Strike Witches OVA (Mecha Musume)

[Ciroth]

(i copy the image and uploaded to a photodump account so i won't be leeching... technically xD)

I don't believe many people would be familiar with this new show which should premiere on 8-11-006 according to the main website.

Homepage: http://s-witch.cute.or.jp/index.html

If you are a figure collector, you most likely know about the Mecha Musume vol 1 and vol 2 figures. (By the way, Vol 2 repaint version is on its way out).

Vol 1: http://www.konami.jp/th/figure/mecha/index.html (Out of Print)
Vol 2: http://www.konami.jp/th/figure/mecha2/index.html (Out of Print i believe)
Vol 2:: Repaint:: http://www.konami.jp/th/figure/mecha2_r/index.html (Due to be released)

(Yesh. i personally want the repaints also... but i digress)

These figures are very popular and are rare, if not hard, to find. Getting a full set of these figures is hard, since there are several variants of different figures. A full Vol 2 consists of 8 figures +1 secret, 5 is the normal set.

If you want better idea of the quality and details of the figures, click here. I'm guessing due to the popularity of these figures, they have finally gotten their own anime series. Last time i heard, Gonzo was doing the animation for it.

Official Summary/Blurb of this show in Engrish: "The world had received the attack from the existence of the mystery that appeared suddenly. Only girls who have magic can fight against them. They install arms in an own body, and fight in the sky, the land, and the sea. Fights of girls who defend the world start now."

I wonder how an anime based of figures are going to be like. Will Gonzo succeed in a good story with their amazing animation? ... I wonder... can't wait!



Facts:

Anime Premieres 8-11-06
Based off Figures ( I think... correct me if i'm wrong)
Homepage: http://s-witch.cute.or.jp/index.html#
Studio: Gonzo
Wallpapers are avaliable under the "SPECIAL" section.


NEWS FLASH! MAIN WEBPAGE HAS BEEN UPDATED JUST NOW! 8-10-06

There is a Trailer for the show!
And a lot more... xD

I hope i'm not wrong ..[After watching the trailer... it looks a bit.. strange ... lol]

[Kensuke]

Reposting my character list, Gonzo uses feminized names of the famous pilots for the characters. Well, in most cases, I couldn't find Mio's and Yoshika's corresponding names, I think they are two main characters, so maybe they are just "original" names, not conversions like all others.
Also, their weapons correspond their countries, for example Erica "flies" a Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6, and her weapons are MG42 and MP40.

Erica Hartmann - Erich Hartmann German. Most successful pilot of all time, 352 aerial victories.
Gertrud Barkhorn - Gerhard Barkhorn German. Second most successful pilot, 301 victories.
Sanya V. Litvyak - Lydia Litvyak Russian. Leading female pilot, 12 victories.
Francesca Lucchini - Franco Lucchini Leading Italian pilot, 26 victories.
Mio Sakamoto - ?
Yoshika Miyafuji - ?
Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke - Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke German. 162 victories.
Lynette Bishop - William Bishop Leading Canadian pilot of World War I, 72 aerial victories. (I'm not sure about this, only one I could found)
Charlotte E. Yeager - Charles "Chuck" Yeager American. 11,5 victories, shot down five enemy aircraft in one day.
Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen - Ilmari Juutilainen Leading Finnish pilot, 94 victories.
Perrine-H. Clostermann - Pierre Clostermann French pilot, 23 victories.

Well, the trailer was indeed weird, but I'm looking forward to this.

[Potatochobit]

hmmm i didnt know they were making this into an anime.

most of the planes and tanks are based off german and japanese models though. i hope they dont do a remake of a world war story. japanese seem to have a habit of changing facts and that offends alot of people.

recent events in the news is where the president of japan keeps visiting that japanese war shrine. now dont get me wrong, the japanese people that bravely fought in the war need to be honored, however, notorious class A war criminals who were convicted in the japanese army should not have their names there. this is upsetting most all asian countries.

think of it like this, if germany had a shrine built for hitler and considered him some sort of ominpotent being and the president of germany offered him gifts once or twice a year, that would upset all of europe.

now to be fair in recent news, i think rhode island, or it may have been maine, they celebrate the day japan officially annouced its surrender to america, i thinks its calll V-J day. now i can see how that may offend people in japan as gloating, but thats not the purpose of the ceremony, where as visiting the war shrine has only one purpose as to give honor to the names there.

i also remember some japanese anime where they made a parody of if japan had won world war II. i havnt seen it though, so i cant comment on it.

but anyway, to stay on topic. i hope the show is good but if they base it on historical facts, it needs to stay historical. and if its a new story, it should stay a new story. i dont have any of the figures but they always did catch my eye. ive seen alot of fan creations on the series too with like battleships and stuff.

