Directed by Kazushiro Takamura, and animated by Gonzo studio, the first season aired from July 3, 2008, to September 18, 2008. The story is quite interesting: taking place in an alternate version of World War 2, the Earth is under attack from mysterious entities known as the Neuroi. Their plague of destruction is horrifying, as swathes of the planet are complete obliterated by their attacks. All may seem lost, except for one thing...the Strike Witches! Composed of young women with magical capabilities, the Strike Witches are given special airplane legs, which expand their powers, and allow them to use weapons that are heavy for normal people to carry (excluding soldiers and other combatants). By fighting back against the Neuroi, the Strike Witches give the nations of the world hope for a future without their alien foes.
We start off the positives of Strike Witches with how it views the world during this crisis. In the real world around this time, the Allies were fighting against the forces of the Axis Powers, and neither side gave the other any quarter. In the alternate setting of Strike Witches, the countries that composed the Allies and Axis Powers have put aside their differences to combat the Neuroi. In addition to that, the countries that the characters come from have different names from their real-life counterparts, and their respective territories are different than those of the real world. It’s actually impressive how this all works out, as it’s essentially a what-if scenario...minus the aliens, magic, girls without pants (more on that in a bit), and obliterated swathes of Earth. It’s also interesting to note that the girls in Strike Witches are based off of real life pilots, who generated a lot of fame for themselves during WW2.
The second positive of Strike Witches are the main characters. The show deals specifically with the 501th Joint Fighter Wing, which is composed of some of the most colorful young girls ever created for an anime. Each of them have a distinct personality that separates them from one another, yet each of them have things in common that connect them to one another, and form some very strong friendships. Although I liked them all, my favorite had to have been Francesca Lucchini, the youngest out of the girls. Being 12 years old, she’s as playful and mischievous as a 12 year old girl should be, yet she can show greats amount of courage, and never falters when fighting the Neuroi. Oh, she also has a thing for boobs, but it’s more of a love for them rather than anything more...fanservicey.
Which leads into the third positive of Strike Witches. This is perhaps one of the dirtiest shows I’ve ever seen, yet at the same time is a little bit reserved in regards to the fanservice (with perhaps a few exceptions). I said earlier that the girls where absolutely no pants whatsoever (but they still have on panties-like garments, and the two Japanese characters wear swimsuits under their sailor tops.), yet because of the nature of their airplane legs, the can’t wear pants, as their legs need to be in direct contact on the inside of them for their increased magical powers. Also, because of the random attacks of the Neuroi, taking off pants would waste time, and possibly get them killed. So, because of the chaotic attacks, they don’t wear pants. Even with the underwear that some of the characters wear, you can see a good portion of their buttcrack (trust me, there’s a lot of butt shots). Despite this, noone else around them is a pervert (except perhaps a few of the 501th fighters), as they see this as a completely normal thing.
In addition to this, there are a few other fanservice moments. There’s Lucchini’s love of cleavage, some moments of exposed cleavage and full nudity, and there’s yuri vibes as well, which isn’t so obvious unless you know what to look for. While not on a risque level, many of the characters kinda have a thing for one. For example: Yoshika (one of the first primary characters the viewer meets) has a thing for her friend Lynnette, mostly because she has a large pair of breasts. At first this is why she has the hots for her, but over the course of the seasons, she develops real feelings for Lynnette, but hasn’t told her yet. There are plenty of other examples of yuri parings, yet to tell you more of them would ruin some of the story elements. They don’t necessarily move the story along, but they do add for some funny and touching moments.
Outside of the fanservice, the next positive of Strike Witches is the mix of genres it uses. Comedy, drama, magical girl, science fiction, and fanservice comprise the bulk of genres within Strike Witches, along with a few others that I can’t think of at the moment. Usually this mix can either do a great job together, or they’ll try and tear each other’s throats out. Luckily, Strike Witches succeeds at mixing these together to create a highly entertaining show that’ll stick in your head for quite a while.
Strike Witches’s next positive is the voice acting. With perhaps a few exceptions, the voice acting is well done. The voices for the main characters sound quite believable, and even the secondary characters feel as though a lot of work was put into them. Sorry if this section of the review is shorter than the rest, but I honestly can think of anything else to put here, other than there was a lot of good work done with the voice acting.
Strike Witches’s last positive is the availability and pricing. Being released back in 2010, there are plenty of copies over on Amazon. Starting prices for the complete collection of season 1 are at the 26 dollar range, while used copies start at close to 13 dollars. There’s also a blu-ray release of season 1 coming out late July, with a pre-order price of $37.99. I personally would go for the original DVD release, but any purchase of this show is a worthwhile deal.
I’ve pretty much given Strike Witches nothing but praise throughout this review. Called me a opinionated, but I really enjoyed this show. There’s only about one, maybe two, things that irked me during this show. One is a bit minor, while the other is a little more serious. Either way, they need to be discussed
As I said earlier, the voice acting in Strike Witches is great, but there are a few exceptions. It’s not that they weren’t doing a good job or anything, because they were. It’s just that the voice for some of the characters just didn’t quite fit. In the Japanese dub, Lynnette sounds innocent and shy, but in the English dub, she sounds a little more confident and strong. It doesn’t match the character, as she really is innocent and shy. I might be a little nitpicky about this, but it’s at least worth mentioning.
This next negative is perhaps a little more noticeable to some. This is also a bit spoilery, so if you haven’t watched the show yet, then zoom past this. One of the lead characters, Minna, is the leader of the 501. Before she joined, she had dreams of being a famous singer, but those dreams were broken when her lover died in a Neuroi attack. Because of this incident, she develops this fear of losing everyone close to her, and gives an order for male members to not have any contact with the other witches. I actually detest this, as one person’s pain should not have to become some type of twisted law for someone else to follow. Actually, this is a little cowardly to me, so I’ll stop here before I pitch a conipshinfit and break my keyboard.
Strike Witches: Season 1 gets a 9.2 out of 10. The alternate timeline is played out well, the main characters are great, the fanservice is plentiful yet somehow tasteful, has a nice mix of genres, the voice acting rocks, and it can be easily found with a fair price, but some of the voice acting doesn’t quite fit with some characters, and Minna’s pain becomes cowardice.
I’ll see you later this week, where I’ll post up something old school for you. Until then, stay Otaku!
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Just a quick heads up about Strike Witches: at the end of this year, season 2 will be released by Funimation. Currently, Amazon has it on sale for pre-order at the price of 60 something dollars.
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