Strike Witches

Title: Strike Witches Genre: Action, Ecchi, Magic, Science Fiction Rating: 3.5/10

Summary: The year is 1939 - it was then that the Neuroi appeared. Nobody knows where they came from or what their ultimate agenda is, but the fact remains that their attacks drove people out of their towns and cities. In order to take arms against them, humanity develops a new anti-Neuroi weapon called the "Striker Unit." Using the power of magic to fight against the monsters, this new device enhances and amplifies the power of female magic-wielders. To use this device, young witches from all over the world have been brought together to form an elite task force unit called the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, commonly known as the "Strike Witches."

Review: I decided to watch this anime for two reasons: 1) I read a couple good reviews and 2) a second season was released/funded so I figured it would be good. Let’s begin by saying, “Where are the pants?!” Apparently in this series it is illegal for women to wear pants, or non-see-through pants. The only reason I would expect these girls to follow such a law is because the consequence is the death penalty. The only time walking around pantless is an acceptable rule for young girls. I thought maybe it was because the girls can’t quickly jump into their striker units if they wore pants, but no; even nurses who have no direct correlation with Strike Witches are not allowed to wear pants. I understand that the anime was meant to be ecchi, but they took it to a whole other level. This is the first anime I have seen with so much loli-gagging it was painful. The first nine of twelve episodes were nothing but fan service. Very awkward, possibly illegal, fan service. On top of that, they threw in furry for whatever reason. Basically this rant is a long winded way of saying, “Strike Witches has too many pointless aspects”. An entire episode dedicated to pantie stealing isn’t my idea of a good show, especially one that is supposed to be action. It wasn’t until the final three episodes that a story starts forming. Before it was a simple “These things bad, these things hurt people, you kill” war story. By the time the actual story appeared I was too irritated by pantless pre-teens to care. Some of the character models seemed to actually want you to hate a couple of the Strike Witches. A horrible idea if the character isn’t meant to be a bad guy, or if you see them every episode for long periods of times. Possibly the only positive thing I have to say about Strike Witches is the few moments of action. It was a cool concept to have people flying around in leg jets firing rockets and Gatling guns. But of course the animal ears and tails that randomly spawned on their bodies (which served no actual combative purpose) didn’t help the coolness factor. The animation would have been good if it didn’t consist of nothing but up-skirt (or up-nothing) pantie shots and bath scenes.

Final statements: The only thing I have to say about Strike Witches is if you are going to get this ecchi, just make it a comedy anime. Don’t even try to make it action because it doesn’t work. Then again, their attempts at comedy were a swing-and-a-miss. I guess they were below average at all angles. Avoid watching.