Shiro Hamaguchi -- Girls und Panzer Original Soundtrack（ガールズ&パンツァー）

 

Well, it's been thirteen years since I first saw the anime "Girls und Panzer" at my anime buddy's house, and perhaps only a few days following the beginning of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". When I saw that first scene of high school girls cheerfully get into a tank as if they were getting picked by Mom in a Corolla, I just went "Ohhhhkay...yep, this is an anime, isn't it?". 

However, that first series involving Ōarai Girls High School and their plucky sensha-do club with that "little train that could" attitude started to charm me with its cast that probably involved every major female seiyuu on active duty in 2012, the love and meticulousness paid toward every tank, and the music which seemed to pay homage to every 1960s Hollywood movie about World War II and military marches around the world. Several years later, I even did a short pilgrimage to the very real city of Ōarai to check out any "Girls und Panzer" paraphernalia.

Over the years, a couple of us have paid our own tribute to the music from the anime. Marcos V. was the first one with his article on "Katyusha" which was given its due during that first series thanks to Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）and Hisako Kanemoto（金元寿子）. I think a lot of us were caught off-guard when the ladies sang this proud Russian folk song in the original language, and the way it all went down, I believe some of us may have wanted to show off our Russian selves in the same way that Ensign Chekov from "Star Trek" loved to have his mother nation take ownership of every invention ever conceived.

Well then...since we've got the ball rolling, let's get into more of the soundtrack for that first series. I covered "Senshado Koshinkyoku! Panzer Vor!"（戦車道行進曲!パンツァーフォー!）, the proud march that fans of the anime will remember perhaps more than the original opening and closing themes. Shiro Hamaguchi（浜口史郎）was behind that one and the overall soundtrack, and as I stated above, he does love his military marches which include "The British Grenadiers", the traditional song for British military units which has been around since the 17th century. However, in "Girls und Panzer", I often seem to hear it whenever one of the characters wanted to go into exposition on something, such as one of the tanks.

Speaking of marches, another familiar one is the "U.S. Field Artillery March" which hails all the way back to 1917 when John Philip Sousa (who already has one entry on KKP) wrote it. Strangely enough, I first heard "U.S. Field Artillery March" on another animated classic when Fred and his family sang it on "The Flintstones" back in the 1960s.

From what I've read, all of the American marches belonged naturally enough to anything to do with the rival tank team from Saunders University High School based in Nagasaki. And in a soundtrack filled with military marches and variations on "Senshado Koshinkyoku! Panzer Vor!", this track did stand out. "M4 Sherman Chuusensha A GO! GO!"（M4シャーマン中戦車 A GO！GO！...M4 Sherman Medium Tank A Go Go!）is a good ol' rock n' roll blast straight from "Happy Days" with twangy guitar. It's short at only a little over a minute in length but it's left quite the impression with me.

I've had my own copy of the two-disc soundtrack for years now which I listen to now and then for some relaxation and energizing at the same time. All of the high-octane tracks and military marches are great, but my memories have often been filled with the last three tracks on Disc 1 which are softer but no less proud takes on "Senshado Koshinkyoku! Panzer Vor!". "Kinou no Teki wa Kyou no Tomo desu!"（昨日の敵は今日の友です！...Yesterday's Enemy is Today's Friend!） is the third-last track and though I can't remember when it was played in the anime, it's always struck me as rather heartwarming and elegiac as if the girls were remembering all those they lost in battle (although we know that no one has yet to die or even get seriously injured).

The last track is "Senshado Anthem desu!"（戦車道アンセムです！...This is The Senshado Anthem!）which once again takes off on the overall theme for the Ōarai girls' team and has that satisfying "Well, we pulled it off everyone!" feeling with lots of hearty backslapping, hugs and handshaking. I also couldn't help but notice how similar in tone it is to the final orchestral piece in the "Backdraft" soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. But unlike "Kinou no Teki wa Kyou no Tomo desu!", I know exactly when "Senshado Anthem desu!" was used and it was used for one of the most adorable scenes in the entire franchise.

I heard from my buddy that the franchise has yet to wrap up. At this rate, the fans' grandkids will be rooting for "Girls und Panzer" by the time it finally ends.

Oarai -- The Town of Girls and Panzers

Well, after 3 glorious nights at Hotel Rob, I checked out of Musashi-Kosugi early in the morning of the 13th and headed out to Mito. Mind you, this was Monday morning which meant rush hour from the station into Tokyo so of course that meant a population density aboard the train that would probably be measured in the millions per square centimetre. And here I was carrying a carry-on and a full suitcase. Not the easiest thing to do.

