Originally starting out as a series of magazine articles, Strike Witches has exploded in popularity and has been adapted into various light novels, manga, video games, and of course anime! Throughout the franchises history all the novels and manga and short stories have followed various groups of girls and the anime is no different! The story of season 1 of the anime follows the all-female cast of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, known also as the Strike Witches! Set in an alternate reality version of World War II all of humanity has united, using women with powerful magical abilities, known as Witches, as the strongest line of defense against a powerful alien race known as the Neuroi.
Neuroi
Witches the world over use special, highly advanced technology they wear on there legs that allows them to fly through the skies with ease and also enhances there magical abilities. These devices are known as Striker Units.
Striker Unit(plus panties! XD)
The anime follows Yoshika Miyafuji as she joins the 501st to help stop the Neuroi from invading Britannia(Note: all nations in the Strike Witches franchise are the same as the real world ones. The only difference are the names. For example, Britannia is Britain), as well as to search for clues as to the possible whereabouts of her supposedly dead father. Along the way she meets and befriends all the members of the 501st, who are all fun and interesting in there own unique way!
Miyafuji Yoshika(Fuso aka Japan)
Mio Sakamoto(Fuso)
Lynette Bishop(Britannia)
Perrine-H. Clostermann(Gallia aka France)
Gertrud"Trude" Barkhorn( Karlsland aka Germany)
Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke(Karlsland)
Charlotte "Shirley" E. Yeager(Liberion aka United States)
Francesca Lucchini(Romagna aka Italy)
Aleksandra "Sanya" Vladimirovna Litvyak(Orussia aka Russia)
Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen(Suomus aka Finland)
Erica Hartmann(Karlsland)
That is quite the cast of leading ladies! O.o Despite the huge cast the show does a very good job of giving everyone there chance to shine in the spotlight to give us a chance to really get to know them and we get to know them pretty well! :D Despite the big focus on the girls, there is no shortage of great action in this show! Due to the alternate WWII setting and with the series taking place in 1944 there are tons of references to vehicles, weapons and historic battles from WWI. The Striker Units themselves are based on real world WWII fighter planes from each Witch's home country! The series does a very good job of catering to military aficionados such as myself! ;)
Of course, this being an anime with an all female cast, there is TONS of fanservice to be had! :D All women in the Strike Witches universe run around without wearing anything to cover the lower half of there bodies! The most cover they might have are skirts and tights! Needless to say pantie and breast shots abound in almost every scene! XD This is pure heaven for fanservice freaks like myself! ;) Adding a level of cuteness to it all is the fact that all Witches have an animal familiar.When a Witch activates her powers or puts on her Striker Unit she will grow animal ears and a tail pertaining to the type of animal familiar she has! Each animal fits in with the personality of each girl but at the same time it is just too damn cute! :P Of course this being a fanservice laden show filled with pretty girls there is bound to be some yuri! Even better is the fact that the yuri is not just used for service, there are some very strong hints of mutual feelings between many of the girls. Sanya and Eila are probably the most well know and beloved of the yuri couples in the whole franchise and there interactions with each other show off some very strong mutual feelings between them! :D Yoshika herself seems to have a thing for Lynette, as well as a thing for breasts in general! Lynette seems to also have a thing for Yoshika! Minna appears to have hidden feelings for Mio, Lucchini and Shirley are pretty attached for each other and Lucchini also has a big thing for breasts! Perrine also has a hardcore stalker lust for Mio! The yuri is very strong in this series!
Despite the heavy service, the series has a lot of heart! The setting is unique and interesting, the action is fun, the girls ooze with great personalities, and the yuri is awesome if admittedly light in season 1. The animation quality is pretty good and consistent throughout the series and the voice acting(in Japanese anyway) is top notch with some of the biggest Japanese voice actresses in the business lending there voices to the girls of the 501st! As for the US Blu-Ray release itself the series looks damn good in 1080p and the show sounds great in Dolby TrueHD for both language tracks. Though again, I prefer to watch the series with the Japanese voice track on! :P Sadly the release comes with only one extra. Episode 12 comes with a bonus audio commentary from the US cast of Strike Witches. It is pretty interesting but they could have added so much more to this release. It IS Blu-Ray after all!
All in all this is one fun, solid, action packed, fanservice filled show! There is just about a little of everything here to please everyone! Season 1 does a great job of setting up the premise and introducing us to the large cast of girls! While it may not be a series for everyone, I can't help but recommend that you give this series a try! This show is just plain fun!
Strike Witches Season 1(Blu-Ray) overall score: 9.5/10
Strike Witches Season 1(Blu-Ray) yuri score: 8.5/10(for now >D)
Neuro
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