500WL - Between Strike Witch (Anime) and Sky Girl (Anime)

500 words long (500WL), because you’re in a hurry, and I can’t articulate my opinions and thoughts completely

“Loli, Pantsu and Fan service. And Mecha tag should be removed.”
Those are probably the first few things that crosses your mind when you speak of Strike Witch (Both Seasons) and the lesser known Sky Girl.
Well if you are here for those, sorry to disappoint. Frankly both are not even animes which I’ll pick up based those key words.

However one bored fine day, I decided to test a theory: Between a story driven by plot/content or by characters, which will let me watch finish the whole anime. This largely arise from the fact that the anime I watch before Strike Witch was a plot based anime (Ergo Proxy) and I could not finish it, while there are reviews mentioning that Strike Witch was a character based plot and I should not judge an anime by its loli cover.

So I watched and not only did I finish S1, I finished everything (S1, S2 and movie). And now I am watching Sky Girl. No, I will not rate it very high. Strike Witch’s content plot, as mentioned by some, can be written on the back of a napkin, with Sky Girl doing fairly better in that area.
So why did I finish them all? It all based down to 1 point; nice characters and some nice well-paced character developments. This is where Strike Witch did better than Sky Girl and an area which I think Strike Witch did well though the pace is slow.

They put effort in showing the stories behind the girls and thus letting you form a connection with them. Both were a good example of “show, don’t tell” the story method and they made deliberate effort to do this. This makes them more “real” then some characters on the screen or some who you can’t figure out what really drives them. For example you know Sanya is quiet because she appears but she never say anything. You probably thought she will fade into the background. But when her story finally came around, through the song she sings, you can sense her strength in her character and power. This is one of the many examples.

As Strike Witch has a large cast, there is enough to go round. For Sky Girl, they focus more on the plot in the later episode which they had too as it was getting stale. Execution for both are done well given the materials they have; both episodes are well space out.

Does that mean characters driven show are better than content based? I have to admit there are shows that could largely rely on content and still deliver, however hard to find (For example I think Ginga e Kickoff is a good one). It seems the safer route will be some content and decent characters but I doubt that will satisfy everyone. If I can finish an anime, I believe it deserve some credits. Hence I conclude that if you have nothing better to do and want to have some switch off your mind entertainment, you can consider them both. But before that, I rather you watch the others.

Overall Rating: Watch if you have nothing better or if you like loli (of course) #

Strike Witch S1: 5/10
Strike Witch S2: 6/10
Sky Girl: 5/10