigious girls' school with a British-inspired school culture, based in Yokohama Port, Kanagawa Prefecture. As you'd expect from a British school, they have an extraordinary passion for tea. This passion is also evident in Sensha-do, where the school's executives and regular members are given nicknames named after tea. They even brew and drink tea in their cars during matches. One of the conditions for becoming a regular is to "not spill a drop of tea," no matter how the tank moves. They also have a tradition of sending tea sets to opponents they consider worthy, as they did after a practice match against Oarai. Their school has previously been national runner-up in tank battles and is one of the strongest schools in the country. In keeping with British tradition, they favor chivalry and fight fair and square. They are adamant that they do not use vulgar fighting tactics like those used by Saunders and Pravda (such as overwhelming the enemy with sheer numbers or luring them into a favorable position and then surrounding them), and they are also very proud. Their vehicles include the Churchill Infantry Tank Mk. VII, Matilda II Infantry Tank Mk. III/IV, and Crusader Cruiser Tank Mk. III. They also own a Cromwell Cruiser Tank, but it is currently out of order. Their tactics include slowly cornering the enemy from the front with their heavily armored infantry tanks and then attacking from behind with their fast-moving cruiser tanks. They play against Oarai in a practice match and win. In the national tournament, they lose to Kuromorimine Girls' Academy in the semifinals. They are also the only school in the series to have never lost to Oarai.
Saunders University High School
This high school is based in Sasebo Port, Nagasaki Prefecture. It has an American-style school atmosphere, and most students are friendly and cheerful. (There are also students like vice-captain Naomi, who is quiet and cool.) It's a large school with the largest number of tanks in the country, the largest number of students in the tank team, and even a first, second, or third corps. It's a wealthy school, boasting not only tanks but also a variety of equipment, including C-5M transport planes, Ospreys, hair salon vans, and shower vans. In tank battles, the team specializes in M4 Sherman-based formations, concentrating massive firepower on a single point to break through enemy vehicles. Therefore, in the national tournament, they demonstrate their strengths in the second half of the season, when the number of vehicles available increases. Furthermore, the M4 Sherman, the core of their formation, is a highly reliable tank with few breakdowns. Even if one does break down, the large number of tanks means replacements can be quickly prepared, giving them the advantage of always being in top condition for the match. In the first round of the national tournament, they faced Oarai. Again, they took advantage of having twice as many vehicles as Oarai and launched a rapid attack. However, their flag vehicle was isolated and destroyed first, resulting in their defeat. Their captain, Kei, favors fair play, and recognized Oarai as a worthy opponent after they beat them despite having half the number of vehicles and their own team members eavesdropping without permission. She hugged Miho and told her it was exciting, adding, "Sensha-do is not war; if you stray from the path, the tanks will cry." In fact, she may have been the person who inspired Miho to discover her own form of Sensha-do.
Anzio High School
The school is located in Tochigi Prefecture, but due to its landlocked location, it is based in Shimizu Port in Shizuoka Prefecture. Because the school's founder is Italian, the school has a strong Italian atmosphere, and many of its students are free-spirited and cheerful. The school's campus is built on impulse and without thought, featuring buildings resembling the Milan Clock Tower and the Colosseum, reminiscent of Italian architecture. The school also places a strong emphasis on food and art. The school itself suffers from a lack of funding, and the entire campus is in a state of poverty. As a result, each committee and club independently sets up stalls to secure funding. The school's tank-driving skills are low. Many exhibitors use light tanks like the CV-33, and their 8mm machine guns are clearly insufficient against tanks. The only tank capable of dealing serious damage to enemy tanks is the M41 Semovente, but its performance is also poor. The "P40," a secret weapon that the team members finally acquired after saving money for generations, even after cutting their three-a-day snack schedule twice a year, is said to be a heavy tank. However, by global standards, it is closer to a medium tank, and all of the tanks are inferior in performance to those at other schools. Furthermore, due to the lack of funds, vehicle repairs and maintenance cannot keep up, and the school is in dire straits, with CV-35, CV-38, and M13/40 medium tanks remaining broken down. Even so, the team's training level is not low, as they were able to advance to the second round of the national tournament by taking advantage of the CV-33's mobility to confuse and surround the enemy, finishing them off with the Semovente, and defeating Maginot Girls' Academy in the first round. In the second round against Oarai, they also deployed a deception strategy using decoys, but the team's tendency to go with the flow without thinking too deeply backfired, and the plan failed, resulting in a defeat by Oarai, who had vehicle specs roughly equivalent to theirs. Incidentally, there is a tradition of holding a celebration party after a match to congratulate both their team and the opposing team, as well as the staff involved in the match.
