- "We will fight in Tankathlon!"
- ―Shizuka Tsuruki
Tankathlon is the fictional martial arts of the spin-off manga Girls Und Panzer: Ribbon Warrior (ガールズ&パンツァー リボンの武者, Girls Und Panzer: Ribbon no Musha).
Background
Tankathlon is an unofficial form of martial arts, like senshado it uses tanks as weapons, however it lacks Japan Senshado Federation's (JSF) regulations and approval rules, traditionalism and values of it, which makes it marginalized among senshado practitioners and seniors. It involves two opposing teams, each possessing their own set of tanks, combating in Flag Battle matches, the only type of match known for now.
Many school carriers senshado teams are adopting tankathlon for various reasons, which are: lack of a big arsenal, practicing matches, different in-battle challenges, interest in this type of setting.
Rules
As tankathlon is unconsidered by the JSF, it has its Tankathlon Committee, they are responsible to set the opponents, the matches' date, place and any other matter involving the event, however, unlike JSF they will not cover the costs for repairing the damages caused to structures or viewers and others conditions included in Senshado Competition Regulations.
For now, there is only one known rule, where the tanks' weight must be below 10 tons, limiting the battle for light tanks only, also known as tankettes.
The lack of rules allows the matches to unofficially happen anywhere, both in rural settings, where viewers can stay in the middle of the battlefield watching if they want and in urban areas, where the citizens/viewers are in the middle of the match. It is the total responsibility of the viewers to ensure their own safety against being hit by a tank or shells.
Tank Shops
Tank shops only sell products sanctioned by the Senshado Federation, when Rin and Shizuka go to buy some equipment so they can upgrade the Type 97, Rin doesn't find anything related to tankathlon. However, Shizuka demands for the shop owner to provide tankathlon materials and supplements, he then leads them to the basement of the shop with a huge area dedicated to tankathlon. The shop owner also explains the JSF is being annoying regarding tankathlon materials lately, implying that the JSF heavily regulates the materials and equipment used in Sensha-do as a whole.
Teams
These are the teams that currently practicing Tankathlon. While some schools use their real name other more prestigious school practicing under an alias for not compromise themselves in an unofficial sport:
- Leader and Commander: Anchovy
- Co-Commanders: Carpaccio & Pepperoni
- Vehicles: Carro Veloce CV.33 (normal ones & some equipped with Solothurn AT Gun)
- Leader and Commander: Jajka
- Co-Commander: Uszka
- Vehicles: 7TPjw & TKS (with 20mm guns)
Centipede Team:
- Affiliation: Tatenashi High School
- Leader and Commander: Shizuka Tsuruki
- Driver: Rin Matsukaze
- Vehicles: Type 97 Te-Ke (Team composed of only one tank)
- Leader and Commander: Kinuyo Nishi
- Co-Commander: Fukuda
- Vehicles: Type 95 Ha-Go
Chindits:
- Affiliation: St. Gloriana Girls High School:
- Leader and Commander: Orange Pekoe
- Co-commander: Rosehip
- Vehicles: Light Tank Mk.VII Tetrarch
- Affiliation: Ooarai Girls High School
- Leader: Possibly Miho Nishizumi (doesn't participate in the matches)
- Commander: Noriko Isobe
- Vehicles: Type 89B I-Go Otsu (without rear sledge to match 10 tons rule)
Fifth Republic Platoon:
- Affiliation: BC Freedom High School:
- Leader and Commander: Asparagus
- Co-commander: Moules (Freedom Side) & Bordeaux (BC Side)
- Vehicles: Renault R35, Renault AMR35 (ZT-1 & ZT-2 variants) & M22 Locust
Flying Tankers Volunteer Group:
- Affiliation: Saunders Girls High School
- Leader: Kay (doesn't participate in the matches)
- Commander: Alisa
- Vehicles: M22 Locust (lent by BC Freedom), T7 Combat Car
- Aircraft: B-29 Stratofortress (Used to carry Hamilcar gliders), General Aircraft Halmicar (Gliders to carry the tanks), Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey.
