Girls und Panzer/Kellys' Heroes

Don't know who did this but I like it! L-R: Clint "Kelly" Eastwood,
Kay/Kei, Miho Nishizumi, & Donald "Oddball" Sutherland.

Girls und Panzer/Kellys' Heroes


Just finished Girls und Panzer on Crunchity Roll. At least what there is of it. Seems they delayed broadcast of the last two episodes in Japan until March. Guess they're trying to work out a plausable ending. No matter how it turns out, I WILL get this when it's released in a box set.

I'll admit, if it wasn't for the AFVs & the tank battles I wouldn't have given it even a passing glance. As an amateur (very) historian & a past wargamer, the WWll trappings had me engrossed in the show.

Without the unique premise (Tank warfare as part of a schools' martial arts program.) it's just another cutesy/moe' high school girl anime with all the tropes/stereotypes/situations common to countless others of its kind. Usually with a reluctant young lady finding her identity through teamwork & doing her best. We've seen it all before.

I do like the two Kellys' Heroes references. In episode 05, one of the girls infiltrates the American teams' school to get the lowdown on their strategy for an upcoming match (An obvious WWll allegory.). When challenged to identify herself, she replies as "Oddball, Sargeant third class" in reference to Donald Sutherlands' character in the movie. In episode 10, the freshman team (Lee/Grant tank.) are seen viewing Kellys' Heroes during a pre-match gathering. They weep openly when the Tiger gets hit from behind as did I ... ahem ... Actually I ... I didn't. No! Really! ... I didn't! ... Honest!

Wikipedia Girls und Panzer review here.

Wikipedia Kellys' Heroes review here.

Crunchyroll main page here.

Go to Jays' Tee Vee blog main page here.

Dang! Part 3: The Last Hunt

Credit: MGM

                                             Dang! Part 3: The Last Hunt

                                                                 by

                                                                    Jay Agan

      I've loved westerns ever since I can remember. Up until I was 10 they were the only live action pictures I'd watch. The vast majority would end up on an upbeat note, but every so often I'd run into one that was ..... different.

      Take The Last Hunt. The one you'd think was the protagonist turns out, early on, not to be a nice guy at all. Now, in this day & age, it's no big deal. Most of todays movie heroes are flawed beyond belief & into boredom. It started with Randolph Scott & James Stewart & should have ended right after Clint Eastwood. Now you have these "gritty" (Filthy actually. Everybody looks like they crawled out from under the sub-basement of an outhouse!) westerns where the film would improve if they get the "hero" killed off as soon as possible.

      Being from 1956, The Last Hunt has the main character take a hit at the end. In a very (For me at the time I saw it as a kid in the 60s.) graphic manner. Caught in a snowstorm & desperate, Charlie (Robert Taylor) shoots a buffalo & takes the skin to shield himself from freezing. In a well filmed closing scene, he's discovered sitting up ..... dead ..... with the hide frozen to him.

      That scene has stuck with me ever since.

                                         Article copyright © 4-28-2011 Jay Agan

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