English Dub Review: World Witches Take Off! “Miyafuji, Are You Making a Movie?”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Barkhorn forces Yoshika and Erika to help her make propaganda for the army.

OUR TAKE

Well, while we wait for any sign of a fourth main Strike Witches season, we don’t have to wait long for more Strike Witches content, and as this blog’s foremost Strike Witches expert (also known as “resume poison”), it’s up to me to cover it. This is “World Witches Take Off!”, a kind of sequel season to “501st Joint Fighter Wing Take Off!” from 2019. Like that series, this is a season of fifteen minute shorts which ramp up the comedy for little slice of life skits here and there, and with its more cartoony art style and way less animated scenes, it would not surprise me to find out if this was adapted directly from a manga. The upside of these being half the length of the main series is that there’s less to go into detail about, but because they’re comedy stories, there isn’t a plot or any character development for me to pick apart. So, much like many popular anime, we have the comedy shorts that smoosh the characterization down to a few small traits that will drive much of the supposed comedy. Guess we’ll be at this for the next few months. Whoopee.

This week, Yoshika is apparently only just returning to the 501st, meaning that this could be happening some time during the events of the third season, though the canonicity of these sorts of skits with their source material is often very murky at the very least, so it’s best not to get too hung up on where it fits. Which means I am absolutely going to get too hung up on it. For now though, it’s worth pointing out that we only really get some time with a handful of the main witches, namely Yoshika, Barkhorn, Erika, and Minna. Maybe that’s not many, maybe it’s relatively many considering the small runtime. Either way, it’s a sign that we’ll be getting spotlight episodes with select groups that will best emphasize the comedy. And apparently not just with the 501st, as we will also be meeting the 502nd, who are featured in the OP AND I think made a brief cameo near the end of the third main season. Interesting cross promotion there! To be perfectly honest, I’ve never been super fond of these comedy short seasons, but maybe this one will be different and stand out. Only time will tell as we fly ahead with more Strike Witches.