[Vexx]

The problem arises because, according to the beliefs, departed souls shuck off all the errors, mistakes, and mortal attributes on death -- so there is literally no difference after death between the ancestors whatever they did in life (their karma is taking care of the rest). And since the departed made the world what it is today, one should acknowledge them whether they did good or bad.
Thats the rationalization anyway....

I suspect our "girls" will be fighting some imaginary war --- probably space aliens, the safest of all beings to "dehumanize"

(I'll give them some points for having a nice spread of Aces from a variety of countries)

[panzerfan]

They're missing the Stuka ace from the roster... o well.

I will give it a shot.

[Vexx]

Some of my wargames may never look the same again ...

[Siegel Clyne]

Strike Witches: Partial Cast Announced

Anime On DVD Community Forums: STRIKE WITCHES from GONZO ***2ND EDIT 08/08/06***

The same STRIKE WITCHES OVA cast revealed earlier in the quote above later showed up on Web Newtype Hot News (08/10/06), with comments about their characters and the show after a postrecording session.

Chiba Saeko and Tanaka Rie play the two "older sisters," the strict, fiery "oneechan" teacher Sakamoto Mio (age 19) and the gentle, elegant "oneesama" commander Minna-Dietlinde Wilke (age 18), respectively.

From her description, Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke sounds a lot like many Tanaka Rie characters: Lacus Clyne in Gundam SEED (DESTINY), Mariel in Hanaukyou Meidotai (La Verite) / Hanaukyo Maid Team (La Verite), Mikihara Ren in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Morganna (when she is being deceptively kind, loving and motherly, not when she is being really mean, nasty and evil) in .hack//SIGN, Commander Clodia Soult in the Blue Flow PC game, Queen Diana of Aquitaine in the Musketeer Rouge drama CDs, Princess Frolance Gemonina in the Rune Princess image album CD and video game, etc.

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by panzerfan

They're missing the Stuka ace from the roster... o well.

Rudel? Wasn't he supposed to have been one of the most appalling Nazis of all the Luftwaffe aces? Leaving him out would seem like a pretty good idea...

[panzerfan]

Good pt. although his combat record when it comes to total tonnage and damage inflicted is ... unmatched. The tanacity of Rudel's well documented as well.

[JanthraX^]

wow, the figures are amazing.

The anime looks very cool, looking forward to this OVA

[Anime Online]

Well, it's just fiction-anime. Even if they were to do a fantasy re-enactment of World War 2 where Japan won, I don't see it any different from all those WWII strategy games that present a "What if.." scenerio that allows players to actually lead Germany to victory.

In any case, the basic premise seems to be : there'll be lots of butt kicking in this anime where the characters are based/inspired from real-life fighter aces. I hope there'll be lots of dogfights in an alternative-version of the battle of Midway or something, though this seems unlikely judging from the official summary. Oh well.

[Kensuke]

Strike Witches novel: http://s-witch.cute.or.jp/novel.html#
Release date: October 1st.

That should be interesting to read. Aargh, must study japanese!

Well, I'm waiting for the anime, I hope GONZO does a good job.

[Guppy]

Just finished watching the OVA. Fortunately (or not, depending on your taste), it seems nowhere near as fanservicey as Sky Girls.

Spoiler for summary:

We lead off with an intro explaining the state of the world and how only our select bunch of intrepid young girls have the power to save mankind, etc. etc. Then we cut to our rookie trio of Yoshika Miyafuuji, Lynette Bishop and Francesca Lucchini flying around, buzzing city streets and generally having a grand old time. When they land, though, they're met with a lecture from disciplinarian Mio Sakamoto and assigned to kitchen patrol.

Francesca basically lounges around snacking while Lynette rushes around dropping crockery and Yoshika prepares breakfast - unfortunately, since it's a multinational squadron, the traditional Japanese morning meal (complete with natto) doesn't meet with everyone's approval.

After a quick briefing everyone suits up, grabs their weapons and takes off for a bit of live-fire training. The squadron divides into two, with Sakamoto, Yeager, Lityvak, Juutilainen, Barkhorn and Clostermann on one side and Wilcke, Hartmann, Miyafuuji, Bishop and Lucchini on the other. Although everyone seems to be using live ammunition, they appear to have some kind of energy shielding so nobody gets hurt. High points of the battle include Bishop's antitank rifle jamming on her, allowing Lityvak to turn the tables and blast her away with a rocket salvo, Miyafuuji demonstrating the old canard of "never turn with a Zero!" to Clostermann and Sakamoto's dogfight with Miyafuuji under the treetops.

