Strike Witches

x2

Well it is drawn by the creator of the series so I guess it is official art. Pretty sure none of it shows up in the actual novels or anything though outside of the covers.

x3

I am pretty sure that that picture comes from the creator of the franchise's personal website rather than anywhere in the actual series. So I would not say we have too much to watch out for.

edited 8th May '12 10:18:13 AM by Chariot

@Catelogue: The racy picture of a 12 year old is fan art. Another case of the fans being creepier than the work.

Are you sure? According to danbooru the person who drew that is the person who inspired Strike Witches/the creator of it under a penname.

Color me surprised...

I've returned. Beginning evaluation now. Will keep you posted.

First update: Funimation's website has video age restricted, Hulu labels it for "mature audiences only". Reasoning currently unknown *

edited 8th May '12 12:12:17 PM by tdgoodrich1

It's not official art unless he's selling it.

It's still not official art work. It's doujinshi at best and those don't count to if a work is acceptable or not. We shouldn't judge works by fan art. No matter who makes them.

How is artwork by the creator of the work not considered official art? While I agree we should not let that cloud judgements of the work I don't see why that would count as fanart.

And why would it need to be sold to count as official art?

edited 8th May '12 12:09:52 PM by Chariot

@Chariot: You would have a better case trying to argue that the almost-omnipresent sexualization of Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Sohryu/Shikinami in Neon Genesis Evangelion official merchandise should be considered as points against NGE... which isn't saying much, actually.

Note: I don't think the above is a justifiable argument against NGE.

edited 8th May '12 12:10:18 PM by MarqFJA

What? I am afraid I have no clue what you are trying to say.

@Chariot: You say it was drawn by the person who inspired Strike Witches' creator. That means it's not the creator himself who's drawing them. Also, it only counts as official artwork if he actually sells them (e.g. in an "official artwork" compilation/databook), otherwise it's still technically "fan-art".

Oh, obviously if it's not from the work, that is fine.

How it's placed there does signal as though it's in keeping with the tone of the regular series, however. Maybe the editor was a wee bit on the, eh, exuberant side.

x2

Oh! I thought they were the same person because they have the same last name which is why I was confused as to why it wasn't considered official art/why it needed to be sold to be considered official art. Thanks for clearing that up.

edited 8th May '12 12:21:33 PM by Chariot

Like I said, the fandom is creepier than the work.

Yeah. That's true of a lot of fandoms, really. At least the pervy parts of them.

Speaking as a Sonic fan... yep.

Same goes for the Ape Escape fandom too. It has a really really creepy fandom.

But enough derailment, back to talking about whether or not to keep Strike Witches.

Update the second: Halfway through first episode. By no means the worst I've seen so far but still enough damning to warrant cleaning although not necessarily lock-worthy. Yet.

Continuation: Also a lot of facepalm-worthy fanservice. Why don't the girls just put goddamned pants on?

edited 8th May '12 12:33:50 PM by tdgoodrich1

At this point, I'm kinda leaning towards keeping the page. Skeevy fanart aside, it seems clean...

Cleaning of what? If it's creepy gushing, that's already standard policy for any page, right?

edited 8th May '12 12:34:02 PM by MarqFJA

Cleanup of any creepiness in the article. So long as the page stays clean, based on what I've seen so far, the page can stay around. Bear in mind I still have about 2.5 eps before I give a verdict though.

Update the second: Episode 1 done. Apart from the aforementioned pants deficiency, the most objectionable content are some damning camera angles and a (non-underage) bikini scene. Also Yoshika looks about 11 and is explicitly in middle school. Much of (but not all of) the fanservice comes from other non-underage characters.

edited 8th May '12 12:49:35 PM by tdgoodrich1

I cast a Devil Icon on it, but I'm reconsidering, based on (1) rating, (2) target market, and (3) possibility of containment to only the more kosher materials.

These girls need to wear some pants.

I'm a couple episodes in for the anime, and so far I'm leaning towards keep. The fanservice is a bit heavier but still on a comparable level to Evangelion, and it doesn't take sexualization to the extreme like Kiss X Sis does with its high school aged class, nor is sexualization the primary purpose of the series.

Moving on to ep. 9. Of note is Funi's banner on the page: "Strike Witches: Winning the war on pants!" At least they acknowledge the pants shortage.

Update: Halfway through. Again, apart from the pants-negative uniform and a few suspect camera angles, nothing terribly objectionable. One Furo Scene with Godiva Hair on one of the older looking girls. Rest of the time, about 2/3 of the screen was obscured via Censor Steam.

edited 8th May '12 1:17:37 PM by tdgoodrich1

A short quasi-digression: Banners/flags (unless it's discussed already) to warn people about a page's state might be a good idea. "This thing as some things that can go rather ugly. Please don't bring them up." Or something.