It seems that I’ll be the first new author to make my appearance. The name’s Vadigor and I’m a long-time reader of AniAri. I’m usually found commenting on Shirukii’s lack of regular updates (mostly at his request) but as of today I’ll be joining the team in an effort to make his laziness less apparent. I’ll have the honour of writing alongside him on this little part of the aniblogosphere. If for some reason you’d want more personal information about me, a short biography should appear on the site sooner or later. Now without further ado, I give you my recap on Strike Witches, the latest series from Gonzo.

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A note before I start, I’ll be covering the series up to episode 6. The episode 7 raw has been out for some time now but it seems that the few groups that have picked this up are running behind.

Odds are that most of the more dedicated loli fans are already following this series, seeing as so far it’s been running almost entirely on it’s all-female loli cast and non-stop fan service. And how do they pull that off you ask? The answer is right there in the first snapshot. Haven’t noticed it yet?

How about now?

Strike Witches has been dubbed the Pantsless Anime, and with good reason. It seems that we’ve ended up in an alternate history where World War II is replaced with an alien invasion and pants for women under 40 are unheard of.

The year is 1939, every country has a nice new name, the Nazi’s are replaced with laser-firing aliens dubbed the Neuroi and women called Witches have magical powers but no pants. From what we’ve seen so far the Neuroi are similar in nature to NGE’s Angels. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, are always seen alone and are essentially indestructible, except for their core which is located somewhere in their body. Oh, and they quite like their lasers.

Mankind is about to be wiped off the face of the earth when one man saves the day with the creation of a new kind of weapon: the Striker Unit or in common terms, Plane Legs. These devices magnify a Witch’s magical power, giving them the ability to fly at transonic speed, create protective force shields and wield hundreds of pounds in military hardware.

With their shields and magic-infused weaponry these units proved to be the only effective defense against the Neuroi and thus the 501^st Joint Fighter Wing or the Strike Witches were born, a fighter wing comprised entirely of lolis without pants.

Sound familiar? It should, both Strike Witches’ story and its character design originated from the mind of Humikane Shimada who did the character and mecha design for Sky Girls. While that series at least made some attempt at handwaving their fan service mechanics, Sky Girls no pantsu just foregoes it entirely. Some say that the Striker Units require direct skin contact with the user but this is hardly plausible given that several of the girls wear tights. The lack of civilian pants is also supposedly explained somewhere in the novels as young girls idolizing the witches and imitating them by not wearing any pants…Yeah.

And if you think the lack of pants alone is bad enough, you haven’t seen anything yet, I’ve only just started. Guess what happens when the Witches manifest their powers.

It seems like Gonzo wants to cater to every loli-fan out there, giving each girl animal ears and tail that show up whenever they equip their Striker Units. So far we’ve seen everything from cat and dog features to rabbit ears and even a leopard tail. Something for everyone I suppose.

Oh Hell No

Not only did they give each girl animal features, they also gave them distinct magical abilities, from Sakamoto’s Geass X-ray vision, Miyafuji’s healing power to Sanya’s use as a radar and radio receiver. Also, all the characters are modelled after real-life fighter pilots. (one of which is still alive)

The animation so far has been mediocre, the character designs are solid but combat scenes leave much to be desired. So far action scenes have been limited to the Witches flying around blocking lasers until they discover the location of the core at which point someone gets to blow it up. Given the setting and the nature of the Striker Units the show had a lot of potential for awesome dogfights, but as it is the action scenes are not much more than a way of creating even more exotic panty shots.

Plot-wise, Strike Witches has been following the beaten path so far, the main character Myafuji was recruited into the squadron after showing her innate skill with the Striker Unit and she’s been accepted as a true member of the group after showing her worth in battle. After that every episode has chronicled her getting to know the other members of the Strike Witches: the shy girl with a minority complex, the veteran with the distraught past, the speed freak, etc.

Apart from that, we’ve also had the usual beach episode, and pretty much every episode features a hot spring scene as well. In case you’re wondering if these traditional fan service elements are really applicable in this already fan service laden show: yes, yes they are.

Gonzo also doesn’t hesitate to explore the sexual tension in the squadron, with Myafuji having dreams about “flight training” with Lynette and other more straightforward scenes throughout. I doubt we’ll see any real development on this field though.

 

Overall, the plot has been nothing but a device to carry the fan service. In the latest episode we have what could be some foreshadowing to changes in the current standoff or possibly a government conspiracy, but I doubt it will turn out to be anything major. My guess is that it will continue its current trend until the entire cast is introduced, at which point the battle against the Neuroi will escalate and our heroes will have to save the day. I admit that I’m curious as to what explanation there will be for the Neuroi’s presence and origin. Their military tactics aren’t the brightest yet they somehow managed to occupy Europe. Someone or something behind the scenes is a likely possibility. It would certainly be interesting to see new Neuroi sporting swastikas.

In conclusion, Strike Witches is running solely on its fan-service and character design. I have some hope left that we’ll see some actual plot development, but with the series at it’s halfway point and with Episode 7 slated to be a Panty Thief episode (with even more NO PANTS than usual) it’s doubtful. If you quite like your loli fan service this show will be right up your alley, otherwise you’re not missing out on much.

Except an awesome doggy paddle.

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Shirukii’s take:
Even if you disregard the fact that Vadigor chose Pantsu Witches (FUCK YEAH LOLI/PANTSU FANSERVICE!) as the basis for his sample post, I enjoyed it immensely. While it was a little rough around the edges in terms of grammar and there were some spelling mistakes/typos here and there, the content was solid and the post flowed well, and I expect that as he continues to write, the technicalities will smooth out. I have a hard time placing Vadigor’s writing in any one descriptive style, the best I do is say that it’s pleasant to read, and interesting enough that I want to see more of it. And so we shall.