Strike Witches - Complete First Season (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

(update, got a second exchange in the mail. the case is fine but two pins are broken, they still keep the discs in.)My [first] package came a bit messed up but otherwise everything is fine. I dont know if i want to go through the hassle of getting it replaced not sure what to do at this point. I will say this case has a reverse cover art to get rid of that obnoxious green SAVE logo.The box is only slightly thicker than a regular blu ray case that has a cardboard sleeve on it. Also both blue ray and dvd versions appear to be uncensored and it includes english voice acting, and japanese voice acting and has english subtitles you can turn on.

At first it looks like little more than fan service on a stick. Get past it, this is one of the best stories I've seen in a long time. Character development is good and the story line is engaging and well written. It's not as generic of a storyline as it seemingly starts out either. Due to the "fan service" and some adult situations I'd probably not recommend it for children, at least not without adult supervision and having watched it first. On the plus side for parents, there's not a lot of blood and it's handled tastefully (It IS a war, injuries happen). The setting is an alternate world where WWII was preempted due to an alien invasion and the only effective force to fight them is magic. Magic is not commonplace, so witches are recruited from all over the world to fly the "Striker Units". (If you look at the case, you'll see one on each leg of the main character). They even have magic propellers keeping the "WWII" feel intact. The countries are all renamed to give it a more "alternate world" feel, but it's not hard to figure out. I prefer not to give away the storyline in reviews. I will say there is an interesting contrast in the main character, who fights only because she wants to protect as many people as she can. (And at first seems to be an adamant pacifist, which never entirely fades). There is also some interesting character development around why people fight and the effects their reasons have on them. A little simplified, but it is only 12 episodes. LASTLY! This is a DO NOT MISS IT anime for most fans, almost regardless of the type you like. Don't pass it up if you don't like one aspect of it, like setting, or combat, or fan service. It has a wide range of appeal!

In 1939 an unknown enemy called the Neuroi appeared and waged war on the entire Earth. Men have no effective weapon to fight them. The only hope for victory is a group of witches called the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, a.k.a. Strike Witches. Yoshika Miyafuji is the newest member of the group. She is the daughter of the scientist that invented a magic powered unit that allows the witches to take flight and fight the Neuroi.This anime is really fun. It has great animation, great voice acting, interesting characters and a pretty cool story. This isn't one of those story driven shows though. It's mainly a comedy, ecchi, genre series. The plot isn't bad though. This show isn't for younger viewers though. There is a lot of nudity and girl + girl stuff in this one. It is a really cute series though. It focuses mainly on the characters and their friendships. I really enjoyed this series and I hope more people like it as much as I do. It's loads of fun.

For the blinding amount of fan service this show has it is actually really good if you like alternative history with a hybrid of sci-fi and fantasy, with a little dash of pseudo-"steam punk".

Strike witches is one of the better amines I've seen. There is a good story line if you actually watch for it and the animation is great. Now it can get hard to see anything past the nudity of the girls but you have to understand that this is from Japan and there culture is different than ours.The voice over is pretty good but like all cartoons/anime the mouth does not move with the words correctly. it could have been better if aniplex did the production instead of funimation due to the fact that the unnatural beams of light wouldn't annoy people and they can stop complaining about it.Watch this on netflix first and save your self some time and money $8 is still cheaper than the asking price and if you like it you can order it like I did

So Before WWII, a new threat versus aliens arises. . .and the World is at War versus these aliens. Europe has fallen. The frontline is England. France is lost. These fearsome little girls are a Band of Sisters that use their magical abilities for air superiority dominance versus a hostile alien force bent on destruction.They find a new recruit and she touches each of their lives differently to make them stronger and better in saving humanity.Observation. . .they fly around in swimsuits. . .partial nudity during the bath scenes.

If you love young ladies who activate their witchiness by growing fluffy ears and a bushy tail, before flying around the sky and trying to shoot alien spacecraft with world war 2-era guns and/or the occasional samurai sword - then this is for you.An added bonus, if you like that sort of thing, is regular and increasingly creative shots of the girls flashing their 'pantsu'. Of course, the plot requires for them to be wearing no trousers*, so they can fit their legs into their witchy broomstick apparatus.The plot is your standard 'young girl with abundance of raw talent joins more experienced crew and overcomes adversity and jealousy by saving the day on several occasions whilst learning and growing throughout the series' type-set-up. But as ever, it's in the delivery, the dialogue, the sheer joy and fun and (quite literally) cheekiness of the thing that sets this apart.All the characters are archetypes of their nationalities - I wouldn't say parodies, you just have to enter into the joyous silliness of the premise as a whole.Plus, hot pants. :)* apart from the French one, who seems to always be wearing tights. For those of us who like to see a lady in tights, I guess.

I found this series to be great fun (I have the second season on pre-order); the story follows an all-girl fighter squadron in an alternative universe version of World War 2, in which it is all the nations of Earth against an alien aggressor, the Neuroi.The most blindingly obvious aspect of the story is that no females in the alternative universe wear a skirt or trousers; the reason for this is that the Striker Units (the propeller-powered devices which attach to their legs and enable them to fly, using magic to power them; yes, I know - it doesn't bear close scrutiny!) need to to be in close contact with the wearer's legs to make the 'magical' connection, so trousers are out (although they can wear tights, apparently; and some of the girls do), and skirts would get in the way when they need to scramble, so they all walk about in their upper clothes (jacket, shirt, tunic or whatever; usually a military uniform of some sort) and just their knickers (panties to our US cousins) (and sometimes tights) on their lower body. In the story, this seems to be taken completely for granted, and there is no embarrassment attached to this. In fact, one entire episode (number 7, 'Nice and Breezy') is devoted to the girls underwear (although in a cute and funny, rather than sexy, way). Only the Japanese could do this! The pilot girls are all based on real WW2 pilots, and their Striker Units are all based on genuine WW2 fighter planes, and their weaponry is also based on real guns. It is a different, cute, funny story, and the characters and their interactions are lovable. If you can get over the tendency to have girl's knickers in about 50% of the shots, this is a really good series!

I have to say the box art caught my attention more than anything else. I wasn't really sure what to expect going into it, but I really enjoyed it. The story is set in an alternative 1939 where aliens are taking over the world and the Strike Witches are tasked with taking them out. The main character is Yoshika Miyafuji, a young girl who has joined the Strike Witches after receiving a letter from her father, whom was thought to be dead. The story follows Yoshika as she interacts with the other witches and during her training all of which lead up to some great action scenes when fighting the aliens. The english dub is above average as most of the voices fit the personality of the characters perfectly, but some of them do come across as a bit 'stereotype American bratty teen', but it doesn't distract from the overall experience. There is plenty of fan service in Strike Witches, whether it's one of numerous panty shots or the odd breast grab, there is even an episode almost dedicated to missing panties, but if you can look past all that then you'll be treated to a great anime with a good story and interesting characters. The last episode ends on a cliff hanger, so hopefully the second series will be released over here and if it's anything like the first, it will be a must buy.

I bought this along with the second season and i have to say this is a really good anime series. The whole cast is filled with lots of likable characters and there were lots of scene that made me laugh. Fair warning: this show is filled with lots of fan-service so if you have a problem with that sort of thing this might not be for you.

After findig out about this series and it's content, I decided to buy this set. It found out to be great.Set contains 12 episodes in 2 discs, in original Japanese & English dub. Can't say anything on the dubbing quality, as original voices is the choice for me.One thing that bothers me is that all episodes are put into 1 long title and episode selection is for selecting an episode at which point the whole title will play to the end. If that won't bother you then go ahead and buy it.