The second anime I finished this week was Strike Witches. For a complete and better summary then I could write check out wiki for all your Strike Witches information. It sad to see Strike Witches go but there are already plans for a second season and even a spin off series. Well at least that's what I've heard from 4chan and I never did get around to checking the link that was provided so you might want to take that information with a grain of salt.
In any case Strike Witches was this summers Sky Girls as it was a band of girls who could fly and had weapons of war to take out invading alien armies. I really enjoyed Sky Girls and was thrilled to hear of Strike Witches but I did have reservations about the witches part because I'm not much for magic girls anime. I however was not let down as the magic part is only a small little part of the anime. Unlike Sky Girls and their full size mecha battle units the Strike Witches had WWII era weapons (well minus the one rocket launcher as I think that was a Vietnam war Era weapon) and what is called a striker unit which is like an airplane minus everything but the engine and propeller. It's a matching pair that are fitted over the girl's legs. An interesting concept if you think about it.
The interesting thing about the girls who make up the Strike Witches 501st squadron is that all the girls and their respective striker units are based off older generation fighter pilots and their respective airplanes. I thought that was a pretty cool idea and why I probably liked Charlotte (Shirley) E. Yeager the most as she flew a modified Mustangish Striker Unit and achieved the speed of sound in one episode. Hell yeah! Although not to be left out all the girls were cute in their own right. Oh I almost forgot one of the other interesting aspects of the Striker Units. When the girls activate their witch powers they also grow animal ears and tails that are also somewhat respective of their craft.
Since the girls need to get into and out of the striker units none of them wear any pants or skirts making for a lot of pantsu shots. I heard this turned off a lot of people as they just saw this as a blatant way of tossing in a ton of ecchi fanservice. However I didn't really see it that way as the bath scenes were way more ecchi in nature (those girls just couldn't keep their hands off each others' breasts it seemed) and I can see the reason behind not wearing pants and skirts though tights might have been an OK option but I'm not complaining. Not only is there a lot of breast groping but there are other slight yuri undertones through out but they never go anywhere and you soon just forget about it and enjoy the anime for what it is. So those people who dropped it because of the fanservice well they sure did miss out on something fun and entertaining and I hoped they liked their Naruto crap instead.
I'll be looking forward to the next season of Strike Witches, though who do they fight now that the main evil alien force is destroyed? Further more I'll also be looking forward to someone picking up the licensing rights for an American release as I would like to see the magic fog free DVDs but would rather buy them or rent them from Netflix than to re-download them again. Plus I really think that Strike Witches would be a good buy at least give it a shot. I believe you can still check it out for free and legal on Crunchyroll and maybe youtube as well.
