Strike Witches vs Brave Witches.

Strike Witches vs Brave Witches. The pros and cons of the two shows? How do you like it? How does it compare to the original? Are the characters portrayed well?

I'll Start with my own opinion of the show. When I first heard of a new strike witches project I was very much excited to hear that I may again be able to see my favorite swimsuit clad dog girl and friends fighting the Neuroi. Later I found out that it was not a new season or ova, but a spin-off. I was less excited, but also glad that the show was expanding it's universe by bringing characters from the Light novels and manga into this new show. (skip to the firt air date) Then the show premiered with the first episode. I was so happy to see the new characters and ready to see where the show was going to take us. but by the end of the first episode I was just devastated. First off. Remember the decent and at sometimes above average animation that was pretty consistent throughout the series? Well that went straight out the window, instead we are given whole CGI fight scenes. where the only hand drawn animation are single close-ups of the character faces that are reused repeatedly. There is a scene in one of the episodes when a Neruoi attacks the base, and the characters are running to there striker units and the second the they touch the striker units everything is cgi, the characters haven't even taken off yet and they're bickering amongst each other in cell shaded 3d. I think I can count the number of scenes where they flying and it wasn't in 3d on one hand. To be honest it just feels cheap, really cheap. I'm not saying that Strike Witches was free from this, I mean they're multiple scenes where they use 3d models for animation. CGI isn't the problem here. Even big studio's like Kyoani and madhouse use CGI for many things, but it's the use of it. Many of the scenes in strike witches 3d is used in moderation, they use it for things that are moving far away or for things that are in the far background or large set pieces that Are difficult to animated over time. They also have filters placed over it so you can't tell unless you're looking for it. The characters I won't say much about since I'm discussing the shows, the characters already exist in the source material as far as I know. Though I want to like the characters and in many aspects I do, I'm just waiting for an episode that's really character heavy, and is done. well similar to episode 6, (one of my favorite episodes from the first season of strike witches.) I also very much like the Countess/ Waltrud Krupinski. Mostly because I am fan of yuri/shoujo ai elements (but that's for another time) I also am not a fan of the Intro theme, I skip it almost every time it's just missing the charm that the original intro's had. Of course this is due to the large time span gap from the first series, many common design elements from the late 2000's anime have died. The difference isn't as staggering as other shows. For example the first Gunbuster ova (1988) vs the Diebuster ova (2004) go watch those shows two openings it's a crazy difference. (however I do like both of the openings, Round Table did a great job with opening theme of Diebuster) I would love to Talk more about Strike Witches and all it's aspects, but I have presentation in the morning so, let me here you're thoughts on the two series!

Brave Witches tried to take things in a bit too serious of a direction which I feel is inappropriate for this franchise.I believe it should have tried to remain more Lighthearted silly and fun like it's predecessor. That's not to say the 501st wasn't starting to go in that direction too with the movie and ovas. Thing is it didn't go all the way into the more gritty serious direction and has left the tone of the show feeling kind of half assed as a result. The fun and humor has largely been taken away and replaced with repetitive battles that feel ripped from a monster of the week type of anime. Speaking of half assed, the cgi is laughably bad. Specifically the animation on the models which looks very robotic and unnatural. The point of using cgi is how much easier it is to animate among other reasons, but if you're just gonna keep the models motionless half the time they're on screen than why bother with it. The characters are mostly forgettable for that matter and aside from just a few don't really seem to have much personality or depth. I will say though that while I was worried Hikari would be a shameless Yoshika clone (they look almost identical after all), I was mostly glad to see they actually do have a bit of depth to them and a somewhat more earned feeling ark as they struggled to join the 502nd. Going into Brave Witches I wanted to like it as someone who's been a fan of the series for some time now, but they're not making it easy...

Here is what I see in this, Karibuchi, Hikari in Brave Witches looks too much like Miyafuji, Yoshika from Strike Witches. It's like seen the original character's edited in small details, yet you are still thinking of the original. Everything Karibuchi, Hikari does, feel like I watching Miyafuji, Yoshika from strike witches again. Brave Witches is alright, yet still hasn't outdone Strike Witches.

I do agree, the characters are not very fun to watch interact with each other, except for a very small few, I feel like this a result of the kind of shape the industry is in right now? a show almost 8 years older can out do a show airing right now. It's really sad.