It is known by now that the show's girls tend to wear tight bloomers instead of full pants - nothing to get worked up about, even if you have never seen girls in bikinis or something similar.
tehSandwich: Has somebody actually mentioned the
Mecha Musume
yet? The lack-of-pants-ness might have a (quite poor but existant)
justification besides
fanservice.
Dentaku: Yeah, but what about the school girls or
all the other females?
Tyrfing Regarding this entry:
- Pink Bishoujo Ghetto: It is theorized by some fans that only females can use magic. And as the main characters are the magic users...
It's outright stated in the novels that adolescent girls are just about the only ones that can use magic. I'm not sure how relevant this is to this entry since Yoshika's Grandmother can still use magic.
- My idea is that witches older than 20 can still use it, just not in the measure required for flight and battle anymore. After all, what Yoshika's grandmother did was use healing magic. -Horo-kun
From the fan-translation of the novel:
Not everyone has the ability to use magic. In fact, because it depends on specific genetic factors, it could be said that not very many people at all can use it. Furthermore, the vast majority of those users are female, and it is an ability that disappears with the passing of adolescence. Because of that, young girls who can use magic are seen as ephemeral seasonal flowers, admired by young boys as idols beyond their reach, and thought of by young girls as the ideal paragon of what they want to be.
The Defenestrator: I'm pretty sure "pants" in Japanese actually means "panties."
Frisko: Your knowledge of Japanese in correct in Japanse "pants" does mean "panties", but in Strike Witches they don't say "pants(u)" they say "zubon" which means trousers (i.e. pants in the
English American sense of the word).
Silent Hunter: I thought we were talking about
Vapor Wear.
British English indeed...
The Defenestrator: Okay, but no matter what they call them, those are still panties.
Schizo Technician: I hereby move, in light of the fact that they are wearing pants we cannot see, that the running gag of not wearing pants be changed in favor of saying that they are wearing
invisible pants. All in favor?
Dentaku: The show is
very successful and made Studio Gonzo a good deal of money—and this was clearly their intention, since they
pulled all the stops to appeal to a big fanbase. They'd be silly if they wouldn't make a second season, but the ways of anime studios are often mysterious, so we'll just have to wait.
Jancz: I suppose to answer my own question I found on Animenewsnetwork that
"Said to be 1st TV series
DV Dfrom Gonzo to sell 10,000+ copies since 2001"
I dont understand the economics behind DVD sales in japan but if you are selling more
DV Ds then you have in the past 7 years its always a good thing...Lets also not forget that the DVD's do away with the umm....censorship of the girls nipples.
Pavlov: I saw a few panels from the manga that left an option for a sequel or reimaging: loli tank girls being airdropped. I ROFL'ed. And yes, there were no pants.
Jancz: Sadly that was the manga that was cancelled after a short run. A new Strike Witches Manga started with more similarity to the whole Yoshika joining strike witches(with some key changes).... At any rate the new Manga isn't nearly is good as the Anime. As for any reimagining...Well they have 2 light novels to go on.
lee4hmz: After all this talk about NO PANTS, I'm surprised no one has started
singing the Pants Song yet...it certainly got stuck in
my head after reading this page. :)
Dentaku: It's quite obvious to even a casual observer that GONZO got a lot of inspiration from
Sky Girls for this show—to put it very mildly. The different setting and the fact that the flying machines are mecha in one show and magical devices in another are rather inconsequential. The only real difference is perhaps the size of the main cast with a greater age range (and of course
Strike Witches has more fan service}, so to say that the differences are
superficial is rather missing the mark.
- Horo-kun: Many objections could be made, such as the fact it's "regular" mecha in one series (albeit the Empathic Weapon kind) and Magitek in the other. Or the basically different concept (SW is a moe take on WWII). And several others.
However, they all don't add up to one fundamental reason:
Mecha-Musume are NOT anything new. Strike Witches and
Sky Girls are simply the first animated takes on the concept ever made. At best, it could be argued that GONZO took the chance to plug their own project when
Sky Girls came out, or vice-versa.
C Banana: Why was
Male Gaze taken off as a trope? The trope fits with the show not even being subtle about its use of the trope.
Update: Put it back having heard no response.
Pavlov: Moved the natter from the
Alternate History section to here for safekeeping.
- "Billy" Bishop was a WWI aviator (and Canadian to boot, which probably honks off those guys up there).
- Yes. It does. Gragh.
- Hey now we're still part of the Commonwealth, and Bishop was the greatest Commonwealth flying ace. And it's not like the show can just ignore Britannia. I just consider it a compromise.
From the Chuck Yeager portion of the same entry.
- And he wasn't too happy about finding out the show made him an underage girl with no pants.
- *cute face* Links please?
Fencedude: Removed the reference to a new season starting Fall 2009, since that is this season, and it isn't airing.
