How hard is it to hit the bullseye again??? After you’ve been able to hit it for so long…
Credit to nylon66 here and there for the original images.
Anime
Strike the Blood IV BD Volume 3 released over a week ago and nylon66 has early images.
Unfortunately, it’s a 12-episode OVA instead of a TV series. And there are months between volumes (like with StB II & III). Hopefully, StB IV has more fanservice than StB III since StB III really dropped the ball when compared to earlier seasons — thus continuing a trend that started with Strike the Blood OVA and Strike the Blood II but went backwards with Strike the Blood III.
StB has been pretty good about having some nipples even if just a few every couple of episodes ever since it shifted from a TV series to OVA series. Until that streak was broken with StB III. Here’s hoping that StB IV does better especially since there are twelve episodes instead of ten.
Images
EP 05
EP 06
Omake
WebMs (Album)
Welp. Disappointing. Once again. Even if a very early impression. Even if there were underboob shots and panty shots. Any and all fanservice occurred in small measured doses. Sometimes for only a frame or two. But these two episodes were worse than usual. Confounding…..
Once again, the faces of the main girls seem to be more derpy than they used to be. More like CG and less like 2D? Why mess with a good thing??? When there was nothing wrong with how the faces looked in StB I & II and the first OVA. Looking into this a little more, it looks like the derpy faces started when Silver Link stopped working on animation production after StB I and II and the first OVA leaving just Connect. That’s a real shame…
Then it turns out that Silver Link owned Connect and merged Connect into Silver Link. Good news? Then Silver Link turns around and gets acquired by Asahi Broadcasting Group and merged into a subsidiary. Bad news? Don’t know what to think yet…
Strike the Blood staff used to have a good handle on what works for them. Plot that doesn’t forget the PLOT. But plot and characters first and foremost. With PLOT in measured but reasonable doses. Which worked as long as they continued to deliver quality over quantity. Unfortunately, that no longer seems to be true starting with StB III which only had nipples for 30% of the episodes instead of the usual 50%. And now, StB IV is 2 out of 6 for 33%. And the second nipple sighting is a very weak sighting at that. Just a few frames total. Possibly more fallout from Silver Link no longer being on the production team. At this rate, ecchi fans can expect to see nipples once every three or four episodes or so or around three to four episodes total out the planned twelve episodes. Which is a darn shame…
To be honest, if the StB staff is so intent on cramming in plot to the detriment of PLOT, ecchi fans would have be better served with a one-cour TV show instead of another OVA. What’s point of using the OVA format if you’re not going to take advantage of it? StB III had about as much fanservice as the TV show. Maybe a little more. But only four scenes would have needed to be censored. And with a TV show, scenes can be uncensored and added for the BDs to get back to the expected level of fanservice. Not only that, fans would actually get episodes subbed on a timely basis instead of having to wait weeks and months since most of the remaining fansub groups seem to have lost interest in StB…
I’m still a fan. Even if StB seems to be going backwards instead of forward when it comes to that rare combination of plot and PLOT and great girls that made up the old StB magic. And I still find StB entertaining to watch again and make media from. But they can and have done better in the past. I sincerely hope that StB IV proves me wrong in the next six episodes but only time will tell…
Notes
This is just an early look at StB IV Volume 3 done for news purposes.
