Rating: B+
Throughout the anime adaptation, Tanya has appeared on nearly every front that Germany directed engaged in during World War I or World War II. (The sole front that has not been represented is the battles in the eastern and southern German colonies in Africa during WW1.) The one she’s spent the least amount of time on in anime form has been the Northern Africa front, though. Aside from the epilogue for episode 12 of the first season and the first few minutes of the movie, the only focus on it was the OVA episode “Operation Desert Pasta,” and that was more a facetious side story than an actual representation of the front. While this episode’s mission doesn’t represent a full-blown return to that front, it at least touches on that direction and allows for a brief cameo by General Romel, this world’s stand-in for Edwin “The Desert Fox” Rommel.
To be specific, the episode involves the Empire pulling back its North African forces in light of Operation Andromeda grinding to a halt in a stalemate. Since the Allies control the seas (as they did in WW2), such a crossing would be a perilous one, so the 203rd is assigned out of their break to help make that happen. Making matters worse is that Ildoa, while not being completely obstructionist, isn’t cooperating, either, by not allowing the Empire forces to land travel through their territory, thus making the sea transport longer and thus more vulnerable. (Apparently they didn’t take well to basically being told to “stuff it” over their peace proposal a couple of episodes back.) And the one thing the Empire does have going for it on the seas – its submarines – don’t have accurate enough torpedoes to deal with the Allied fleet. So of course this is the perfect time for a certain mad scientist to show up.
Frankly, making this world’s version of the V-2 rocket be a mage-guided torpedo feels a bit repetitive, as the challenge and threat to Tanya’s safety here isn’t much different than the V-1 headhunting mission done in the first season. Granted, we do get some nicely-animated shots of naval ships being blown up this time and a good ending joke about how Neumann was too chubby to participate in this operation, but this winds up not being one of the series’ fresher episodes as a result. It also mostly lacks the insightful social commentary of the previous episode or the high drama of some other recent episodes.
There are some definite historical allusions present in this, though. The Hood and the Ark Royal were a British cruiser and aircraft carrier, respectively, which played significant roles in World War 2 naval actions. The former was famously sunk by the German battleship Bismarck, while the latter was involved in hunting down the Bismarck and was later sunk by a U-boat while escorting convoys. Since the battleship Bismarck has not appeared in this setting, the 203rd Aerial Battalion and the mission to evacuate North Africa were probably chosen to explain their destruction. The submarine Tanya goes to afterwards, the U-091, was an actual submarine which did fight in WW2, but it fought entirely in the North Atlantic and was not in service until after both of the other ships sank, so it’s possible that numbering that ship 91 could also be a reference to the HMS Ark Royal‘s pennant number.
On the upside, the “visit” to Ildoa should prove interesting, since neither Rerugen nor Tanya seem at all content with Ildoa’s behavior here. A passive, unobtrusive visit is certainly what the Ildoans want: a token visit to prove that they’re not hostile to the Empire, while at the same time showing that they’re still effectively neutral to everyone else. Given Tanya’s track record, I have to think she was deliberately assigned to this duty with the expectation that she was going to cause some kind of problem, and sailing in with flags openly displayed and calling out greetings is certainly not the level of conspicuousness that the Ildoans wanted. (Rerugen is shown getting a stomach ache from this, but he had to expect something like this from Tanya.) Should be very entertaining next episode to see how the Ildoans deal with her when she’s in their own country.
USA Anime 