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「君を忘れない」 (Kimi wo Wasurenai)
“Forget You Not”
Episode at a Glance:
When Yoshika tries to bring some tea and sweets to the maintenance crew as a form of thanks, she discovers that they’ve been ordered by Minna not to associate with the Strike Witches. Discussing this with Lynne later, Yoshika finds out that she knew about the order, but never found it weird, having rarely socialized with any men before. The Akagi battleship then arrives at the port, repaired from the previous battle, and the captain later presents Yoshika with a gift from the crew for saving everyone that time. The captain also invites Yoshika to the ship, but Minna informs him that they’re commencing their counterattack against the Neuroi tomorrow. Outside, a young naval soldier thanks Yoshika for her bravery in the last battle and tries to give her what Lynne thinks is a love letter. However, the wind proves uncooperative and the letter winds up in the hands of Minna, who returns it to the young boy and reminds him that unnecessary contact with Witches is prohibited. Mio later approaches Minna about what happened and figures that she still hasn’t forgotten about before. Meanwhile, Yoshika opens the gift to find a Fuso figurine of a Strike Witch and feels that she needs to thank everyone properly.
The next day, Minna and Mio convey everyone’s assignments, before they disembark to engage the incoming enemy. When they make contact, the Neuroi separates into hundreds of cubes, so Minna orders everyone to keep it busy while Mio locates its core. With the battle dragging on and the Neuroi approaching the coastline, Mio finally manages to locate the core away from the pack and Yoshika ends up shooting it down. Afterward, Minna heads on down to the now Neuroi territory, Pas-de-Calais, where she discovers a package in a car. Reminded of how she fled from Gallia when they were forced to fall back and how her musician boyfriend was left behind to die, Minna breaks down in tears but takes the package back with her. The next day, the Akagi is about to depart for their own counterattack, when Yoshika, Mio, and Lynne fly by to thank everyone on board. The communication officers then picks up a broadcast of singing over the radio, so the captain tells him to put it through to all the ships. Upon heading back to the base, Yoshika finds Minna in a red dress and singing to Sanya’s piano accompaniment and tells her what a beautiful song it was. Later that night, Mio thanks Minna for allowing them to see everyone off, after which the commander says she was mistaken about forsaking love after losing him, but says she’ll give it her all to never lose anyone again and draws a gun on Mio.
Next Episode:
「守りたいもの」 (Mamoritai Mono)
“Defend At All Costs” (lit. Thing I Want to Protect)
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Impressions:
For the most part, it was a Minna-centric episode this week, which featured Tanaka Rie‘s singing as a bonus. The song she sang was a Japanese version of Lili Marlene, a famous German love song that was popular during on both sides during World War II. While the glimpse into Minna’s past was brief, I appreciate how they tried to depict the pain of loss, which is an aspect of war that some viewers felt the series was neglecting. Seeing as the reality of war could have been easily ignored in a series about a group of magical girls fighting against aliens, I’m really starting to find the series much more profound than it will ever seem on the surface. As for the cliffhanger at the end with Minna holding a gun up to Mio, I suspect that it’s a feint because Minna’s gun sounded like it was loaded with water and Mio doesn’t look any worse for wear in the preview. In fact, the two of them are seen together, so perhaps it’ll end up being a figurative way of depicting her change in attitude towards falling in love.
Overall, I found the episode pretty entertaining and a bit nostalgic with the battleship crew from episode two making an appearance again. It’s also been a while since we’ve seen the Strike Witches come into contact with any other members of the military, even though we know they’ve always been around somewhere. The battle in the sky with the cube Neuroi was pretty entertaining to watch with the pace set by the action and music, but I couldn’t help but think how fast Strike Freedom‘s ridiculously overpowered HiMAT would’ve taken them all out. i.e. Play some T.M. Revolution vestige music, snap your fingers, and the fight would be over. Also, I saw Gertrud and Erica as the Legolas and Gimli of Strike Witches, when the two of them were competing on the battlefield by counting their kills.
In what can easily be overlooked, the series’ ending song, “Bookmark Ahead”, is sung by two of the eleven Strike Witches, but the pairing actually changes each week. The opening/ending single that was recently released features a Yoshika-only version, but a character album is coming out later on. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made a version that features all 11 seiyuus singing together, seeing as Negima! has songs with 31 seiyuus doing the same.
In any case, the specific breakdown thus far is the following:
– Episodes 1-2: Yoshika and Mio
– Episode 3: Yoshika and Lynette
– Episode 4: Yoshika and Gertrud
– Episode 5: Francesca and Charlotte
– Episode 6: Sanya and Eila
– Episode 7: Perrine and Erica
– Episode 8: Minna and Mio
(It’s a bit weird to see that Gertrud wasn’t paired up with Erica, but the rest seem to make sense from a story point of view.)