Pravda High School
This high school, located in Aomori Prefecture, has close ties to Russia. Many of the students are diligent and often speak in the Tohoku dialect. Russian culture is also strongly influenced by the school. The school's name, "Pravda," is thought to be derived from the official journal of the Soviet Communist Party (which now remains a Russian newspaper). It means "truth and justice" in Russian. Because the school sails through high-latitude waters, temperatures are low. Winter sports are also popular, with a ski jump located on the deck of the school ship. The school is also known as a strong tank warfare school, rivaling Kuromorimine, and won the 62nd National Championship, preventing Kuromorimine from achieving its 10th consecutive victory. The school excels at snow combat, using the terrain and weather to its advantage to lure the enemy into positions where it can surround them. The team's captain, Katyusha, favors the steamroller tactic of overwhelming enemy positions with sheer numbers. The school's tank fleet includes a wide variety of high-performance tanks, including the T-34/76 and T-34/85, the Soviet tanks that historically gave rise to the term "T-34 shock," as well as the KV-2 and IS-2 (JS-2). They have excellent members, excellent vehicles, and their commander, Katyusha, is also excellent, but this can sometimes cause them to let their guard down, and in the battle against Oarai, they left their flag vehicle guarded by only one vehicle, leaving it isolated and resulting in their defeat by an inferior opponent. In the spin-off work, Ribbon Warrior, they also overestimate their own abilities, leaving the flag vehicle isolated and destroyed. It is pointed out that this is Katyusha's bad habit.
Kuromorimine Girls' Academy
Located in Kumamoto Prefecture, this school is the undisputed champion of tank warfare. It is the high school where protagonist Nishizumi Miho previously attended, and where her older sister, Nishizumi Maho, also attends. The school ship is also one of the largest in Japan, stretching over 20km in length and housing over 100,000 people. All students are earnest and have a strong sense of justice and responsibility. Although they have strengths such as being hardworking and proactive, many of their students are conservative and dislike change. Furthermore, while they are able to act in a disciplined manner, they become confused when faced with unexpected situations. In tank warfare, they are heavily influenced by the Nishizumi School, one of the two major schools. Their tactics are truly befitting of a champion, engaging the enemy head-on with heavily armored, powerful tanks. They excel at blitzkrieg, forming disciplined formations and defeating the enemy with mobile tactics. On the other hand, they are weak at dealing with unexpected problems and easily become confused. In their match against Oarai at the national tournament, they fell into chaos at the hands of Oarai's unconventional strategy. While they are highly skilled at faithfully carrying out orders, they are unable to make decisions and act independently. However, each individual is highly skilled, and their tanks are also highly functional. They have achieved an unprecedented nine consecutive national championships, making their position as absolute champions unshakable.
