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- "Nishizumi-chan, thanks for getting us this far"
- ―Anzu Kadotani
Episode 9 "This is a Desperate Situation!" "Zettai Zetsumei Desu!" (絶体絶命です ! ); English dub: "Last Ditch Effort!", is the ninth episode of Girls und Panzer. It originally aired on December 10, 2012.
Plot[]
The episode opens with a flashback to when the student council discovers that their school will be closed down the following year unless it can distinguish itself meaningfully. Learning that Ooarai Girls Academy once had an active sensha-dō club, Anzu deduces that the championship school will not be closed down. Thus is explained the sudden resurrection of the defunct sensha-dō club and the earlier coercion of Miho Nishizumi into the team.
Although the Ooarai girls are in despair at learning of their beloved school's imminent closure, Miho declares her wish to continue sensha-dō with all her friends the following year. With the critically high stakes unveiled, the girls concur to fight to the bitter end. Repairs on the tanks get underway, and Yukari, Erwin, Mako and Midoriko undertake a reconnaissance sortie on the Pravda siege positions.
As the blizzard intensifies, Ooarai morale drops. To inspire the dispirited crews, Miho dances the Anglerfish Dance, reinvigorating the Ooarai girls enough for them to join in. When Pravda sends an emissary at the end of the ceasefire, Ooarai rejects Katyusha's surrender demand.
Having deliberately left a weak point in her siege in order to lure Ooarai into a kill zone, Katyusha is caught off guard when Ooarai instead punches right through the centre of the Pravda formation using 'Operation Jelly Jiggle'. As Pravda struggles to rally, Turtle Team makes a frontal assault on their heavy tanks, closing to point blank range to take out two tanks and disable a third, whilst the rest of the Ooarai vehicles peel off and escape the encirclement.
Pravda closes in for the kill
As Ooarai escapes, Nonna takes out the Pz. 38(t) and, together with Katyusha, leads the charge in pursuit of the fleeing Ooarai forces. Mako's attempt to escape under cover of darkness is countered when Pravda uses tracer shells to light up the night sky. However, Anglerfish Team and Hippo Team move aside behind the cover of a ridge crest and let Prada's force go past, then double back to the town to attack Pravda's flag tank.
Once Pravda's IS-2 catches up with the main force, Nonna transfers into the gunner's seat and quickly takes out Rabbit Team as they try to shield the flag tank, Duck Team's Type 89B. Back at the village, from the top of the church tower Yukari locates Pravda's flag tank, a T-34/76. Anglerfish Team and Hippo Team give chase, immobilising its KV-2 escort in the process.
Nonna soon eliminates the Renault B1 bis and lines up for the shot at the Type 89B. Miho realizes that the Pravda flag tank is merely running in circles and sets up Hippo Team for an ambush. Hana uses the machine gun to coax the T-34/76 into the ambush lane wherein the buried, camouflaged StuG III lies in wait. The IS-2 and the StuG III fire at the same moment, both hit their targets, and both flag tanks are shrouded in smoke, their fates uncertain. The episode ends on a cliffhanger.
| Previous episode: | Next episode: |
| Episode 8
"We're Fighting Pravda!" |
Episode 10
"We're Classmates!" |
Characters Introduced[]
- Ministry of Education official - Renta Tsuji (Seen on screen, not named)
Tanks Appearing[]
- RF-8/GAZ-98 Snowmobile (Non-combat vehicle)
- BA-64/GAZ-64 Armoured Car (Non-combat vehicle)
Main Events[]
- The Ooarai girls learn that the school carrier will be closed down if they cannot win the Sensha-dō tournament, and hence resolve to persist the fight in order to save their school.
- In her quiet way, Maho stands up to her mother in support of Miho.
- Miho revives Ooarai's fighting spirit by dancing the Anglerfish Dance (on live television broadcast and as her mother and sister are watching).
- Ooarai breaks out of Pravda's encirclement.
- Both Teams chase each other's Flag Tanks.
- Both Pravda and Ooarai launch successful attacks on each other's flag tanks, each landing at least one hit.
- The result of the match is left uncertain.
Trivia[]
- It is stated that the tanks currently in use in Ooarai's forces are the unwanted leftovers, as all other sensha-dō vehicles were sold when the school went bankrupt.
- The Panzer IV may exist as a possible exception, as Kuromorimine are known to employ Pz. II and Pz. III tanks, which are technically inferior to the vehicle operated by Anglerfish Team.
- This could be because the deployment of Panzer II and III tanks are situational. The sole Panzer III used in the match against Ooarai was a reconnaissance unit, and a Kuromorimine Panzer II has not been shown being used in an actual sensha-dō match.
- It is also possible that the Panzer IV made a poor offer for sale given the state it was found in at the end of Episode 1.
