If someone were to ask me what my biggest guilty pleasure in anime is, I wouldn’t have to hesitate to give them an answer... It is, without a doubt, Strike Witches. Much like Starship Troopers and Pirates of the Caribbean, Strike Witches is a franchise that I’m so thoroughly enamoured with that I will faithfully check out every single entry in the series no matter how bad they might get... Well, once they come out on DVD, that is. I haven’t seen the third season yet, because the physical release is still pretty expensive, and ebay sales have been extremely slow lately. I made one small sale back in July, and that’s it. Without that extra income to supplement my bills, they’ve been eating me alive lately, and I’m probably not going to be able to check out Road to Berlin until the price drops, hopefully this holiday season.

Regardless, I love Strike Witches, but given just how strange the concept is, it’s a miracle that it’s managed to be as successful as it has been. It’s a show about teenage girls wearing jet engines on their legs, fighting hexagonal alien beings in the sky while wielding magical powers alongside giant guns. They have to go virtually half naked during these fights, panties exposed to the world, and through some insanely stupid logic, the look caught on throughout the world, and women just don’t wear pants. Or dresses. Or skirts. Not even shorts for some reason. Just underwear, and see-through tights. Even for someone who loves the show as much as I do, you have to admit, that’s a whole prescription full of hard pills to swallow.

Still, it is a successful series, and I think there are four main reasons for that... The four pillars of Strike Witches, if you will. The first pillar is Action. The aerial battles between the Witches and their alien nemesis called The Neuroi are fast, intense, and extremely well animated, to a degree that wasn’t just ahead of its time back then, but still kind of feels ahead of its time now. Each Witch brings a different magical power, and thus a different style of combat, to the battles, which creates a shifting dynamic to the combat scenes throughout the series, especially as the writers experiment with different neuroi designs, creating a level of ‘monster of the week’ type excitement that’s triumphantly reminiscent of Evangelion. As a result of all of this, no two fights are the same. The first two seasons were each animated by a different studio, yet both were able to seamlessly blend traditional and CGI animation for these battles.

The second pillar is fanservice. Strike Witches is easily one of the most accessible anime on the market that features uncensored nudity. The first season came out in 2010, when bare breasts that weren’t covered by hair, steam and other convenient environmental items were already starting to disappear due to western influence on the art form, and nowadays, it’s become extremely rare to find, even in ecchi shows that are very explicitly designed for adults. Goblin Slayer, for example, will show fairly graphic depictions of monster-on-human rape scenes, but they still go that extra mile of making sure nobody’s nipples are visible when it’s happening, which... Yeah,. those are some priorities that deserve unpacking. When a woman's body is considered more offensive than the violetion of said body, that's pretty fucked up. In comparison, Strike Witches is a sanctuary for anime nudity. It’s a cheap and easy show to obtain, and it’s a legitimately high quality, entertaining anime in general.

The other two pillars kind of do converge a bit... The third pillar is the cast of characters, and the fourth pillar is the comedy. I went into great detail about this in my review of the first two seasons, but Strike Witches has one of the brightest and most synergetic casts I’ve ever seen in an anime. There are a staggering eleven main characters, each one perfectly distinct from the next. They all have their own individual strengths, weaknesses and interests, with actual flaws and unique backstories, and while some of them do fit into some tired old cliches, it doesn’t feel like any of them were lazilly written. Like I said in the previous reviews, you might not like all of them, but you’ll almost certainly remember all of them. The humor of the series didn’t rely on random non-sequiturs or sight gags, it built itself on the chemistry of the characters, how they clash with one another, how they fit in with one another, and how our loveable cypher Yoshika reacts to them.

Having said all that, there’s one nagging question that needs to be asked... Does Strike Witches need all of these pillars to be good? Well, quality IS subjective, so I can only go off of my own opinions on this, but I think we can figure this out by looking at a few other examples. First off, there’s always going to be an argument over whether or not nudity is necessary in media. I would argue that media itself is unnecessary... Art is non-essential, and it’s supposed to be based on expression and not necessity, so why should nudity have to be necessary in the first place? But that’s an argument for another day. More importantly, does Strike Witches need it? Well, the movie certainly didn’t, and it was pretty cool. I’ve seen anime that had JUST as much nudity as Strike Witches, that fell flat on their face in every other regard. Brave Witches is certainly devoid of fanservice outside of episode 1 and the OVA, and while it does feel like a step down from Strike Witches, I don’t know if we can blame the lack of fanservice for that when it also doesn’t have quite as memorable of a cast.

