852 Asking For It.

Steam gains magical properties the less clothes characters are wearing.  Annoying, but one doesn’t want one’s host to ban them.  Even if said host is hampering one’s ability to succeed.   Between Failures. net, by the way, is still working hard to draw off some of the traffic and keep the  dot com mostly functioning. 

I finally got around to watching the second disc of Strike Witches.  The first episode of disc 2 opens with a lingering panty shot and transitions into a story focusing on the loss of panties.  That is to say that the series continues true to the form presented in disc one.  All the stuff I said about Strike Witches before holds true, and then some.  In the panty theft episode it becomes apparent that the girls own but one set of clothes, so if someone loses their underpants they have no choice but to steal someone else’s.  I’m sorry, but the premise of this episode is just fucking stupid.  What girl owns one pair of anything?  That kind of bullshit plot is almost unforgivable.  After that episode things get back to the regular nonsense.  There’s only one other glaringly stupid thing that happens before the season closes. 

The oldest witch (who looks the same age as all the others, you will recall) is losing her powers, because at 21 they begin to fade.  (Even though there are 2 examples of women older than 21 that clearly retain their powers…)  One of the other girls attempts to stop her from flying missions by pulling a gun on her, in one of the most ridiculous scenes I’ve seen in any anime.  It just makes no fucking sense.  She’s going to protect her from getting killed by shooting her.  There are so many other ways that scene could have been written that wouldn’t have been batshit stupid, but they went full dumbass with it. 

Whatever…

Those things aside the rest of the season is likable.  It feels rushed and ill conceived in some ways, but if you gloss over the dumb shit it’s good mindless fun.  They could have just dropped the whole thing after that, but the season ends with a “Hey guys, we might have another season!” kicker.  I am tempted to find the next season if for no reason other than it almost has to crash and burn.  I think I’d like to see that.  It’d be like watching a juggler hurt himself while juggling chainsaws.  Repellent, yet compelling…