Quick Look: Girls Und Panzer – The Real Anzio Battle

Back in 2014 MVM Entertainment released the anime series Girls Und Panzer, and in turn the Girls Und Panzer OVA Collection, into the UK and now three years later the UK Anime Distributor have brought us the OVA episode known as ‘The Real Anzio Battle’.

Why is this important? Well ‘The Real Anzio Battle’ is a thirty-five-minute episode that takes place during episode seven of the Girls Und Panzer TV Anime series and is partially integral to the plot of the overall anime series. In this case it sees the Ōarai Girls High School go up against the Italian Anzio High School as part of the Tankery (Sensha-Do) tournament; a tournament which will save the Ōarai Girls High School from shutting down if their tankery team wins the tournament.

As far as OVA episodes go it is not stand-a-lone; so diving straight in with no prior knowledge of the series, or the events that lead up to it, is insane; but it does provide a rather fast and simplistic story that recaptures all of the elements that makes Girls Und Panzer such a fun experience.

For instance during this thirty-five minute episode we are introduced to the Tankery team of Anzio High School before the girls of Ōarai Girls High School begin doing research on Anzio’s team in order to prepare for the match. Shortly after this ‘reasearch experience’ the girls do battle with one another in their tanks; and it is a pretty good match with beautifully animated tanks and some interesting movements. It’s easily one of the better matches seen within the Girls Und Panzer universe.

From a release perspective then MVM Entertainment have opted to release this OVA as a Blu-Ray and DVD Combo Pack, which is a smart move considering that it is only thirty-five minutes in length. Although we haven’t got a Blu-Ray sample this DVD features the singular episode, in both English & Japanese, with a handful of bonus features such as the textless ending song and trailers for other ‘Sentai Filmwork’ licensed shows including Girls Und Panzer Der Film. Strangely enough the textless opening song is not included despite being available on previously released DVD and Blu-Ray sets.

The most surprising aspect of this release however is that a 5.1 Surround Sound track is included for both English & Japanese audio tracks; which is rather unheard of for a simplistic OVA episode such as this.

Overall Girls Und Panzer: The Real Anzio Battle is an interesting OVA episode that captures the entertainment and enjoyment that the anime TV series brings to the screen and the quality remains on par with everything we have seen from the franchise so far (excluding the film that is) and it is just a shame that it wasn’t added to any previous collection or set.

If you are a fan of Girls Und Panzer then its worth adding this set to your collection; as it is a fun episode regardless of audio being chosen (although Japanese with English subtitles is best but the English Dub is still exceptionally well for a Sentai Filmworks produced dub).

Girls Und Panzer: The Real Anzio Battle is now available in the UK via MVM Entertainment as a Blu-Ray and DVD Combo Pack.