Ex-Witches

In a thrilling plot twist, Strike Witches has switched genres entirely, now being something of a military conspiracy sci-fi aerial mecha anime, with the pantsu-like thing clad protagonists gaily going about their melodramatic build up to the final climax as if they were proper trouser wearing characters.

It looks as if such an epic and well conceived storyline, having been painstakingly built up through laborious and multilayered exposition over the previous two episodes, has no further need of flying loli service at all.

There is hardly any service in this episode at all, sure not to sit well with the pantsu fans among us; nothing for it but to wait for the DVD? I had to knock together the top image to get anything worth looking at. There is a transforming robot thing, if that is any consolation, though it does not wear pantsu.

Whatever the problems with a dearth of pantsu and a rather hackneyed plot, which takes itself far too seriously, the animation and general composition of the anime remain of an undeniably high standard.

Were it really possible to take seriously (though I note some do manage to do so), and had it any semblance of originality, it might make a very respectable title indeed.

The next episode, the last, is set to unveil the thrilling truth about the shady military organisation we heard so much about over the last two episodes. The battles will likely be so breathtaking as to render uninteresting the prospect of mere breast fondling, which is as well, since there probably won’t be any.