Strike Witches: Season 1 Box Set

Now here's an interesting premise for an anime. It's got cute girls, aliens, panties, magic. What more can I say for my opening paragraph? Oh, the DVD's are generally uncensored, so it's an ecchi anime, don't like then you might not enjoy this one.The story starts in the year 1939, A mysterious Black cloud appeared in the sky, Aircraft were sent to get rid of the black cloud, but soon after they attack a mysterious black aircraft emerged from the darkness and fired lasers to wipe the fleet out, this is where the battle with the Neuroi began. In order to combat the Neuroi threat, man worked to make a new weapon, this weapon was known as the Striker Unit, a special set of plane engines powered by magic one wears on their feet and legs. A call went out to all the nations of the world to recruit witches with the potential to weild these Strikers, thus the 501st Joint fighter wing was formed. Now we meet Yoshika Miyafuji, a middle school girl from the Fuso Empire, she soon finds herself being recruited by the Strike Witches, of which she refuses as she hates war. That is until she receives a letter from her supposedly dead father, Dr Miyafuji, the inventor of the Striker unit. She goes with them to find out if her father really died. I'll leave it at that for now.The art style is pretty standard for the character models, they are pretty cute in this respect, where the anime seems to excel is the designs of the weapons and striker unit, modelled on actual World war aircraft and weapons. There are one or 2 instances of which small attempts at 3D are trying during flight, which works I felt.The soundtrack is appropriate considering the themes, war time band fair and orchestral songs as well as more cutesy music. Some is memorable while some isn't as much. The Opening and Ending themes "To do what I can" and "Bookmark ahead" are cute but don't feel different or unfitting. But then I have heard the songs over and over through my headphones from a dual album. The dub now I'm sure some of you are curious to know about. Considering the reputation Funimation seems to have for dubbing from the fan sub group, the voice work is not bad at all, no voices grated on me but a need to adjust to the voices might be needed, but as per usual the original Japanese voice work is included.Now for the DVD's, for a fan like me, the DVD cases are lovely, featuring art of 8 of the 11 Witches spread out over the 2 covers, the cover case that keeps the DVD's together has a synppsis on the back featuring Shirley and Lucchini (Characters not included on the DVD cases) and some screen caps, which are pretty sweet. Whilst Miyafuji completes the set on the front of the case. The DVD's themselves feature different art of Miyafuji.The contents on each disk are:Disk 1 - The first 6 episodes and the option of voice workDisk 2 - The final 6 episodes, the voice work option and Trailers from FunimationNot much on the disks, bare bones stuff but I can give it a passOverall, Strike Witches is a series of fan service to both the otaku crowd and the aviation fans, the story might seem unfocused till the final few episodes but most episodes have character development, Art isn't going to win any awards but it's very cute. A soundtrack that is fitting and a pretty good dub to accompany it.It's a personal favourite of mine, so if it sounds like your kind of thing then I implore you give it a go .

I loved this show so much. Being set in an alternate 1940s-era, it was interesting to see nations fighting alongside each other instead of what happened in real life. The show is very funny and cute. I loved it so much that I went and ordered the 2nd and 3rd seasons after I finished the 1st.

This is a great seires. I put off buying this for the longest time (wasnt sure if id care for the WW2 setting) So a few weeks ago amazon had this on sale for 20$ so i figured id give it a shot and im glad i did. Yes theirs alot of fan service (and id like to say if your 1 of those who dont like fan service stay away from these kinds of shows, and if ya dont, dont come to these sites complaining about it). Funny thing is while wacthing this i really didnt notice the fanservice as much as when i watched Rosario + Vampire. It was ridiculas the way they basically threw a panty shot in almost every seen just to show their panties. Now dont get me wrong i dont mind fanservie so long as it adds some humor but to show panties for the sake of showing them gets old mighty fast. Anyway i really didnt think the fanservice was all that bad in this series. All the girls are really quite special in their own way,. Normally i just faver 1 or 2 chars in a series but i liked all the chars even the stuck up girl wich i normaly detest. Our lead lady Miyafuji really is the heart of the show. Funimation did a excellant job in dubing this so no complaints their. The video both Standard and BR was great no issues unlike some of the other BR combo's ive seen them release. So if ya wanna kill a few hours with some good laugh's definatley get this 1, i have ordered the 2nd season and cant wait for the movie to come out heres hopeing. Hope they make a season 3 but not gonna get my hopes to high knowing how they do with shows like these.

