News

Strike Witches 501 Butai Hasshinshimasu! Anime Reveals Theme Songs, Visual, April 9 Premiere

The official website for the Strike Witches franchise revealed the theme songs, a key visual, and the April 9 premiere on Tuesday for the anime adaptation of Makoto Fujibayashi's Strike Witches 501 Butai Hasshinshimasu! (Strike Witches 501st Unit, Taking Off!) manga. The series will premiere on Tokyo MX on April 9 from 24:45 to 25:00 (effectively April 10 from 12:45 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.), and it will later debut on TV Aichi, MBS, and BS11. The anime will also stream online.

Yoko Ishida, who has performed theme songs for all of the previous Strike Witches! anime, will perform the opening theme song "Sora ga Yobu Hō e" (To Where the Sky Calls). A group of the anime's cast will perform the ending theme song "Treasure of life" under the name 501st Joint Fighter Wing. A single CD for the opening song will ship on April 24.

Fumio Itō (episode director for Rage of Bahamut Genesis, School-Live!, Kino's Journey - The Beautiful World) is directing the anime at acca effe and Giga Production, with Production I.G and Anime Beans credited for collaborating on animation production. Humikane Shimada and Projekt Kagonish are credited with the original work. Shinya Murakami (Strike Witches 2, Strike Witches: Operation Victory Arrow, High School Fleet) is returning to handle series literature. Seikou Nagaoka is also returning to compose the music, with Nippon Columbia credited for music production. Other returning staff members include sound director Tomohiro Yoshida at Glovision and producer Takashi Tachizaki.

The anime will star:

• Misato Fukuen as Yoshika Miyafuji
• Saori Seto as Mio Sakamoto
• Kaori Nazuka as Lynette Bishop
• Miyuki Sawashiro as Perrine-H. Clostermann
• Rie Tanaka as Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke
• Mie Sonozaki as Gertrud Barkhorn
• Sakura Nogawa as Erica Hartmann
• Chiwa Saitō as Francesca Lucchini
• Ami Koshimizu as Charlotte E Yeager
• Mai Kadowaki as Sanya V. Litvyak
• Ayuru Ōhashi as Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen

Fujibayashi published the manga in Kadokawa's 4-Koma Nano Ace magazine starting in 2012. Kadokawa published the manga's second and final compiled volume in October 2012. Kadokawa also published two volumes of the Strike Witches Gekijōban 501 Butai Hasshinshimasu! manga in 2014 and 2016. The manga ran in 4-Koma Nano Ace from 2013-2016.

The manga follows the silly everyday lives of the members of the 501st unit, as they cook and clean and do other everyday tasks when there's a lull in the Neuroi attacks.

The franchise's story centers on an alien invasion by beings known as the Neuroi. The only way to damage and ultimately defeat them lies in Witches, girls who possess magical powers and are capable of wielding Striker Units that enhances their abilities and allow them to maneuver in the air. The characters in the franchise are often based on real-life aerial aces from various nationalities.

The series is based on illustrator Humikane Shimada's mecha-girl illustrations, and Shimada is credited as the original creator and character designer for the franchise. The mixed-media franchise began with a manga in 2005, and a light novel series in 2006, both of which focus on different characters from the eventual Strike Witches anime. The anime premiered in 2008, and it spawned a sequel, a film, and OVA series. The franchise also spawned the Brave Witches anime in October 2016, as well as numerous spinoff manga, novels, and games.

The new Strike Witches: Road to Berlin television anime will premiere in 2020, and the new Idol Witches (temporary title) television anime will premiere in 2021.

Sources: Strike Witches franchise's website, Comic Natalie