Strike Witches: The Movie [Blu-ray]

I admit I kind of have a soft spot for Strike Witches. Maybe it's the alternate history thing, maybe it's the heartwarming relationships between the girls, maybe it's that it's pretty funny that only Erica seems to ever notice they don't wear pants. And even the latter is mentioned only in passing.Now, I realize many, if not most, of anime watchers are sub fans. That's fine with me, to each his own, but I can also appreciate a good dub, so I'm going to address it. Having said that, the next few paragraphs are going to largely be about the dub.Alright, so I didn't look up the VAs ahead of time in case there were surprises I could pick out myself, but as soon as I heard Shizuka's voice, I had that moment where I was like, "Waaaait a minute. Is that...Really?" It's always kind of a joy to hear Valenzuela's song-like voice, and having her play a sort-of-uptight soldier whose role is initially just to escort Yoshika (and also to criticize her carefree nature, despite being a military heroine) was fun just to watch it play out. Listening to the chemistry between Cherami Leigh and Cristina Valenzuela was in itself a joy, and I was more than happy with that.As for the other VAs, they're totally there, but with such an astronomical number of new characters (almost all of them new to the West, but because Strike Witches is a multimedia project with video games and such, we've never met them before), many coming from everywhere, starting with the 502nd Brave Witches, a sort-of cameo introduction to the 504th and 506th, and the 31st Storm Witches, it can get difficult to keep track of everyone. The cool thing is that there are a lot of neat surprises in there. You've got Monica Rial, Tia Ballard, Alexis Tipton, and Brittney Karbowski, to name just a few. But the number of characters that may or may not be important in future installments usually isn't a problem, as nearly all of them are minor characters who usually have a limited (though often still important to the story) role, and many only show up briefly. In any case, they're entertaining to meet, even if only in passing.One more note about the voice acting, I kind of have to disagree with the reviewer who said Erica had a noticeably different VA. To tell the truth, while it's been a while since I last saw the series, I'm pretty sure it's always been Luci Christian. I could double-check the credits of the film, but I'm pretty sure that's always been her playing Erica.However, I can totally agree with them about how undeniably stilted Mio Sakamoto's laugh is when she *really* is required to hit it. Mio isn't in most of the film, so the one part she is in kind of stands out. But when she performs her usual laugh was the one time I was thinking, "That could've used a retake." Nothing against Vincent-Davis, she otherwise handles Mio's limited role here quite well, but yeah, that one part was kind of odd in its unusually unnatural-sounding delivery.As for the story itself? It's actually...pretty good. Yes, there's a backdrop of a story involving another Neuroi attack that drives everything forward, but as you could probably guess, that almost always takes a backseat to the relationships of the characters developing. I won't go too far into it and I won't spoil it, but I will say I sort of wish Shizuka had a little more opportunity to develop as a character. It's not that she doesn't (she's one of the main characters in the film), but it feels like her development is cut off a bit. For instance, we learn she's from a very strict military family and wants to make them proud, but we never actually see them in any form to allow some exposition. We learn she has a fairly complicated past, but it's only talked about, not shown. Really, there's a lot to say about Shizuka, but almost no time is taken to give it more meaningful context.Yoshika actually stands out as someone with a few scenes that are just tearjerkers. I'm serious, I was like, this close to bawling at a few of them, especially the obvious big ones I can't talk about without spoilers, and it takes a fair amount for a movie to have that effect on me. Perrine's time spent with her new family--to be precise, the orphans she takes in at her orphanage--hit the heart and was done very well. The reconnection of Yoshika and Lynette is also a teary-eyed, blanket-biting moment showing how deep their friendship goes. Quite a few of the scenes are...er, strikingly emotional.Not everything is perfect, though.While the film works as a stand-alone piece, it lines up a continuation without pretense. This in itself isn't terrible, but it ties into Shizuka's need for character development, which feels like it was held back a bit for a future installment. Some other aspects of the film also feel like they're just teasers for later, particularly when it comes to the other units that show up (well, that's not really just a feeling, it's true, as the 502nd Brave Witches currently have their own series airing overseas, and is likely a very far ways off from a Western release) and several other characters who have a lack of screen time.Obviously you can't develop every single character here--there's a *ton* of Witches, all from the Strike Witches, Brave Witches, Storm Witches, and then some others, to keep track of--but some you can definitely tell are pulled back from taking up too much time, likely to tell their stories later. If you're like me, you'll find yourself wishing they had spent a little more time on them, budget and run-time be damned. It certainly would've been an epic to get so many units more involved at one time. Sure, it's not a practical thing to fit all in one film, but it's fun to think about.But that's for the most part nitpicking on what I thought was a well-above-expectations film. You can almost certainly still enjoy it for what it is, and I'd recommend it if you're interested. If only to find out the magical effect of a simple piece of chocolate.

