STRIKE WITCHES　【Episode 1:　Magical Girl】

Yoshika Miyafuji is a fourteen-year-old girl who possesses magical powers that can heal. One day she is approached by Mio Sakamoto, Major of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing a.k.a. Strike Witches to join her team. A few days after Yoshika turns down the invitation because of her abhorrence toward wars, she receives a letter.

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS! Gonzo is doing something different with Strike Witches then they did with their first two shows, Druaga & Blassreiter. They'll only be streaming each episode of Strike Witches for free for only a few hours after it airs in Japan. After that, you'll have to pay to see them. For some reason, Gonzo will only be showing the series for free on YouTube & Crunchyroll 2pm to midnight (US Pacific time) every Thursday, giving the fans only a 10 hour window to catch it. After that, it'll still be available for purchase from either BOST TV & Crunchyroll, but that'll be the only way to get it.

But wait, there's more! The pricing for this series has changed too. Each episode for Strike Witches costs 150 BOST points, which is about the equivalent of $3. Whereas Druaga & Blassreiter only cost 100 points per episode, ~$2. Crunchyroll is also changing their pricing for this series. Gone is the highly praised & highly experimental "name your price" thing they had going for the other two Gonzo series. Now you only have the choice of donating $3 or $5 to download the episodes.

$3 per episode is getting pretty expensive to me. I really don't think I'm willing to pay that much. I mean outside of the first episodes, I didn't even pay for the Tower of Druaga or Blassreiter episodes. Yeah I like anime, & yeah I like to support the industry. But I'm only gonna pay for a series & buy it on DVD if I really enjoyed it. Buying a series one episode of a time, you have no way of knowing how much you're going to enjoy it. While I still appreciate what Gonzo is trying to do here with new forms of legally watching anime online, I can't help but feel this is a step backwards from what they started doing a few months ago.

I guess their profits from the first two series weren't so great though, meaning their little experiment may have been a bit of a failure. It's just a shame that this delicious pantsu series had to suffer because of it. But hey, at least we get it for free for 10 hours, right? But in case you miss it & are willing to pay the big bucks to download it, you can find the links here:

BOST TV: http://www.bosttv.com/gonzo/strike-witches/episodes/strikew01
Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-389158/Strike-Witches-Episode-1-Magical-Girl.html?hires=1