Yes, this anime really happened. And it sold a shitload of blu-rays too. The most ever for a nude fanservice anime, as it turns out.
Torrent: Seeders needed!
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Strike Witches was among the very first of the new wave of ecchi series. It aired during the Summer season of 2008, one season after Kanokon (aired in Spring ’08) and during the same season as Ikkitousen season 3 (Great Guardians). Ecchi had a bit of a jump start in the early 2000s but for some reason kind of vanished in 2006 and 2007. 2008 was it’s comeback.
The year 2008 was a pretty big one for ecchi and helped spark a wave of momentum for the genre. Ecchi has grown and grown in popularity in recent years, even Funimation and Viz (Blood lad) have started to become pretty agressive at licensing ecchi genre despite the ever decreasing sales power of anime and video entertainment in general. As popularity has grown, animation studios have gotten bolder and bolder with their ecchi content- trusting the masses to eat it up. Right now is the best time yet to be an ecchi fan, and the huge success of Strike Witches played a pretty big part in that.
Strike Witches season one was pretty bold for it’s time. Not just for the nudity level, but how young the girls were drawn and how much the series mixed genres in an attempt to break into the mainstream of anime fandom (which, amazingly to me at least, succeeded). Produced by Gonzo (Hellsing OVA, Full Metal Panic!, Gantz) back when Gonzo still had a pretty good reputation for quality, it was visually impressive for any series by 2008 standards, doubly so for ecchi genre. AIC picked up the rights for a sequel and released Strike Witches II in the Summer of 2010. AIC is very under-rated as an animation company in my opinion, and produced a sequel that was arguably even better than season one visually.
I’m a little surprised that three years have gone by without another Strike Witches series, given that it was written for TV without any manga timelines to hold it back. It’s hard to make money in the anime business which is why (like Hollywood) they love making sequels. Given Strike Witches widespread popularity, even among closeted ecchi fans, I’m pretty surprised they’ve gone this long without a 3rd season. Perhaps they were afraid of the product going stale (see Ikkitousen) and decided to “re-roll” Strike Witches with new names and faces in the form of Vividred Operation (same director and character designer). (Though it’s worth noting, Strike Witches (Gonzo), Strike Witches II (AIC), and Vividred Operation (A1 pictures) were made by three different companies.) I’m guessing that’s what happened, but if so, it’s a bummer, because the nudity level in Vividred doesn’t hold a candle to Strike Witches. That said, any nudity from an A1 pictures project is an exciting development.
As far as the video itself, Strike Witches is a bit on the lolicon side, obviously. There are some who think lolicon content in anime is a threat to society. I’m of the opinion that those who push such an agenda are misguided, but that is a post for a different time.
As is the case with a lot of ecchi-action series, the OP segments tend to focus on action while the ED segments tend to focus on service. I did a quick re-edit using parts from every strike witches OP as my bumper, and then pieced together all the fanservice moments from the EDs (including one nude shot). One of the raw-providers included some scans from the BD so I added those to the closing section as well.
I’m not much for self-promotion. If you like these videos and want to return the favor in some way, please spread the word to other like-minded fanservice enthusiasts. That would be awesome. I know if I wasn’t making these, and someone else was, I’d definitely want to know about it.
