Lack of context is fun!

My favorite characters, Perrine (left) and Yoshika (right). A Lynette (center) is fine, too.

Oh man. Where to begin? I absolutely loved Strike Witches, so I was super hyped for season 2. In order to prepare for it, the crew here at Maserbeamdotcom decided to marathon the entire first season the day before the first episode of S2 aired. It was a good 6 hours of pantsu and plot. For those who wrote off the show as mediocre, they are mistaken. It is pure win. I’m not biased, honestly.

I don’t like thinking to deep or analytical about anime, when it comes to the type of show that Strike Witches is made to be. It’s rather cheeky fanservice, but not so blatant and crass as Queen’s Blade or Seikon no Qwaser. Those shows just felt so revolting. So what’s different with Strike Witches? For one, Strike Witches doesn’t have any girls with disgustingly large breasts that would be physically impossible. And the premise: A foreign invader with overwhelming power suddenly hikes up the intensity to conquer Earth, and the only thing we could think of to defend ourselves with is a jury rigged mechanical device made to augment and convert witches’ latent magical power for use in military applications. The details behind this odd idea is actually fairly interesting.

It’s all about the fact that these young women aren’t wearing anything over their pantsu. It’s great: the truth and reason behind that they don’t wear skirts or pants can be filled in automatically by us and remain within the mythos. They don’t wear it because they might wear Striker Units. Why are they wearing Striker Units? For the previously explained reason of military applicable reasons, and to defend against this new menace. You have a logical and legal chain of reasoning for a lack of pants. Yeah, sounds a little forced. But what’s to stop the imagination from filling in more? I can already think of a myriad of strange (that are in-mythos) reasons for these Striker Units to be a viable weapons platform instead of standard military planes and vehicles.

Put your brain into low-power mode, and enjoy the rather accurate militaristic setting of a show that’s about underwear, boobs, and weapons. Food also ends up being a theme in this show. More often than not, I find myself eating a meal while watching.

omnomnomnom

images straight from EP4S2, SW2 (yay acronyms)

I finally got the idea to use my dynamic compressor that’s actually meant for my guitar. Plugged it into the recording chain, and it seems it’s allowed us to be more relaxed about sound levels, instead of being paranoid that it’ll clip at any moment. Yay!

Normally I’d have to subject you to a long list of items that we talk about in the podcast, but since we’ve been largely talking about the 2010 Summer Season of anime, I can just link you to a site that contains a brief synopsis of the show alongside a preview image. Quite convenient if you just need a quick reference. And if you haven’t noticed the Black ★ Rock Shooter image, yes, we talk about the OVA. We also snuck in a gaming tidbit of a doujin game called Recettear, which I’ve blurbed about before already.

Recording Date: 27th July 2010

art by chan_co
music intro and insert from Mushihimesama Futari OST

おさけ! おさけ!

There’s a reason why I am not providing a screencap of HOTD Eps. 4; a recap episode is not needed this early in a series. I couldn’t help but skip ahead, breaking the tension and mood it may have wanted to create. A recap episode this early. My gut reaction to this series was that I had a hunch that if this series starts off on such a high note, it will stumble upon itself at some point, and leave a very bad taste afterward. I only watched about 10 minutes of new content. It almost seemed a complete waste of time, so I went back to the beginning to watch it without skipping. Only then was I able to confirm to myself that I wasted my time. Ugh. I hope Episode 5 doesn’t end up being the signal for “we already ran out of ideas”.

I’m going to go watch series that anime bloggers lambast for odd reasons and go enjoy myself. And drink おさけ!

I’m just as surprised as the loli in the above picture why I’m still watching this show. It’s not breaking any ground, it airs at 9am in Japan (kid’s slot?), and nothing substantial has happened. The 4th episode  is following the fast paced single episode of character development technique. Considering this show is only a thirteen episode run, they’ve obviously made some sacrifices. There’s only two things I’d ask of something like this: either it becomes a trainwreck at episode 7, or it continues its lovely alpha wave emissions.

And Dragonball has nothing to do with this post.. unless JC Staff decides to pull a truly strange trainwreck on us. (Which I will watch with glee and a hazard suit.)

Oh, gawd those legs! OH YEA.

*ahem* I am so confirmed to be watching Seikimatsu Occult Academy. Regardless of how flawed the second episode might have felt, there’s still enough strangeness to it that I’m still compelled to keep watching. And GOD THOSE LEGS so nice.. I think I have a new favorite character design. The one piece dress with thigh-high leggings is killing me.

Oh, and [gg] is back to help oversub Highschool of the Dead. God bless their souls.

I’m finding it increasingly odd that I have a tendency to watch anime that receive unusual amounts of disdain. Making the rounds off animenano.com, I checked out the reactions to the first episode to Seitokai Yakuindomo. It’s one of the Summer 2010 anime shows that the general reaction seems to be: “Not worth it.” Sure, it might not be for everyone, but it doesn’t mean you should keep people away from it. If anything, this show is for people who wished it was Seitokai no Ichizon with higher animation production, Minami-ke with awkward sex jokes (but that show was awkward to begin with), and/or less shoujo elements than Kaichou wa Meido-sama. And for someone like me, it’s exactly what I ordered.

And with the second episode having aired, I’m happy to say that I’ll be following the series. Atmosphere is laid back enough that I don’t have to absolutely make sure that I’m in the mood for it, letting it be easily digestible.