YMMV / Strike Witches

• Anticlimax Boss: Season 2, Episode 7's Monster of the Week is defeated when Minna tenses up and crushes the insect sized Neuroi core in her underpants when everyone rushes to pull them off her. Subsequently its larger, more armed half is destroyed. She even gets a medal, as it was her 200th kill, which she and Mio were discussing at the beginning of the episode.
• Anvilicious: Friendship is important! With the support of your comrades, you can do anything!
• Broken Base: The Brave Witches season. Some fans aren't really happy for the focus of the anime to switch away from the Strike Witches themselves, whereas others are fine to see the anime focus on the expansive universe of the series, or at least happy to see the anime series continue. While airing, the series got its fair share of praise and criticism. Fans generally like how the current MC Hikari is a Contrasting Interquel Main Character from the previous MC Yoshika. However, a common criticism is the very poor use of CGI and how frequently it takes you away from the experience, the other common criticism being some of the poor writing decisions especially in episode 10 regarding Hikari & Takami.
  • The divide basically comes down to a preference for the darker, more serious action elements that primarily make up Brave Witches or the light-hearted slice of life antics that are prevalent in much of Strike Witches. Both sides have their fans.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Erica, to the point of becoming the unofficial mascot of Krautchan.
  • Sanya's popularity is vastly disproportionate to the amount of screen-time she gets. And she was one of the first characters to receive a figurine & a dakimakura.
  • While The Movie cameos basically every Japanese fandom favorite they can cram in, Heidimarie in particular is given the third most significant plot driven scenes after Shizuka and Yoshika, and is basically treated as a member of the 501st (read: primary cast) at the end, in all but name.
  • Heidimarie herself is one from the side materials as she belonged to no Joint Fighter Wing but proved popular among fans on both sides of the Pacific due to her looks, personality, combat record, and still having traces of Moe.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Sky Girls no pantsu", "Strike Pantsu", "Pantsu Witches", "Sutopan" & "Sutomajo"
  • And for Brave Witches, some have started calling it "iM@S Witches" due to the majority of the girls being voiced by iDOLM@STER voice actresses, including Sasha and Nipa who were already cast prior to the 502nd even getting an anime.
  • Hikari Karibuchi was immediately referred to as "Yoshika 2.0", not!Yoshika & not!Miyafuji upon the reveal of her being the protagonist of Brave Witches.
• Faux Symbolism: In the Season 2 finale, Yoshika pulls ''Reppumaru'' from the deck of the ''Yamato''.
• Fetish Retardant: If you're not into the series' particular brand of fanservice, the panty shots and such can come off as this. This has turned some viewers off the series completely.
• First Installment Wins: You will have the fans that say the original Strike Witches was better than Brave Witches, when comparing the two seasons, movie and OVA specials to this one season is not an accurate or fair comparison.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Girls und Panzer and Kantai Collection, due to all three being bishoujo-centric military works, which form a trinity of air force-infantry-navy. All three of them also have characters from (or at least themed after) several nations, making it common to make crossovers with characters from the same nationality.
• Growing the Beard: From episode 8 onward. This is noted in the dub commentary, when the ADR director was first assigned the show for dubbing, he wasn't that impressed at first. The strength of the characterizations and the fun way they build upon each other won him over by episode four.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The anime lineup for the fall of 2016 ended up with both an anime featuring a Distaff Counterpart to Kanno Naoshi, and an anime featuring the actual Kanno Naoshi.
  • Minna singing "Lili Marlene" to the crew of the Akagi in the first season is this now that it's confirmed that Marlene Dietrich, the woman who became synonymous with the song because of her famous rendition of it and is often misattributed to it ^note the song was actually written by Hans Leip in 1915 and was first recorded and performed by Lale Andersen in 1937, though it wasn't until Marlene Dietrich sung her version that it became a breakout hit worldwide, has an analogue in the World Witches universe in the form of Maria Magdalene Dietrich, a young Witch who belongs to the Luminous Witches squadron and who later appears as a main character in the spin-off anime more than a decade after the first season aired.
• Les Yay:
  • Yoshika has some... interesting dreams about her comrades.
  • Based on the events in Episode 8, Minna probably transferred her feelings for her old boyfriend (including concern for his safety) to Mio.
  • Eila and Sanya.... ("Doesn't it make your heart throb?"). Case in point, here is what Eila has to say about Sanya.
  Eila: Sanya? ... Sanya, huh? hmm... ah, sorry. Thinking of Sanya sort of... makes my heart ache. I wonder why? ...eh? Her breasts? Sanya's!? What the hell are you looking at!? I wouldn't talk about that, idiot!
  • Another case was, when her dousing rods led her to Sanya's ass rather than to the Neuroi bug.
  • The Movie doesn't let up on the Les Yay. The most blatant example is Yoshika and Lynne; they roll around on the ground hugging at the beginning and later cuddle together in bed.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Strike Witches love is alive and well... in my pants."
  • Silhouette Demon^ExplanationA small shadow creature(s) that has appeared in few of Fumikane's art, such as in few of the Eye Catches. It has popped up in several fan art, usually resembling Yoshika to act perverted.
  • "The War on Pants" and variations such as "The War on Pants Continues..." based on the tagline from Funimation's advertisements of the English dub.
• Moe: Most characters, but especially Sanya (the creators seem determined to play her cuteness for all it's worth), Georgette, and Lynette (clumsy, shy, low self esteem...we could go on).
• Portmanteau Couple Name: EilaNya for Eila & Sanya.
• Periphery Demographic: If YouTube comments are anything to go by, Strike Witches has a decent number of female fans who aren't there for the fanservice. Makes sense, given that the cast is made up of badass women, and that the show passes The Bechdel Test quite easily.
• Stoic Woobie: Mio. The final episodes of Seasons 1 and 2 deal with her losing her magical power, and by extension, her ability to fight the Neuroi. Every aspect of Mio's character screams "Don't You Dare Pity Me!", but just try to watch her break down in tears in the face of losing her way of life and place in the 501st and not feel sorry for her. Fortunately, she comes to terms with it.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs referred to the show as an example of cultural excellence, and as such had public screenings of it in events where families with young children were heavily in attendance. Never mind the fact that it's a fanservice-heavy seinen show.