Strike Witches

In the year 1939, humanity was on the verge of destruction. Equipped with weapons of devastating power, a mysterious alien race, known as the Neuroi, began an invasion of the Earth, ravaging the planet, obliterating countries, and vanquishing human armies. To counter this seemingly unstoppable force, the world's powers united. A new device was produced, called the Striker Unit, capable of facing Neuroi technology. Girls equipped with the Striker Unit became known as the Witches, forming humanity's last line of defense. They began their fight against the Neuroi, utilizing their now-enhanced magical abilities, flaunting destructive weapons no human could manage.

Fast forward to 1944—Yoshika Miyafuji is a young teenage girl who eventually decides to join the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, known as the "Strike Witches." With no formal training however, can Miyafuji learn to cooperate with her fellow Strike Witches? And if so, can she save humanity from the Neuroi onslaught?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Litvyak, Sanya V. Main

Kadowaki, Mai Japanese

Hartmann, Erica Main

Nogawa, Sakura Japanese

Juutilainen, Eila Ilmatar Main

Ohashi, Ayuru Japanese

Lucchini, Francesca Main

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Miyafuji, Yoshika Main

Fukuen, Misato Japanese

Sakamoto, Mio Main

Chiba, Saeko Japanese

Barkhorn, Gertrud Main

Sonozaki, Mie Japanese

Bishop, Lynette Main

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Clostermann, Perrine H. Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Yeager, Charlotte E. Main

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Takechi, Tsuneo Producer

Shibata, Tomonori Producer

Takamura, Kazuhiro Director, Character Design

Reviews

Aug 28, 2008

KaminaKai

Recommended

*A Japanese government endorsed loli-pantsu anime.*

Please don't say it is bad just because you find girls in panties horrifying. I admit it is lousy for the director to claim that girls in panties = fashion in the Strike Witches' world, but that alone is no reason to give a bad rating to an anime (if you do, I am sorry, you don't know how to rate at all). Strike Witches is MUCH deeper than one may expect to find from a fanservice-oriented series.

--Updated on February 12, 2009--

The Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs has recently openly endorsed Strike Witches as an example of cultural excellence.

The ... world of Strike Witches is pretty much parallel to our world up to 1939 (before World War II). At that time, mysterious beings known as Neuroi invaded Europe. Thus rather than the real WWII, this resulted in a war between Human VS Neuroi. The story revolves around a group of girls with special magical powers that allow them to equip the "Striker Units" to combat the Neuroi. The story proceeds nicely with these magical girls fighting Neuroi, but sadly the ending seem to be a bit "wishy-washy".

The art and animation quality is great for the most part. The battle scenes, in particular, are extremely well made. In short, we see a nice blending effects from the battle animation with the regular drama scenes. All episodes seem to have highly consistent animation and of course, the DVD includes polished artwork and fanservice.

The OP and ED are both good although not particularly outstanding and there's a good chance you'll forget about them after a few days. However, the melody of the songs suit the theme of the anime quite nicely. In addition, the battle themes and the Japanese version of Lili Marlene (a famous German love song that was popular during World War II) all contributed nicely to the series and are valuable assets to the show.

The production group did a nice job at introducing the main/supporting characters and then slowly further develop them. Actually, the character introductions might explain why the story started out slowly (after all there are 11 girls to talk about). If there is one thing I find the characters disappointing it is that some of the witches' specialty were not revealed until the end (most were never mentioned).

Though I didn't like to see girls showing off their panties the way they are done in this anime, but putting that aside, the show itself (from story to art to sound to character) is very well planned out and the fact that they include references to the real WWII is just that much more interesting to watch. (*edit* The ending was really surprising, hope you'll enjoy the show just as much as I did)

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 18, 2008

Splitter

Mixed Feelings

Though Strike Witches isn't nearly as generic as the first few eps would lead you to believe, it's still nothing to get all in a tizzy about. Moe cliches and fetishism abound, you already know the audience with one glance, and if you're in that audience it's not half-bad.

Strike Witches is about young girls fighting faceless enemies in an alternate WWII era. Inexplicably, they sprout animal ears and tails when they use magic and pants don't seem to exist anymore. As you can probably guess, this isn't a show heavy in plot. What makes it relatively enjoyable is that the plot (and use that word ... very loosely) is often negated in favor of servicey hijinks and yuri subtext. Well, at least the show knows it's audience.

