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Strike Witches 2, like its predecessor, is my guilty pleasure. I feel a bit like a pre-pubescent girl when watching it (this from a 40-ish year old man). It has some deep flaws in the core, but it also has some redeeming qualities, which generally makes it watchable - if only for a specific interest group.

Starting with the Good: If you're into War Anime, or a fan of WWII-era aircraft and lore, you may have a strong attraction to this series. The aerial combat, aircraft, and weapons designs are very tasty to the eyes. The story, in general (as of episode 4, and in general ... all of the 1st season) is enjoyable and at times actually enrolling. The characters are well-developed, although it very much relies on the viewer knowing them from the 1st season.

The Mediocre: The music and voice-acting for this series is good, but not outstanding - "appropriate" is about the best I can say, although I can't say anything decidedly negative. Call it "On Par" with most good anime.

The Bad: The main characters - essentially all the female characters - are walking contradictions of themselves. They vary in age from 13 to 20, but you'd have a hard time convincing anyone of that from the art alone. The characters are drawn to appear generally younger than actual age, although some have - inappropriately mature parts, compared to the perceived body maturity otherwise. As far as the male character goes - sorry, "characters" - good luck telling them apart. They're not the focus, so they're pretty indistinct. When they appear at all.

The Ugly: This franchise is infamous for it's panty-shots. The plot and its technology/magic combo gives the girls a reason to bare their legs continuously - and this season they seem to have dropped any pretense of using that to justify the underpants, none of which seem to come past half-crack-height. This season seems to have a lot more censor-glare than was required of the first. This season also seems, again just after the first four episodes, to have migrated from "innocent young girl friendship grope" to something with a bit more squick behind it. I hope that this is a passing thing.

The Summary: The plot, the tech art and combat scenes, and some aspects of the characters are entertaining for a military buff who doesn't mind girls - fans of Sora No Woto, for example (a much better anime) might enjoy this. If you can get past the squick. And believe me, there's a fair bit of squick.

Catblue: Dynomite is a textbook example of a great idea poorly implemented. It definitely needs more love, and I think (even though it's only 4 years old) a remake or "reboot" could turn this into a fantastic series or OVA/ONA.

Characters:
I'm tackling the characters first here, because they are the strongest feature of the show. These characters have been referred to as "stereotypes", but that's not really taking it far enough - they are actual Archetypes, pulled straight from a Quentin Tarantino movie. The hard-ass New York Italian lowlife; the funky 70's blacksploitation hero; the wise-cracking street-smart Lady with a Grudge (and, in this case, nekomimi). ... This trio and the supporting characters and villains could power through just about any story they were dumped into.

Story:
The storyline itself is well written, enough so that you want to keep watching the rest... except there isn't any "the rest". It very much feels like an episode in a larger story, although it stands well enough on its own that you don't feel abandoned like at the end of some anime (*cough* NGE *cough*). Yes, there are some serious inconsistencies, such as the entirely inappropriate Jennifer Lopez reference in what is obviously supposed to be an homage to the 70's mob scene.

Animation:
Things start to go bad now. This is a cell-shaded CG movie, and as is often the case, that means the backgrounds look grand - but the characters are iffy. The scenery, cars, buildings, etc are gorgeous. The character designs are gorgeous. But when they move - ugh. It looks like rotoscoping. The mouths are over-animated - in the attempt to make sure you *know* they're speaking English, maybe. The only time these characters actually let their lips meet is when they're absolutely silent.

Acting:
Ugh. This is really where this anime falls apart. The voice acting sounds like a cold table reading rather than a final audio track. I have to admit that the voice actors do manage to capture the essence of the characters, they just seriously sound like they're reading a script instead of acting their parts. Since this is an English-only piece, it could be that the Director (if Japanese) just couldn't tell if it was good or not.

Music:
To end the detailed breakdown on this series on a high note, the music is spot-on. Appropriate to the era, mixed well, fits with the action perfectly. Two big thumbs up.

Misc:
* I'm seeing some abuse of this movie for not having a Japanese audio track. I don't understand that at all. It has nothing to do with how good an anime this is. There are a whole lot of anime out there that don't have English dubs yet (and many that likely never will). Deal with it.

* I found this show via Crunchyroll, and as far as I can tell, they, ANN, and this are the only places that know of it. There is no wikipedia article, no IMDB entry. Not even a tvtropes entry. "Needs more love" indeed.

Conclusion:
The design behind this movie is brilliant. Scenery, character design and development, music, script, etc - nearly flawless. The execution, however, is a near utter failure. In the end, I want to watch more - but I want to see it better produced. The best indicator of how good any piece is, is this - would you recommend it? I have to give an unequivocal "yes" to this. I want more people to see it. I want to see more of it. And I desperately want to see it better cared for by its creators.