GONZO’s new tv series Strike Witches has begun airing, and GONZO, as it did with Blassreiter and Druaga, is putting the show online with a good translation for the enjoyment of English-speaking anime fans. It’s an mp4 file, approximately 200mb, with hard-encoded subtitles. It’s even free of Digital Rights Management shenanigans, which is a big plus in my book.
Unfortunately, what I’ve heard is that someone has put the episode on bittorrent.
I will acknowledge that it’s iffy to put money into a series you haven’t watched yet, but GONZO is trying hard to reach out to us in the English-speaking anime fandom, and to piss away their good will just makes us look terrible.
If you don’t like Strike Witches, or are afraid of watching yet another GONZO series, then feel free to ignore it. I’m not expecting people to buy something they don’t have any interest in, but if you think you’re going to enjoy it, I ask that you at least try it out.
One thing to keep in mind is that you have 14 days to download each episode so you can’t really wait until the series finishes. That said, this also means you can perform a 3-episode test. I’d also normally say that you could possibly wait for the DVDs if you want to support them with your wallet, but there’s a high probability that Strike Witches DVDs will never see the light of day.
You can purchase episodes of Strike Witches via Bost TV for approximately $3.00 US. Keep in mind you have to spend a minimum of $10 in order to buy the points necessary, which is kind of annoying, but that has less to do with GONZO itself and everything to do with Bost.
Episode 1 Review
Strike Witches is the story of a squad of young and powerful soldiers augmented with technologically advanced armored weaponry in order to combat the alien menace known as Neuroi. Its protagonist is Yoshika, a girl with a strong dislike of war whose father died during the conflict. However, a chance meeting with an old friend of her father’s puts Yoshika in a position she never expected.
All in all, Strike Witches is very cute, awfully fanservicey, and well-animated. The main appeal is that its important characters are basically Mecha Musume. It’s a simple show that is clearly targeted towards otaku, so don’t expect it to be any more than what it tries to be.
OGIUE MANIAX 
Protip: wait for BOST’s announcement for their season pass plan. It’s the best bang for the buck if you want to go that route.
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Whilst I send my best wishes to Gonzo for a speedy recovery (before they get delisted by the stock exchange), I have to say that their future is in their own hands. I haven’t watched any of their streamed shows (for me it counts as licensed so I won’t touch the fansubs – and I don’t like either the quality of streamed samples I’ve seen or the fact that you can’t save them), but from the reviews I’m seeing, they’re still favoring pantsu over content so I won’t be collecting them on DVD either.
I don’t have enough money to buy poor quality anime – I can only afford a few titles a year, and Gonzo’s product isn’t making that shortlist.
Ironically, their attempt at reaching a bigger audience via streaming has backfired in my case too. I won’t get to preview those shows via fansubbing, so it means even less chance of me purchasing their stuff later.
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Babel:
FWIW, you can buy the downloads, and they’re DRM free.
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I saw Strike Witches on AnimeSuki and was very upset, but I realized it was the OVA while the series being released officially by Gonzo is the TV series. So my faith was restored, a bit.
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Of course, it bears limitless repeating that the concept of employing the 3-episode test for a Gonzo series is a GODDAMNED LIE as their shows are notorious for displaying a dramatic drop in quality after roughly the 3rd episode, presumably as a result of poor/lackluster planning and budgeting. And that’s not even taking into account the “suck factor” which, for a show like this that’s “clearly targeted towards otaku,” is quite likely present by the shovelful.
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you’ve got a mistake in the post,
“One thing to keep in mind is that you have 14 days to download each episode so you can’t really wait until the series finishes.”
the 14 days limit is how much time you have to watch/download the episode after you buy it..
there is no time limit for when you want to buy it.
so yes, you CAN wait till the series end and then buy it, (via either a season pass or per episode basis. whichever way you prefer).
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