Oddly enough, it was the lack of pants that originally turned me off of this show. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as it were.  Strike Witches has so many gimmicky aspects that I figured there was no way an interesting story lay underneath.

Let’s list them out, shall we:

1. No pants – girls don’t wear pants or dresses. Sometimes, they go commando (I’ve noted, that I approve of this).
2. All girl/witch defense force
3. Mysterious non-human invincible enemy, kinda’
4. Girls with guns, big guns
5. Girls with magical powers
6. Girls with magical animal ears/tails
7. Striker units

I mean, really?

I wasn’t all that wrong, either. While the plot is fun and the characters are entertaining, the story isn’t very interesting. It’s fairly predictable.

Oddly enough, it was the lack of pants that brought me back to this show. It was intriguing. Where are the pants? What did they do with them? Is it a war-time conservation effort? I imagined that it may be necessary to use the fabric for army uniforms.

If the answers to my questions were presented in the show, I can only surmise that the reason I didn’t take that in was because I was preoccupied with fluffy tails and big guns.

I’ve always found it interesting that the heroines in anime are often strong, independent, and motivated. Whilst, the male heroes are often indecisive, reckless, and incompetent. The presumption is that this is because of the predominance of male anime fans. I’ve heard speculation that male characters are designed so that male fans can put themselves into the story in place of the male leads. This is more natural selection than design, IMO. (Specifically, I’m thinking about harem comedies, but I think it affects other genre.) The fact that these male characters do relate to so many anime fans is telling.

However, the fact that the female characters are often more popular than the male characters tells us something else. It isn’t always what one would think.

It has often been mentioned that the least interesting character in a harem comedy is the male character. This makes sense, if taken from the perspective of a male viewer experiencing the show through the male lead’s eyes. The other (female) characters play off the male lead to progress the story. The male isn’t as important as the female characters, in that sense.

Moreover, it doesn’t matter what the male character is supposed to be or be thinking in the context of the story as much as what the viewer is experiencing through his eyes (what the viewer is thinking). Thus, again, the story must progress through the use of the female characters. Because the story has to utilize the female characters to move the plot along. These characters become more defined, more human, and more relatable.

What happens when there are no male characters? Can you just give all the girls super powers, big guns, no pants, and mecha?

Will it be enough? Apparently.

Strike Witches is at its heart a magical girl show. There is nothing spectacularly different from any other magical girl show (aside form the striker units). But, like many others of its ilk, it proves that when it comes to anime you don’t need guys when you have a bunch of girls. You just need to give them big guns, independence, intelligence, and the ability to kick ass.

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I almost didn’t post this because there are a lot of contradictory examples that appose the arguments I made here. However, most of the ones I could think of have to do with the female lead being indecisive or incompetent.