Since it was an express train, it was only a few stations but it was quite the hellish trip. Yet, I was actually grateful for the crowds packed in the train only because there were so many in there that I was actually cushioned from the worst of the jostling due to their bodies. Yes, indeed, it was the most physically cynical commute that I ever experienced. After that, I treated myself to a Mac breakfast at the Shinagawa Golden Arches across from the station.

It was a 2-hour ride on the semi-express from Shinagawa to Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture. Mito Station was unexpectedly quite lively and filled with stores and restaurants. However, that city wasn't my final destination. Cue music.

Nope, it was to get onto the Kashima-Oarai Line for about the 10 minutes it would take to reach the small town of Oarai...otherwise the setting for the beloved anime "Girls und Panzer". Never did such a deep anime pilgrimage before. But my adventure started in style...the train exterior was all decked out with the characters from the show...and there are a lot of characters in "Girls und Panzer".

"Girls und Panzer" has become a cottage industry of sorts in Oarai since the show's premiere back in the early 2010s. Festivals have been held in the town, there is a tonkatsu restaurant that serves tank-shaped pork cutlet, and Oarai Station has its own little museum devoted to the anime.

I walked the 1km down to the harbour where the Marine Tower was located since there was a small cafe near the top of the tower devoted to "Girls und Panzer". Part of the setup had high school tables with menus in student binders.

Ended up ordering the stewed mackerel course based on one of the characters' preferences. It was OK but nothing to write home about but then again, with these places the quality of the food isn't the main thing.

Heading back on the deserted street back to Oarai Station, I realized that I had seen this very avenue on the anime. All in all, it was a short and sweet experience. Got a few souvenirs for my anime buddy.

For all of you "Girls und Panzer" fans, cherish the above. It is Mako Reizei smiling! Panzer Vor!

Sayaka Sasaki -- Anko Ondo （あんこう音頭）

Well, it was anime day once again with my friend so for the audio part of our day, we got to listen to the "Girls und Panzer Herbst Musikfest 2015" which was the recording of a special concert featuring the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra playing passages from the soundtrack of the anime "Girls und Panzer"（ガールズ&パンツァー）. It was then and there that I decided that I would have to promote the show into a category of its own on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", the second anime that I've treated in this manner after "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）.

Of course, when the show is mentioned, a lot of folks talk about the most moe version of "Katyusha" that was portrayed, and that is of course fine. However, I've also remembered "Girls und Panzer" for that brief tune used as punishment for the members of the Anko Team. Indeed, that was "Anko Ondo" (Anglerfish Folk Song) as sung by Sayaka Sasaki（佐咲紗花）. One of the big surprises was that I had already written one anison article about her for her rendition of the opening theme for the motorcycle-based anime "Bakuon!!"（ばくおん!!）, not knowing that it was indeed the same singer who had been behind "Ah-a-ah-anh, ah-a-ah-anh..." for the notorious ondo. I had assumed it was performed by a much older enka singer!

Surprise No. 2 was that I had also assumed that "Anko Ondo" was a long-established traditional folk song from the real town of Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture where "Girls und Panzer" was set. Nope, wrong there, too. It was created specifically for the show by Reiko Yoshida（吉田玲子）on lyrics and Tsutomu Mizushima（水島努）, the director of the show, on the melody. And apparently, it did become a thing. Looking at those 3D women on the truck, I think their odds of getting married have actually increased (inside joke)!

Looking at the J-Wiki article for "Girls und Panzer", I found out that the Oarai Anko Festival has been held annually since the premiere of the anime, and it actually attracted its highest number of visitors (110,000) last year when it was held on November 15th 2015. I'm fairly confident that the dance was performed a number of times, although I wonder what the citizenry must think at times as they realize that their town has become popular due to a cartoon featuring high school girls and their tanks.

A pleasant travelogue of the 2015 Oarai Anko Festival by uploader yoneyasu.

Yeah, that was my reaction, too,
when I discovered how popular the song became.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hardwig/4133945340?ytcheck=1
by Florian Hardwig

ChouCho -- DreamRiser/Ankou Team -- Enter Enter MISSION!

Well, it's been quite the sluggish Monday. Humidex of 40 degrees Celsius on the first official day of summer and I had to attend the annual homeowners' meeting of our condo complex. Nope, not exactly the most entertaining time and I left as soon as the "Let's scream at the executive board" segment began. But the Timbits were delicious. In any case, I haven't had a go at the blog for a couple of days and I much prefer hitting the keyboard for this purpose than sitting for a couple of hours witnessing local conflicts.

