English Dub Review: Warlords of Sigrdrifa “Tateyama Castle Swimsuit Skirmish!”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The Valkyries are fighting another Pillar in swimsuits which brings us to six-hour earlier when they faced the new Pillar emitting a sound wave that disrupts their communication and regenerates the Pillar. Azuzu’s plane gets hit but she’s able to safely land before being knocked unconscious due to overworking herself. After seeing footage of their battle Azuzu comes up with a plan just as one of the Pillars splits up from the group to increase their range. It forces the Valkyries to sneak back to the base, and the shield squad provides a solution by using an underground path through a resort to sneak past the Pillar’s detection. 

The group wearing swimsuits manages to stealthily slip past Pillars and make it to the base only for Claudia to sneeze which alerts the Pillars to send a minion. Thankfully backup arrives in time as the girls’ race to their planes to take down the four Pillars. They take out all the Pillars simultaneously and afterward, they meet the backup who helped assist in keeping the minions off their back for the operation. 

Our Take:

This week’s episode is half swimsuits and half aerial warfare as the Valkyries battle a new Pillar which gives them trouble because of the high pitch sound waves it emits which hampers them physically and allows the Pillars to be destroyed to regenerate. It’s a good episode although the guys slapping their butt cheeks is awkward to watch. Additionally, the ending song for this episode was pretty cute with the Valkyries as chibis in penguin costumes gaining the ability to fly.

It’s a standard episode with a bit of detail on the Pillars and how they have a preference to attack the Valkyries since they have Odin’s divine protection. Speaking of divine protection, there’s also the fact that the Valkyries are immune to the Pillar’s effects to a certain degree. Hopefully, we get to see a bit more of Norse mythology in the future episodes. Other than that the episode is another win on the team’s winning streak against the Pillars. 

Now the journey to the base was a bit funny with the pretty guy joke as the pretty guy repeatedly falls and magically returns to the group. The manly human bridge was awkward to watch given the guy’s thoughts on being useful to the girls as it bordered on being creepy as the girls walked on them to get the other side. There’s also the moment where Claudia sneezed and that alerted the Pillars. That moment was cute as the girls made a mad dash to their planes. 

Overall the episode was enjoyable with how it balanced the comedy and action. It looks like things are going to stir up in the next episode with the introduction of the backup given Sonoka’s reaction to the pilot. It looks like we might get a bit of backstory from Sonoka as there isn’t much revealed about her other than the fact that she’s a speed demon and takes care of the garden. I look forward to any conflict stemming from her backstory, it would be a good change of pace for the anime.