Jason (not Jasmine) Miao on Strike Witches

I was remiss in liking to this season's Thin Slicing. BTW, just like del.icio.us, he moved to a new domain... And unlike the previous, neutral name, this new one includes Darry. Nobody can understand why, considering how often his blog changes its name. I'm afraid he's aiming to bust permalinks at the next rename, which would be sad.

Anyway, I forgot to disclaim any trust into the Thin Slicing's rankings. In fact, even opinions, as funny as they are, usually cannot be taken too seriously.

The only possible explanation for Strike Witches is that someone at Gonzo saw and fell in love with Sky Girls. There’s no other explanation. [...]

(I know anime is all about making derivative works of what came before *cough* Raxhephon *cough*, but to rip off Sky Girls? Isn’t this like someone ripping off Vanilla Ice’s Ninja Rap? Go ninja go ninja go.)

The notion of RahXephon being derivative was addressed elsewhere by Messiers Oshii and Izubuchi, its creators. Fans may disagree. But to think that Strike Witches is derivative of Sky Girls is just dumb. OVAs for both of them came out in the same season.

Whereas Sky Girls was actually watchable and tried to be serious in its tale of flying DFC fightcraft fighting against an alien menace, Strike Witches goes pretty much the other way and takes it to an extreme. First off, the girls do not wear military uniforms or plug suits. Instead, they wear a collection of stereotypical moe outfits complete with bathing suit bottoms. Secondly, the girls all have magical powers, and it’s evident that they’re using these magical powers because they suddenly grow animal tails and ears. Because nothing says serious military drama like flying nekomimi DFC wearing swimsuit bottoms under traditional seifuku. Lastly, because of how the mecha is attached to the girls, they are unable to close their legs, thus guaranteeing plenty of fanservice shots.

This is a curious case of seeing the point intellectually... and blowing it because of the lack of any sense for the show. Has he ever seen the figurines that begat the franchize?

Far for me to defend the show. It was pretty bad thus far. But sheesh! The slicing is getting a bit thin.

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