Also known as Pantsu Witches to some and is set to run for 13 episodes. Oh boy where to start on this show. What genre should I even classify it under actually? It hits so many bases that I just don’t know where put it. I’ll let you decide. Heres some of what you can expect. Bloomers, semi mecha, magic girls, furry, no pants and most importantly loli/jailbait characters. Where would you put this now? Yeah exactly. So anyway what is all this about? What possible storyline could they come up with to try and hold all these elements of service together? Here it is.

Strike Witches takes place in a world that has been under savage attack from an enemy known as the Neuroi which first started to attack in 1939. They sporadicly appear and attack and just when people think they have worked out how they think, they change their strategy often catching people by surprise. Neuroi take the form of abstract or funky futuristic style aircraft. Not much is known about them really except that they spread a destructive miasma that annihilates human life, and transmutes the land into weapons for them to use.

The only way to combat this enemy seems to be use mages, typicly young girls, in what is called Striker Units. These mecha-like contraptions are fitted onto the legs like large stockings and allow the user to fly, enhances the ability to carry/use weapons that normal humans wouldn’t be able to and create a defensive shield when for when the user is under attack. When using these units the occupant sprouts animal ears and a tail, different to each girl be it cat, wolf like or fox.

Interesting no? I thought so at least. However the real attraction is the characters to me at least. Also as mentioned above, all the women under in this show seemed to be banned from wearing pants. I have no clue as to why exactly this is as none is given, but the best reason for this I have heard is “Pants would probably interfere with the machines they use, and it would take time to take them off when they have to get in the air really fast”. You’re welcome to try and conjour up a better reason but for the sake of continuing lets pass that speed bump. Lets introduce a few characters such as the main character and my personal favorites. Please excuse some of the photos, i’ve had to cap them from episodes due to the disturbingly low amount of single character photos.

Yoshika Miyafuji – She is the 14 year old main character of the show. She is your normal anime 14 year old in personality. Perhaps a bit more caring than what you would fine but there you go. She is part of a family who run a doctor’s clinic that heals people using magic. When she was little her father was called to assit in the war against the Neuroi and as a result, he created the Striker Unit. In the later episodes (4 onwards I suppose) she has an attraction to large boobs. What? Don’t look at me like that, its true. I’m not sure why exactly and your welcome to try and answer.

Mio Sakamoto – She is the Strike Witches 2nd in command and ranks as the oldest of the witches at 19 years old. She has a fondness toward Yoshika and is a normal type of military commander of strict and dominating. However she is always kind to people. She wears an eye patch that covers her right eye. Under this patch is a magic eye that allows her to see incredible distances and helps when fighting Neuroi.

Francesca Lucchini – She ranks as the youngest girl in the witches at 12 years old. She often is found sleeping around the base in downright odd places such as a tree, or in the rafters of the mechanics bay. She would much rather sleep or find a way to have fun with the girls over training. Then again that is normal isn’t it? When in her Striker Unit she gaints the ears and tail of a black leopard. She is tied with the next girl as my favorite. I can’t decide between the 2.

Sanya V. Livyak – Close behind Francesca at 13 years old. She is quite nocturnal and is often put on night duty because of her magical ability to detect signals such as radio. This gives her quite an incredible detection ability and is little wonder why she is on night duty so often. Her personality is a bit introverted and is often quiet, thinking to herself rather than speaking. When she flies at night she has a pretty song that she sings in order to help her detect things. She shares the same birthday as Yoshika.

Charolette E Yeager – 16 years old and is called Shirley by friends. Like Francesca she is rather carefree but is quite fond of cleanliness. A speed freak (not the drug) who loves going as fast as possible and was the first witch to break the sound barrier. She has perhaps the biggest… er… bust of all the girls.

Well there are 11 girls all up in the witches squad and since I can’t really go ahead and write about all of them for the sake of space and time, here is a group shot that wiki was kind enough to help with.

So with the series half over (buu!) there is little doubt that a 2nd Strike Witches season will be announced eventualy. We can only hope at least that is. If 1 of more of the above genre tags pique your interest then it wouldn’t hurt to watch 1 episode and see if you like the show. I suppose the closest type show would be Sky Girls but having never watched that I cannot comment exactly how close the shows are. That said if you liked Sky Girls then give this a try. Worst comes to worst you just wasted a bit of your time right?