Yesterday, though, was the usual get-together with my anime buddy and the highlight of the day was watching "Girls und Panzer: The Movie", the 2015 cinematic sequel to one of the sleeper hits of 2012. And yep, if you liked the original anime series, then you will like the movie. Even more characters, even more tanks, tons of banter on the order of "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and there was an important life lesson that all of us should learn:

WHEN IN DOUBT, GET IT DOWN IN WRITING!!

Plus, there was the usual stuff about gathering everyone together to fight the good fight, blah, blah, blah. And it was totally enjoyable with an amazing full-orchestral version on composer Shiro Hamaguchi's（浜口史郎）"Panzer Vor!". I was pretty much stamping my feet when that came on at the beginning. Speaking about enjoying it, enjoy the above Hollywood-ized trailer for the movie which was only lacking Mr. Movie Trailer Man.

Anyways, what I wanted to talk about was the opening and ending themes for the original anime from 2012. As much as Hamaguchi's amazing renditions of marches and original score enhanced the enjoyment of watching high school girls go on the attack in their tanks, my memory still remembers those two songs since they were so noticeably different from the score.

ChouCho's "DreamRiser", the opening theme to "Girls und Panzer"（ガールズ&パンツァー）could frankly have been the opening theme to any high school anime, but I guess director Tsutomu Mizushima（水島努）must have gone "What the hey...why not my show?" But hey, it did grow on me as time went on. Written by Saori Kodama（こだまさおり）and composed by rino, "DreamRiser" is the singer's 5th single which got its official release in October 2012.

ChouCho was also the singer behind "Starlog", the opening theme to the first entry in the "Prisma Illya" franchise, and like that theme song, "DreamRiser" has got that arrangement with what I call the disco strings that gave a number of songs by the J-R&B divas that nostalgic touch a decade previously. I think it certainly did a fine job helping out introduce the dozens of characters in the opening credits and gave that positive spin of going to school, even one as unique as Oarai Girls' High School.

According to the J-Wiki article on "DreamRiser", the song was approached by ChouCho by bringing together the singer's dreams of becoming a singer and the dreams of the main character of Miho Nishizumi. It got as high as No. 41 on Oricon.

Then, there is the ending theme as sung by the Ankou (Anglerfish) Team from the show. I went with that name for the title line above just to keep things brief but in the Labels section, I have put down all of the 5 seiyuu portraying the plucky main characters from the team:

Mai Fuchigami（渕上舞） -- Miho Nishizumi（西住みほ）
Ai Kayano（茅野愛衣） -- Saori Takebe（武部沙織）
Mami Ozaki（尾崎真実） -- Hana Isuzu（五十鈴華）
Ikumi Nakagami（中上育実） -- Yukari Akiyama（秋山優花里）
Yuka Iguchi（井口裕香） -- Mako Reizei（冷泉麻子）

A cute little tune with the ending credits to match, "Enter Enter MISSION!" was a nice way to finish off each episode but by the end of the climactic finale, the song suddenly took on a heart-swelling pride as the victorious Ankou Team paraded through the streets of Oarai. I was even a tad disappointed that the song didn't make an appearance in the movie although there was an orchestral excerpt sometime in the middle. The prolific Aki Hata（畑亜貴）provided the lyrics with Kana Yabuki and Hiroshi Sasaki（矢吹香那・佐々木裕）making the music. I probably wouldn't be surprised if the real Oarai Station had the song playing on the tracks whenever the trains arrived.

I figure that I will have to write about the famous "Ankou Ondo"（あんこう音頭）sometime soon.

Shiro Hamaguchi -- Senshado Koshinkyoku! Panzer Vor! （戦車道行進曲!パンツァーフォー!）

This was taken a couple of days before the
premiere of "The Force Awakens". My friend who runs the
movie theater told me that within a few hours of opening day,
BB-8 was summarily decapitated by Dark Side vandals.

Several hours ago in movie theatre not too far away, I finally got to see "The Force Awakens" in IMAX 3D. Well, my verdict is that it's a fine movie far better than the prequels but I don't think it is quite up there with "A New Hope" or "The Empire Strikes Back" (to be honest, it seems like an alt-universe version of the former movie), and it is certainly not The Movie of the Year as one Toronto Star critic gushingly described. Without going into a full review, I can say that I enjoyed myself and despite all of the many characters in it, it is definitely Rey's movie!

