STRIKE WITCHES: DAI-501 TOUGOU SENTOU KOUKUUDAN ROAD TO BERLIN

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MOVIE ActionStrike Witches Movie

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  TheRealKyuubey

  90/100
  Proof that any concept can have success and longevity in Japan.

  It is believed by many that there are infinite alternate universes out there in the cosmos... Multiple realities where history traveled multiple different paths, possibly covering every divergence imaginable. In one of these realities, the history of the Earth was changed forever by the arrival of the Neuroi, a hostile extraterrestrial force that’s about as far from the humanoid form as you can get. Composed of black and red hexagons, these creatures fly through the skies, build colonies out of thin air, and infest the Earth so aggressively that humanity has been chased out of several countries worth of territory... But humanity isn’t considered the most adaptable creature on Earth for nothing. To fight this alien threat, we invented the Striker Unit, a set of personal jet engines that offer the ability of flight to some of the most powerful magic users on the planet... The Witches. The most successful unit of witches, the 501’st Joint Fighter Wing, have won numerous battles against the neuroi in the past, and this time, they’re reuniting to try and drive the neuroi forces out of Berlin. It’s going to be the most challenging campaign humanity has ever fought, but if anybody can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, it’s The Strike Witches!

  Throughout the history of the Strike Witches franchise, the IP has bounced between animators so much that no animation studio has been able to produce more than two entries. Studio Gonzo, AIC, Shaft and Silver Link have all had their hands on the main series at one point or another, and while I haven't yet seen Luminous Witches to be sure of this, Season 3 might just be the first entry in the franchise to actually look like a new studio has stepped in. Road to Berlin was animated by David Production, a studio I’ve discussed once before in my review of Ben-To, although they’re probably more famous for producing the recent adaptations of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. No, Road to Berlin isn’t full of fabulous and iconic posing... As a matter of fact, something a lot of their work has in common is that rather than carrying a ton of visual similarities, they look more like mostly convincing pastiches of other studios.

  Case in point, Road to Berlin looks exactly like previous installments of the franchise, albeit with one or two distinct differences that are hard for a long time fan to not notice. First of, while the aerial combat scenes that have always made this show awesome are still just as fast paced, energetic and perfectly choreographed, it does pain me to admit that the transition from 3D animation to 2D animation is nowhere near as smooth or seamless as it used to be. This used to be managed so well that 3D shots were used for far off shots and any combat sequence that required a ton of fluid movement, but the character would change to 2D as soon as they were close enough to the camera that you’d notice it easily. In this season, however, it doesn’t seem like they’re really trying to cover it up, they’re just letting full-on CG characters fight on screen, and it can look a bit clunky here or there. Thankfully, this isn’t the case outside of combat. In their day to day lives, characters are almost entirely 2D, and it actually looks a lot more expensive and well directed than previous enties, with less key frames per episode and a genuine cinematic feel to even the most inconsequential conversation.

  I’ve already gone into how brilliant the character designs are in a previous review. Everyone looks distinct, with their own individual color palette and uniform design, and while I guess the new character Hattori is an exception to this... She just looks like a younger version of Mio Sakamoto, nothing special... nothing’s really changed about any of them, and hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Just like in previous seasons, the biggest benefactor to the 3D animation budget is the neuroi, some of the least human looking aliens I’ve ever seen in fiction, and while their design was already outstanding from the start, season 3 went balls to the wall in coming up with creative new designs for them. Sure, you still have episodes where they take the form of fighter jets like they always have, but now you have neuroi taking over icebergs, working together to defend each other in some disturbingly brilliant strategies, and even specifically finding ways to subvert the abilities of the witches. The neuroi have always kind of reminded me of the angels from Evangelion, and this season only makes the resemblance stronger.

  When it comes to the English dub, I’m afraid I’m going to have to issue a correction to something I said in my previous reviews about a year ago. I said before that for the duration of the franchise, they’ve only ever had to recast one actor, that being the role of Sanya Litvyack, but that wasn’t actually true. I feel extremely stupid for not picking up on this until today, but Jessica Foster didn’t replace Jennifer Forrester... If you couldn’t tell from the similarities in their names, they’re the same fucking person. Forrester was just the fake name that Foster used for the first season, before using her real name on all projects that followed. I have no excuse, this should have been obvious to me years ago. Honestly, it does kind of surprise me that nobody has left the show yet, as some of the cast were poached from other studios, some have been inactive for long periods of time outside of this show, and a few actresses who were small-timers when they did the first season have increased their stock in the industry by leaps and bounds since, especially Cherami Leigh. The entire central cast is still here, though, and they’re just as iconic in their performances as they’ve ever been.

