hontou ni
19Dec/089

Strike Witches, The Steven Den Beste Cut

If you want to give yourself a chance to see the whole rest of the series, skip 5 and 7. Come back and watch them later.

Thus spake SDB. I'm here to report that, having done so, I enjoyed this series very much. With SDB's speculative explanation, even the ending made sense. And an unexpected positive externality was that I actually managed to enjoy Ep 5 and 7 too!

The Boobs Groping and the Panties Stealing episodes were terribly placed as they disrupted the momentum of the story. But after shuffling the episode order, both were actually kinda fun. I liked Ep 5 mainly because it was Shirley-centric. She's a fun character and I would have liked to see more of her.

Ep 7 brought back bad memories of that terrible episode in Mai HiME that was built around a similar theme. Initially when I saw Erica with her headgear, I stared becoming a bit uncomfortable with how Nazi the design was. And that got me thinking about how the series might be glorifying or making excuses for the WWII German-Japanese alliance with the 'Karlsland' trio of Minna, Gertrude, Erica and the 'Fuso' pair of Mio and Yoshika being the most prominent of the cast. BUT as the episode ended with everyone realizing that Erica was wearing Francesca's panties and the view zooming onto aforementioned striped panties, I realized that the pantlessness had effectively emptied out any politics and utterly neutralized any possibility of political correctness being able to raise its head.

Overall, the story was ok. The ending could have used more exposition/explanation. But I really liked all the characters (except Perine) as well as most of the pairings (except Perine x Lynne). Favourite scene was Minna's hysterical order to Gertrude to shoot down the Neuroi that had attacked Mio and then breaking down in tears, calling out Mio's name. Savoured every drop of that yurilicious Tanaka Rie-voiced outburst. MIO X MINNA FTW!

Related posts:

  1. X17H Strike Lunamaria
  2. Per Ardua ads Braccarum

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  1. Steven Den Beste
    December 20th, 2008 - 01:54

    Actually, I began to be more sympathetic to Perrine when I thought about what had happened to her homeland. That has to have traumatized everyone.

    And her special attack was awesome.

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  2. suguru
    December 20th, 2008 - 03:13

    I liked the series a lot overall, too–the fanservice makes this something it’d be impossible to watch in a middle seat on an airplane without getting a few raised eyebrows, but the plot and the characters in Strike Witches had me hooked, even without the service. I wished they’d explained more at the ending too, but SDB’s speculation did kind of fill in the gaps nicely. Given the last scene and the fact that this supposedly is selling really well for Gonzo on DVD, I’ve got to think there’s a second season in the works and we’ll eventually get to find out more about the nature of the Neruoi and what’s up with Yoshika’s father.

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  3. Steven Den Beste
    December 20th, 2008 - 03:34

    Ordinarily you’d think there would be a sequel — but what would it be about? The war’s over, and everyone went home.

    If they were trying to permit a sequel, they wouldn’t have ended the war in ep 12.

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  4. TheBigN
    December 20th, 2008 - 05:04

    “Ep 7 brought back bad memories of that terrible episode in Mai HiME that was built around a similar theme. ”

    See, I really like that episode. Besides, what’s wrong with wacky hijinks with underwear anymore? Jeez. >_<

    But yes, Strike Witches is a fairly decent show, and I feel that people who decide not to watch it just because of first character design impressions miss out. And maybe miss the point. :P

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  5. Zyl
    December 20th, 2008 - 07:14

    SDB, good point about her homeland – her relief at the end of Ep 12 was a good indication of that. But then the Karlsland trio also had to endure a similar trauma… maybe it’s just a Gallic thing. ;) As for her special attack, there is only one true Biri Biri!!

    About the possibility of a sequel, suguru’s point about Yoshika’s dad’s letter seems to point in that direction. We could also have the oh-so-lame device of the Neuroi suddenly returning to kick off a sequel.

    Regarding the ED sequence for Ep 12, I was a little disappointed that Mio and Minna went their separate ways but there’s always hope for the future/sequel! (^_^)

    TheBigN, I’ve always been tsundere over Mai HiME ~Ahaha~♥ That ep was pretty funny on its own, hinted at the Shizuru x Natsuki angle and kinda put people off guard for the whammy of Ep 8′s first green sparkles. When I first watched it, I thought it cheapened the Orphans arc. But I suppose I was having too high expectations anyway.

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  7. -Z-
    January 7th, 2009 - 10:31

    bah, weaklings. watching it in order wasn’t difficult at all.

    I can’t feel sympathy for perri-inu with how much she puts into the attitude problem. at least trude cooled off a bit as the series went on. I thought perri-inu was going to swallow her tongue when the final choice of who was going into the akagi was made. and yeah, that “lynne hanging out with perri-inu” thing was out of left field and weird. perhaps lynne couldn’t break for fuso and decided to go help fix gallia in the mean time; it’s not like she had any other reason to stay anywhere near perri-inu.

    anyway, guys, “the war” didn’t end. the neuroi were a problem long before the 501st was formed, and continue to be one afterwards. however, it’s my understanding that the 501st was formed to deal with the hive over gallia. while I(and my usual crowd of people who watched) think it was dumb to split up the big ace group at that point, with karlsland and the rest of europe still in neuroi hands, military logic is flawed at best. then again, mio was somewhat of a trump card with her core-finding ability, and given her magic level is dropping off enough that she’s not able to protect herself in battle, it’s likely they’d need to find a new core-spotter.

    personally, for a sequel I’d like to see the light novels adapted. even if the american in the bunch is the typical stereotype of blonde, stacked, and stupid.

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  8. Egio
    March 8th, 2009 - 19:11

    Actually the “panty stealing” episode was a direct spoof of when Erich Von Hartmann accidentally stole Hitler’s hat right before his medal ceremony. He was drunk previously (another spoof trait that Erika had utilized in the same episode) and was looking for his own hat. He took some “random” hat and when some officials found out, they quickly replaced the one he had taken with another one to prevent Hitler from finding out.

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  9. Zyl
    March 8th, 2009 - 22:45

    Egads! And I thought the WWII parallels only extended to the Witches’ surnames. Thanks for that most interesting tidbit. :D

    ( REPLY )

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