Strike Witches: Season 2 Blu-ray Review
A second look warrants a reevaluation.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, September 26, 2012
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Was I too harsh on
Strike Witches: The Complete First Season? Considering
some of the pretty vitriolic private messages I received, many thought so, but here's the deal: if this second season of
Strike Witches had come first, I probably would have had a much more positive reaction. One of my issues with
Strike Witches was its cursory rewriting of history, but some seemed to miss my main point, which I freely
admitted
might not be that big of a deal to others. While I referenced the series' tendency to ignore the real Japanese culpability
in
World War II, what the main thrust of my argument was actually was more concerned with how
Strike Witches
kind of arbitrarily incorporated real life elements (like slightly changed character names or even actual battles)
without referencing Japan's role in the central conflict of the twentieth century at the same time. In other
words, it was the cavalier attitude toward history as a whole, incorporating some elements while patently ignoring
others, that rubbed me the wrong way. The good news here, at least for
those of you who thought my analysis of
Strike Witches's first season was out in left field, is that the second
season of the series spends much less time on revisiting aspects of World War II (colored through
Strike
Witches'
recasting of the conflict as an alien invasion) and much more time on developing its bevy of buxom characters. And the
result is a much more enjoyable, less problematic enterprise that may even convince old curmudgeons that a show
about
girls with rocket legs and bosoms busting out of barely intact blouses have some redeeming characteristics.
This is not to say that there still isn't abundant time given over to the Strike Witches attempts to defeat the nefarious
aliens of the series known as the Neuroi, and in fact the first couple of episodes this second season are mostly given
over
to the girls battling a "new, improved" Neuroi that has significantly greater powers than the forces the girls
encountered in
the first season. But there's an interesting shift that happens around the third episode of the second season. While
the
alien battle scenario is never far from the surface, the show begins spending much more time on the interrelationships
between the girls, including taking time to fill us in on various back story elements which helps to make each Strike
Witch
something more than just a cutesy name culled from a World War II flying ace combined with a regional accent.
While there probably isn't anything quite as outré as the infamous "panty episode" in the first season, the second year
of
Strike Witches continues with its at times really odd combination of fan service, bizarre humor and boisterous
action set pieces. There is one episode here which at least recalls the panty episode, where a little nugget of Neuroi
ends up infiltrating the girls' clothing, kind of like bed bugs. One of main goals of
Strike Witches continues to be
having the girls disrobe for any given reason, or at least strike animated poses which allow copious views of their
breasts or up their skirts. The second season does seems to have slightly tamed everything down, though, although
relatively speaking, this is still easily one of the most risqué anime in recent memory, one which definitely pushes the
envelope in terms of nascent sexuality and which is therefore not appropriate for younger viewers.
There's quite a bit of time given over to training regimens in this set of episodes, including the girls attempting to
harness some new technology, but what really sets this second season apart, and which is by far the most effective
element of this second season, is how it takes a little breathing room in quite a few of the episodes to simply let the
girls interact with each other. The first season was so intent on establishing the premise as well as "typing" each girl
with her weirdly quasi-fictional nationality (easily identifiable countries were just slightly relabeled, per the usual
Strike Witches approach), this second season takes it for granted that a base line has been established, fans
will already know the basic elements of the story, and so a little time can be taken to provide some insight into various
characters.
So
was I too hard on
Strike Witches' first season? Perhaps, but I would argue not by much. The show
is still a patently odd combination of factors and I still have issues with how it repaints history, arbitrarily taking
whatever elements it wants and subtly twisting them while at the same time ignoring other elements entirely. The first
season was more "out there" in terms of its ubiquitous fan service, and while that is still certainly an element in this
second season, there's also a slightly more relaxed attitude here that is focused at least as much on the character of
the girls rather than only their physiques.
Strike Witches: Season 2 Blu-ray, Video Quality
Strike Witches: Season 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded
1080p transfer in 1.78:1. FUNimation routinely provides screeners (i.e., discs only without packaging), so as of the writing
of this review, I can't state positively whether this second season is an upconvert like the first season was, though that's
my hunch. (
Strike Witches was produced right on the cusp of when most production went full time to HD, so there's
an outside chance this second season is native HD—as soon as I have packaging, I'll update the review.) One of the
reasons I'm hedging here a bit is that, as Scott Sager mentions in one of the commentaries included on the Blu-ray discs,
the animation is considerably more detailed in this second season. While there's still a certain softness that is reminiscent
of the first season, there's also somewhat sharper line detail, as well as slightly more robust color and saturation. If I were
able to score things in quarter points, I'd probably up this second season to 3.75 to indicate it's slightly, albeit noticeably,
sharper than the first season.
