English Dub Review: Strike Witches – Road to Berlin “The Magical Girl of the Alps”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Mio Sakamoto visits Yoshika Miyafuji, former member of their group infantry division of flying magical girls, the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, AKA “The Strike Witches”. Mio tells Yoshika about her upcoming retirement from the unit, mainly due to her aging out of using magic needed to be part of the group. Yoshika also lost her magic for a time but recently got it back, which she uses to stop a sudden polar bear attack. It also seems that there is news of a strange presence somewhere out near an iceberg, with Yoshika the only one who can head over there with a poorly maintained Striker Unit, the bi-plane style leggings the witches use to fly. To her shock, the iceberg is actually a Neuroi, one of the alien menace her and other witches have been facing for years, which is a surprise since they usually hate the water.
OUR TAKE
As I work off the effects of my second dose of the vaccine, let me give you a history lesson: Strike Witches is a pretty long running brand in Japan that is finally back for a proper third season. The first two seasons came out in 2008 and 2010, followed by a movie in 2012, but this is the first proper return to focus for this specific group of characters. The series hasn’t stayed very dormant though, as intervening years have seen numerous spin-off materials either focusing on more laid back stories about the 501st, or giving the spotlight to other teams within that universe. I actually remember watching the dubs for the first two seasons back when they were coming out, although since it’s been over a decade, the finer details are a bit foggier. Essentially, the first season was about how Yoshika first became part of the 501st and got acquainted with the rest of her team, eventually fighting a Neuroi that looked human shaped but was eventually destroyed. Season 2 built on this by focusing on Mio, Yoshika’s mentor and commanding officer, deal with losing her magical powers and grappling with her eventual retirement, but also ended with Yoshika losing HER powers as well! And then there was a movie that I didn’t watch until yesterday that introduced a new potential member for the team and Yoshika getting her powers back.
Going into this third season, you would think there would be a bit more of a recap to catch people up, but really, the people who are going to watch this after so long have likely caught themselves up by now. And by that I mean this series kind of has its own built in fanbase for its very…specific appeal. I’m not gonna mince words here; this is a series about teenage girls who wear pantsless outfits with so many panty shots that it could be a very lethal drinking game. The fighting of alien enemies with quite unimaginative designs is pretty much just a thin premise with which to facilitate that fanservice. And as much as it makes it quite difficult to watch at times and nearly impossible to recommend on that basis alone, that is certainly not the only reason this series has survived this long. The members of the 501st are all quite distinct characters with clear personalities that bounce off each other quite well, though they often end up in pairs. This episode was mainly about reacquainting us with Yoshika and Mio, but once the plot gets fully going, there will be plenty more to talk about regarding the other members. So while I’ll be hiding my watching of this from everyone around me, it’s certainly not a bad series in and of itself.
