Strike Witches 2 - Episode 3

With the 501st Joint Fighter Wing back in action and reunited after their previous victories in Brittania, it perhaps isn't too surprising that the six monht break in action which followed has left some of the Witches looking decidedly out of shape, and a return to training soon proves that Yoshika, Perrine and Lynette are all in need of something a little more intensive to get them back to their best.

So, Sakamoto packs them all off to see the Witch who was instrumental in her own training, an old woman who prefers brooms over Striker Units and soon forces her new charges to dispense with their new-fangled technology before setting them the seemingly simple task of fetching some water. However, with the only well some distance away and only brooms to travel on, the three girls soon find that this kind of task is far more difficult (and not to mention embarrassing) without a Striker Unit to rely on.


Of course, this test of their abilities and attitudes eventually reaps dividends, and the three girls eventually learn the best way to approach this problem just in time to find themselves caught up with a passing Neuroi who looks set to destroy their new tutor's home. Thus, bravery and teamwork is both required and employed in spades to see them save the day, and the old woman's home. Hurrah!

While the whole broom angle of this episode was clearly only in place for one reason at the end of the day ("Oh, how it rubs my crotch!" pretty much summing that up), this was oddly still quite a satisfying episode in other ways. Its slapstick comedy was unspectacular but still did enough to draw a smile out of me, while the eventual battle against the Neuroi wasn't as spectacular as that which we were treated to in the opening episode, but it was still pretty polished and did the job to give us a decent end to a reasonably entertaining episode. It was no classic but it was fun, which is about all you can ask of a show like Strike Witches 2, while this instalment has also taught us that old Witches do wear pants, for which we can only be grateful. I wonder what the cut-off age where skirts or trousers become a requirement is in the world of Strike Witches?