It is believed by many that there are infinite alternate universes out there in the cosmos... Multiple realities where history traveled multiple different paths possibly covering every divergence imaginable. In one of these realities the history of the Earth was changed forever by the arrival of the Neuroi a hostile extraterrestrial force thats about as far from the humanoid form as you can get. Composed of black and red hexagons these creatures fly through the skies build colonies out of thin air and infest the Earth so aggressively that humanity has been chased out of several countries worth of territory... But humanity isnt considered the most adaptable creature on Earth for nothing. To fight this alien threat we invented the Striker Unit a set of personal jet engines that offer the ability of flight to some of the most powerful magic users on the planet... The Witches. The most successful unit of witches the 501st Joint Fighter Wing have won numerous battles against the neuroi in the past and this time theyre reuniting to try and drive the neuroi forces out of Berlin. Its going to be the most challenging campaign humanity has ever fought but if anybody can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat its The Strike Witches Throughout the history of the Strike Witches franchise the IP has bounced between animators so much that no animation studio has been able to produce more than two entries. Studio Gonzo AIC Shaft and Silver Link have all had their hands on the main series at one point or another and while I havent yet seen Luminous Witches to be sure of this Season 3 might just be the first entry in the franchise to actually look like a new studio has stepped in. Road to Berlin was animated by David Production a studio Ive discussed once before in my review of BenTo although theyre probably more famous for producing the recent adaptations of Jojos Bizarre Adventure. No Road to Berlin isnt full of fabulous and iconic posing... As a matter of fact something a lot of their work has in common is that rather than carrying a ton of visual similarities they look more like mostly convincing pastiches of other studios. Case in point Road to Berlin looks exactly like previous installments of the franchise albeit with one or two distinct differences that are hard for a long time fan to not notice. First of while the aerial combat scenes that have always made this show awesome are still just as fast paced energetic and perfectly choreographed it does pain me to admit that the transition from 3D animation to 2D animation is nowhere near as smooth or seamless as it used to be. This used to be managed so well that 3D shots were used for far off shots and any combat sequence that required a ton of fluid movement but the character would change to 2D as soon as they were close enough to the camera that youd notice it easily. In this season however it doesnt seem like theyre really trying to cover it up theyre just letting fullon CG characters fight on screen and it can look a bit clunky here or there. Thankfully this isnt the case outside of combat. In their day to day lives characters are almost entirely 2D and it actually looks a lot more expensive and well directed than previous enties with less key frames per episode and a genuine cinematic feel to even the most inconsequential conversation. Ive already gone into how brilliant the character designs are in a previous review. Everyone looks distinct with their own individual color palette and uniform design and while I guess the new character Hattori is an exception to this... She just looks like a younger version of Mio Sakamoto nothing special... nothings really changed about any of them and hey if it aint broke dont fix it. Just like in previous seasons the biggest benefactor to the 3D animation budget is the neuroi some of the least human looking aliens Ive ever seen in fiction and while their design was already outstanding from the start season 3 went balls to the wall in coming up with creative new designs for them. Sure you still have episodes where they take the form of fighter jets like they always have but now you have neuroi taking over icebergs working together to defend each other in some disturbingly brilliant strategies and even specifically finding ways to subvert the abilities of the witches. The neuroi have always kind of reminded me of the angels from Evangelion and this season only makes the resemblance stronger. When it comes to the English dub Im afraid Im going to have to issue a correction to something I said in my previous reviews about a year ago. I said before that for the duration of the franchise theyve only ever had to recast one actor that being the role of Sanya Litvyack but that wasnt actually true. I feel extremely stupid for not picking up on this until today but Jessica Foster didnt replace Jennifer Forrester... If you couldnt tell from the similarities in their names theyre the same fucking person. Forrester was just the fake name that Foster used for the first season before using her real name on all projects that followed. I have no excuse this should have been obvious to me years ago. Honestly it does kind of surprise me that nobody has left the show yet as some of the cast were poached from other studios some have been inactive for long periods of time outside of this show and a few actresses who were smalltimers when they did the first season have increased their