- Leader: Unknown
- Commander: Unknown
- Vehicles: Lt vz.38
Guy Fawkes Team:
- Affiliation: St. Gloriana Girls High School:
- Leader and Commander: Darjeeling (Anonymously disguised as Guy Fawkes)
- Vehicles: Light Tank Mk.VIII Harry Hopkins
Katyusha's Volunteer Army:
- Affiliation: Pravda Girls High School
- Leader and Commander: Nina
- Co-commander: Alina
- Vehicles: T-70
Kebab High School:
- Leader and Commander: Bosphorus
- Vehicles: Renault R35
- Leader: Possibly Eclair
- Commander: Possibly Eclair
- Vehicles: Maybe Renault R35, FT-17
- Team Name: Unknown
- Leader: Trout
- Commander: Trout
- Vehicles: Light Tank Mk.VIB (with unknown gun ????)
Nibelungen Team:
- Affiliation: Kuromorimine Girls High School
- Leader and Commander: Maho Nishizumi (Anonymously disguised as Zorori)
- Vehicles: Pz.Kpfw II Ausf.F
Polite Girls:
- Affiliation: Pravda Girls High School
- Leader and Commander: Katyusha (Anonymously disguised)
- Co-commander: Nonna & Klara (Anonymously disguised)
- Vehicles: T-70
Schwarzwald Kampfgruppe:
- Affiliation: Kuromorimine Girls High School
- Leader and Commander: Erika Itsumi
- Co-commander: Koume Akaboshi
- Vehicles: Pz.Kpfw II Ausf.F
- Leader & Commander: Aung
- Vehicles: Type 95 Ha-Go
- Leader: Unknown
- Commander: Unknown
- Vehicles: Stridsvagn m/40
West Kureoji Grona High School:
- Leader: Possibly Kiri Shiratori
- Commander: Possibly Kiri Shiratori
- Vehicles: Unknown
Trivia
- Kuromorimine, Pravda & St. Gloriana are the only schools to be represented by two separated teams: Chindits (led by Orange Pekoe) & Guy Fawkes Team (led by Darjeeling) for St. Gloriana, Nibelungen Team (led by Maho) & Schwarzwald Kampfgruppe (led by Erika) and Katyusha's Volunteer Army (led by Nina) & Polite Girls (led by Katyusha, Nonna & Klara) for Pravda.
- All teams that don't use their true name use one that reference the country they represents:
- Centipede Team: The Centipede is one of the symbols that Takeda Clan, from which Shizuka's family descent, used as a crest.
- Chindits: Chindits were a British India special force, created by Orde Charles Wingate in 1942, that served behind Japanese lines during the Burma Campaign from 1942-1945.
- Fifth Republic Platoon: The Fifth Republic is the current French system from which former General Charles De Gaulle, which is Asparagus's name inspiration as one of De Gaulle's nickname was "The Great Asparagus" due to his extreme height (196cm), was the founder and first president.
- Flying Tankers: This an hommage to the 1st American Volunteer Group that fight under Chinese Air Force from December 1941 to July 1942 who were nicknamed "Flying Tigers" recognizable from the Shark face nose-art on their planes.
- Guy Fawkes Team: Guy Fawkes was an English Catholics who was involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot on November 5th 1605 which consisted of blowing Westminster Palace. On 21th century a contemporary version of Guy Fawkes mask became a symbol of anarchism and anonymity since the film adaptation in 2006 of the 1982 graphic novel V for Vendetta. That's why Darjeeling wore one to stay anonymous.
- Katyusha's Voluunter Army: It's maybe a reference to one of the anti-Bolshevik factions during the Russian Civil War. One supported by the Entente the Volunteer Army and the other (unofficialy) supported by Germans the West Russian Volunteer Army.
- Nibelungen Team: The name is a reference to Richard Wagner's opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen". While Maho's disguise is a reference to Zorori from the manga Kaiketsu Zorori.
- Polite Girls: Their name and the fact that Katyusha, Nonna & Clara are masked are a reference to the Little Green Men during the 2014 Ukrainian Crisis also known as Polite People during the annexation of Crimea because of their politeness toward the civilians on occupied area.
- Schwarzwald Kampfgruppe: The name is both a reference to various German combat group known as Kampfgruppen during WW2 and a reference to the Black Forest (Schwarzwald in German) that sits in South West of Germany.
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