English Dub Review: Strike Witches – Road to Berlin “Road to Berlin”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
While Shizuka recovers, Yoshika awakens but will still be without her magic for at least a week. Mina attempts to get the mission delayed but the higher ups won’t have it. When Shizuka wakes up, she finds out there were plans to use Yoshika anyway in the Shinden, the unit that Yoshika’s father created, but they’ll have to be shelved, filling Shizuka with regret. Instead, the 501st will provide cover for a bigger weapon to head in and take the Neuroi out. Yoshika initially seems like she’ll be sitting it out, but instead helps out onboard the weapon with General Patton. The plan works well enough at first, with the weapon taking out one of the walls blocking off Berlin, but it soon replaces itself with other Neuroi. They’re eventually able to break through, but the walls reform into a dorm and blocks the witches off from the weapon. The 501st are given their next mission: save Patton and Yoshika.
OUR TAKE
The penultimate episode of the season does a damn good job building tension for the big payoff next time, as the mission that this has all been leading up to finally commences. Yoshika and Shizuka both get back up from their respective low points, though not without some struggle. Shizuka is able to get right back into the skies without much lasting damage, but Yoshika looked to be the big lynchpin of the operation, which she now can’t because of the lack of magic. And while Shizuka has since proven herself to be a full fledged member of the 501st Strike Witches team, Yoshika’s character arc this season is really more external, and so even when her key area of expertise is out of commission for awhile, she decides to put herself on the battlefield anyway. And not only that, right in the heart of the action, right alongside General Patton. Let it never be said that she doesn’t have the balls to go to war. Going from the sheepish rookie who had trouble keeping up with her team to going right into the lion’s den even after using up all of her magic is a pretty big staircase up for Ms. Miyafuji.
As for where this takes us into the final episode of the season and possibly the series, well it’s very likely to just be about getting rid of these Neuroi with few if any casualties or sacrifices to speak of. I don’t think I have to remind you that this is not an especially dark or deep series, even if it is taking place during a war in 1940’s Germany. And yeah, that might sound really tasteless when I describe it that way, but I’m trying to hold off from thinking about that as much as I can until these reviews are done. Putting that aside, this isn’t a story about death and sacrifice as most war stories tend to be, but a Magical Girl show, a genre that tends to focus on courage and friendship as main sources of power and right, and boy have we seen those in spades across this season. So, even if we can see the ending of this coming from a mile away, we can at least make the most of it and wholeheartedly eat this cheesy ham with as much gusto as possible. Just don’t ask where the Italians are in all of this.
