Strike Witches

Strike Witches began as an illustrated column by Fumikane Shimada in the debut issue of Comp Ace magazine, depicting anthropomorphized 'mecha girls' based on WWII air and army weapons, and was conceived from the start as a media mix project.

The animation studio GONZO's parent company GDH faced financial difficulties that caused the planned OVA's release schedule and format to change repeatedly, delaying it until it was finally bundled as a limited figure and art book set sold exclusively at Toranoana on January 1, 2007.

Before Strike Witches itself got a TV anime, Shimada's other character design work, Sky Girls, was adapted into a TV series first in 2007, even though Strike Witches was conceived earlier.

Ahead of the first TV series premiere, the official website ran a quiz event from April 10 to May 5, 2008 called 'Mechanized Maiden, Secret Voice Quiz,' challenging fans to match six already-cast voice actresses to their characters before the anime aired.

The main cast voice actress for Mio Sakamoto changed between seasons: Sayako Chiba voiced her in the first season, while Saori Seto took over from the second season onward.

Production of the TV anime shifted studios between seasons: Gonzo handled the first season, while AIC Spirits took over for the second season, which also upgraded from SD to HD production.

The Strike Witches TV anime was selected as a Jury Selection work in the Animation Division at the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival hosted by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

The Strike Witches movie ranked second in Pia's opening-day satisfaction ranking and earned a box office of 230 million yen.

During the broadcast of Brave Witches, production scheduling issues caused episodes from the fourth onward to air one week later than planned; on the original air date, a re-edited TV version of the OVA 'Operation Victory Arrow vol.1: Thunder over Saint-Trond' was broadcast instead as a stand-in.