Let’s start off with the story. It’s been 6 months since the end of the first season, and the Neuroi have been defeated in Gallia. However, a more powerful form of Neuroi was discovered over Venezia, a territory in the country of Romagna (The name for Italy in the series). In the 6-month period, Yoshika Miyafuji has graduated middle school, and has greater power & control over her healing magic. After getting a letter from her father (Who’s supposedly dead, btw) containing blueprints, she heads towards one of her commanders, and after getting into a small argument, walks away. But when the Neuroi attack off-coast, they reunite and do battle, along with the rest of the 501th Fighter Wing, aka the Strike Witches. From that battle they regroup at a new base, and continue to do the things they did before.
This review is going to go by rather quickly, simply because most of the things in that review are in this show as well. Due to that fact, I’ll have those components in parentheses below.
“We start off the positives of Strike Witches with how it views the world during this crisis. In the real world around this time, the Allies were fighting against the forces of the Axis Powers, and neither side gave the other any quarter. In the alternate setting of Strike Witches, the countries that composed the Allies and Axis Powers have put aside their differences to combat the Neuroi. In addition to that, the countries that the characters come from have different names from their real-life counterparts, and their respective territories are different than those of the real world. It’s actually impressive how this all works out, as it’s essentially a what-if scenario...minus the aliens, magic, girls without pants (more on that in a bit), and obliterated swathes of Earth. It’s also interesting to note that the girls in Strike Witches are based off of real life pilots, who generated a lot of fame for themselves during WW2.”
“The second positive of Strike Witches are the main characters. The show deals specifically with the 501th Joint Fighter Wing, which is composed of some of the most colorful young girls ever created for an anime. Each of them have a distinct personality that separates them from one another, yet each of them have things in common that connect them to one another, and form some very strong friendships. Although I liked them all, my favorite had to have been Francesca Lucchini, the youngest out of the girls. Being 12 years old, she’s as playful and mischievous as a 12 year old girl should be, yet she can show greats amount of courage, and never falters when fighting the Neuroi. Oh, she also has a thing for boobs, but it’s more of a love for them rather than anything more...fanservice-y. ”
“Which leads into the third positive of Strike Witches. This is perhaps one of the dirtiest shows I’ve ever seen, yet at the same time is a little bit reserved in regards to the fanservice (with perhaps a few exceptions). I said earlier that the girls where absolutely no pants whatsoever (but they still have on panties-like garments, and the two Japanese characters wear swimsuits under their sailor tops.), yet because of the nature of their airplane legs, the can’t wear pants, as their legs need to be in direct contact on the inside of them for their increased magical powers. Also, because of the random attacks of the Neuroi, taking off pants would waste time, and possibly get them killed. So, because of the chaotic attacks, they don’t wear pants. Even with the underwear that some of the characters wear, you can see a good portion of their buttcrack (trust me, there’s a lot of butt shots). Despite this, noone else around them is a pervert (except perhaps a few of the 501th fighters), as they see this as a completely normal thing.”
“In addition to this, there are a few other fanservice moments. There’s Lucchini’s love of cleavage, some moments of exposed cleavage and full nudity, and there’s yuri vibes as well, which isn’t so obvious unless you know what to look for. While not on a risque level, many of the characters kinda have a thing for one. For example: Yoshika (one of the first primary characters the viewer meets) has a thing for her friend Lynnette, mostly because she has a large pair of breasts. At first this is why she has the hots for her, but over the course of the seasons, she develops real feelings for Lynnette, but hasn’t told her yet. There are plenty of other examples of yuri parings, yet to tell you more of them would ruin some of the story elements. They don’t necessarily move the story along, but they do add for some funny and touching moments.”
“Outside of the fanservice, the next positive of Strike Witches is the mix of genres it uses. Comedy, drama, magical girl, science fiction, and fanservice comprise the bulk of genres within Strike Witches, along with a few others that I can’t think of at the moment. Usually this mix can either do a great job together, or they’ll try and tear each other’s throats out. Luckily, Strike Witches succeeds at mixing these together to create a highly entertaining show that’ll stick in your head for quite a while.”
“Strike Witches’s next positive is the voice acting. With perhaps a few exceptions, the voice acting is well done. The voices for the main characters sound quite believable, and even the secondary characters feel as though a lot of work was put into them. Sorry if this section of the review is shorter than the rest, but I honestly can think of anything else to put here, other than there was a lot of good work done with the voice acting.”
With those older components out of the way, let me talk about the new parts. For starters, season 2 seems to go for a lighter tone. Granted, there are still some serious moments (Some damn good ones, by the way), but the second season has more opportunities to create some smiles, and to make you laugh as well. There’s even a couple of heartwarming scenes in the show, but I won’t spoil those for you. Suffice it to say, you’ll be looking for a tissue box to wipe away the tears.
Secondly, Minna’s tragedy that took place in the first season doesn’t crop up nowhere near as much in this one. I won’t go into it too much (Click on the link at the start of the review to see what happened), but I will say that this was one of the things that aggravated me the most in the original series. In the second season, her past pain only appears towards the end, where it actually makes sense. I had no complaints about what she did this time around, as I can actually feel some sympathy towards Minna. Still find it a little aggravating!
Finally, Season 2 of Strike Witches is easily available. Being released in October of last year, this show can be readily found in places like Best Buy, FYE, and on websites like Amazon. As I said, I bought my copy at Genericon a couple weeks back for a high price (More on this in a moment), but I was able to find it rather quickly.
Like the first season, I’ve given the second season of Strike Witches nothing but praise. Called me opinionated, but I really enjoyed this show. Having said that, this show has two problems perched on it’s shoulders, but they aren’t quite as major, and the first one is quite familiar.
“As I said earlier, the voice acting in Strike Witches is great, but there are a few exceptions. It’s not that they weren’t doing a good job or anything, because they were. It’s just that the voice for some of the characters just didn’t quite fit. In the Japanese dub, Lynnette sounds innocent and shy, but in the English dub, she sounds a little more confident and strong. It doesn’t match the character, as she really is innocent and shy. I might be a little nitpicky about this, but it’s at least worth mentioning.”
The second problem is the pricing. This show can be pretty damn expensive to buy. When I got my copy at Genericon, it cost a whopping $55 dollars (Whether this included the tax or not, I forgot). The copy in question I bought was the Blu-Ray/DVD Combo pack, and to my knowledge their isn’t a normal DVD release. Over on Amazon, the pricing is much less expensive, clocking in at $40 dollars. It’s still expensive, but it doesn’t quite stab your wallet as hard as the $55 dollars.
Strike Witches: Season 2 gets a 9.5 out of 10. The alternate timeline is played out well, the main characters are great, the fanservice is plentiful yet somehow tasteful, has a nice mix of genres, the voice acting rocks, had a lighter tone than season 1, and it can be easily found, but some of the voice acting doesn’t quite fit with some characters, and the pricing is a little expensive.
See you all next week, when we’ll look at some of the scariest levels in video game history. Until then, stay Otaku!
* Today was my birthday! 26 years old.....WOOT!!!
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