For fans of the franchise, this is familiar territory with some nice touches and some changes that might get your knickers in a twist.
For those who aren't familiar with the Strike Witches franchise, it's a show where teenaged girls with special powers fight fantastical enemies that came out of nowhere to threaten humanity. No, this is not Yuuki Yuuna (although this is pretty much its own genre by now). And for some reason, skirts and trousers are not a thing among young girls. Don't ask why (it is anime after all), and if you're skeeved out by this, blame Shiada Fumikane and also realize that ... way worse things have been drawn in Japanese animation.
As far as storytelling and characters go, this season very loosely represents the European theater of World War II to the end of the war in Europe (sort of... going by the maps shown in this season and in Brave Witches, there are a least 3 boss battles remaining). The Strike Witches timeline has always been fraught because instead of starting with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 which most historians mark as the beginning of the war, the show puts the start of the war in June of 1940, and it disregards the Pacific Theater (which is IMHO a missed opportunity, but beyond the scope of this show), and so the war probably will not end in 1945 as in real life. Nevertheless, the show does a good job of portraying the Allies' rapid march to Berlin following the Battle of the Bulge represented by the movie, and the rapid pace of the show's events is perhaps because of the "aging out" of Witches and their actresses (the first season was way back in 2007, and some of the actresses were veterans). This universe's analogues of Generals Patton and Bradley are significant characters in the story, which is good (albeit nowhere near George C. Scott's iconic performance), but unfortunately General Eisenhower from the movie or Field Marshall Rommel from the OVA don't reprise here.
The historically-inspired story, of course, plays second fiddle to the stories of the 11 girls, and the show does a very good job of writing another chapter in their lives and their mission to liberate Europe. While there are "detour" episodes strongly featuring the other Witches (the Charlotte/Lucchini episodes were the weakest), this show firmly places the most important focus on Yoshika, as it should. I really like how the plot introduced a new long-term obstacle for Yoshika to overcome, as though the deus ex machina climax of the movie came with a bit of a price (the way it was resolved, well, not as such, though to be fair the writers did paint themselves into a corner). I also liked that Shizuka's story closely followed Yoshika's as a wingman follows his element leader.
Visually, well, it's the same old gang (minus Mio, plus Shizuka) mostly in 3D. I actually can't put my finger on how I can tell, but I think it's the animation itself, or rather the movements-- it all looks very "clean", as though a computer rendered the movements rather than a human drawing the frames. For a 3D animation it looks really clean and detailed, but I feel some of the expressiveness and perhaps comedic timing is lost. The advantage of doing it in 3D is that the flight maneuvers of the Witches look a bit more grounded in physics, so we see proper Immelmann turns, split S maneuvers, barrel rolls, etc. The close-up shots are clearly drawn with the same high quality as the previous shows.
The soundtrack got a substantial update, and here's where the "knickers in a twist" prediction comes in. One of the first things that stood out to me was the change in sound effects, specifically the guns. Sure, you can hear the characteristic "buzzsaw" sound of the MG42, but it's not always played when actual MG42s are fired (Barkhorn is armed with 2 of them, and her guns sound like the BAR from the movie; in the first fight sequence Perinne sounds like she's firing an MG42, then a slower machine gun like an M1917 Browning). If you can live with this or rationalize that they recalibrated their guns, that's cool. But if you feel that this is sloppy and immersion breaking, that opinion is quite valid too. The Neuroi's "death" sound also changed from a more musical tone to a higher-frequency sound, and a distinct tone has been added to the "beam hitting shield" sound, which could be annoying for some listeners.
Also speaking of nitpicks, I really don't think RAF ranks should be used for naval air force ranks as they do in the eyecatch cards, but there's nothing I can really do about that.
Some new tracks were added to the music this season, and I like some of them but others were honestly meh. I think the composer wrote more towards "drama" than "atmosphere" here and in Brave Witches, which is why I think there are fewer lighthearted or relaxed tracks like the first 2 seasons.
It wouldn't be a proper Witches anime without an opening theme performed by Yoko Ishida or an ending theme performed by the cast. This series does one better by including a couple of insert songs from earlier works.
Luminous Witches comes up next, and it will be interesting to see how Shaft works with this universe.
 Alternative Titles Synonyms: Strike Witches 3 Japanese: 第501統合戦闘航空団 ストライクウィッチーズ ROAD to BERLIN Information Type: TV Episodes: 12 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Oct 8, 2020 to Dec 24, 2020 Premiered: Fall 2020 Broadcast: Thursdays at 01:05 (JST) Producers: Magic Capsule, Nippon Columbia, Docomo Anime Store, Sammy, Kadokawa Media House, DeNA, Kadokawa Licensors: Funimation Studios: David Production Source: Original Theme: Military Duration: 23 min. per ep. Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older Statistics Score: 7.381 (scored by 8,057 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #24542 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #4223 Members: 27,639 Favorites: 89 Available AtResources |
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