The same could be said for Kantai Collection, AKA Kancolle, which was missing every single pillar EXCEPT the action... Which is disturbingly similar to the action of Strike Witches, if we’re being honest... And that show is, as I’ve said before, dull as shit. I’m sure it has its fans, but I cannot for the life of me fathom why. I’ve tried watching the series twice, and I can’t remember a single character’s name or even a single enjoyable moment. So yeah, a strong cast of characters and a good sense of humor must be really important. Okay, then what if there were a version of Strike Witches that eschewed both fanservice AND action, and instead just focused on comedy and characters?

This all brings me to my subject for today, Strike Witches: 501’st Joint Fighter Wing Take Off! Or, because that’s a tedious title to have to type out over and over again, Take Off! Based on a four-panel gag manga and released in 2019 for the ten year anniversary of the franchise, Take Off was produced by Giga Productions, and if you’ve never heard of them before, yeah, that checks out. A smaller and more obscure company, Giga has actually had their hands in a ton of well-known titles over the years, but it’s always been to a lesser extent... They do Key animation, In-Between animation, Line tests and stuff like that. As far as I can tell from their body of work, Take Off and the 30 minute ‘movie’ that concludes it are the only projects they've ever had full production responsibilities over... And for what it is, they did a damn good job.

Strike Witches is by no means the first or only franchise to get its own super-deformed or chibi spin-off, but out of the ones I’ve seen, it still strikes me as a stand-out for just how ambitious it is. Most chibi spin-offs are just random out of character nonsense, or they’re some kind of fourth-wall breaking meta-commentary on the series, or something like that. Take Off almost feels canon in its depiction of the characters and their daily lives. The actual canonicity of the series is a bit difficult to nail down, as there is evidence that the series is made up of material taking place between the events of the first two seasons, but there’s also substantial evidence that it’s happening independently in its own pocket reality. I seriously doubt the writers put a lot of thought into this, and while I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to analyze it from that angle... I support all forms of fictional analysis... I don’t personally think it would be worth your time. This series isn’t really concerned with being lore accurate, it’s just concerned with being funny, and it is DAMN funny.

Much like the series proper, the comedy in Take Off is based on character interactions, which are based on the unique personalities of the characters... Although their depictions are a bit hit or miss. Yoshika is still the main character, and while she retains her likeable qualities from previous installments, she is a bit less tactful here... Her reactions to the odd behavioral quirks of her comrades are a lot more blunt, and while it’s not entirely accurate to her character, it does make for some very funny reactions. Erica Hartman and Trudy Barkhorn also have a really strong presence in this series, and while Hartman is the butt of a lot of jokes... Her laziness is exploited hard by the writers... She winds up sharing a lot of moments with Charlotte Yeager and Francesca Luccini as general troublemakers, often getting violently reprimanded by other characters who they either insult or inconvenience. Barkhorn is still a hardass, but she’s largely portrayed as an ally of Yoshika’s as they try to keep everything in line. Mio Sakamoto is often shown as socially awkward, Minna Deitland Wilke is the subject of constant misunderstandings, and is generally probably the most diverse in her presentation.

There’s a huge spotlight placed on the long-teased ship of Eila Juutilainen and Sanya Litvyak, but it never comes to fruition... Which is kind of a good thing, because while I’ll admit I’ve always been on the bandwagon for this ship, Eila is downright creepy in this iteration of the series. Like rapey stalker creepy. I’m not saying it doesn’t lead to some funny jokes... Eila has so little self awareness that she’s willing to call out other people for stalking behavior right in front of a highly put-upon Sanya... But the extreme nature of the comedy here ultimately saves her. If she acted this way in the main series, it would get seriously uncomfortable. One character who’s had a total overhaul is Lynette Bishop, once the blandly supportive best friend of Yohika, she’s adapted a far more interesting role as the girl who knows her workplace well enough to keep herself safe, even at her coworkers’ expense. There's violence in the show, but it's not o the level of onscreen slapstick... Characters say something they shouldn't, and then we cut to them being injured in the next frame, an example of whip-sharp comedic timing.

Out of the entire cast, I’d say Sanya, Francesca, and poor Perrine Closterman, who only really has a featured role in one episode outside of being reaction fodder, are the only characters who really drew the short straw here. Still, with eleven characters to balance out, someone was always going to be left by the wayside, and altogether I think this turned out really well. It’s a fittingly entertaining anniversary project that’s faithful enough to the original while mostly only employing small changes wherever they’re welcome. The animation is minimal, but it works really well with the style and pace of the comedy. The entire cast of the English dub is back, with the exception of Sanya(a recasting you probably won’t even notice), and they haven’t missed a step. I can’t really say I’d recommend this to anyone who's new to the franchise...That’s pretty obvious, though, you probably shouldn’t get into an anime by starting with the chibi spin-off... But if you’re an established fan like I am, it’s absolutely worth your time, and I think you’ll really enjoy it.

I give Strike Witches 501’st Joint Fighter Wing Take Off! a 7/10.