Strike Witches Poster Art
© BOST TV

Mania Grade: C+
Audio Rating: NA
Video Rating: NA
Packaging Rating: NA
Menus Rating: NA
Extras Rating: NA
Age Rating: No Rating
Region: All Region DVD
Released By: BOST TV
MSRP: 1.99
Running time: 24
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Disc Resolution: 480i/p
Disc Encoding: MPEG-2
Series: Strike Witches

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Strike Witches Episode 09 (of 12)

What They Say
Yoshika pulls off an impressive combat tactic and wins a simulated dogfight. The rapid improvement in Yoshika’s skills annoys Perrine, who suspects that Sakamoto must have secretly given Yoshika personal training sessions allowing her to gain special skills. Driven by competitive envy, Perrine challenges Yoshika.

The Review!
Strike Witches starts to move into an area that will likely become more important during these upcoming final episodes of this particular season. While the show had looked like it would focus pretty much on just one character at a time for the duration and tease at something larger for a potential second season, we’re instead going to get some of the teases a little bit earlier. Of course, in proper Strike Witch fashion, it’s done in a cute and endearing way. At least the Neuroi aren’t wearing panties themselves, right?

The interesting part of this episode is that they do split up the story into a couple of different areas, something that gives it a better flow than simply following a particular character arc. Yoshika’s training is an area that continues to improve, enough so during the simulation and mock battles that she’s impressing the hell out of a lot of people. Her stance on not actually shooting at someone still stands, but the quick way she’s improving on everything is setting off all sorts of alarms with Perrine. Her distaste for Yoshika is still palpable and she’s convinced that Yoshika is getting special training from Mio. That naturally sets her off even more since she’s got her own crush on the major.

Her growing skills have her heading out to more missions, especially since some people are off doing other things at the moment as a certain subplot raises its head in a cute way. This puts Yoshika back out into the forefront again and even though she’s progressing, it’s still very early in her overall training. So when she ends up considerably farther than others during a mission, there’s cause for concern when she gets extremely close to a Neuroi that has shown up. It’s here that the Neuroi start to become more than simple faceless things floating about the sky in big and small forms. This Neuroi, almost childlike, begins to adapt its shape to mimic Yoshika and even reveals its core to her. Yoshika’s nature is one that allows her to actually approach it properly, but that sets off all sorts of alarms for everyone else.

In Summary:
While Yoshika’s mission and the Neuroi revelation is fascinating enough in itself, I was more drawn to Mio’s subplot that deals with her age. As it turns out, the major is nearly twenty and that means her capability for using magic is on the down side. It’s starting to affect how she can do her work but it’s also given her the impetus to work harder, both in general and for getting Yoshika up to speed. She’s convinced the Yoshika can be the best of the best and is intent on staying around long enough to have it proven. Those are words of foreshadowing to be sure and it doesn’t take more than a second to figure out where it’s all going to go. Strike Witches starts to add a bit more plot to the story here that doesn’t revolve directly around a character’s particular background and arc and that helps to give it a bit more meat. It’s still got lots of legs, panties and cute girls to keep the casual viewer interested though. If only they’d give a bit more focus to the meatier parts.

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.