Sky Girls

To those of you who have yet to see this anime, please allow me to make one thing clear: Sky Girls is not a mecha fighting anime. Yes, there are mecha, and yes, there is fighting; but those things are not the primary focus.

STRENGTHS:
1. Sky Girls is a character-driven anime. If you don't find the characters interesting, then you should consider dropping it. I say this because the first half of the series is focused on character development, which can be quite excruciating if you find the characters annoying or uninteresting. I, personally, found the girls cute enough to keep ... watching.

2. The second half of the series focuses on furthering the plot, which is well worth seeing.

3. Fan service. Crotch shots and bath scenes where only the area above the nipples are exposed. Very minimal, but adds a bit of spice (especially to male viewers).

WEAKNESSES:
1. You might find the girls a bit annoying or stereotypical. The way they act does tend get old in the latter half of the series.

2. Filler episodes. It's sad when a 26-episode anime has fillers. I recommend fast-forwarding through them. They really don't add much to the experience.

3. It drags at times, especially in the first 12 episodes. The only thing that got me through the first half of the anime was the fact that I was strangely intrigued by the girls.

CONCLUSION:
Try it out and see if you like the girls; because that's really the only way you can enjoy this series. Otherwise, don't bother.

I expected Sky Girls to be a sort of Strike Witches-esque show with fan service and a lackluster plot. However, it surprised me in how interesting of a series it turned out to be.

Plotwise, Sky Girls became very interesting as time went on. The first five or six episodes were relatively boring, but over time, little plot twists and small details made the series worth watching.

Artwise, it wasn't fantastic, but certainly wasn't bad. Some CG things were really awkward, but they were few and far between. Otherwise, the animation was smooth and the Sonic Divers were made well. Although this isn't related to art, I ... should mention that while this show does contain mechs, the show doesn't really focus on them. They're moreso just tools used than real plot foci.

Musicwise, there wasn't a whole lot to comment on. The opening is one of the dopiest songs I've ever heard. ("Oh, prerry radies, Sky Girls. Fate understood. Innocent red. Last arms. Haaaaaaaaa.") However, after listening to it far too much, it's kind of catchy. That might just be because I find it kind of deplorable from a musical standpoint, though. The endings were uninteresting and forgettable, in my opinion. The soundtrack is decent but not too notable.

Characterwise, the characters were very well fleshed out and given necessary attention. The interactions between characters were realistic and even very heartwarming at times.

Overallwise (and who needs words anyway?), Sky Girls was surprisingly enjoyable. I give it a seven overall because, while it was a great show, it wasn't that great, and the shortcomings that it did have prevented it from being fantastic as a whole. While there wasn't a whole lot of fanservice, there was a little more than was necessary. Could the show have been better? Yes, and it had a lot of potential. Was it a complete waste of potential? No, definitely not.

Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes.

Recommendation: Probably not what you're expecting by appearances, this is more of a character-oriented slice of life series and has minimal fanservice, unlike its most obvious point of comparison, Strike Witches. It's solid and enjoyable, but nothing revolutionary. Worth a watch if you like girls in mechs.

Story: The story takes place 10 years after an apocalyptic war killed 1/3 of humanity and shattered the continents into smaller islands before driving off the invading WORMs, with a trio of teen girls being recruited as test pilots for mechs called Sonic Divers. Secretly, the military knows that the WORMs aren't extinct as is commonly believed, and the ... girls are unwittingly being recruited as soldiers against a future WORM revival. The story is pretty standard, it goes pretty much the way you'll predict as you watch, but it doesn't make any major missteps either. There is almost no action in the first half of the series, it focuses on training and the girls getting to know each other. It is almost fully slice of life for the first half before becoming a more traditional military mecha series in the second half, though the battles are generally deemphasized throughout. On the positive side, this is a complete story start to finish, the ending firmly ties off the story with no need for sequels, and gives every important character the resolution that they need. I'm not as positive on the worldbuilding, or lack thereof. I would have liked to see a lot more of how the world and society has changed, and you do get little hints of it occasionally, like details about film and paper being rare, but most of the time the characters are walled off inside the barracks and later a ship, and you get little sense of what the post-war world is like and what the girls are fighting to protect. Some of what we do get is weak and irrelevant too, like when they make a point of noting that 90% of all military aged men died during the war, but this never seems to factor into the show's portrayal of society. There are plenty of men walking around on the streets in the background, plenty in the military, and the only time it seemingly comes into play is the Kouryuu's captain being old because he's come out of retirement since there's less manpower available to the military.

Audio/Visual: The audio is not especially good. The VA work is somewhat inconsistent and overly cutesy with several characters, especially Karen. The OP is also an atrocious mix of butt rock and broken English that should be skipped whenever possible. Visually, it's dated looking and the girls look a bit goofy with enormous eyes compared to the men, but the WORM designs are creative and visually appealing, and the CGI for the mechs is surprisingly well-integrated for being almost 15 years old as I write this. The action does lack excitement though. Battles are very patterned and always end the same way, and the WORMs are not very menacing outside of one or two exceptions. This seems to be more of a creative choice than anything, as the battles generally exist to highlight character moments rather than just being cool fights.

Characters: They're broadly likeable but not all that unique. Otoha is your typical genki girl protagonist, Eika is the hyper-competent ice queen, Karen is the shy genius that's afraid of boys, Tougou is the bro captain that just wants to protect the girls, and Elise is the bratty child prodigy. Their interactions and friendship is the heart of the show and it's fun to watch them gradually grow closer. The extensive character building that they do early in the series also pays off later in the series when battles become more interesting because of the established dynamics between the characters. However, one aspect that I was negative on was the relationship between Otoha and her missing brother Yuuki, which is barely explained or mentioned early on, but is later retconned into being a central and foundational part of her character for the end of the series. It was noticeable how poorly this piece of her character was developed given how much they put into the character work early on. Interestingly, the show also gives clear potential romantic interests to Otoha (her mechanic Ryohei) and Karen (an air traffic controller she's able to comfortably talk to, Takumi), but never follows through on them. I would find that frustrating in most cases, but it feels right here, and serves as a nice example of male-female friendships that don't need to become romantic.