Three years ago, I watched this anime and slapped it a rotten score. After all, an anime featuring pantless, gun-bopping teenage girls couldn’t 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 isn’t about half-naked chicks shooting down big, black cocks with guns. Right?

Right…ish.

So yes…by my THIRD time through I realized: Strike Witches is an idiot savant of an anime. It is an attempted excuse for Japan’s 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 I’ve 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 Neuroi’s intentions and methods are unknown, Miyafuji and the 501st Joint Fighters—the Strike Witches, or gun-wielding teenage girls utilizing magic-powered, leg-mounted rocket engines known as “Strikers” to fly—dedicate 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 The delivery is unabashed in consistency, if not almost bewildering considering the depth of the alternate historical content.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 non-Japanese Asians, Jews, or Blacks in the entire series INCLUDING doujin and movie-based 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 12-20 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 aren’t 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, isn’t it interesting that the brutal enemy of humanity is stationed somewhere in Central Asia? Also, isn’t it just as interesting that the “good guys” in this series happen to hail from Japan (Fuso), Karlsland, and Orussia? Does anyone see what I’m 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 feminism—perhaps 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 women’s 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. I’m sure many a fan has tried to excuse this by saying that “in order to fit into the Strikers they can’t wear pants—blah blah—requiem stop talking—I’ll bite you” sort of argument is the most cogent.

The sad truth is that they’re only halfway there. Feminism wins simply by the lifestyle of this series, and—considering that all other types of Asians are missing—it 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 Yoshika’s 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 half-naked men getting punched by tiny women into the stratosphere while shouting “I AM LIKE…SO 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.

Two-dimensional, but well-grown. (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 well-placed 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 she’s a prissy, tsuntsun nerd that offers the best personality-to-sexual-exploitation 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 I’ve 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 Witch’s 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 unforgettable—I 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 bre-hests. 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 not-so-shapely. In fact, within the first five minutes of the series we see a rather terribly drawn view of Gertrud’s 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 wasn’t exactly such.

That said, the action scenes were made with good intention. The weapons are drawn badass—even to the extent that they can be as exciting as the…yep, you guessed it…perhaps 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 sukebe-mushi 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 family…while 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.)