Bandai Namco Filmworks has started streaming the first 10 minutes of the fifth film in the six-part Girls und Panzer das Finale series. The clip went up over the weekend and covers the opening stretch of the penultimate chapter.
Part 5 picks up right after Ōarai Girls High School survives a bruising semi-final at the Winter Continuous Track Cup. That win sends the team into the final, where St. Gloriana Girls’ College waits, led by Darjeeling. Among the St. Gloriana students is Alice, who transferred to the school specifically so she could face Miho again.
Nine years of Finale films
The Finale project has been running far longer than the television series that started it. The first film opened in Japan in December 2017 across 59 theaters, focused on new characters from BC Freedom High School in a winter battle. The second followed in June 2019 and closed out the Ōarai versus BC Freedom match while also showing battles involving Kuromorimine Girls Academy and Pravda Girls High School.
Part 3 arrived in March 2021 and added six more schools across three more battlegrounds. Part 4 opened in October 2023, continuing Ōarai’s fight with Continuation High School after the team lost key members early in the match, and pairing Kuromorimine against St. Gloriana.
The whole thing sits on top of a franchise that began with the original television anime in October 2012, a 12-episode run that turned tank warfare between high schools into a durable brand. Girls und Panzer der Film followed in November 2015.
There are also the four Girls und Panzer: Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu! films, spun off from Maruko Nii’s manga of the same name. That manga launched in 2013 in Kadokawa’s Monthly Comic Alive, then published by Media Factory, and follows the everyday lives of the Ōarai team.
The franchise is not just on the film track
Two new games are in the works. D3Publisher is developing Girls und Panzer: All-Star Tank Carnival for the Switch 2, due in Japan in 2027, with the team behind the PlayStation 4 title Dream Tank Match returning. It will let players control tanks and walk around a recreation of Ōarai town, which is based on the real town of the same name. G Holdings is separately making Girls und Panzer: Bokosuka Rush for smartphones, set in the “Boko Museum” from der Film.
Why it matters
A 10-minute preview is the studio’s way of putting a real foot forward rather than another teaser image. For a film series that has averaged roughly two years between installments, that matters to a fan base that has learned to wait.
Part 5 also carries weight because it is the second-to-last chapter. The final film is the one that closes the Winter Continuous Track Cup arc, so whatever this entry sets up at St. Gloriana will decide how much is left to resolve.
For another long-running film franchise ramping up its next chapter, see our story on Gundam SEED FREEDOM ZERO.
Source: Anime News Network, citing Bandai Namco Filmworks’ YouTube channel
Featured image: Girls und Panzer das Finale Part 5 preview still, via Bandai Namco Filmworks / Anime News Network.