The full-subtitles are, like many anime, OFF: that is they don't match the English screen play exactly AND they appear after their speaking. Otherwise the video appears very good and the English Dub appears synchronized with lips. The intro-song subtitles are very legible. This takes place after the big victory from season 2. Half-naked girl witches battle to save the world bottomless except for just form-fitting panties. Ignoring the not-so subtle sexual innuendos common to most Japanese anime's, there are no real X rated/objectionable sex scenes, less than the original releases. Also their striker units, unlike more scientific flying back-packs, are on their legs which should create unstable imbalance and aerodynamics making real flight impossible...but creates many revealing views for those innuendos and a distinction just for this series. Other than these small slights it's an entertaining girls gone wild video not of this world so anything goes,..Enjoy!!

At the end of Strike Witches: Season 1 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) the 501st Joint Fighter Wing is broken up after having destroyed the Neuroi hive controlling France, but they are reconstituted in Strike Witches: Season 2 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) in order to take on a new Neuroi hive controlling Venice, and it is after defeating that they are broken up for the second time. One assumes the pattern would have repeated for an alleged third season, but that season was never filmed. Instead we got the three thirty minute episodes of the Operation Victory Arrow OVA's, not yet released over here, and this movie.Unfortunately, this movie is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand the battle scenes are spectacularly filmed, but on the other hand the effort to cram a lucid story involving all the witches of the 501st into something slightly over 90 minutes long is a partial failure. To take just two examples, in the first Mio Sakamoto has apparently come up with a fairly elaborate plan to get the IJN Yamato (and herself) into the final battle; unfortunately, since she is skipped over in most of the OVA's and since her participation in the movie doesn't add up to more than 15 minutes, her efforts are mostly omitted and don't entirely make sense. In the second, Yoshika Miyafuji, who freely gave up her powers at the end of season 2, gains them back,... about that quickly and with about that much explanation. (You WILL rewind the movie in order to see what you missed; trouble is, you didn't miss anything.)Note: If they had bothered to include the three OVA's, which they should have included in part because all three OVA's plus the movie are telling a related story, I might have raised my rating a star because as you will find if you watch them online somewhere, they work out very well as individual episodes, but then again I might not have,...because the movie just doesn't.

The product came as it was described and it is of a good quality as well and I enjoyed watching it as I'm a fan of the strike witches series but there really only one down side that down side is that you can't do nothing about the subtitles when watching the english version of the movie cause I tried and it is a good product so if you going to buy just keep in mind that you may or may not be turn off the subtitles.

The movie was good, introduced a new character and jumps some narrative hoops to get everyone back together but overall a good story and good animation too.

If you're a Strike Witches fan -- and especially of Miyafuji -- or just like cute girls shooting at aliens, then the movie is as awesome as the series.

This movie was way better than the super bowl. That’s when I watched it because it’s way better!

It’s Manga so viewer discretion is advised lol

I ordered the Movie, and it came in on time it was a really fun movie Filled in the gap that the anime left i suggest watching this after season 2 and before season 3

Following from Season 2 and picks up from the you can see this movie whiteout knowing the characters but it will help if you have seeing Season 1 & 2ActionLike the endFunCharacter you have missed ( Depend )

importcds_com様から購入、20日ほどで到着（購入時2764円+送料350円）DVDとBD各1枚ずつのセットになりますDVDはPC、BDはPS4/PS3で動作確認【DVD】[音声]・英語/日本語（切り替え可）[字幕]・音声関係なくON/OFF 切り替え可・日本語音声字幕なしで視聴可能[特典]・他作品PV【BD】[音声]・英語/日本語（切り替え可）[字幕]BD版には字幕の項目がないため・英語音声の場合は 【字幕なし】・日本語音声の場合 は【強制字幕】[特典]・日本語版劇場PV・日本梧版BD/DVD発売CM・本作の英語版PV・他作品PV

The war goes on

Works on American dvd/blu only