23.10.2023 Update

Oarai Town, the Setting of "Girls & Panzer"

Oarai Town, a coastal town in Ibaraki Prefecture, is the setting for the animated series "Girls & Panzer," which depicts high school girls striving to win the national championship in the world of "tankery," a martial art using tanks, alongside traditional arts such as flower arranging and tea ceremony, representing the essence of Yamato Nadeshiko (traditional Japanese femininity).

©GPFP

©GPFP

Even to this day, Oarai Town continues to attract numerous fans as a pilgrimage site for this anime. The high school where the main characters attend is located on the deck of a massive aircraft carrier-like ship, and it is depicted in the anime that the mother port of this ship is Oarai Town in Ibaraki Prefecture.
The local shops, accommodations, transportation, city hall, and the Chamber of Commerce in Oarai Town have cooperated to faithfully reproduce the town's landscape, various facilities, and transportation depicted in the anime, with some even appearing with their actual names.
The nostalgic shopping street and the compact harbor town, along with the sight of the large ferry "Sunflower" docking there, make it even more apparent that Oarai is indeed the setting of this anime.

Curator of this article

Japan Culture GuideJapan Culture Guide

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