The fan service is back, which is fine with me, but they're still telling a story about interesting characters, which is even more fine with me. Some mild spoilers below the fold.

UPDATE: below the fold.

UPDATE: Pete was less impressed than I was.

UPDATE: JP Meyer wonders why some of the scenes were blurred out. The answer is obvious: so that they can unblur them for the DVD release.

I have my own question: where in hell did he get that last picture he links to? The one under the word "chichikurabe"?

This episode was about Lynnette Bishop, but it included a bunch of background info about others. Turns out that Bishop was the newcomer before Miyafuji showed up, and the reason both of them are sergeants is because they're still considered recruits.

In the OVA, Sakamoto came across like a Drill Instructor, harsh and unsympathetic. I'm glad to see that they're not playing her that way in the TV series. I was afraid she was going to transition into Gunny-mode after she convinced Miyafuji to enlist, but that didn't happen. She's training Bishop and Miyafuji hard, but she isn't being abusive.

Bishop told Miyafuji that the other witches in the squadron had unusual and useful powers. Miyafuji responds that her only power is to heal, but Bishop says that's really amazing. We already know that Sakamoto's unusual power is her second sight with her right eye. It will be interesting to see what other kinds of abilities start coming out with the other witches, beyond the common ones of being able to fly using a Striker unit and being able to create a shield.

Bishop said that she herself doesn't have any other abilities, but I bet that doesn't turn out to be true. For one thing, why does she use magic when she's shooting?

For another thing, she hits a target that Miyafuji can't even see, and which Sakamoto has to use her right eye to check. It's clear that Bishop is nursing a serious inferiority complex, and I wonder if her commanders are aware of her special ability and she herself isn't? When she's steadied down, her marksmanship is inhumanly good. I think her magic must be involved.

Bishop is the only native of Britannia in the squadron. I can imagine that would apply extra pressure on her. Everyone else is either a refugee from a conquered nation (Perrine, Lucchini, Wilcke, Barkhorn, Hartmann, Juutilainen, Litvyak) or else is there from far away to fight on behalf of the world (Sakamoto, Miyafuji, and Yeager). So while Bishop apparently does really well in training, her problem is that she falls apart in combat.

As of this episode, Miyafuji and Bishop became friends and will probably work as a team. Bishop scored her first combat kill (?) because Miyafuji was there and steadied her down. Wilcke and Sakamoto aren't going to argue with success. If something works, don't mess with it.

Was it her first kill? Or was it Bishop who scored against the Neuroi in ep 2? I'm still not clear on who shot that one. Everyone except Bishop uses rapid fire weapons of some kind, and it was a single shot, which suggests that it was her.

The Neuroi are starting to vary the form and approach and frequency of their attacks. The war is moving into a new phase, looks like, and it's going to start getting harder. The attack this time was an entirely new configuration of unit.

There are lots of yuri vibes in this show. It's like they're ladeling it on. I think that in this kind of harem-without-a-guy show there always has to be a young one who likes groping the breasts of other girls, and in this show it's Lucchini. First chance she gets, she does a cup-size check on Miyafuji. The other girls are used to it and laugh.

Looks like Yeager is the biggest, and proud of it.

Somehow, I suspect that last scene will have a lot less steam in it when the DVDs for the series finally come out. Don't you think?

Perrine, the French girl, is a pain. She has a huge crush on Sakamoto and is jealous of Miyafuji because of the way Sakamoto is paying attention to her. Perrine also seems to be sensitive about having small breasts. Because she has a thin skin, Lucchini and Yeager tease her a lot, which probably doesn't help things any. Aside from hassling Perrine, Lucchini's defining characteristic seems to be that she's lazy. When she isn't being obnoxious, she's sleeping.

Yeager is brash and obnoxious, but she's a solid fighter and seems to be friendly. I don't think either Yeager or Lucchini will be trying to make Miyafuji's life miserable. The show is leaving that to Perrine.

So far they're mainly playing Perrine for comedy, and given that most of the others are being nice to Miyafuji, Perrine's antagonism doesn't seem to be getting her down. Which is good: the last thing we need is for Miyafuji to get angsty. I wonder how long it'll take before they sort out the Perrine sub-plot. (Probably quite a while, I would think, since it's a source of comedy.)

The next episode is about Barkhorn. She's cold and distant, traumatized because the loss of Karlsland (her home). In ep 3 at one point she cusses out Miyafuji for being a slacker.

The teaser shows Miyafuji healing someone, which I'm glad to see. I was afraid they were going to wait a long time before letting her do that. And I'm sure it's going to be Barkhorn she helps.

