Strike Witches Episode 10 (of 12)

By: Chris Beveridge
Review Date: Thursday, September 11, 2008
Release Date: Thursday, September 04, 2008

What They Say
In her encounter with Neuroi, Yoshika makes an unauthorized decision. As a result, Minna grounds her and confines her to her room for a certain period of time. However, a pressing matter arises which leaves Yoshika no choice but to sneak out of her room. As she leaves her room, she runs into her friend Lynne who came to see if Yoshika was okay....

The Review!
Strike Witches began to show some more interesting material in the last episode as Yoshika came up against a shape-shifting Neuroi that took on her form in mimic. The first steps to actual progress in figuring out what they want here, presuming the higher-ups don't know, ends up causing more problems though as Sakamoto ended up getting badly hurt when she tried to bring Yoshika back in. Those tantalizing moments of the larger storyline are revisited in this episode, though it's once again more of a tease and a slight recap of past events from different views with a little new material tossed in.

This episode focuses more on what happens after that incident as Sakamoto is laid out pretty badly and the doctors don't know what will become of her. Yoshika is completely distraught over all of this and is doing her best to help with her healing magic. She goes and pushes herself to the edge and practically collapses from it. Of course, that doesn't assuage Perrine who thinks Yoshika is spending her time napping happily. Perrine continues to be somewhat of an ugly character because of her attitude and this episode doesn't help her standing at all, even when Sakamoto eventually does try to settle her down on all of it.

Outside of that situation, Minna must deal with the issue of what Yoshika did in the last episode by disobeying orders. Though she could be court marshaled, they're able to get her restricted to her room outside of duties for the time being. It's a difficult situation for a young girl in what is still a strange place in a strange land, so it's little surprise that events occur that draw her out from there. Events that of course place her right back in the Neuroi realm where she's beginning to get a better idea of how they think and communicate. And you can't have that, which is why they set about to having the other Strike Witches go off and kill her since she's essentially AWOL. Ignorance on Yoshika's part can't be played well here since she left knowing she was restricted to her room.

In Summary:

I'm still having a hard time with Strike Witches simply because it wants me to watch the base commander dressing down an insubordinate while they're all wearing just panties and a variety of tops. It's hysterical when you really think about it and in trying to explain the basics of the show to someone I realized how simply ridiculous it all is. Strike Witches is at its best when it's trying to be simple and silly, which means these more serious episodes don't fly all that well. The serious material early on felt decent and if they kept to it, they could have bluffed their way to the end of it all. But after they went lighter with the material, they showed what they likely really wanted to do and it hasn't been easy getting back to the serious side at 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.