Greetings all! It’s been ages since my last post, but I’ve been very hard at work as of late. This past week I’ve spent much time optimizing the site and making all sorts of revisions. While the site is indeed still young, I’ve totally managed to crank it up performance-wise. Just check out that sexy navigation menu — now 100% of it is our code and still reeking of that new menu smell. Delicious.
This last week was also significant in that I finally received my copy of Witches of the Sphinx. While I had to fight through Idaho’s very poorly planned road construction, I did indeed survive the excruciating trip to the post office and would like to pass my joy onto you all.
So the story picks up where the Witch of Africa short stories left off, with Fuso’s Keiko Kato as the commander of the newly formed African joint fighter unit. Gone are the days of Hannah-Justina Marseille being the only soldier of worth on the African front, as now she is joined by a whole slew of aerial and land-based witches ready to purge the Neuroi threat.
Our “doujinshi” starts with a story by Takeshi Nogami, presented to you in manga form. While I don’t really want to share the story with you, as I do believe its something worth reading for yourself, I will give you three hints as to how awesome the manga story is: Patton, Rommel, and Montgomery. Yeah, that’s right, our favorite trio of Stooges from WWII are illustrated in all their intended glory. With each commanding their own units representing their respective countries, the manga quickly turns into a story of who can take the glory as the most badass general in Africa.
George S. Patton: Do NOT mess with his girls!
The manga also introduces land-based witches and Neuroi, an often forgotten, but ridiculously awesome facet of the Strike Witches universe. Witches of the Sphinx does not disappoint at all, either, as it introduces everyone from the British 4th Armored to the Internet-famous Patton Girls. Still, my vote for best land-witch has to go to the Deutsch loli rocking a heavy-class Tiger striker: Charlotte.
The second component of the Witches of the Sphinx is a short story written by Takaaki Suzuki. Basically, this chapter is about how Commander Keiko plans to improve the African batallion’s ability to fight the heavier Neuroi that have been appearing more frequently. Tension continually rises throughout the story, giving us fairly adequate foreshadowing of how awesome the next volume is going to be.
In the end, I was more than impressed with this release and cannot find any complaints that would diminish the sheer mass of awesome that is Witches of the Sphinx. The only weak area of this doujinshi was the occasional typo or grammatical error that appeared in the English translations. Still, the fact that there were English translations at all pretty much overshadows this flaw. Overall, the art was stellar and both stories were interesting. Despite not being able to read that last two volumes of the Witch of Africa, I feel that this doujinshi quickly got me up to speed and gracefully introduced this new, exciting microcosm of the Strike Witches universe.
The future seems bright for Witches of Sphinx, as the second volume is already slated for release at August’s Comiket. While I’ve received no confirmation of another English release, I would certainly hope that they would do another repeat performance of this spectacular feat.
If you want to purchase this for yourself, it’s still available on Manga-Pal. Those less keen on purchasing from a Japan-based company may also find Witches of the Sphinx on other sites as well, or at least wait for an ebay listing.
One giant Charlotte, just for good measure <3
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