Strike Witches: Season 1 Complete DVD Box Set - Anime Series Collection for Fans, Gift Idea & Home Entertainment

Now here's an interesting premise for an anime. It's got cute girls, aliens, panties, magic. What more can I say for my opening paragraph? Oh, the DVD's are generally uncensored, so it's an ecchi anime, don't like then you might not enjoy this one.The story starts in the year 1939, A mysterious Black cloud appeared in the sky, Aircraft were sent to get rid of the black cloud, but soon after they attack a mysterious black aircraft emerged from the darkness and fired lasers to wipe the fleet out, this is where the battle with the Neuroi began. In order to combat the Neuroi threat, man worked to make a new weapon, this weapon was known as the Striker Unit, a special set of plane engines powered by magic one wears on their feet and legs. A call went out to all the nations of the world to recruit witches with the potential to weild these Strikers, thus the 501st Joint fighter wing was formed. Now we meet Yoshika Miyafuji, a middle school girl from the Fuso Empire, she soon finds herself being recruited by the Strike Witches, of which she refuses as she hates war. That is until she receives a letter from her supposedly dead father, Dr Miyafuji, the inventor of the Striker unit. She goes with them to find out if her father really died. I'll leave it at that for now.The art style is pretty standard for the character models, they are pretty cute in this respect, where the anime seems to excel is the designs of the weapons and striker unit, modelled on actual World war aircraft and weapons. There are one or 2 instances of which small attempts at 3D are trying during flight, which works I felt.The soundtrack is appropriate considering the themes, war time band fair and orchestral songs as well as more cutesy music. Some is memorable while some isn't as much. The Opening and Ending themes "To do what I can" and "Bookmark ahead" are cute but don't feel different or unfitting. But then I have heard the songs over and over through my headphones from a dual album. The dub now I'm sure some of you are curious to know about. Considering the reputation Funimation seems to have for dubbing from the fan sub group, the voice work is not bad at all, no voices grated on me but a need to adjust to the voices might be needed, but as per usual the original Japanese voice work is included.Now for the DVD's, for a fan like me, the DVD cases are lovely, featuring art of 8 of the 11 Witches spread out over the 2 covers, the cover case that keeps the DVD's together has a synppsis on the back featuring Shirley and Lucchini (Characters not included on the DVD cases) and some screen caps, which are pretty sweet. Whilst Miyafuji completes the set on the front of the case. The DVD's themselves feature different art of Miyafuji.The contents on each disk are:Disk 1 - The first 6 episodes and the option of voice workDisk 2 - The final 6 episodes, the voice work option and Trailers from FunimationNot much on the disks, bare bones stuff but I can give it a passOverall, Strike Witches is a series of fan service to both the otaku crowd and the aviation fans, the story might seem unfocused till the final few episodes but most episodes have character development, Art isn't going to win any awards but it's very cute. A soundtrack that is fitting and a pretty good dub to accompany it.It's a personal favourite of mine, so if it sounds like your kind of thing then I implore you give it a go .