Three years ago I watched this anime and slapped it a rotten score. After all an anime featuring pantless gunbopping teenage girls couldnt possibly ascribe anything of depth to the varied community of anime goers and entertainment seekers today right? Right. Then during my second time through I realized something unbelievable about this series. This anime isnt about halfnaked chicks shooting down big black cocks with guns. Right? Rightish. So yesby my THIRD time through I realized: Strike Witches is an idiot savant of an anime. It is an attempted excuse for Japans WWII guilt and combined with incidental radical feminism investigates a unique reality of victory for all humans and absolution of the original Axis Powers. Furthermore rather than to be undone by fellow man the retribution for all the anger of that era is instead unleashed upon an enigmatic alien race bent on aimless worldwide destruction. Your 501st Fighter Wing. All the guns less of the garments. 88/100 Despite my rather despicable claims this simple misdirected story eagerly rakes in a bare perspective on Japanese postwar culture more than any other anime series Ive ever watched. Yoshika Miyafuji our protagonist from the Fuso Nation has after a series of misadventures found herself smack dab in the middle of an international war between humans and a hostile alien invader known as the Neuroi. Though the Neurois intentions and methods are unknown Miyafuji and the 501st Joint Fightersthe Strike Witches or gunwielding teenage girls utilizing magicpowered legmounted rocket engines known as Strikers to flydedicate their lives and panties to the survival of mankind. One of the most misunderstood things about this anime is its high degree of fanservice. Nearly every ten seconds the viewer is exposed to some sort of sexual innuendo be it the slightest visual of pantsu or a blatant bath scene with boobs flopping about like custard. The delivery is unabashed in consistency if not almost bewildering considering the depth of the alternate historical content. Indeed this deceitful mask of perversion disguises a highly controversial possibility for this alternate universe as follows: Despite being a relative time frame to what we live there is no evidence for existing nonJapanese Asians Jews or Blacks in the entire series INCLUDING doujin and moviebased media. In the series the closest to being black might be the Italian girl Francesca but considering the brutal circumstances of World War II it freaks me out that neither a Jew or a Chinese exists among the ranks of survivors. For some reason only a small group of magical women between the ages of 1220 seem to be effective as combatants. Men older women and machines seem to be rather defenseless rendering none but Highly Effeminate Teenage Vixens HETV as our only hope. What are the Neuroi? The mysterious qualities of the enemy are vividly explored but some answers arent given. I find it fascinating that the Neuroi have chosen a spot of the world between Karlsland Germany and eastern Russia Orussia as their hive. If we consider the alignment of world powers during the war era isnt it interesting that the brutal enemy of humanity is stationed somewhere in Central Asia? Also isnt it just as interesting that the good guys in this series happen to hail from Japan Fuso Karlsland and Orussia? Does anyone see what Im getting at here? My conclusion is that Strike Witches presents as an innocent peep show when it ruthlessly stakes on radicalism and nationalism as the true berth of survival. The weakest races have been eliminated and a unique gift of power to women establishes a rather unanticipated form of feminismperhaps with the intent to balance out the missing historical factors of this show. This is particularly true with feminism. Throughout the series we CLEARLY see the reduced sexuality of womens legs as nearly all women in the show do not wear pants. For the otaku this is obnoxiously fanservice to the alternate reality this is a normal getup. In this setting men would have to start from this specific style of dress to find sexual arousal and thus would be presented less opportunities to think perverse thoughts. Women too lose power through arousal of men and are then more focused on careers and independence. Im sure many a fan has tried to excuse this by saying that in order to fit into the Strikers they cant wear pantsblah blahrequiem stop talkingIll bite you sort of argument is the most cogent. The sad truth is that theyre only halfway there. Feminism wins simply by the lifestyle of this series andconsidering that all other types of Asians are missingit is winning much more than races or gender stereotypes by default. We also have evidence for radicalism through the consistent failures of men throughout both seasons. Airplanes battleships and maritime weapons are all rendered useless bereaved of all duty but to serve as cannon fodder for the elite Witch squadrons. Commanders shrug helplessly while their ships are mercilessly crushed and sunk and whatever authority they might even have over Witches is easily bypassed. Next if the Bechdel test were to be applied to this series hardly a moment in it would fail. The entire series voids men of any appeal or authority focusing the entire story on the Witches and their sisterhood. This is fascinating especially considering that a tit or ass flies across the screen with all but sexual abandon. Even Yoshikas awkward tit fetish remains effeminate keeping the perversion limited only to women without delving into yuri or shoujo ai. Also in great relief there are absolutely no random peeping scenes involving halfnaked men getting punched by tiny women into the stratosphere while shouting I AM LIKESO SORRY. Or at least not as in the exhausting case of practically EVERY ecchi harem series known to otakukind. Altogether though the creator himself may not have even dreamed of this his lewd creation defines unique in its background plot and style. It may have been designed to make men horny and stupid but it could still be insightful enough for any informed viewer. For reasons such as this I can offer a ridiculously high score. Twodimensional but wellgrown. 