A few years back, just some months after returning from Japan for good, my anime buddy and I started our now-long-running routine of meeting up on alternating Sundays for food and anime. One of the first programs on the slate was "Girls und Panzer" which was pretty much as it stated in the title: girls and panzers. I think my friend did forgive me when my face showed some skepticism about the concept.

So the screen went on and the first scene from "Girls und Panzer"（ガールズ&パンツァー）was the view seen through the scope of a tank with girls just nattering on for several seconds before the first sightings of said girls in high school uniforms improbably took their stations in the tank and rolled on. Then this march promptly started which immediately had me thinking of music from "The Dirty Dozen" and "Bridge on the River Kwai".

Although "Girls und Panzer" from 2012 had its proper opening and closing themes, "Senshado Koshinkyoku! Panzer Vor!" (The Way of the Tank March!), I think, will always be THE song when I think of the anime. As crazy-amazing as the whole premise of uniformed Japanese schoolgirls driving tanks while studying and living on massive community-carriers is, "Girls und Panzer" has an adorable beating heart which is essentially what I look for when I want to enjoy any movie, TV show or anime for that matter. And "Panzer Vor!" rather reflects that heart through the cheerful pluckiness of its melody composed by anime composer Shiro Hamaguchi（浜口史郎）. It is the true theme for the tank club at Ōarai Girls' High School.

Shortly after viewing the entire series, my anime buddy even made the trip to the real Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture. The town is sleepy but apparently the charms of the series were not lost on the folks there. One tonkatsu restaurant had their own tank-shaped deep-fried pork cutlet on the menu, and there was plenty of "Girls und Panzer" paraphernalia at the local train station. I'm sure while my friend was walking through the area, the march was happily playing in his head.

Sumire Uesaka & HIsako Kanemoto -- Katyusha (Катю́ша / カチューシャ)

I bought this gorgeous Soviet souvenir in the Ukraine booth in a traditional marketplace, called Feira da Providência, held in Rio de Janeiro last week.

Recently, I’ve been listening to some Russian Folk songs and Eurodisco gems from the 80s with Russia and/or former Soviet Union as their main themes. I was very surprised to come across so many Gorbatchov-era inspired synthpop songs, thanks to Perestroika and Glasnost.

In Japan’s case, we now have Sumire Uesaka (上坂すみれ), a young seiyuu that happens to be a Soviet Union enthusiast, who sometimes embraces Russian themes in her songs. I thought about introducing one of her Russian inspired songs today, but, in the end, I decided to work on her rendition of the classic “Katyusha”, a famous Russian anthem during World War II (or the “Great Patriotic War” in Russia).

“Katyusha” is a song I like a lot since I discovered it many years ago. It was composed in 1938 by MatveiI Blanter (Матве́й Бла́нтер), with lyrics written by Mikhail Isakovsky (Михаи́л Исако́вский). Also, although created in Soviet Union, it’s not a song full of political propaganda, so, instead, we get a patriotic song about a girl in love with a soldier who is fighting for Mother Russia in the war. It’s ironic how the song was written in 1938, a couple of years before the Soviet Union entered the war. You can listen to the version recorded by the great Red Army Choir below.

Back to Sumire Uesaka, I only discovered she recorded “Katyusha” after J-Canuck's comment on my post about her Eurobeat single "Kitare! Aakatsuni no Doushi". It was a very pleasant surprise as, like I said earlier, "Katyusha" is one of my favourite Russian songs.

Katyusha was recorded by Sumire Uesaka and Hisako Kanemoto (金元寿子) in 2012 for the “Girls und Panzer” (ガールズ&パンツァー) anime, which portrayed a world where fighting in tanks was somewhat a hobby, similar to other sports. I didn’t watch the anime yet (I’m planning to), but, apparently, Sumire and Hisako were the girls commanding Soviet tanks, and that’s why, in a scene, they appeared singing “Katyusha”. Singing in Russian was not a problem for Sumire, as she studies Russian language, but I wonder how hard it must have been for Hisako.

A funny thing about this anime rendition of "Katyusha" is that, due to copyright issues, it couldn’t be aired in the American version. Instead, the same scene aired with another Russian song in the background, “Korobeiniki” (Коробейники), which is widely known for being “The Tetris Song” (even I played this version of Tetris a lot during my childhood, although mine was probably from a cloned video-game).Don’t get me wrong, “Korobeiniki” is also a great song, but it was not very suitable for the scene. Here’s a video comparing the original Japanese version with the American one.

Finally, this anime version of "Katyusha" can be found in “GIRLS und PANZER Original Soundtrack” album, which was released in December 2012.

Source: Amazon.com