Strike Witches Poster Art
© BOST TV

Mania Grade: C
Audio Rating: N/A
Video Rating: N/A
Packaging Rating: N/A
Menus Rating: N/A
Extras Rating: N/A
Age Rating: 13+
Region: 0 - Digital Distribution
Released By: BOST TV
MSRP: 1.99
Running time: 24
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Disc Resolution: 480i/p (Mixed/Unknown)
Disc Encoding: MPEG-2

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Strike Witches Episode 04

Yoshika continues to settle into life as a member of the Strike Witches which means it’s time to start learning more about the others.

What They Say:
Yoshika gradually orients herself to life as a member of Strike Witches. However, she is condemned by her supervisor Gertrud Barkhorn as being inexperienced. Desperate to win her acceptance, Yoshika gets carried away in her training when she suddenly comes face to face with the Neuroi.

The Review:
Strike Witches makes it through its first third of its run with this episode and the series has moved quite comfortably into standard growth material. With Yoshika now firmly a member of the Strikes Witches and now doing her best to become a fully useful member of it, she’s doing her best to fit in as well as she can. Right now, that means participating in the cooking sessions and exposing her comrades to her particular food preferences from home as well as getting involved in all sorts of chores around the base. Lots of cleaning to be done in such a big place so it’s little surprise that she’s spending a great deal of her time there.

What throws a spanner into the works is that Yoshika finds herself very concerned about the opinions of her fellow teammates, especially that of Gertrud Barkhorn. Gertrud has taken not necessarily a dislike to Yoshika, but she doesn’t really go out of her way to spend any time with her or even give her the time of day. With Yoshika being such a sensitive girl, this doesn’t go over well and she becomes quite concerned about this and tries to figure out what’s going on. Others pick up on this as well and even Sakamato decides that it’s best to pair the two of them together for some training in order to iron out the problems. It’s pretty easy to see where it’s going to go when there’s a sudden enemy attack and everyone is thrown into chaos.

The background side of things makes up a fair chunk of the episode as we learn about Gertrud’s past and how it’s shaped her attitudes both in dealing with being a member of the Strike Witches as well as how she interacts with Yoshika. As clear as it is, it’s something that really doesn’t gel together all that well as it leaves you not really feeling what she’s going through. Gertrud simply isn’t a compelling character with what we’ve been given of her so far and I’m still having a hard time taking some of these people seriously considering they’re all walking around without pants. On the plus side, this episode does feature more moments where Perrine throws hissy fits over the relationship between Yoshika and Mio since it drives her absolutely batty. It’s petty and childish and does fit in with the show surprisingly easily. Perrine’s little hateful nature over all of this is just plain amusing.

In Summary:
I didn’t go into Strike Witches thinking that I must like it or I must hate it, but it did get me interested in it because of its alternate world history and the use of aliens invading during a period of time that I think it would be fascinating to see. Then again, I just wish they’d animate some of the Harry Turtledove novels and be done with it. Strike Witches is just about the fanservice in the end though as the drapings of the series continues to fall away as it progresses. There’s potential for some interesting material here but it’s likely to be glossed over in favor of more panty shots of leggy girls in half military uniforms. Good enough for some, but it’s leaving me feeling pretty bland about it all.

Features:
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles

Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70" LCoS 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.