==================
Strike Witches 2
==================
:CreationDate: 2012-09-23 19:40:14
:Id: anime/review/strike-witches-2
:tags: - anime
- review
:rating: 2
:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/strike-witches-complete-series-2-collection
You may remember how the `first season of Strike Witches`_ managed to
hold my interest despite its many problematic aspects: a "fight story"
with half-naked little girls, a standard alien menace, and arbitrary
magical elements.
We left our heroines on the verge of meaningful communication with the
alien invaders, with hopes for insights into their motives and maybe
even peace talks. I was then expecting the second season to expand
upon these elements, giving us more background on the aliens, on the
inventor of the Strikers (and father of the main character), and maybe
even on the military hierarchy.
Instead, I got a nearly trope-by-trope repetition of the first
season. The human-shaped alien emissary is destroyed by the same
aliens before any talks can take place, another territory is invaded
(Italy this time, called "Romagna" probably because the capital is
Rome; funny since Romagna is the name of a region of Italy…), and
everything happens just like the first time around. We get, again,
some faulty untested technology; a spunky newcomer who lasts for a
single episode; an excuse to force the girls to lose their knickers;
even a second attempt at incorporating alien technology into Earth
ships (which, of course, backfires, just like in the first season).
There are some new stories, like a training session with an old witch,
and a treasure hunt. There's also some back-pedalling on some details
that were hinted at in the first season, for example about the
correlation between age and magical powers.
All in all, it feels very much like the studio decided to "play it
safe", and re-hashed the same plot instead of using all the hooks they
had put into the story. I think they wasted an opportunity: they could
have developed a rather good story, and decided not to. (And now I've
discovered a few hundred non-erotic Strike Witches fanfics… there goes
my week).
If you want interesting new stories about the Witches, you're out of
luck. If you want more of the same, or you really like having complete
series, you won't be disappointed.
.. _`first season of Strike Witches`: ../strike-witches/