  Cherami Leigh is still immensely likeable as Yoshika, Jamie Marchi is still energetic and boisterous as Shirly, Trina Nishimura is still giving Francesca every ounce of her impish charm, Jad Sxton is still playing Perrine is a stuck-up tsundere, Stephanie Sheh is still playing against type as the tough stalwart Trudy and making it feel one hundred percent natural, and so on and so forth. Having said that, there are two new additions to the cast this time around, and I have some pretty minor issues with both. The first is Brent Mukai in the role of the new military leader General Patton... Yes, this IS what they named him... And maybe it’s just me, but his voice doesn’t sound the most natural. He sounds like Doug Walker doing an impression of R. Lee Ermy. He’s not bad, per se, but a bit distracting. Speaking of not bad, Cristina Vee joins the cast as new recruit Shizuka Hattori, and while I generally love her as an actress... I think we all do, frankly... She’s never been great at elevating characters. She’s amazing when she has something to latch onto, but if you give her a bland character, she’ll give you a bland performance, and I’m sorry, Hattori is pretty bland. She does the best she can, but I don’t think she was right for the role. Still, it is over-all another outstanding dub for Strike Witches.

  So this is going to be my fourth Strike Witches review, which isn’t that weird as there are several anime franchises that I’ve reviewed multiple times, but unlike my four Pokemon reviews, you really can’t just jump into this entry without at least some context from the previous reviews. My reviews of the first and second season are up and readily available on this site, along with my somewhat less relevant Take Off short review. I would personally recommend reading those first, if you haven’t already, before we go on any further, because there’s a lot of important ground that I don’t feel like retreading. For those of you who don’t want to do this, here’s a small summary of how I feel about the franchise over-all... I’m a huge fan. I have a similar relationship to Strike Witches to the one a lot of people have with High School DXD, that being that I got into it for the fanservice and uncensored nudity, and then I stuck around because beyond all that, the show just wound up being really freaking good, with high production values, an engaging plot, and a ridiculous concept that the writers approached with every possible ounce of enthusiasm and sincerity.

  Strike Witches is a series that’s genuinely fun and exciting, presenting its story with a sense of energy and passion, as well as seemingly unlimited confidence, and it does so with a cast of characters that I’m coming to appreciate more and more as a true case of catching lightning in a bottle... I’ve seen so many anime that had a similar concept to Strike Witches, and while a few of them are arguably superior... Take Girls Und Panzer and The Saga of Tanya the Evil, for example... None of them have as memorable and iconic a cast of characters. Tanya Degurechaff may be a force of personality, but would anybody cry if her soldiers bit the dust? Do you remember anybody’s names from Girls Und Panzer other than your waifu? The only reason I memorized the names of two Kancolle characters is because of their usage in fan-made content. I remembered the full names, first, last, and middle where applicable, of all eleven Strike Witches main characters, even after my first viewing way back in 2010, and I’ll bet I’m not the only one. Even Strike Witches themselves couldn’t replicate this, as their spin-off Brave Witches is not bad, but honestly kind of forgettable.

  As much as I love this franchise, what made me feel kind of worried is that season 3 came out ten years after season 2, and the time in between them has been filled with a movie, and OVA and a disappointing spin-off, as well as a series of chibi shorts, so I felt nervous that the franchise might have gone downhill... So, now that I’ve finally seen it, how well did it turn out? Well, as you’ve no doubt picked up from my thoughts on the animation and dub, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Starting off with some of my less positive notes, this has always been kind of a repetitive franchise, and true to form, season 3 does in fact retread some old plot points. At the start of the series, the witches are disbanded, after having gone their separate ways following a hard fought victory the previous season. They’re brought together in short order, but it still kind of takes just as long as it did in previous seasons, and of course, their reunion is centered around Yoshika. On the other hand, their reunion also introduces a well needed shake-up to the status quo of the series, and one that’s a lot more than just a cosmetic change.

