FanBoy vs FanGirl: Yuri Anime Review: Strike Witches Season 1(Blu-Ray)

Sorry for the delayed Strike Witches review! Have not had time to watch it lately! :P

***SPOILERS AHEAD!***
***NOT SAFE FOR WORK!***

Originally beginning as a series of illustration articles in magazines, Strike Witches has exploded in popularity and has been adapted into various light novels, manga, games, and of course anime! All the light novels, manga and anime follow different sets of characters and the anime is no different! The story of season 1 follows the all-female cast of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, known as the Strike Witches. Set in an alternate reality version of World War II the whole world has united as one, using women with magical powers as there best line of defense against a powerful alien threat known as the Neuroi.

Neuroi

Witches the world over use special, highly advanced technology they wear on there legs that allows them to fly in the sky with ease while enhancing there magical abilities. These devices are known as Striker Units.

Striker Unit(plus panties! :D)

The anime follows Miyafuji Yoshika as she joins the 501st to help stop the Neuroi from invading Britannia(Note: all nations are roughly the same except for the name. Britannia for example is Britain), as well as to search for clues as to the fate of her supposedly dead father. Along the way she meets and befriends all members of the 501st who are all unique and interesting in there own way!

Miyafuji Yoshika(Fuso aka Japan)

Sakamoto Mio(Fuso)

Lynette Bishop(Britannia)

Perrine H. Clostermann(Gallia aka France)

Gertrud "Trude" Barkhorn(Karlsland aka Germany)

Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke(Karlsland)

Charlotte "Shirley" E. Yeager(Liberion aka United States)

Francesca Lucchini(Romagna aka Italy)

Aleksandra "Sanya" V. Litvyak(Orussia aka Russia)

Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen(Suomus aka Finland)

Erica Hartmann(Karlsland)

That is quite the cast of girls! O.o Despite the large cast the series does a pretty good job of giving everyone there chance in the spotlight as we learn about each and everyone of them pretty well! Even with the focus on the girls there is no shortage of great action in the series! Due to the alternate WWII setting of the show, as well as the fact that the series takes place in 1944, there is a ton of references to weapons, vehicles and historic battles fro WWII. All the Striker Units themselves are based on WWII fighter planes from each witch's home country. This series definitely caters to military aficionados like myself! ;)

Of course this being an anime with an all female cast there is most certainly a TON of fanservice! All women in this world run around without wearing anything covering the lower half of there bodies! The most cover they have are skirts and tights! Needless to say panty and breast shots abound in almost every scene! needless to say this series is heaven for me! XD Adding a cuteness level to it all is the fact that all witches have an animal familiar. This means that all the girls grow ears and tails pertaining to there familiar. Each familiar fits to the personality of each girl but at the same time it's just too damn cute! :P Of course this series being so fanservice laden there is bound to be yuri! Even better is that the yuri is not just played as service, there are some very strong hints of mutual feelings between some of the girls! Eila and Sanya are probably the most well known and loved of the yuri couples in the whole franchise and in there interactions with each other there is definatley some strong feelings between the two! Yoshika herself seems to have a thing for Lynette, as well as a thing for breasts in general! Minna appears to have hidden feelings for Mio, Lucchini and Shirley are pretty attached to each other with Lucchini also having a thing for breasts! The yuri is strong in this series!

Despite the heavy service this show has a lot of heart. The setting is pretty fun and interesting, the action is fun, the girls ooze with personality, and the yuri is great if admittedly a little light in season 1. The animation quality is pretty good and consistent throughout the series and the voice acting(in Japanese anyway) is top notch with some of the best female voice actresses lending there voices to the girls of the 501st! As for the US blu-ray release itself the series looks damn good in 1080p and the show sounds good in Dolby TrueHD for both language tracks. Again though I prefer to watch the series with the Japanese track on. :P There is sadly only one extra. Episode 12 comes with an audio commentary from the cast of the US dub of Strike Witches. Pretty interesting but they could have added more extras, it IS blu-ray after all!

All in all this is one fun, solid, action-packed, fanservice filled anime! There is just about a little of everything in here to please everyone! Season 1 itself does a great job setting up the premise and introducing the large cast of girls! While not a series for everyone, I can't help but recommend that you give it a try! Just a plain great series!