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24
5
Finished
Jul 19, 2018 to Oct 21, 2021
8.5/10
Average Review Score
100%
Recommend It
2
Reviews Worldwide
This is probably the best official GuP manga I've read so far. At the same time, the tone and atmosphere that this manga adopts is a lot more somber tones despite retaining some of the the charming comedy and slice of life scenes the main series has more of. For one thing, Katyusha's character in the main series is more of comic relief with little to no serious aspects to her personalities, her ambitions and decisions that led to the championship in the tournament never explored. Instead, she's more of a cute loli character that Nonna adores. In this series, it's like Katyusha got replacedby Tanya. I mean come on, even the title is similar. "Pravda Senki", instead of "Youjo Senki." Maybe a homage, or maybe a complete coincidence, but Katyusha definitely acts a lot more cutthroat and more of an attitude that is befitting of a tank commander. Overall, each commander and character in this series is taking the Senshado sport seriously, and matches are depicted with a lot more fervor and desperation rather than the more light-hearted depictions in the anime. The way Katsyusha and Nonna become friends and companions is also depicted in the manga. There's a lot more politicking, drama, and friction between characters than expected, and that's the result of the atmosphere of the manga being more serious, as mentioned before. Each match, despite not being too in depth, are drawn well, and the turning points of each match are shown as needed. Maho and Miho are also shown to be a much more serious duo at Kuromorimine in the short time that they are shown in the manga. You get to also see characters and schools that are not shown in the main series, such as Earl Grey from St. Gloriana Girls' College. The championship match that Pravda won that was always hinted at, but never actually shown in detail is satisfying, and everything fell into place. The perspective of both teams in the match, as well as the buildup and progression of Pravda throughout the tournament bracket made the championship a fitting finale and climax.
The northern powerhouse, Pravda High School, is on course to win the 62nd national senshadou championship! The tiny tyrant Katyusha and Nonna's battle begins! The curtain lifts on this spin-off to the smash-hit anime Girls & Panzer! (Source: Kadokawa, translated)
There is a trend with Girls und Panzer's mangas that a lot of them will expand on the universe and write entire character arcs that more-often-than-not are completely disregarded by the anime, at which point you - the dear reader - should realise that the mangas are essentially written like sponsored fanfic, and that is not at all a bad thing! Pravda Senki acts as a prequel to GuP by focusing on Katyusha's rise to power and her saga to turn Pravda into a champion while destroying the defeatist mentality that permeates the Senshado team. Although it is focused on Pravda and Katyusha, the mangaalso shows other characters' arc who become relevant by the time of the anime* such as the Nishizumi Miho and Maho, Erika and St. Gloriana characters (Earl Grey, interestingly). It does a lot to show just how character-focused the GuP franchise can be at times though it doesn't test the limit the same way Ribbon Warrior (another great GuP manga) does. *with a caveat that some of the character development doesn't exist in the anime and some is discrepant to other mangas, particularly Little Army and Phase Erika This might come accross as personal bias but I personally found the art-style and writing to be strongly reminiscent of Youjo Senki's manga, the fact both have military themes, "saga" in the title, similar-looking main characters with similar instrospections and ways of doing things, but also how it portrays characters are viewed from the perspective of other characters, I can't write it off as just a coincidence. So if you enjoyed Youjo Senki I highly recommend this manga, though if you are reading this I can safely assume you are already a GuP fan and likely a Youjo Senki fan. If you have only watched the anime and not read any of the other GuP manga it might be a shock how mature it appears to be at times, sure no one dies or get (seriously) harmed but just allusions to bullying, physical violance and profanity are things the original anime wouldn't dare to even bring up. This unique style however works in the favour of the comic and at times it truly originality and respect to a establishedfranchise. To quote Yoshida's afterword: "[...]The Girls und Panzer in Director Mizushima's head is "genuine", so the speak. Anything that didn't pass through his brain is nothing more than derivative work. Another person can imagine what Director Mizushima would have done, but that won't make it genuine. As Such I figured it would be more respectful to the original series to focus more on making the manga feel original[...]"