  As per the lore of the series, only teenage girls are able to use magic, and their team has always been comprised of soldiers of varying ages, from one lone twelve year old in season 1, to the now twenty one year old Mio Sakamoto, who has unexpectedly left the 501’st to graduate to another position in the military. Along with this meaning she’s transitioning from the main cast to the supporting cast, it also means she’s been replaced by a new member from her and Yoshika’s homeland, Hattori Shizuka... There are a few drawbacks to this, however, that keep it from feeling as exciting as it should. First, as I mentioned earlier, Shizuka is not a very interesting character. She doesn’t have any real quirks outside of her hero worship for Yoshika, and for most of the season she kind of feels like a fanfic writer’s self-insert OC. She is ultimately redeemed by the critical role she plays in the season finale, though, so it’s ultimately forgivable. What I can’t forgive is just how much damage Mio’s departure does to Perrine, who previously had most of her character built around Mio, and the writers didn’t really give her anything else to make up for it. She has her own episode this season, and it’s probably the least memorable in the line-up.

  Another area they retread is, of course, Yoshika losing her magic. This was a huge plot point in the first two seasons, and it’s admittedly pretty lazy to do it all over again here, but I do feel like it’s done better this time. First of all, she doesn’t just lose it out of the blue; Her magical issues are a known problem, and she’s attending a medical school at the start of the season to compensate for it. Second, there’s an actual reason given for her issues, it makes perfect sense, and it’s explored pretty intelligently throughout the season, directly contributing to a banger of a finale. On a more neutral note, the fanservice has been toned down quite a bit. Now, as we’ve gone over before, Strike Witches doesn’t need uncensored nudity to be entertaining... The movie and Take Off are proof of that. The nudity isn’t gone, it’s just been scaled back to about thirty percent of what the second season had, and I think that was the right move. It’s at a point where long time fans won’t feel betrayed, but an argument can still be made that the series might not deserve its questionable reputation. Panty shots are also still prevalent, but they feel more incidental and less gratuitous than before. Also Mio wears pants now, and while that may conflict with the lore, that particular part of the lore was always fucking stupid, so it's a welcome change.

  And because I’m talking about fanservice, it was only a matter of time before I brought up episode 7. There’s a weird tradition in the Strike Witches franchise that in any main series season, episode 7 is where the writers jump the shark and deliver the most ridiculous fanservice concept possible, and this is usually considered the worst episode of every season. In season 1, the girls were running around and stealing each others panties, which isn’t just tedious and cringey, it accidentally created the implication that each witch only has one pair of underwear, despite canonically being paid handsomely for their work. In season 2, a tiny little bug neuroi was flying around the base going up everyone’s butts. I shouldn’t have to explain how fucking gross that was. In season 3, Lynette Bishop finds an ancient artifact that curses Francesca Lucchini, gives her large breasts, and corrupts her into chasing down the rest of the cast and turning them into brainwashed G-cups bent on spreading the curse.

  I’m not gonna lie, that sounds really stupid on paper, but here’s the kicker... The whole thing is presented like a zombie survival story, complete with references to all of the little cliches of those stories, and it’s fucking hilarious. I mean like good funny, like, funny on purpose. The whole breast expansion thing does nothing for me either comedically or erotically, but the writers were clearly having so much fun with this concept, and it feels completely self aware. I guess I could see some people abandoning ship at this point, but to me, this is by far the best Episode 7 of the franchise, and the best part is, that’s not the only area where I’ve seen massive improvement. My favorite change by far is the fact that the neuroi actually feel like a threat now, and there are several moments in the season where things got genuinely scary, and I actually found myself believing that named characters were about to die. For the first time, you see witches injured and bleeding. Lessons learned in previous seasons get paid off here. Commander Minna starts to follow in Mio’s footsteps, her magic weakening as she begins to age out from the squadron.

  All of this leads to what I am going to call, as spoiler-free as I can, the best finale the franchise has had to date. The final two episodes of this season are fucking incredible, full of heart and suspense, including a couple of scenes that actually made me cry both times that I watched it in a single two month period. For once, their enemy isn’t a corrupt force from within the military. For once, when the neuroi take over and weaponize a human invention, it leads to them forming an end-level-boss calibre neuroi threat that has to be dealt with in multiple ways as you battle through multiple stages. For once, we have a Strike Witches season that feels like it has real stakes to it, and I don’t know, it just genuinely feels like the writing has improved dramatically in general, and that’s coming from a guy who already loves the franchise. This mature anime finally feels legitimately mature. If you don’t believe me, and you don’t want to spend the money to get the Blu-Ray(which is still pretty expensive on Amazon and Rightstuf, even when it’ on sale) then just check out episode 6. It’s not the best episode of the season, but it’s pretty damn close, and it’s the perfect minimum-spoiler representation of everything great about this season, which in my eyes, is the best season of Strike Witches yet.

  I give Strike Witches: The Road to Berlin a 9/10.

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