stock in the industry by leaps and bounds since especially Cherami Leigh. The entire central cast is still here though and theyre just as iconic in their performances as theyve ever been. Cherami Leigh is still immensely likeable as Yoshika Jamie Marchi is still energetic and boisterous as Shirly Trina Nishimura is still giving Francesca every ounce of her impish charm Jad Sxton is still playing Perrine is a stuckup tsundere Stephanie Sheh is still playing against type as the tough stalwart Trudy and making it feel one hundred percent natural and so on and so forth. Having said that there are two new additions to the cast this time around and I have some pretty minor issues with both. The first is Brent Mukai in the role of the new military leader General Patton... Yes this IS what they named him... And maybe its just me but his voice doesnt sound the most natural. He sounds like Doug Walker doing an impression of R. Lee Ermy. Hes not bad per se but a bit distracting. Speaking of not bad Cristina Vee joins the cast as new recruit Shizuka Hattori and while I generally love her as an actress... I think we all do frankly... Shes never been great at elevating characters. Shes amazing when she has something to latch onto but if you give her a bland character shell give you a bland performance and Im sorry Hattori is pretty bland. She does the best she can but I dont think she was right for the role. Still it is overall another outstanding dub for Strike Witches. So this is going to be my fourth Strike Witches review which isnt that weird as there are several anime franchises that Ive reviewed multiple times but unlike my four Pokemon reviews you really cant just jump into this entry without at least some context from the previous reviews. My reviews of the first and second season are up and readily available on this site along with my somewhat less relevant Take Off short review. I would personally recommend reading those first if you havent already before we go on any further because theres a lot of important ground that I dont feel like retreading. For those of you who dont want to do this heres a small summary of how I feel about the franchise overall... Im a huge fan. I have a similar relationship to Strike Witches to the one a lot of people have with High School DXD that being that I got into it for the fanservice and uncensored nudity and then I stuck around because beyond all that the show just wound up being really freaking good with high production values an engaging plot and a ridiculous concept that the writers approached with every possible ounce of enthusiasm and sincerity. Strike Witches is a series thats genuinely fun and exciting presenting its story with a sense of energy and passion as well as seemingly unlimited confidence and it does so with a cast of characters that Im coming to appreciate more and more as a true case of catching lightning in a bottle... Ive seen so many anime that had a similar concept to Strike Witches and while a few of them are arguably superior... Take Girls Und Panzer and The Saga of Tanya the Evil for example... None of them have as memorable and iconic a cast of characters. Tanya Degurechaff may be a force of personality but would anybody cry if her soldiers bit the dust? Do you remember anybodys names from Girls Und Panzer other than your waifu? The only reason I memorized the names of two Kancolle characters is because of their usage in fanmade content. I remembered the full names first last and middle where applicable of all eleven Strike Witches main characters even after my first viewing way back in 2010 and Ill bet Im not the only one. Even Strike Witches themselves couldnt replicate this as their spinoff Brave Witches is not bad but honestly kind of forgettable. As much as I love this franchise what made me feel kind of worried is that season 3 came out ten years after season 2 and the time in between them has been filled with a movie and OVA and a disappointing spinoff as well as a series of chibi shorts so I felt nervous that the franchise might have gone downhill... So now that Ive finally seen it how well did it turn out? Well as youve no doubt picked up from my thoughts on the animation and dub it is a bit of a mixed bag. Starting off with some of my less positive notes this has always been kind of a repetitive franchise and true to form season 3 does in fact retread some old plot points. At the start of the series the witches are disbanded after having gone their separate ways following a hard fought victory the previous season. Theyre brought together in short order but it still kind of takes just as long as it did in previous seasons and of course their reunion is centered around Yoshika. On the other hand their reunion also introduces a well needed shakeup to the status quo of the series and one thats a lot more than just a cosmetic change. As per the lore of the series only teenage girls are able to use magic and their team has always been comprised of soldiers of varying ages from one lone twelve year old in season 1 to the now twenty one year old Mio Sakamoto who has unexpectedly left the 501st to graduate to another position in the military. Along with this meaning shes transitioning from the main cast to the supporting cast it also means shes been replaced by a new member from her and Yoshikas homeland Hattori Shizuka... There are a few drawbacks to this however that keep it from feeling as