アニ・ノート

The blog which was never used for this sort of thing (and is usually silent for months) suddenly pops a review of Strike Witches TV with some choice words for OVA included:

Such flimsy pretexts were already offered in the frankly atrocious OAV of the same name that appeared about a year ago. That effort failed by providing almost no action, very little mecha fan-service, and all around poor production values.

and

I came to Strike Witches with trepidation, expecting the same unwatchable dreck as in the OAV.

Obviously there may be a difference in opinion, although I am rather sanguine about it. Rocket does not have to become my sworn enemy. I am not attached to Strike Witches franchize. So, if someone finds Strike Witches unsatisfying, it’s all right by me. And he’s right that OVA was poor on technicalities. But to be blind to the concept of the heroic poetry which underpins the OVA (and largely lacks from the TV series) is rather striking for someone posting reviews.

If this post heralds Rocket’s plunge into animeblogging, then I have my reservations. Certainly, it’s some smooth writing, but if ideas animating the writing are no good, then…

The advent of the Strike Witches TV prompted bloggers to revisit the OVA. Some were less successful, others more so. TheBigN provides the most sensible explanation of the OVA in rational language, without appealing to the Harley Defense (”If you have to ask, you will never understand”):

Looking back at the OVA again after watching the first couple of episodes, I noticed that I was probably looking at that short piece in the wrong way. I don’t know what I was expecting at first, but I didn’t come off impressed the first time around and felt that the premise fell a bit flat on what it was trying to do. This time around, I saw the OVA as a cheesy parody of those patriotic movies you saw back during the periods of the World Wars with a little bit of team-building, sports anime Go-for-it stuff hidden in between there. It was great with how over the top things were with the music, the story with Yoshika’s quick running away and emotional coming back, the treatment of some characters to Yoshika (Perrine and Sakamoto are notable), the fanservice (sexual, mechamusume or other wise), and when you step back how proud those citizens were of these amalgamations of fetishes. Such funny propaganda. :3

The “sports” analogy does not really click for me, but again, we’re talking a rational dissection here, and SDB explained it:

Ignoring all the mecha musume trappings, what you’ve really got here is a girl’s baseball team. And that is the story they’re going to tell. Miyafuji is the newest player to join the team. She’s inexperienced, but it looks like she’s got home-run power if only she can learn to use it. And she will, and that’s the series story-line. Ep 3 was right out of canon: the benchwarmers (Miyafuji and Bishop) got put into the game in a desperate situation and made a game-saving play together. Miyafuji is going to hit her first home run in ep 4, and it will proceed from there.

So, “sports” is a codeword.

Kawaii Menace:

It doesn’t help that the token meganekko is a snotty French twit.

Don cracks me up.

I’ve seen it, but it didn’t seem very interesting.

Just go visit Chizumatic if you care about episodic blogging.

So we have the groping episode, not to mention Yoshika’s weird dreams. Also, huge cop-outs: a broken Striker unit is faster than a good one, and a witch can easily destroy Neuroi ship by ramming it. Terrible.

The only upside is, the next episode is to feature Sanya. Then I can quit this freak show, hopefuly.

UPDATE: Ubu:

We’ve reached the point where logic is getting thrown out of the window though; what shredded her swimsuit should have shredded her. Not to mention the minor detail of Miyafuji and Lynn suddenly not knowing how to swim, despite getting dumped in the ocean during episode 3.

I am not sure if I should address that. Indeed, the episode was just that bad. The obvious difference between then and now is, the enlisted duo is made to dink without using the magic this time. So that explains why they cannot swim with anchors on their legs. But then how exactly do they equip Striker units without magic? Worse, few minutes down the road they carry their units ashore. Excuse me, but each of them weighs no less than 300kg apiece.

UPDATE: Chizumatic:

And now we’ve got another case of Miyafuji groping someone. WHAT IS THIS SHIT? [Uppercase in the original — Author]

Poor Steven!

Also, think Chuck Yeager approves?

UPDATE from the raw watchers:

If you’re watching the subs, note that a joke was lost in the translation, as Lynne’s remark about doing hentai hikou, “formation flying” 「編隊飛行」, was supposed to make you think “perverted misconduct” 「変態非行」, just like Yoshika did.

Also, raw screencaps look pretty nice (no disrespect to BOST).

I was remiss in linking 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.

There’s a lot of material in the very NSFW post at Sankaku Complex. It includes the original ecchi manga (which was cancelled), together with very badass Pierrine (who thought!), and a few other tidbits. The one I found notable was Helma Lennartz, a jet witch (she flies a Me-262). Both mangas feature animal familiars, present in the OVA, but utterly absent from the TV series. Steven mentioned that “the shield is a function of the Striker Unit, not something that witches inherently can do”. I don’t know how he figures that, I must’ve missed that part of ep.5. But it seemed that the animal created the shield in the OVA, and perhaps in the manga too.

I’m done with Strike Witches and I’m going to celebrate. The episode 06 wasn’t anything special, but it was nice.

The blog resolution does not give this eyecatch justice. And of course, frozen wastelands is the stereotype used here, only made cute.

Sanya at night (episode prologue).

Is this Ford Trimotor or Ju-52? You can barely make Sanya above the airplane making aileron rolls. {UPDATE: Steven says: “It’s definitely a Ju-52; the Tri-moter had a high wing.” But of course. What was I thinking?}

A rare close-up of Miss Hartmann.

Sanya.

Miyafuji, Yeager, Luccini.

Miyafuji, Juutilainen, Litvyak. Check out the hair models.

Strike Witches without fanservice? Impossible! BOST version is sadly censored. At least ep.06 wasn’t all about camel toe unlike some other episodes.

Position lights on Striker units is a nice touch.

Charles Johnson, call your office. Someone is using achronical proportional fonts again.

I never stop being amazed at the ability of Strike Witches to avoid prop strikes in scenes like this.

The grand finale.

BTW, the episode has hooks for a political/suspense/military story, presumably to unfold in the second half of the season. Sounds like a perfect time to jump ship.

According to the preview at BOST, they collect figurines in anime predicated upon figurines (official screencap is below).

The audacity of merchandizing in GONZO beats the Geass Pizza Hut.

I cannot believe Steven missed this all-important screencap taken by hikago.

UPDATE: He hasn’t reached it before, the image is now up. It was a liveblogging post.