I’m not much of a classic Hollywood fan, but I am one of the many who has a spot for Audrey Hepburn. So in “My Romagna,” episode 5 of Strike Witches season two…as soon as Lucchini lands her kick and grabs the hand of the girl she “rescues” a grin spread across my face, because I knew where this was going, or at least at that moment thinking to myself they aren’t going to, oh yes they are!
This episode of Strike Witches is an homage to Roman Holiday (2-D Teleidoscope did a post with some side-by-sides), a classic Hepburn movie. Looking at it today, Roman Holiday is super corny, the acting and transitions kind of dated, but it’s still somewhat amusing. Kind of like Strike Witches, it knows it’s ridiculous, fluffy, obvious and has fun with that, leaving you to eyeroll or enjoy. The homage makes it memorable and adds a style point or two. This episode also has some Yeager time, which is a plus for me as well.
Strike Witches season 2 was one of the few I completed via streaming. It’s undemanding, wrong and somewhat creepy, a winning combination. I’d watch it again dubbed when Funimation puts out their discs. A couple of the characters I’d hear the English voice from season one in my head while reading the subtitles, most strongly with Yeager and Hartmann.
Quite something to see that episode is such an homage to “Roman Holiday”, hadn’t really struck me when I saw it.
“Strike Witches” is just one of those fun ‘guilty pleasure’ shows, sure it’s nothing novel, great and has a few eyebrow raising elements but it’s also just plain crazy fun to watch, entertaining all the way. And let’s be honest, some anime series should be just plain fun and entertaining like this because we can all use a half hour every week for some good old anime fun.
Not everything has to be art. I wholeheartedly agree. Most of the time, I’m not looking to be enlightened when I’m watching a show with a flimsy excuse to have teenage girls blow stuff up.
Woah, I had no idea Strike Witches did such a shout out, here I was thinking it was just a cute little episode.
I agree with you and Smithy, I find Strike Witches to be a show best taking in strides as it comes along and have fun.
There’s a lot of homages and references in Strike Witches, a lot more than I’m aware of since I don’t know the histories of the witches namesakes. Plus I imagine many of them are references to Japanese things that non-natives won’t pick up, but it doesn’t seem to have much of a negative impact.
Punctuality is probably the cardinal business virtues: always insist on it with your subordinates.
The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can take care of successfully.