exciting as it should. First as I mentioned earlier Shizuka is not a very interesting character. She doesnt have any real quirks outside of her hero worship for Yoshika and for most of the season she kind of feels like a fanfic writers selfinsert OC. She is ultimately redeemed by the critical role she plays in the season finale though so its ultimately forgivable. What I cant forgive is just how much damage Mios departure does to Perrine who previously had most of her character built around Mio and the writers didnt really give her anything else to make up for it. She has her own episode this season and its probably the least memorable in the lineup. Another area they retread is of course Yoshika losing her magic. This was a huge plot point in the first two seasons and its admittedly pretty lazy to do it all over again here but I do feel like its done better this time. First of all she doesnt just lose it out of the blue Her magical issues are a known problem and shes attending a medical school at the start of the season to compensate for it. Second theres an actual reason given for her issues it makes perfect sense and its explored pretty intelligently throughout the season directly contributing to a banger of a finale. On a more neutral note the fanservice has been toned down quite a bit. Now as weve gone over before Strike Witches doesnt need uncensored nudity to be entertaining... The movie and Take Off are proof of that. The nudity isnt gone its just been scaled back to about thirty percent of what the second season had and I think that was the right move. Its at a point where long time fans wont feel betrayed but an argument can still be made that the series might not deserve its questionable reputation. Panty shots are also still prevalent but they feel more incidental and less gratuitous than before. Also Mio wears pants now and while that may conflict with the lore that particular part of the lore was always fucking stupid so its a welcome change. And because Im talking about fanservice it was only a matter of time before I brought up episode 7. Theres a weird tradition in the Strike Witches franchise that in any main series season episode 7 is where the writers jump the shark and deliver the most ridiculous fanservice concept possible and this is usually considered the worst episode of every season. In season 1 the girls were running around and stealing each others panties which isnt just tedious and cringey it accidentally created the implication that each witch only has one pair of underwear despite canonically being paid handsomely for their work. In season 2 a tiny little bug neuroi was flying around the base going up everyones butts. I shouldnt have to explain how fucking gross that was. In season 3 Lynette Bishop finds an ancient artifact that curses Francesca Lucchini gives her large breasts and corrupts her into chasing down the rest of the cast and turning them into brainwashed Gcups bent on spreading the curse. Im not gonna lie that sounds really stupid on paper but heres the kicker... The whole thing is presented like a zombie survival story complete with references to all of the little cliches of those stories and its fucking hilarious. I mean like good funny like funny on purpose. The whole breast expansion thing does nothing for me either comedically or erotically but the writers were clearly having so much fun with this concept and it feels completely self aware. I guess I could see some people abandoning ship at this point but to me this is by far the best Episode 7 of the franchise and the best part is thats not the only area where Ive seen massive improvement. My favorite change by far is the fact that the neuroi actually feel like a threat now and there are several moments in the season where things got genuinely scary and I actually found myself believing that named characters were about to die. For the first time you see witches injured and bleeding. Lessons learned in previous seasons get paid off here. Commander Minna starts to follow in Mios footsteps her magic weakening as she begins to age out from the squadron. All of this leads to what I am going to call as spoilerfree as I can the best finale the franchise has had to date. The final two episodes of this season are fucking incredible full of heart and suspense including a couple of scenes that actually made me cry both times that I watched it in a single two month period. For once their enemy isnt a corrupt force from within the military. For once when the neuroi take over and weaponize a human invention it leads to them forming an endlevelboss calibre neuroi threat that has to be dealt with in multiple ways as you battle through multiple stages. For once we have a Strike Witches season that feels like it has real stakes to it and I dont know it just genuinely feels like the writing has improved dramatically in general and thats coming from a guy who already loves the franchise. This mature anime finally feels legitimately mature. If you dont believe me and you dont want to spend the money to get the BluRaywhich is still pretty expensive on Amazon and Rightstuf even when it on sale then just check out episode 6. Its not the best episode of the season but its pretty damn close and its the perfect minimumspoiler representation of everything great about this season which in my eyes is the best season of Strike Witches yet. I give Strike Witches: The Road to Berlin a 9/10.