Strike Witches: Road to Berlin

Trude punches an Su-57 with her goddamned fists. That line should be enough to convince you to watch what I consider to be the best season of Strike Witches to date (excluding Hasshin Shimasu, which is untouchable). However, if you need more convincing, the rest of the review is there for you.

Road to Berlin is exactly what you'd want and expect from a Strike Witches sequel, and apart from Shizuka's existence, it delivers on every front. The animation noticeably received a huge bump even before the BDs are out. The action scenes and 3D models look as good as, if not better than their movie ... counterparts, and the girls look fantastic in HD. Traditionally episodes 1,2,11,and 12 are the weakest episodes since they're the only plot-focused episodes with Miyafuji as the center, and here they still are the weakest episodes, but even then they're still vastly improved compared to their S1 and S2 counterparts. Thankfully gone is the formulaic "Miyafuji takes a boat ride to Europe that lasts two episodes while the Navy is useless, and the girls take down the Neuroi-fused superweapon of the season that was previously thought to be a good idea". At the very least, now, the military (in the mainline series) is finally shown to be at least somewhat competent, taking down some Neuroi or another with some degree of success, even if they still need MiyafuJesus to save their asses in the end. Yoshika's Jesus Complex is still there, and while Shizuka does receive some form of character development that makes her less bitchy, that just means she becomes even more useless than she was in the movie. I can't believe we traded in Mio for this...

Thankfully the rest of the girls fare much better, especially in their spotlight episodes. As mentioned earlier the Karlsland girls (especially Trude) steal the spotlight in this, but my favourite episode, as usual, is the Shirley/Lucchini bonding episode. Sanya/Eila's episode is fine if not as strong as before, Perriene's episode was surprisingly good, and Lynne's focus in Episode 7 is fantastic, even if she is shafted otherwise. Shizuka is useless and I dearly miss Mio's laughter.

Again, we receive little to no new information on the Neuroi, seeing as more information about them or allusions to a peace with them would mean the end of the series, and Lord knows the Production committee doesn't want to lose their golden goose. The timeline even progressed to 1946 with large swarths of the world still Neuroi-infested. Still, more Strike Witches means more Hasshin Shimasu so I ain't complaining much. The series is always better with the episodic SoL comedy stuff than it is with the action and Neuroi stuff.

RtB is a great sequel that's everything you'd want but unfortunately doesn't do that much to truly innovate or stand out on its own. It has some real great memorable moments and is great entertainment, but one wishes that they'll do more plotwise with later seasons/spinoffs.

7/10

Strike Witches: Road to Berlin (2020)

Sanya remains our queen with Eila accompanying but Shizuka has made a strong entrance into the best girl league. That being a show where all girls are best girls essentially.

Although not as good as the other parts of this series in a whole it is still an excellent addition to the franchise with an ending that was exactly what you wanted and more.

As a continuation of the story, we already know this just takes off where others have left and pushes forward with the conflict. People who are new to this and haven't seen anything else I know ... question such things as the guns with near-limitless ammunition but then don't question that they have planes on their legs or how Sanya is one of very few witches with bottoms on as such. Don't take the show so seriously since it has more fan service than anything else.

The art is more polished than before and does randomly although oddly change into a CGI format at times with the girls although that stops a bit as it goes on. The girls, as usual, have great fanservice about them which suits them completely.

The OP is still a banger with an ED to boot. Generally, sounds are nicely done and SFX is used but again as the most show could just have a bit more oomph at times.

Characters develop a fair amount in the regard most are already established. You get a few stories in the show that support such things. You also get what this show does which I think is superb is the way they can change characters out by them getting too old to be a strong witch anymore. Meaning if a new season after this was to come they would have a few replacement witches to keep it fresh.

The show does do one thing that annoys me. Although whether Strike Witches or Brave Witches you always have the weak character who is strong. Yoshika who is well established as an amazing but unstable witch seems to have this thing about having multiple segments through the history purely about her losing control of magic which has got a bit old now. As seen with episode 3 she is the issue and later in episode 10, she is still an issue. One thing I wonder is I know the Shinden is secret and powerful but it suits Yoshika as the only person who can use it properly yet she barely has it.