Once the others find out that Miyafuji is a healer, I think her stock in the group is going to rise a lot. Wouldn't you want someone like that in your combat unit?

They're still hitting all the right notes with this, and the series-level pacing is good. No one is going to accuse this show of being top-bracket, but they're doing all the things I want them to do.

UPDATE: Under deep disguise, this series is telling a classic sports story. And that's just fine with me, as long as they tell it right.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 01:38 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 1038 words, total size 6 kb.

1 Lynnette would not be able to lift the .55 cal rifle, let alone shoot it, without a bipod or magic. It's the equivalent of Russian 14.5mm load.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 17, 2008 02:12 PM (/ppBw)

2

Probably so. It's a BFG. But that can't be all of it. Her accuracy really was astounding. If Miyafuji couldn't even see the target, and Sakamoto had to use second sight, how did Bishop hit it?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 17, 2008 02:23 PM (+rSRq)

3 Regarding Yeager's attributes: Everyone knows that Chuck Yeager has the most Talent.

Rather then spam this thread with my excessive list of thoughts about this episode, I'm thinking of trying to remember how to work mee.nu the way I want to. This is a fun series, even if I am not a charactorization buff.

Posted by: PatBuckman at July 17, 2008 05:05 PM (JR4YN)

4 Bishop specifically states that she can't hit it because she's using all of her magic to fly, so she can't use her magic to aim.  That's why Miyafuji supports her.

And I agree, it's a sports story. Look at the number of players: 9 starters, 2 on the bench.  You've got the player manager, the wily vet, the brash & cocky outfielders, the rookie utility infielder/pinch hitter, the pitching ace who only needs confidence.  I'm sure other tropes will surface, in time. 

Posted by: ubu at July 17, 2008 05:48 PM (UukMI)

5 Question: I'm sure I recognize the bald guy in the starting scene, but I can't place him. Is he John McCain's dad or something?

Posted by: PatBuckman at July 17, 2008 06:27 PM (JR4YN)

6 He doesn't look like anyone in particular to me. He's just a generic old guy.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 17, 2008 06:54 PM (+rSRq)

7 My first thought about the bald guy was "a chubby Eisenhower."  That can't be right, though, I'm sure.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 17, 2008 09:37 PM (AW3EJ)

8 And, after reading PatBuckman's post on the episode, I see I wasn't alone in that thought... hm.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 17, 2008 09:40 PM (AW3EJ)

9 Yes, but his sex-flip theory is incompatible with that being Eisenhower, since Ellen Eisenhower would be a matronly lady.  I also thought the under-current was interesting in that meeting. It looks like the Strike Witches aren't just fighting the war; they're directing how they're employed in it.  Minna politely tells one guy to butt out, because he's not actually commanding anything.  The senior Ike-like guy smooths it over, indicating that as long as the war goes well, they don't see any point in meddling.  Which indicates to me, that at some point the war will not go well, and someone will meddle, with potentially disastrous consequences.

On the other hand, looking at the size chart he linked, I noticed a couple of things when I zoomed in.  First, Perrine has the "+ of anger" on the side of her head.  Second, I had assumed that the Japanese text was a translation of their names, but if you look at it, there's English punctuation throughout.  In fact, Eila Juutilainen's is only a question mark. So what are they saying?

Posted by: ubu at July 18, 2008 06:07 AM (UukMI)

10 I don't remember linking to that, ubu. Thanks for pointing it out. More nails in the coffin of Trap Sanya, however. Perhaps he is wearing fakes?

Frankly, there are more suspect things about that WMG besides chubby Ike, who seems to have forgotten his glasses. Among other things, the ages are wrong. I haven't checked, but I kind of doubt that the top aces of WWII were all under 17 in 1944.

Is John McCain the son or the grandson of an Admiral? Perhaps Chub-Ike is his gender flipped mother or grandmother? Perhaps the producers of Strike Witches pushed to have it sold in the United States, so they could toss a few potshots into the electoral mix? Perhaps I am full of it?

Posted by: PatBuckman at July 18, 2008 04:56 PM (JR4YN)

11 Also, look at all of those elf ears. Perhaps the explanation is that, rather then being part Japanese witch animal, they are Fae.

Posted by: PatBuckman at July 18, 2008 05:00 PM (JR4YN)

12 Part of the reason behind the 'Everybody's genderflipped' WMG is that I would kind of like to see Paula Tibbets. I also imagine Courteously May LeMay, who has a bad attitude about what her parents 'gifted' her with and prefers Courtesy or Curt.

Posted by: PatBuckman at July 18, 2008 05:06 PM (JR4YN)

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