After beating her soundly, Sakamoto berates Miyafuuji for not taking a shot at Clostermann when she had the chance. Distressed, Yoshika replies that she couldn't shoot at a comrade. Sakamoto tells her to go home if she doesn't have the resolve for combat.

Afterwards, we see the others relaxing in the bath. Yoshika trudges up the path with her suitcases in each hand, then stops as she sees Wilcke sitting on the roof of a house admiring the moon. One quick pep talk later (in which we find out the Wilcke's country, her family and friends are all gone - does that mean Germany was destroyed in this alternate reality?), Miyafuuji is persuaded to stay. We cut to a shot of her arriving back at the squadron's lodgings, and everyone turning out to welcome her.

One interesting detail: Wilcke, as the highest-ranking officer (lieutenant colonel) is clearly the squadron commander. But Sakamoto appears to act more or less as her deputy, even though she's only a second lieutenant - Yeager and Barkhorn are captains, while Lityvak, Hartmann and Clostermann are first lieutenants. I wonder if Sakamoto began as an NCO and was promoted to an officer on account of her combat record, like Saburo Sakai? In that case, her experience and seniority might count for more than her rank.

[Dragnfly@Gamefaqs]

Just watched the raw. It was reccomended to me by a friend who said "If you love Nanoha and Gunslinger Girl this show will be right up your alley."

After seeing it I wonder if he watched it at all or just looked at screenshots.

So here's my opinion.

The good: The animation is extremely solid and the short training exercise is pretty good. If you are into fighter craft it's apparently pretty cool to see your favourite planes symolized by cute girls. I don't really care about planes but I do like guns so it was cool from that aspect.

The medium: Although the characters are likable and interresting it will need a TV series to sufficiently develop such a cast and still retain the story.

The bad: 7 minutes long for over $100cdn. It does come with a figure and a booklet which would make the ultra-short DVD have a solo price of about $40cdn, which is half the price of a normal jp DVD for about 1/6 the animation time. Plain and short, it's a ripoff. However, in this ocean of the internet we can assume not paying for the DVD, and with patience the book and figure will be availible (as they always are) so this may balance out to some. Additionally, to me, the girls in flight mode look pretty rediculous. I've seen many other mechagirl designs which I think would have worked better and would have still been distinguishable as specific aircraft.

Summary: I figure I'm just not in the target market for this so it's big perk of being all for plane buffs is completely lost on me, leaving it at 7 minutes of "it could have been so much better if they did things differently."

[cyth]

Watched it yesterday.

I just feel like there's nothing to say about such a short clip. There was no real message hidden, just a really cuddly thought about friendship. The focus of the item on sale is the figurine anyway, and I'm not sure where I heard this but there's supposed to be a light novel (or a manga?) about it which might reveal more story. But who knows what the future may bring. Maybe even a TV serialization.

Spoiler:

I really liked the subtle "mecha" (if we can even call it that). While Sky Girls already toned down the mecha with eksoskeletons, S.Witches brought that further with a simple, yet still cute initialization sequence. Also, I love this whole new "broom" concept.

I really really wish this to be longer. :|

[Dragnfly@Gamefaqs]

I think they should've just made a Gadgetrial anime instead. It would've held the same feel, could have been tweaked to still feed the wants of the military buffs through slight character design changes and new characters, and it could work as a short so much better.

Just my two cents

[SomeWhiteGuy]

Question; Is there a fan sub of this yet?
It seems like this has been out for a while now (Tosho shows Jan 4th)...
I'm kind of a beginner at subbing, I'v subbed Mar Awakes.Romance so far, and I have time to sub this to. But I don't wanna put my time into it if its already been done.

[KKaze]

If you did check your PM, I've pmed you on the fansubs.

It's great that you fansubs the prelude, but pls do make "appropriate ammendment" on your subtitles (Maany -> Many, for example).

Hope you release a v3 soon...

[Kensuke]

Alright, Strike Witches is subbed by Froth-Bite.

While I enjoyed it, it was way too short, just 7 minutes and that was it? No "full lenght" episodes?

[Thany]

Originally Posted by Kensuke

Alright, Strike Witches is subbed by Froth-Bite.

While I enjoyed it, it was way too short, just 7 minutes and that was it? No "full lenght" episodes?

That's what I thought, even though it was quite short it was rather nice. Too bad it was too short... Hopefully the next episodes will be longer (well we can always hope, can't we?).

On a sidenote, am I the only one having troubles with the font of FB sub?