Part way through the episode I was sure I knew how it would end, but I wasn't totally right.

I wasn't surprised that it was Barkhorn who got wounded, and that Miyafuji successfully healed her. That part was fine.

But once I learned, at the beginning of the series, that Barkhorn had a younger sister confined to hospital, I was sure that at the end she'd ask Miyafuji to go with her to the hospital, to heal the sister.

Maybe they're saving that for later in the series. Barkhorn feels gratitude to Miyafuji but never said so, and maybe later we'll have a scene where Barkhorn thanks her and explains why she had been so cold. And then maybe Miyafuji will offer to visit the sister and heal her.

In the mean time, I was right that the other members of the team would be happy to have a healer in the crew. The utility is blatantly obvious.

It was also interesting to see Wilcke chewing someone out. She seems to be a good commander, and a good commander knows that commanding harshly is not the best way to get what you want, especially from a coalition command like this one. However, a good commander also knows that sometimes you need to be harsh with someone, and this was definitely such a situation.

Finally, regarding Perrine: It was nice to see her impressed with Miyafuji during the healing, and to see her thanking Miyafuji later. Her jealousy was beginning to exceed the bounds of comedy, but it looks like they built it to a crescendo in preparation for that scene. I wonder if Perrine's attitude will change from now on? Hope so; it was getting old.

So Miyafuji has her first home run for the team, and her stock with her teammates is now rising.

You know, after what happened to Karlsland (i.e. Germany) I can understand why Barkhorn is tied in knots. But why are Wilcke and Hartmann so easy going? Wouldn't you think they'd have some ghosts, too? Actually, considering that the Neuroi also stomped pretty hard on Gallia, I would figure Perrine would have more things on her mind than a yuri-crush on Sakamoto.

On to other things. Among the commenters elsewhere who are down on this show, one of the most common claims is that Sky Girls is better. How they could judge that after only one episode of Strike Witches (which is when I started seeing that) is hard to tell, but it did make me curious.

Last night I got onto the fansub site where I have a membership and downloaded the Sky Girls OVA and the entire TV series. I watched the OVA.

The good side: Kawasumi Ayako! She gets to do her scream-of-attack which I came to know and love from Mahoromatic, though she also used it once, I think, in Ninja Nonsense. And her character is wonderful.

The bad side: it seems to have a different kind of chemistry. The conceit of "95% of the men between ages 20 and 40 perished in the first round of combat, so there are only girls left to do the fighting" is an even worse contrivance than some of the stuff its fans criticize about Strike Witches. (In which girls are doing the fighting because only those with magic can fight the Neuroi, and only girls have magic.) And it seemed to me that there was just as much gratuitous camera attention to the naughty bits of the girls.

I'm not sure how much of Sky Girls I'll end up watching, but I'll give some of it a try at least, to see what the fuss is about. But it seems to me that the most visceral reaction is probably due to the wider range of ages of the girls in Strike Witches, who range from 19 (Sakamoto) to 12 (Lucchini). Nominally all three of the girls in Sky Girls are 16 -- though you sure wouldn't know it to look at how they're drawn. From the art they all look like prematurely-blooming 12 year olds.

One other difference: Sky Girls ran 26 episodes, and I have serious doubt about whether there's that much story in the concept. Strike Witches is scheduled for 13, which is more reasonable. (Though given that it's Gonzo, I won't rule out the possibility that it's the first half of a two-parter, like Vandread.)

In the mean time, ep 4 of Strike Witches gave me more of what I wanted from the series. They're right on track. Ep 5 will be a beach episode, and it looks like it's mainly about Lucchini. Probably it will be a trainwreck, but that's OK. A beach episode is obligatory, so let's get it out of the way.

UPDATE: If they are indeed really planning to do 26, divided into two series, then what would be a good series-ender for the first 13? That might be when Miyafuji visits Barkhorn's sister and heals her.

Doubtful that this would be the climax of ep 13, but it would be a nice thing to put at the end after a climax, as an emotional finisher to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy.

One thing that's becoming clear: Miyafuji's raw magical power is titanic, way beyond anyone else's. She hasn't been showing it off, because she's not like that. And it hasn't really come up much, so not everyone really knows about it.

Sakamoto saw it in ep 2 when Miyafuji raised her shield, and the thing was immense. Of course, she would report that to Wilcke, and in ep 3 some of the conversation between Sakamoto and Wilcke makes clear that Wilcke knows.

And both Perrine and Barkhorn saw the extent of Miyafuji's power when she used her healing spell in ep 4.

It's interesting that Miyafuji has been in combat with the team twice now but hasn't raised her shield where the rest of them can see it, so it hasn't become blatant yet. The director is being coy about it.

But the time will come, probably not too much longer, when she's going to use her shield, and then the secret will be out completely.

And I figure that there will come a point in the series where there's a briefing about a new weapon, or a new combat technique someone has developed, or something like that, and at the end will come the statement "...and it has to be used by the team member who has the most power." And everyone will turn and look at Miyafuji, who will be embarassed and confused for a moment.

It'll be the war-ender, of course.

Speaking of the director being coy, have you noticed that Litvyak has been kept firmly in the background? We've seen almost nothing of her. I still haven't given up totally on the idea of Litvyak being a trap.

I bet Litvyak doesn't appear in the beach episode, either.

UPDATE: Regarding censorship of the BOST and Crunchyroll downloads, yeah they're definitely the censored version. (Via)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 12:28 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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