At first it looks like little more than fan service on a stick. Get past it, this is one of the best stories I've seen in a long time. Character development is good and the story line is engaging and well written. It's not as generic of a storyline as it seemingly starts out either. Due to the "fan service" and some adult situations I'd probably not recommend it for children, at least not without adult supervision and having watched it first. On the plus side for parents, there's not a lot of blood and it's handled tastefully (It IS a war, injuries happen). The setting is an alternate world where WWII was preempted due to an alien invasion and the only effective force to fight them is magic. Magic is not commonplace, so witches are recruited from all over the world to fly the "Striker Units". (If you look at the case, you'll see one on each leg of the main character). They even have magic propellers keeping the "WWII" feel intact. The countries are all renamed to give it a more "alternate world" feel, but it's not hard to figure out. I prefer not to give away the storyline in reviews. I will say there is an interesting contrast in the main character, who fights only because she wants to protect as many people as she can. (And at first seems to be an adamant pacifist, which never entirely fades). There is also some interesting character development around why people fight and the effects their reasons have on them. A little simplified, but it is only 12 episodes. LASTLY! This is a DO NOT MISS IT anime for most fans, almost regardless of the type you like. Don't pass it up if you don't like one aspect of it, like setting, or combat, or fan service. It has a wide range of appeal!

If you love young ladies who activate their witchiness by growing fluffy ears and a bushy tail, before flying around the sky and trying to shoot alien spacecraft with world war 2-era guns and/or the occasional samurai sword - then this is for you.An added bonus, if you like that sort of thing, is regular and increasingly creative shots of the girls flashing their 'pantsu'. Of course, the plot requires for them to be wearing no trousers*, so they can fit their legs into their witchy broomstick apparatus.The plot is your standard 'young girl with abundance of raw talent joins more experienced crew and overcomes adversity and jealousy by saving the day on several occasions whilst learning and growing throughout the series' type-set-up. But as ever, it's in the delivery, the dialogue, the sheer joy and fun and (quite literally) cheekiness of the thing that sets this apart.All the characters are archetypes of their nationalities - I wouldn't say parodies, you just have to enter into the joyous silliness of the premise as a whole.Plus, hot pants. :)* apart from the French one, who seems to always be wearing tights. For those of us who like to see a lady in tights, I guess.

I found this series to be great fun (I have the second season on pre-order); the story follows an all-girl fighter squadron in an alternative universe version of World War 2, in which it is all the nations of Earth against an alien aggressor, the Neuroi.The most blindingly obvious aspect of the story is that no females in the alternative universe wear a skirt or trousers; the reason for this is that the Striker Units (the propeller-powered devices which attach to their legs and enable them to fly, using magic to power them; yes, I know - it doesn't bear close scrutiny!) need to to be in close contact with the wearer's legs to make the 'magical' connection, so trousers are out (although they can wear tights, apparently; and some of the girls do), and skirts would get in the way when they need to scramble, so they all walk about in their upper clothes (jacket, shirt, tunic or whatever; usually a military uniform of some sort) and just their knickers (panties to our US cousins) (and sometimes tights) on their lower body. In the story, this seems to be taken completely for granted, and there is no embarrassment attached to this. In fact, one entire episode (number 7, 'Nice and Breezy') is devoted to the girls underwear (although in a cute and funny, rather than sexy, way). Only the Japanese could do this! The pilot girls are all based on real WW2 pilots, and their Striker Units are all based on genuine WW2 fighter planes, and their weaponry is also based on real guns. It is a different, cute, funny story, and the characters and their interactions are lovable. If you can get over the tendency to have girl's knickers in about 50% of the shots, this is a really good series!

I have to say the box art caught my attention more than anything else. I wasn't really sure what to expect going into it, but I really enjoyed it. The story is set in an alternative 1939 where aliens are taking over the world and the Strike Witches are tasked with taking them out. The main character is Yoshika Miyafuji, a young girl who has joined the Strike Witches after receiving a letter from her father, whom was thought to be dead. The story follows Yoshika as she interacts with the other witches and during her training all of which lead up to some great action scenes when fighting the aliens. The english dub is above average as most of the voices fit the personality of the characters perfectly, but some of them do come across as a bit 'stereotype American bratty teen', but it doesn't distract from the overall experience. There is plenty of fan service in Strike Witches, whether it's one of numerous panty shots or the odd breast grab, there is even an episode almost dedicated to missing panties, but if you can look past all that then you'll be treated to a great anime with a good story and interesting characters. The last episode ends on a cliff hanger, so hopefully the second series will be released over here and if it's anything like the first, it will be a must buy.

I will start off by saying this was a very good idea for an anime as well as being very well animated. I didn't give it the full 5 stars because although it is funny and enjoyable it is lacking a little bit in plot, especially the last 2 episodes.Although it is not going to make my top 10 list of anime it is still very good and worth the money. 4/5 stars

I saw some clips from this on U-Tube and just had to have it. I have watched it through twice already, its so funny and just a little rude in plcaes. It has an interesting plot line and is drawn very well. It was also very nice to have it in English as it was in Japanese with Spanish sub titles on U-Tube.For any anime fan or artist who likes manga art, it is a must.