High Schools Featured in the Movie
Chi-Ha-Tan Academy
The school's home port is Chiba Port, but the school ship is too large to enter Tokyo Bay, so it calls there via ferry. Located in Narashino City, Chiba Prefecture, the school was originally called "Chiba Prefectural Junior College Affiliated High School (abbreviated as Chiba Junior College High School)." However, after the school's affiliation with the university was cut, the name was changed to "Chi-Ha-Tan Academy" with the intention of "stimulating students to cross the waves of wisdom independently." "Chi-Ha-Tan" is also the nickname for the Type-97 Chi-Ha medium tank. Sensha-do (tank battles) are popular, and the school possesses a large number of vehicles. However, most of these are Type-97 Chi-Ha medium tanks (a mix of old and new), which are clearly inadequate for tank battles. Chi-Ha-Tan's signature strategy is to charge the enemy simultaneously. Having previously used this strategy to advance to national championships, the team has continued to use it ever since. The members of the team seem to find the charge a natural fit, and they take pride in charging and dying with honor. This is the "Chi-Ha-Tan spirit." As their love of charging suggests, the students hate crookedness and are diligent. She also has a loyal side to her, following the orders of her seniors and superiors. Nishi Kinuyo, the new captain, also prefers Chi-Ha-Tan's traditional charge style, but after suffering a crushing defeat at the national tournament, her lack of success, and experiencing Oarai's flexible fighting style, she gradually begins to feel that "things can't continue as they are." The time for reform may be approaching.
Continuation High School
This high school, based in Ishikawa Prefecture, takes its name from the "Continuation War" that took place between Finland and the Soviet Union. Despite its small size and limited resources, tank driving is a popular sport. While even Anzio High School provides all its members with Panzer jackets, Continuation High School only requires members to wear the school-issued jersey over their uniforms, showing that funding constraints are also affecting tank driving. The team's vehicles are a mix of Finland, the Soviet Union, Germany, and France. They regularly play against Pravda under the "capture rule," which means the winning team gets to keep one of the opposing team's vehicles. However, it has been revealed that Pravda High School has filed a complaint against Kyozetsu High School, claiming that there was fraud regarding the KV-1 owned by Kyozetsu High School. Because of this, they are not on good terms with Pravda High School. However, in the series, they are shown to give Kuromorimine a hard time in practice matches and to show their true worth on uneven fields such as snowy fields. They also defeat Oarai in the spin-off work "Little Army II," demonstrating their presence as a hidden powerhouse.
High Schools Featured in the Final Chapter
BC Jiyu Gakuen
BC High School in Tsuyama City, Okayama Prefecture, and Jiyu Gakuen in Okayama City were merged when their respective school ships were built due to their aging. However, a struggle for leadership arose between the two schools, with the former Jiyu Gakuen on the port side of the ship and the former BC High School on the starboard side. Now that some time has passed since the merger, it seems that more and more students are no longer concerned, but conflicts still seem to persist. In the final chapter, the setting is slightly altered to depict a conflict between students from the junior high school who have been accepted onto the escalator route and students from other junior high schools who are taking the entrance exam. In tank warfare, they primarily possess French vehicles. They've been seen carrying the Renault FT-17, the highly mobile and heavily armored SOMUA S35, and the ARL44, the key to their offensive capabilities. This is the alma mater of Azumi, a member of the university selection team. As Azumi describes them as "strong as long as they stick together," their team members are highly trained and their vehicles are well-balanced. However, as mentioned above, due to the lack of internal team dynamics, they have consistently been eliminated in the first round of national tournaments. In the final chapter, they face off against Oarai, and it's said that they can beat them, despite seeing their differences... Incidentally, they appear in the spin-off "Ribbon Warrior" before the anime, where the reason for their internal conflict is portrayed as the merger of the former and the former. They've also been seen carrying a variety of vehicles, including the M4A2 Sherman, the Panther Ausf. G, and the Renault R35 light tank.
Other High Schools
Viking Fisheries High School
This high school, which originated in Iwate, has a serious and hardworking school culture. This same seriousness is evident in tank warfare, where students place great importance on and excel at following a pre-planned schedule. However, they struggle to deal with unexpected situations. Their fleet of vehicles is a mix of French and German tanks. At the national tournament, they defeated Koala Forest Academy and advanced to the second round.
Koala Forest Academy
The academy is based in Tottori Port and uses a school ship purchased from the UK. The school has a friendly, laid-back, yet efficient school culture. Hierarchical relationships are also loose. Even in tank battles, there's a strong sense of equality rather than a captain-subordinate relationship, and students often act in unison. Their fleet primarily consists of British and American tanks, but as their name suggests, they also possess the Australian-made Sentinel cruiser tank. They lost to Viking Fisheries High School in the first round of the national tournament.
