Strike Witches is a show that seems to be attempting to be more than one type of anime, from wholesome moments to straight up pervy fanservice and then to serious and gritty plots towards the end. Its hard to grasp just what they were going for with this show and whilst it wasn't bad I feel there was more than a little room for improvement even if it was enjoyable to watch so with that said lets dive in to the show.

Right at the start you are introduced to out protagonist Yoshika Miyafuji, a school girl who just so happens to want to look after and protect everyone this than leads to the reveal of her magical powers or should I say cat ears and tail? yep you guessed it magic in this series is represented with cat girls, why? who knows but its clear that her pure way of thinking and wanting to protect everyone is what they were pushing for in this anime when she is discovered by the Major and asked to join the strike witches, a unit of girls with the same powers using this strange gear called a striker unit and guess who designed them? if you guessed Miyafuji your half way there, the striker unit was developed by her father thus pulling her into following the Major over to Britannia (Britain in this universe) in the hopes of discovering more on her father, this is where the first twist or so comes but its a little ridiculous that during their journey to Britannia the Neuroi attack this UFO causes the Major to take flight and fight, this is the first moment it prompts Yoshika to action as she wants to help. By Episode 2 it gets rather stupid as I mentioned when Yoshika puts on the striker unit and can somehow pilot it despite no experience but lets look past that but what I couldn't help but notice was an animation error where the gun she was holding just randomly disappears. Its also a little bit of d*** move for the Major to not tell her her fathers dead till they arrive but of course our cheery protagonist looks past this, they really are going for the pure and innocent girl bit here I see.

Now this is where the show starts to divert whilst the next few episodes are alright showing them battling Neuroi training together and so on there isn't much that stood out other then that it was rather enjoyable to watch however this show takes fanservice a little too seriously when its 90% panty shots even during the more serious and emotional moments which is why I say this anime doesn't really know what it wanted to be, now I'm not made of stone I'm not against a little fanservice but its when its done to the point where you have an entire episode dedicated to them stealing each others underwear that i draw the line, I watched this because i saw it as a cool concept based in a war setting only to watch episode 7 where they spend the entire episode stealing panties from each other, at this point surely we should be moving the plot forward no? some character development? guess again we only get that later.

Episode 8 finally touches on the serious tones of war which was unexpected since up till now they kept a light tone on the show as it mentions the loss and pain of one of the witches who's sister was put in a coma (don't worry she wakes up later in the show so its not that serious sadly but I'm guessing they wanted to keep it happy and wholesome). However this episode presents something I found absolutely stupid, as they get older their powers begin to fade and expire with the Major mentioned her age of 20 so lets get this straight, powers last up till around their 20s and then fade? A little strange given how strong the Major is shown to be in the first episodes more than a little sudden don't u think? This foreshadows episode 9 but of course we need some sort of tragedy to move the plot don't we as the Major falls in episode 9 only to be revived by Yoshika, now this is where I'm rather irritated, It would have been more powerful for either the Major to die given the sudden direction the show was taken or for Yoshika to die trying to heal her given that at the beginning we are told she is not to exert herself or she could pay with her life trying to heal somehow, but instead they went the power of friendship route and the Major wakes up later on thus ruining the serious built up up till now.

The last segment of this show becomes rather predictable as we see Yoshika interact with a Neuroi that is copying her, its obvious that in her pure mind she doesn't want to fight if she doesn't have to but its a little crazy that the Neuroi for some reason shows her that the Warlock (the army's secret project to replace the strike witches) just happens to be using Neuroi technology (wow I'm sure this wont end badly) but its never explained as to way they do so, however this leads to her being confined and the forced disbandment of the strike witches because they refused to carry out orders to kill her, no matter we move on to watching the Warlock take on the Neuroi Hive which as expected ends poorly as the Neuroi seize control of it, no but seriously what did you think was going to happen when your using their technology?.
The Warlock goes rogue and attacks the army and I found a slight issue with how easily the witches snuck onto a army base and casually stole back their striker units or how the Major has one in her wheel chair, you would think they would be guarded properly no?
Once more Yoshika faces off with the Neuroi and it tries the illusion of being friendly which almost gets her killed, this steels her resolve that the Warlock is the enemy and through combat they destroy the warlock but its a little stupid how this happens given how the Warlock is displayed to being more advanced then their striker units as well as the fact that the Neuroi are shown to be able to mimic, this means they could have had data on their patterns and fighting styles, the strike witches in realistic logic should have lost this fight even with how strong they are but hey plot Armor.

Overall this show tries multiple avenues to stand out and as a result doesn't exactly excel in any of them, don't get me wrong this is a good show but its not exactly what you would anticipate, however they at least build on several of the characters and their backgrounds and I feel this show would have been amazing if they focused on one specific avenue and maybe cut back on the panty shots, I came her to see some badass anime women but no matter its a solid anime that I will say is at the least above average and enjoyable.