Cast:
– Miyafuji Yoshika (宮藤 芳佳) / Fukuen Misato (福圓 美里)
– Sakamoto Mio (坂本 美緒) / Chiba Saeko (千葉 紗子)
– Minna-Dietlinde Wilke (ミーナ・ディートリンデ・ヴィルケ) / Tanaka Rie (田中 理恵)
– Perrine-H. Clostermann (ぺリーヌ・クロステルマン) / Sawashiro Miyuki (沢城 みゆき)
– Lynette Bishop (リネット・ビショップ) / Nadzuka Kaori (名塚 佳織)
– Erica Hartmann (エーリカ・ハルトマン) / Nogawa Sakura (野川 さくら)
– Gertrud Barkhorn (ゲルトルート・バルクホルン) / Sonozaki Mie (園崎 未恵)
– Francesca Lucchini (フランチェスカ・ルッキーニ) / Saitou Chiwa (斎藤 千和)
– Charlotte E Yeager (シャーロット・E・イェーガー) / Koshimizu Ami (小清水 亜美)
– Sanya V. Litvyak (サーニャ・V・リトヴャク) / Kadowaki Mai (門脇 舞以)
– Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen (エイラ・イルマタル・ユーティライネン) / Nakai Erika (仲井 絵里香)
– Captain Sugita (杉田艦長) / Mugihito (麦人)
– Maintenance soldier (整備兵) / Koizumi Yutaka (小泉 豊)
– Boy soldier (少年兵) / Nomura Katsuhito (野村 勝人)
– Young man (青年) / Katou Yasuyuki (加藤 康之)
Note, Sakamoto’s powers failed at the end of the fight. A piece of debris actually punched a HOLE in her shield, which is the first time anything has ever penetrated one of those shields. That shouldn’t have happened, especially not against just the broken fragments of an already beaten Neuroi. A real attack would have punched through a shield that weak in an instant.
Next episode preview shows her getting hit multiple times after her shield collapses as well. Something is wrong, and Minna knows it. Not quite sure how that leads to drawing a gun against Sakomoto, but hopefully more explanations will be forthcoming.
In other news, that was a nice dogfight this time. Perrine’s power was the first directly offensive power we’ve seen. I approve.
Oh wow, I never even noticed about the differences in the ending song. And I’m glad there’s nothing godly overpowered in this series like the Strike Freedom was, at least not yet. 😀
heh the present was a statue of one of the main characters from the light novels
mio is 19 right? there might be something her power weakening due to age ( the whole, young females only having strong magic )
holy shit an actual guy interacted with the witches not in a way by making a sign and showing coords for neurois.
Where are the pictures ?
Wanderer:
Yeah, could be…this might spell something bad…I don’t like it…but it somethign to prove to the show’s critics that its a fanservice only show.
there are still no pants.
Julius: Your point?
https://randomc.net/image/STRIKE%20WITCHES/STRIKE%20WITCHES%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
Errr Geass !
OMG! Males in my Strike Witches? No wai! But the ep does explain why we never see them. They’re not allowed to talk to or interact with the girls. XD
Minna probly just wants to test Mio’s shield.
I do find it illogical that Minna would pull a gun on Mio… And finally, the show is getting good, it’s developing a hawt storyline. :>
Now that I think about it, you’re probably right.
Just a little insert in the episode, but yeah. That’s probably it.
Though, I also think the gun’s non-lethal.
I think it has something to do with her eye. Perhaps she was infected by the Neuroi. Also in reading whats out of the light novels, they say that the girls have a finite time as strike witches, how the magical power doesn’t last past ones’ teen years. Mio is one of the oldest, if not the oldest on the roster. I’m really starting to like the light novel material. Its much different, and maybe a bit more believable. In it they’re still fighting for the mainland.
however, guardmonkey10, yoshika’s mother and grandmother are proof that magic ability doesn’t go away entirely; rather, much like physical ability, it seems, a witch’s magic ability drops off a lot past their prime,which happens to be adolesence.
Thanks Divine, I never noticed that about the ED! I’m not a big fan of Fukuen Misato’s singing so I’ve been skipping the past few EDs. Now I have to go rewatch them ^^
I’m sure what’s going to happen at the beginning of ep 9 is that Wilcke will shoot to just miss Sakamoto, putting a bullet past her ear. Sakamoto will instinctively raise her shield, and if everything was OK it would stop the bullet, but it won’t and that will force her to admit to Wilcke that she’s having a problem.
I suspect Sakamoto knows there’s something wrong and has been concealing it. The gun is how Wilcke will force Sakamoto to admit the problem.
I’ve a feeling that Minna is going to put Sakamoto’s shields to the test next week by trying to shoot her… you know, just to see if her shields are still working. Maybe something like,… “If I were to take a shot at you, would your shields repel them?”
Could be that Sakamoto’s magical powers are fading. Or, worst case being the power of her eye is slowly consuming both her magic and life.
Story and development? Where? I just gave up episodes ago. This serie shows only Character episodes or fanservice fillers. We’ll have to wait the very last episodes for a decent plot, if there’s actually any.
Please, help me remember what character episodes were featured so far: Yoshika, Lynne, Gertrude, Shirley and Sanya’s if i rem well. This episode is just Minna character episode and no more. So there’d be 6 more char episodes yet to come… wich means some char will left underdeveloped 🙁