Strike Witches: Maidens in the Sky Vol. 2

Strike Witches #2

by Humikane Shimada

Alert! Alert! Mysterious aliens called the "neuroi" are attacking the earth! Nothing can harm them except for an elite team of magical girls who patrol the the Strike Witches! In this second installment of Strike Maidens in the Sky , Miyafuji Yoshika is sent to complete her training on the far-off island of Britannia, where she finds new friends (each prettier than the next!) and grapples with new challenges. Yoshika learns more about her friends, stumbles on some of the Strike Witch battalion's deepest secrets, and searches for the source of her own magical powers. The entire cast of the popular anime is here, cheering Yoshika on (or getting in her way), as she continues her inner journey and faces the choice that will determine her remain a healer or become a soldier?

Genres: Manga

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2014

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much fan service. The story is not paced very well and the characters lack features and characteristics to make them outstanding. I finally got a handle on all the characters, the story, and felt some hook in the last 10 pages or so.
Seems like a lot of promise to blend fantasy, sci fi, manga, and military stories, but it fell flat to me.
I got these at a bargain price, so I will be reading 4 more. Hopefully they are a little better.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

From volume 1 I sort of expected there to continue some serious character development as Miyafuji Yoshika goes through her training, but volume 2 decided to throw all that out the window... Miyafuji Yoshika finds herself being transferred to Britannia, thus it seemed she would be the only recurring character. How do they introduce the team of Britannia? With Miyafuji Yoshika's familiar escaping and everyone needing to hunt for it. Amidst that hunt we are subjected to all manner of girls grabbing each others boobs, nudity in the baths and loads of panty shots.

Alright, I'm going to be perfectly honest, I don't mind fan service, sometimes I downright enjoy it, sorry. However, in this volume it was annoying. It was being used in place of bothering to develop any characters. At one point the fact that Miyafuji Yoshika's previous commander had bigger breasts means she is somehow better than her new commander is stated. I feel that, if the authors spend time developing characters in a meaningful way, I can sort of take these kind of antics in stride a lot better.

The manga starts to fall apart a bit more as it goes along. Miyafuji's two friends and commanding officer from Volume 1 eventually show up, but that's all because her two friends, Goshika and Hayate, decide to go AWOL to visit her after being assigned to Romagne. This is the worst military ever. No one seems to follow orders and for some reason Miyafuji could fly perfectly well in Volume 1, but suddenly she's a bumbling idiot in Volume 2... except in battle, then suddenly she can fly again. It's utterly out of sync with Volume 1 and out of sync with the claim that these are elite forces... in the final chapter all the girls and commanding officers get bested by monkeys on some island. Give me a break. You know what this is? Bad writing. That's what this is.

The art is good and the world was pretty interesting, but Volume 2 fails to deliver. Being transferred and introducing this many new characters feels like a Volume 8 activity, not volume 2... I don't know, I'm going to try out the next set of books, since they're not related to this story... but I'm not having any kind of high hopes for them...

[kim song ng · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute illustrations an all but it was not my cup of tea @_@ only reason why I even picked this book up in the first place was because I thought the first book was alright and saw this one was on bookoutlet so of course... I caved in and bought this so Yeaa.. Kind of regret it but at least it looks nice on my bookshelf? Hahah *wont recommend* ps there are pervy moments all over the place which I thought were funny but very indeed weird...

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still cute but that's about it.

[Engel Dreizehn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other then yes haha fanservice shots/moments! I did the sisterhood friendship + slice of life moments peaceful in sharp contrast to aerial dog fighting monsters!