Two more series end this week, one of which just recently aired so no sub for it yet (Seitokai) but I do have the review for the end of Strike Witches Season Two.
Strike Witches Season Two: One of the nice things about Strike Witches is that it doesn’t try to outpace itself for a 12 episode season. Many series this season and in previous seasons seem like they start out great, but either outpace or underpace themselves and spend the final few episodes trying to right the sinking ship. Kampfer comes to mind, among others.
The 501st was brought back and tasked with defeating more Neuroi. Hints in the last season showed that there might be other Witches brigades out there and that we might see some this season. Unfortunately, aside from the mentions and the fact Lynette was heading one, and Shirley and Luchini were in Africa before coming back to the 501st, we didn’t see much until the one episode shot with Marseille and at the end of the series.
Overall, I felt that they could have done a little more given that we spent the first season with “Neuroi of the week” episodes. The first season spent most of its time building Miyafuji up and highlighting the enemy, as well as the allies capabilities. I was a bit disappoint when they pulled another Warlock in the end, setting up for a fairly predictable ending. That “Knights of the Round” feeling I get from the squad certainly was interesting though as Miyafuji used Mio’s sword to save the day. They didn’t elaborate on if all of her magic was used up completely, I have a feeling that it isn’t given just how endless in magic she is.
They left the door open for either a third season, or spin-off seasons involving the other Witches squads, I would love to see either at this point. This really is one of the better constructed shows this year, in a sea of terrible writing and moefaggotry.
Title: Strike Witches Season 2
Sub Group I Watched: Horrible
Episodes: 12
Rating (1-10): 8
K-ON! 25: Well apparently Mio sealed away a recruitment video made back in the first season before Azunyan due to an embarrassing costume shot, which Azu’s finding prompted making a new video for her to use with recruiting new members after they’re gone. So this episode focusing on their interview-style promotional video, with a few quirks here and there.
No idea how it’s going to end, but I am expecting an open-ended ending that paves way for a season three, or some kinda continuation. After all, they’ve made a good mint off this, and it makes you wonder why there hasn’t been a Lucky Star Season 2.
Apparently, Animesuki will now nix all current and future Bandai and Funimation titles from their tracker, which affected SRT:OG and Sora no Otoshimono: Forte, which was lame. Hopefully as usual, non-moralfags will continue to sub and publish to TT or Nyaa because honestly, screw licensing companies. I know it’s important for their business to remain viable, and in before all of your “without them anime wouldn’t be–” bullshit. Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 this past week, because they, like most other physical retailers, are starting to fold under the pressure of both digital distribution, and direct-to-customer distribution systems, mainly by Netflix. The only reason anime remains somewhat viable in traditional markets is because animefags are also collectorfags, they NEED to have the actual thing to validate themselves and to their friends. People like me, well, physical media is really no object to me anymore, in fact, I am looking to sell everything I bought when I was a buyfag many moons ago. I’d much rather see US anime companies license these shows, subtitle them, and publish them to Netflix and other on-demand platforms where we can watch them as they come out in Japan. This would be sort of like Crunchyroll I guess, because it makes sense and I’d much rather pay 10 bucks a month to access current and past libraries of anime without having to buy it.
Anyway, Saimoe post tomorrow for the end of Round 2 and start of Round 3, and Seitokai review if a sub gets out in that time.
