Somehow our pontifications on Strike Witches 8 flowed like wine in the streets, and, as such, that curious eighth installment, like the first, has earned a post of its own. If only we had a neat explanation for how and why that happened. But Strike Witches isn’t about neat explanations, is it?

(Pontifus = white; Otouto-kun = blue.)

(0:52) So there are men, then.

(0:55) Well yeah. We’ve seen men before.

(1:02) I know. But there are men around that they can talk to. They’re not vestal virgins, surrounded only by eunuchs. It’s not the emperor’s harem.

(1:19) There was that guy who got the chest wound.

(1:22) I know, but I’m just saying, there are men near the 501st now. I didn’t know. Hey, you know what? Why aren’t there any African witches? Why aren’t there any American witches? Is England literally the only place left in the world?

(2:07) Japan hasn’t been taken.

(2:10) So, what I’m saying is, why aren’t there any African witches, or South American witches? Why aren’t there any Aztec witches? You know, given operative magic, it’s not hard to see how the colonization of the Americas might have just failed. Anyway, I guess we should actually talk about this episode.

(4:24) “Here’s a bunch of pants. Wear them proudly.”

(4:28) “You may not know how to use them at first, but, with practice, you’ll get it.”

(4:53) I like to imagine that there’s a cameraman shooting all these opportune angles.

(4:57) I don’t want to, because I don’t want to meet that guy.

(5:06) You are that guy. You are he. Given how it works, they sort of make the viewer that person.

(5:51) I thought she had no experience with men. Why does she know about that stuff? She was just talking about how she’d never talked to men.

(6:00) This is just not meant to be. It’s like the guy from Rozen Maiden who was always trying to confess to the sister.

(6:12) You know that was only in the anime?

(6:14) Yeah, I know. I actually prefer the anime to the manga.

(7:04) “There will be no non-yuri relationships in this show! Do I make myself clear?”

(7:15) Suddenly I’m not so annoyed that she’s being a tightass about this.

(7:26) Maybe she just has some man-related hangup.

(8:08) Oh my God.

(8:11) This show just got awesome…er. More awesome.

(8:14) You would say that.

(9:25) Oh, it’s the fifth angel.

(9:26) It’s the Borg!

(9:35) They need to reroute all the power in the city to the sniper rifle.

(9:46) Anti-Spirals.

(10:03) 210 is still less than the number of Starman Supers TheKittymeister killed before giving up on the Sword of Kings.

(11:02) Wait, what?

(11:06) Thundaga.

(11:07) I think this is the first time they’ve used attack spells.

(12:37) I just wonder, what’s the role of artists in this world? If the European continent is gone, where’s James Joyce? Actually, no, he’d be dead anyway.

(13:59) Like that time in Diebuster, it’s only beautiful until you really think about it. It’s scattered enemy parts.

(14:10) Enemy entrails.

(14:31) I’m worried we’ll find out that Minna’s problem is really serious. That it’s not something we can just make throwaway jokes about.

(14:56) “Everyone was turned into little presents!”

(15:12) Funny how people decide to have their crises right before they find a way to solve them.

(15:24) They find a way to solve them, I think, because they’re actively thinking about them. There’s probably a good way and a bad way to do it; if the solving of the crisis is incidental, then, yeah, it’s a little questionable. But if it’s a result of their thinking more about it, it’s okay.

(15:51) “That’s my jacket! What are you doing!?”

(15:53) “Cut that shit out! You’ll have to buy me a new one.”

(16:00) Do you think it was her brother, or her fiance? Her dad? Her son?

(16:08) Son?

(16:13) People age well in this world. Remember the moe grandma?

(17:34) Oh, he survived.

(17:41) Explosion.

(17:44) Yep. That’s that scene. That’s the ten seconds prior to explosion scene.

(17:56) It’s okay, he had time to drive a car out, put a package in it that she could find, and go back to die.

(18:08) That’s true. He did pretty well in his final moments.

(18:33) I wonder how much shit his fellow soldiers give him for being obsessed with…

(18:41) Being a pedophile?

(18:42) Oh yeah, that too.

(18:47) Maybe he’s their age. Maybe people join the military really young.

(18:53) Given that they’re fighting desperately for survival, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if younger people were in the military.

(19:41) This is a Japanese version of the German song? We’ll have to look up the original.

(19:58) It’s actually a slow version of “99 Luftballons.”

(20:18) I sometimes feel like I should break out into song also.

(20:27) Okay, so what was she…why…what?

(22:33) It’s her coming to terms with her boyfriend’s death, I suppose.

(20:39) Yeah, but…

(21:50) Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?

(21:56) Dunno.

(22:05) Ooh. You know, I called it at the very beginning.

(22:10) I knew there’d be one, but I almost think this is going to be a false alarm. Maybe not?

(22:37) “I’ll kill you now so you don’t have to die later! Because I love you!”

(22:45) It’s like that Stephen King book where the woman keeps the writer locked up. I can’t remember what it’s called. [That would be Misery.]

(23:27) And she’s forcing him to rewrite an ending she didn’t like. Fucking fans, man.

(23:36) No kidding.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Pontifus and Otouto-kun vs., Strike Witches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.