55/100 While stock characters are expected for a series focused on as many pantsu shots as possible making sure the characters actually fit together is not as such required. Strike Witches makes several attempts to go beyond that particularly with complicated ladies like Minna Eila or Gertrud. I should not be spoiling this series at all in saying that our main protagonist lives up to our expectations as her limitations and delimiters all come and go as expected. There are a few good moments for everyone even support characters such as Shirley Perrine and Francesca. Regardless all of the girls make up for their limited personalities with wellplaced anecdotes of growth. Mio in particular encounters a struggle that puts the entire squadron through many hardships yet we see with her continued passion to save humanity a constant state of perseverance. When not enthused by boobs and butts we actually start to see a little bit of depth to everyone as they fight their own personal battles at least moreso than the drooling we do while they fight the actual enemy. My personal favorite? Definitely Perrine. Not because shes a prissy tsuntsun nerd that offers the best personalitytosexualexploitation ratio mainly just because she is easy to figure out. In fact each witch has some sort of spice to her that feeds the lonely wolves like me. While it is designed as an advertisement net to catch and draw my attention it is at least nice to get a little more differential between the women than a typical 21st century harem series with the same visual appeal. Incidental music WIN. OP/ED fail. 86/100 Neither the opening nor closing theme of either season was particularly fascinating. Though well composed and nicely sung the openings are unfortunately the same drab Ishida Yoko dancepop ditties that dominate such a small market with upbeat feel and trendy melody. Even though they are in the same court as Ishida the Ive Sound girls always manage to harness a stronger or more atmospheric melody. To its own justice the series should have had its own personal opening theme. Or perhaps rather than dance music why not something on the side of a tune from the WWII era? Either way another pop song about Doing what I can do and loving some certain undistinguished person is justifiable for me to skip ahead one and a half minutes as soon as possible every time. Meanwhile the real groundwork is done by a time tested artist like Seikou Nagaoka. His track Witch no Tatakai or A Witchs Fight is a driving force for perhaps the entire series climactic moments. Written with a very powerful bass line we can feel the surge of excitement build up as the melody creeps in at some point seconds later. The sort of champion melody rises out of the trumpets or in some cases an electric guitar through the oscillating strings and builds up more and more intensity when recapitulating for a second time through. This track is perfectly aligned for underdog victories high speeds and pretty much most highly emotional scenes on the battlefield. For something that he probably threw together in 20 minutes the perfectly chained elements make it quite unforgettableI still could recall it several years after my first viewing of the show Nagaoka also empowers more endearing moments with his gentle strings in Eikou no Kiroku. He draws out mystery with Kunou and its Dorian harp. He demonstrates his mastery of orchestration with the grinding bass harmonies in Neuroi no Su he. Without a doubt the musical programming for a show like this fit all too perfectly to serve as distraction from the fanservice or at least more than the jumpy tunes that surround each episode. An animation behest to brehests. Ha. Ha. Ha. 72/100 As a healthy male I would be criminalizing this series for giving the animation a score lower than 70 points. It is literally as though the animation studio took an extensive class on drawing vaginal protrusions and ample bosoms while studying butlery. Seriously. Every few seconds however subtle or obvious a boob or butt is served warm to our eyes as a feast delivering the most intoxicating form of perversion so much so that we are left passively molested by our screens. While many other series might put this one to shame in this regard very few can deliver with the same degree of tastefulness. My biggest detractor for score here is solely the key animation. Often during fight scenes the characters shapely figures would become too fluid and perhaps notsoshapely. In fact within the first five minutes of the series we see a rather terribly drawn view of Gertruds patooty as it is quite clear that somebody was too busy completing key frames to actually bother providing detail to her shape. This same mistake happens several times showing that despite the ample details the budget wasnt exactly such. That said the action scenes were made with good intention. The weapons are drawn badasseven to the extent that they can be as exciting as theyep you guessed itperhaps the best action scene in the entire show might be the part in season one concerning Shirley and Mach 1 though not very detailed the desired effect came through quite well. As for the best episode it is without debate the infamous sukebemushi of Season 2 episode 7. Uncomfortable for many at first but the wounds will heal. 78/100 And that is perhaps the best thing about Strike Witches considering the great deal of socially unacceptable content unleashed over 8 hours visually. If you are a Forever Alone this series will provide great comfort. If you want to see something controversial and can choke down the hypnotizing amount of female parts give it a shot. OR even if you are looking for unique Feminist propaganda this would be great material for a write up. If you are a married man who wants to pick up a good series to watch with the familywhile I would personally think how awesome you are for even trying to suggest this series you might just want to save it for when the family goes to sleep or if you watch in sprees when they go to see the old folks for the weekend.