- Another possible explanation for this is the Panzer IV had been the main tank of Ooarai Girls Academy's old sensha-dō team, as an elderly lady in Episode 4 mentions she has not seen it in a long time, and it was the only tank found inside the garage, while the other tanks were found in many obscure places.
- The Panzer IV may exist as a possible exception, as Kuromorimine are known to employ Pz. II and Pz. III tanks, which are technically inferior to the vehicle operated by Anglerfish Team.
- It is revealed that Nonna can speak —or at least sing— in fluent Russian.
- This aspect is curious, as in the Drama CD Katyusha evidently understands only Japanese.
- Whilst it is clear that Nonna addresses Katyusha with her singing of the "Cossack's lullaby," it is not apparent whether or not Katyusha understands her. The only Russian Katyusha is confirmed to understand are the lyrics of the song "Katyusha", which are sung in a Japanese accent, and a few simple Russian words such as "Da", "Nyet", or "Khorosho".
- Hana's mother, Yuri Isuzu, is shown to be attending the match along with Shinzaburo, indicating that she has begun to accept Hana as a practitioner of sensha-dō.
- Midoriko Sono believes the huge disparity in the armament of Pravda (using the 122mm D-25T gun on the IS-2) compared to Ooarai (carrying no weapon over a calibre of 75mm) to be a breach of school rules.
- Both Mako Reizei and Midoriko Sono allegedly have 20/10 vision.
- They also each use a by-name for the other, with the former calling the latter "Sodoko," and vice-versa, "Remako." Both by-names are based on their respective real names.
- This is the longest match in the series, primarily due to the ceasefire. In consideration for the lack of action and worsening weather conditions, at one point the Sensha-dō Federation officials were considering ending and rescheduling the match.
- After Ooarai's scouts return, the song played over the scenes as the ceasefire stretches is "Polyushko Pole," dramatizing the disparity between Ooarai and Pravda's morale.
- The ending sequence features Anteater Team in the Type 3 Chi-Nu, even though the crew and tank are yet to be introduced.
- Kawashima refers to Ooarai as "an old school with no special characteristics." The latter assessement may be contrasting Ooarai with the many other schools that have distinct academic specialities, or are even simply more definitively associated with a specific culture.
- Goof: the aerial view of the seige shows Pravda's principle forces arranged in two lines, with both lines still within the town and interspersed among trees. Later, when the Ooarai team charges those lines, the lines are portrayed as being far apart and in open fields with few trees or buildings nearby.
- During the siege, Oryou compares their situation to the Hakkōda Mountains incident during which on January 23, 1902 a group of 210 Imperial Japanese Army soldiers that were en route to Tashiro Hot Spring in the mountains were stuck in a blizzard. Only 11 survived. As 193 men were frozen to death and 6 died two months after the rescue, this is the world's largest mountaineering disaster in the modern history of mountain climbing.
- The instrumental music for Katyusha was played during the snow chase scene.
- Despite the fact that no Char B1 bis tanks operated in snowy conditions, or even in deep snow, Mallard Team's tank seems to have coped equally well as the rest of Ooarai's tanks, which are designs that did encounter significant winter conditions.
- Katyusha's bed, where she takes a nap during the cease fire, is a RF-8/GAZ-98 Snowmobile.
- During Pravda's pursuit of Ooarai's flag tank, the Type 89B, as it is thrown about by Pravda's near misses, displays even more outrageously improbable maneuvers than typical for the series, rearing back vertically onto its drive sprockets, standing almost vertically on the front idlers, before finally recovering its equilibrium. At the very end of those ridiculous (for an actual tank) maneuvers, the turret momentarily rotates to "face the camera," breaking the "fourth wall" in a theatrical technique commonly used by comedians to encourage the audience's sympathy for an especially absurd situation.
Gallery[]
| Girls und Panzer Anime | |
|---|---|
| First Anime Season Episodes | Episode 1 ♦ Episode 2 ♦ Episode 3 ♦ Episode 4 ♦ Episode 5 ♦ Episode 6 ♦ Episode 7 ♦ Episode 8 ♦ Episode 9 ♦ Episode 10 ♦ Episode 11 ♦ Episode 12 |
| Recap Episodes | Episode 5.5 ♦ Episode 10.5 |
| OVA Episodes | OVA 1 ♦ OVA 2 ♦ OVA 3 ♦ OVA 4 ♦ OVA 5 ♦ OVA 6 ♦ OVA 7 ♦ OVA 8 ♦ OVA 9 ♦ OVA 10 |
| Animated Movie | Girls und Panzer der Film |
| Final Chapter | Part 1 ♦ Part 2 ♦ Part 3 ♦ Part 4 ♦ Part 5 ♦ Part 6 |