In the end, the show is very enjoyable and although not as good as before it is a delight to see it. It finishes in a way that can stop the show but also let you know there is room to continue. The finale was spectacular.

8/10.

Unfortunately I did not like this last addition to Strike Witches. I wouldn't call it a huge disappointment since there are a couple of other things in the pipeline for the series that I am excited about, but I was kind of hoping Road to Berlin would pull me through the thin fall season and it didn't.

The animation work is alright and we've already gotten used to heavy use of 3D graphics, never done particularly well, in the series, which some may find off-putting otherwise. I have a personal pet peeve about how much gradient colouring there is, as it just makes everything kind of ... blend together instead of standing out. But this is just a matter of opinion really. The story tone of the season is on point compared to past works; the kind of things that happen are like the things that happen in previous seasons. The characters are also pretty much like they have been previously. Voice talent brings in a good performance. Music is good, maybe a little short of previous seasons and movies that had really banging soundtracks, though sound design otherwise is extremely uninspired. If you told me they never once used a sound effect that didn't come in a stock library, I'd believe it.

Then the tyrannosaurus in the room: The script. I'll be very frank. It is boring. Nothing emotionally impactful really happens. Not only do they use plot points and story structures that the series has used before, they also reuse those things within the season. Repeatedly. In addition, it is very thick on lore, which was weak before but was so sparingly used that it didn't really matter. Baddies be and WW2-fighter-aces-become-magical-girls fight the baddies. A good Strike Witches entry is perhaps 20% canon lore driven material and 80% mostly lighthearted character drama, fanservice, slice of life, comedy, period observation. This season has the numbers flipped the other way around. You only get a couple of episodes of the of the kind of things that I want from the series and the rest is bland and repetitive. You even get a persistent gray filter over the screen to make sure you aren't enjoying yourself too much. Oh, and the OP and ED themes are just... really quiet for some reason. Maybe everything would have just nicely come together after all if the the opening theme really rocked your socks off at maximum volume and got you pumped for an exciting adventure. Instead it's mixed in at a polite indoor speaking voice level. Like an itch that you just can't scratch no matter how much you try. Argh.

As an independent work, as much as I would want it to be otherwise, Road to Berlin does not stand. The words that come to mind are generic and childish. But as a continuation to previous work, since you are already attached to the characters, it's O.K.

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.

Hmm, i dunno how to tell, but.....

After watching the Strike Witches Road to Berlin, aside from SP & Movie, i can concluded dat Brave Witches is still the best in strike witches series, although it categorized as a spin off.

While strike witches had avarage 7 rating in MAL (as per today), it doesn't compared to Brave witches Story plot. Yes, Brave witches was better, don't believe MAL rating too much.

And Yes...., Yes the Road to Berlin had a massive fight including ground troops as well like those brave witches had, but it happens at the late episode while the rest are filled with Ecchi....., ... Non sensical plot ....and stuff......

as for those who just want to see 501's underage ass (in my country u can't drink beer if u below 21 Yo), feels free to get some. But if you want story plot progression just watch Ep 1, 2, 6, 8 , 9 ,10 ,11, 12. the rest is just Ecchi and a plot to nerf Miyafuji.

Wel its enjoyable, but don't expect much in a whole.

Another season another 12 episodes where Yoshika is deliberately nerfed for "plot development" and to shoehorn in Shizuka in as the main girl this time while Yoshika is living that no magic life while the girls struggle and fight for their lives and everyone elses.

While Road To Berlin feels like the best season so far to watch its not too hard to improve on garbage. The animation looks really good and the sound is really good however like previous seasons it has its ridiculous fanservice moments and is completely lacking in plot.

The season starts off promising and strong enough but sadly seems to end ... in the most disappointing and uncreative way imaginable. Yoshika magically gets her powers back by screaming and crying because hey when things go wrong as a medic that fixes everything right? then she magically gets her powers back, clutches the win for the witches and saves the day. I suppose the writers went oh wait we forgot Yoshika is the MC better give her her powers back. Did I also forget to mention she insanely OP as well?