Bonple High School
This high school was founded in Kanagawa Prefecture as a medical school, but due to its expansion, it moved its home port to Tsuruga Port in Fukui Prefecture. The school is friendly with St. Gloriana and actively engages in exchange programs. It is an honest, serious, hardworking school with excellent grades, and has a high rate of students going on to top universities. In tank warfare, the school excels in mobile tactics centered on light tanks and mini tanks, such as the 7TP single-turret and twin-turret types. In the national tournament, the school lost to Pravda High School in the first round. In the spin-off work, Ribbon Warrior, the school reigns supreme as a powerhouse in tankathlon, and has an extraordinary rivalry with Pravda High School, which it cannot match in official matches.
Maginot Girls' Academy
This school was founded in Yamanashi Prefecture, but since Yamanashi does not have a port, it borrows a port in Shizuoka Prefecture. The school places great importance on manners, has many well-mannered students, and values discipline. However, they also seem to be a bit lax about punctuality. They prefer to fight fair and square in tank battles. Their fleet of vehicles is well-balanced, with French light, medium, and heavy tanks, but their performance is somewhat lacking. Furthermore, because they have installed radios on vehicles that don't have them in the first place, the crew is constantly busy. Their tactics center around a heavy tank, with light and medium tanks positioned around it to form a defensive position and destroy approaching enemies. However, this hasn't yielded any results, so they are also experimenting with a shift to mobile tactics. In the national tournament, they lost to Anzio High School in the first round. Additionally, in the spin-off work, "Fierce Battle! The Battle of Maginot!", they play a practice match against Oarai.
Yogurt Academy
This school in Gunma Prefecture rents Kisarazu Port in Chiba. As the name suggests, yogurt production is actively carried out here, and many students study animal husbandry and agriculture. However, the school ship is small and the student population is small. The school's philosophy is "simplicity, frugality, hard work, and perseverance." Even in the tank battleships, the school seems to struggle to manage its budget, with many vehicles repurposed from scrap metal. The school's fleet primarily consists of German vehicles. They lost to Waffle Gakuen in the first round of the national tournament. They also have ties with the Shimada School, which is why they declined to cooperate with Oarai in the University Selection Tournament.
Waffle Gakuen
This high school is based in Kobe Port. It is known for its relatively hardworking and conservative students. They are all gourmets, and interact with Anzio High School through food. In Sensha-do, they only possessed light tanks and armored vehicles, so they quickly negotiated with other countries and managed to purchase an M4 medium tank equipped with a 105 howitzer, allowing them to participate in the Sensha-do Tournament. However, in the national tournament, they defeated Yogurt Academy in the first round and advanced to the second round, where they were defeated by St. Gloriana.
Aoshidan High School
Aoshidan High School, pronounced "Aoshidan High School," is based in Shimotsu Port in Wakayama Prefecture. It's a Spanish-inspired school with many cheerful and curious students. Despite its limited budget, it has a stylish school culture that emphasizes art and food. It seems to share a similar school culture to Anzio High School. It has frequent exchanges with Anzio High School and Waffle Academy, even hosting food events. In Sensha-do, they possess many light tanks and favor mobile tactics. They enjoy speed and have a sense of speed as they develop strategies one after another. They regularly play friendly matches with Kuromorimine. In the national tournament, they faced Keizoku High School in the first round and were defeated.
Other Federation Member Schools
The above 16 schools participated in the 63rd National High School Tankery Championship, but there are other high schools affiliated with the Japan Tankery Federation. In addition to the 16 schools mentioned above, four other schools have been confirmed. Will these high schools be successful in the future? There are likely other schools with tankery teams outside of these 20 schools. (They do exist in spin-off works.) What kind of personalities and abilities do these schools have? I'm looking forward to the day when we find out.