This 1940s farce is headed by a gaggle of 16-year-old girls who look half that age, but somehow have boobs. The girls' personalities are relegated to such archetypes as tsundere, big-boobed klutz, brat, etc. etc. They're somewhat redeemed by being reverse-gender caricatures of famous WWII leaders. Go figure.

The art, though GONZO, is relatively subdued. It's aesthetically pleasing outside of the Neuroi and flows smoothly. Best of all, there's no CG glut commonly associated with anime of this studio.

The soundtrack is just a hair's breadth above mediocre, and the OP and ED are patchwork themes in music and lyrics. Hardly inspiring.

If you like cute girls showing their panties, then I don't see why you'd turn this down. But don't expect anything even remotely serious from Strike Witches. It's a 100% guilty pleasure.

Overall, Strike Witches gets a 6 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 10, 2012

HopeFails

Not Recommended

Strike Witches is the story of some flying panties, a bunch of girls and a few pairs of breasts. If that’s all it takes to make you happy, then great, because Strike Witches offers very little else.

This is a fanservice anime, so if you're expecting anything deeper than a puddle in terms of plot or people, you might as well give up now. However, that's not an excuse for a truly awful anime.

The premise is about as dumb as it sounds. We have eleven girls with magic powers and airplane propellers strapped to their legs, who are apparently the military’s only hope of defeating a ... bunch of outer space aliens.

Sounds like fun, huh?

The bad part is, the story doesn't really go anywhere from there. More than half of the episodes have absolutely nothing to do with the plot. Most of the show is just a bunch of girls running around doing goofy things, taking baths, and beating up the obligatory bad guy. The ending tries to scrape together a plot at the last minute, but it’s so full of plot holes and unresolved stories it ends up being a mess, too. If you were waiting for a conclusion to the loose ends strewn all over the place, you’re out of luck. At the end of the series, all I could say was, “zuh?”

The characters are pretty paper-thin. Only about four of the eleven characters get regular screen-time, the rest of the gang is pretty much scenery. In lieu of character development we’re supposed to be satisfied watching cute girls do cute things. (But really, who doesn't love watching cute girls do cute things, right?) By the end of the series, the only things you’ll remember about the characters are their hair color and sexual orientation.

The villains (if you can even call them that) of the story are a band of aliens called the Neuroi, and they’re among some of the most laughable bad guys in all of anime history. First of all, nobody knows a blessed thing about them, not even the military or the Strike Witches themselves. We never figure out who they are, what they are, where they come from, or what they’re doing. The design for these extraterrestrials is baffling. Most of them look like they were lifted from some bad Cinema 4D tutorial. In one episode, we have the girls fighting an alien shaped like a giant Rubik’s cube. On top of that, the enemy isn't even remotely threatening. Apparently they’re so little of a threat that the Strike Witches don’t even bother to go after them, they just laze around at home base until one flies overhead.

The fanservice isn't anything you haven’t seen before. If, for some reason, you haven’t seen enough of girls scrabbling at each other’s breasts, it might amuse you. But, while I like naked lolis as much as the next guy, the fanservice is stuck in place of a coherent story. There’s literally an entire episode about panties. After a while it just feels like a waste of time.

Strike Witches is an absolutely terrible anime, and I can only hope that I have saved you from the pain of watching it. In the end, the only reason you should ever watch this is if you need an anime that will make you sit back and think, "What the hell am I doing with my life?"

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Strike Witches Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) gioss - Jul 3, 2008	122 replies	by lorextreme »» Nov 11, 7:13 PM
	Poll: Strike Witches Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Sobzob - Sep 18, 2008	104 replies	by Papurudaiyamondo »» Aug 15, 5:45 PM
	Poll: Strike Witches Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) cyruz - Jul 10, 2008	64 replies	by b_oogaloo »» Oct 3, 2023 9:37 PM
	Will the humanoid neuroi appear again in the future season _Hitori - Sep 15, 2023	8 replies	by Fail_Man_X »» Sep 22, 2023 11:50 PM
	Poll: Strike Witches Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 ) cyruz - Aug 14, 2008	78 replies	by KayMigiwa »» Jan 15, 2023 1:13 PM

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