#cars in anime

[53v3nfrn5]

[trainsinanime]

Cars and Trains in Spy x Family Ep. 1

Spy x Family is an excellent anime that is officially set in a completely fictional country in a completely fictional world, far outside of any of our actual histories and timelines. Except not really; it’s actually set in east Berlin of the late 1960s. They don’t call it that (instead calling it “Berlint”, of all things), but the amount of detail they put into portraying the setting and the time period is truly remarkable, considering that they didn’t have to at all. Let’s look.

The first car we see in the first few seconds already tells us that this show is going to be a delight if you’re into that sort of thing (it’s also a delight if you don’t care much). An important diplomat gets murdered in his car. And the car is this:

Americans might think that it’s a 1956 Packard Patrician, but it’s not, as the slightly different grill shows. It’s a ZIL 111, the soviet copy of that car. Here’s a real one:

Picture from Wikimedia Commons, by Max schwalbe, published under CC-BY-SA 3.0 license

This was a classic car for important people all over the east bloc, like state ministers and so on. It’s a beautiful rendition and it fits perfectly in this role.

Ignoring some background cars that we’ll get to soon enough, the next car is the coupé Agent Twilight drives away from the fake information trade set up:

That is a Wartburg 311/3, two-dour coupé version of the original Wartburg 311.

Picture from Wikimedia Commons, taken by Torsten Maue, published under CC-BY 2.0 license

I’ve been told that Wartburg sounds weird in english, but in case you’re wondering, it’s the name of the castle near Eisenach (where this car was built), most famous for being the place where Martin Luther was imprisoned for a while and translated parts of the bible. The Wartburg 311/3 was not a mass product, and the whole Wartburg 311 line was soon supplanted by a more famous boxy version, but this is still a classic example of east german car construction.

Then Twilight has to leave for Berlint on a train, and the engine is, of all things, this:

It’s even more clear in the manga:

This locomotive is an east german class 99.77-79 steam locomotive, built from 1952 to 1956. Here are two of them together in Cranzahl:

Picture by me, feel free to use under CC-BY-SA 3.0

These locomotives fit into the time frame and into east Germany as a setting, but they wouldn’t be hauling a train to Berlin. They were built for the 750 mm narrow gauge branch lines of Saxony, and can only run on these narrow tracks. They’re actually still in use today, now as tourist railroads, operated by a company called SDG. Check them out if you’re in the area, these lines are fun.

The passenger coach that Twilight is sitting in does not correspond to anything I know, so the next recognisable thing is the tram that Twilight and Anya use. 

This is a tram type “Gothawagen” T4-62. These were used in Berlin and not really much outside of it, and were built from 1961 to 1964 (with some prototypes a few years earlier). Newer types replaced them relatively quickly, but the last ones actually ran until 1996. Here’s a picture of one of them on the same exact line 86:

Picture from Wikimedia Commons, taken by Felix O, published under CC-BY 2.0

If you want, you can point out details that are different, e.g. windows, pantograph or the missing V shape, but the overall impression is very clear. Whoever designed this knew what they were doing.

As the episode concludes, we see a beautiful picture of east german road traffic, featuring two of these trams and in front a Wartburg 353, which I’ll talk about when discussing later episodes:

Beautiful. Yes, the show is made for people who like found family and silliness, and it’s lovely in that regard. But it’s also made for history nerds who get excited about old trams and cars, and in that regards it’s absolutely perfect as well.

Here’s the post for episode 2

[racingliners]

In a very important home life update: we got a high vis vest for one of our chickens

They apparently have a great unintended use of stopping hens from getting bullied, so we got one to try it out since the above hen gets excessively picked on by the others (we don't really know why).

Shout put to the wonderful @gingervivilou who told me about it!!

[neon-wonderlands]

[scurviesdisneyblog]

𝙿𝚒𝚡𝚊𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚙𝚝 𝚊𝚛𝚝Ｉ(1995 - 2009)

[tokyo-chainsaw-dragon]

Don't ask what happened, Aki. Don't ask.

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[screachogreilige]

dunmeshi roadtrip au

[vangoghcore]

by s.philly.time.capsules

[latenightsundayblues]

How bout that hoffman? How about THEM apples?

[typhlonectes]

[josh-dot-d]

F40, Enzo Ferrari’s last word.

[anewp0tat0]

looks like I can draw again!!

Sebastian called him "orphan" for the rest of the week.

[neon-wonderlands]

[scurviesdisneyblog]

𝙿𝚒𝚡𝚊𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚙𝚝 𝚊𝚛𝚝Ｉ(2010 - 2018)