Brave Witches: Petersburg Daisenryaku

It's not often that a special manages to be more enjoyable and outright better than the show itself, but in my eyes, this special episode of Brave Witches is an exception. After loving both seasons of Strike Witches, I found Brave Witches to be pretty disappointing. It wasn't terrible or anything, but the zany shenanigans that used to take place in Strike Witches were conspicuously absent, replaced instead with straightforward Neuroi fights that weren't that interesting most of the time.

The special gives us a very cute and funny story centering around Eila and Sanya, two fan favorite characters from the original series. It was a ... joy to see them get some screen time and interact with the Brave Witches. Seeing Eila get jealous of all the attention Sanya was getting from the other witches was adorable and amusing (seriously, I really love those two). The special episode also gives us the fanservice that was practically nonexistent in the main Brave Witches series. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to the viewer's tastes, but this show doesn't feel the same when it doesn't have lewdness and other forms of weirdness in it.

Beyond that, there isn't much else to say. The art and sound are fine, nothing special, but still good. There isn't too much 3D or CGI or whatever in this episode (only briefly at one point) compared to the main show. Even if it was just for one special episode, it was nice to see Brave Witches put in the heart and soul of what made its parent series so good (even if it had to borrow characters from said parent series to do so).

Enjoyment - 7.5/10 (great)
Overall - 7/10 (very good)

I've been waiting for this special to be released subbed online since it aired back in May in Japan. I'll admit that I forgot about it for a bit, but after finally seeing it was uploaded subbed about 2 weeks ago, and putting it off unintentionally for a a while, I watched it. Just wow! It makes a great edition to the series.

The episode just show cases a side story between the 7th and 8th episodes of the Brave Witches series after Eila and Sanya came to deliver supplies to the Petersburg base. It features tons of comedy between antics involving ... Eila and Sanya, Waltrud, Georgette in cleaning freak mode, etc. So many people are pretty much obsessed with Sanya and it just adds to the feeling from the comedy and the events are pretty much on par with many of amazingly cute moments from both the Strike Witches and Brave Witches full length series. For people that had a problem with the lack of ecchi content in the series, you'll get some here. Even though there are all these cute and funny moments, there is a battle at the end with a quick yet epic conclusion. The story isn't very simple, but it just works. 9/10.

The art is pretty much the same as it was in the series, but there is a severe decrease in the amount of 3d cgi present and even a few of the cgi scenes in the opening were fixed. It isn't all gone, but it doesn't stand out nearly as much as it did in the series. It's a little annoying to see, but it doesn't detract too much from the quality. 9/10.

You get the same calming music and energetic fighting music. I just love the soundtracks that are used for these Witch series, but I do feel that a single ova or special just doesn't capture the full effect of the music. I always feel more energetic and calm when hearing this series's music, even if it's not captured as well here. 9/10.

The character are just about as amazing as always. The addition of Sanya and Eila is an amazing piece of bonus content for the episode. Other sides of characters like Georgette and Naoe are also shown. The characters are not randomly made extremely complicated or anything, but a pretty much amazing cast is still shown. One special cannot generally fully capture everyone's quirks in it though. 9.5/10.

I enjoyed this special to the fullest. I enjoyed the full series to the fullest as well, excluding the 3d cgi; 10/10 without it, 9/10 with it, so I took the average of the two. The 3d cgi is used a lot less in this episode though and even some of the cgi parts in the opening were fixed. Since the main issue I had with the series is almost completely taken away, my enjoyment rank is a 10/10. I'm willing to forgive the slight use of noticeable 3d cgi here since it doesn't take away so much from the beautiful pictures. I highly recommend this to fan s of Brave Witches and Strike Witches, but watch the series in order.

Overall, 9.3.

This OVA special is particularly disappointing if you expected it to focus on Hikari and the rest of the Brave Witches 502nd Squadron.

Nope, instead, this OVA is actually a bonus episode of Strike Witches disguising itself with the Brave Witches title, featuring Eila and Sanya, the popular pairing from the original Strike Witches anime. The rest of the "main cast" take a backseat this episode.

Technically this episode takes place between roughly around episodes 7 and 8, but I don't think it would work watching it in chronological order, because this standalone episode disrupts the flow of Brave Witches' primary story.

While I am a ... fan of the various spinoff media of the World Witches franchise, I am admittedly not a Sanya x Eila fan, or a Strike Witches fan for that matter, given my own criticisms of the original anime.
As such, I had my expectations crushed when I found out this more for older Strike Witches fans. Regardless, I did enjoy seeing Hikari fantasizing about Takami in a romantic way, as has been hinted on her borderline idolization of her sister in the main story, though seeing Eila get jealous of Sanya's many admirers does get old.

However, someone who hasn't viewed Strike Witches before can still successfully watch this bonus episode and see it as characterization for Sanya and Eila, who in Brave Witches, are supporting characters that only cameo a couple of times, and from there go to watch the original series that they're main characters in. So it's a win-win situation for new Witches fans and business wise.