Producer Shunpei Maruyama (Actas) had heard from a senior animator that 'real tank series' were not worth the costs, but decided to push ahead nonetheless and viewed the project as 'the last chance' for himself and the studio.

Bandai Visual producer Jun Yukawa set as a condition that Actas must bring in an 'appealing, contemporary creator'; this is how military illustrator Fumikane Shimada became involved in the project.

Director Tsutomu Mizushima took on the assignment because he was intrigued by the strange combination of tanks and schoolgirls; screenwriter Reiko Yoshida joined later to brainstorm ideas together.

The idea of presenting tank battles as a women's sport ('sensha-dō') was deliberately conceived to remove the atmosphere of war from the weapon 'tank'.

Initially, the series was to be set in a port town in the San'in region, but because this was too far from Tokyo for location scouting, the choice ultimately fell on Ōarai.

The creators and the municipality of Ōarai agreed in advance that the anime would not actively promote the city and would not discuss economic effects, in order to prevent any hype from fizzling out as had happened with previous government-driven anime tourism projects.

Protagonist voice actress Mai Fuchigami considered quitting her career as a voice actor when she was offered the role of Miho Nishizumi; it was her first leading role and she felt great pressure to lead the recordings.

Sumire Uesaka (voice of Nonna) initially auditioned for a role in the Anko team but was rejected; because she speaks fluent Russian, she was later cast as Nonna anyway and also gave Russian pronunciation lessons to extras.

The school Keiritsu (in the film) is based on Finland and the name refers to the Continuation War; director Mizushima had long harboured a fascination with Finland and the kantele instrument, but was only able to introduce the school in the film due to time constraints in the TV series.

The dance 'Ankō Odori' and its accompanying song were specially composed for the series and are not an existing traditional dance of Ōarai; the choreography was devised by director Mizushima himself.

Long-suffering Ōarai faced a sharp decline in tourism after the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster, but thanks to the anime, the number of visitors grew significantly again, reaching 4.44 million in 2015 (about 80% of the pre-disaster level).

At the annual Ōarai Ankō festival, visitor numbers grew from an average of 35,000 before the anime to a record 135,000 visitors in 2018, which according to some was comparable to the crowds at Comiket.

According to an estimate by Nomura Research Institute, the anime brought Ōarai an economic effect of approximately 721 million yen in 2013, distributed across roughly 159,000 visitors.