'Schoolgirl Strikers' Anime Episode 1 Review
Schoolgirls Strike with First Episode...
‘Schoolgirl Strikers’ takes the popular light novel style RPG mobile game by Square Enix and follows the newly assembled Altair Torte team as they settle into daily life at Goryoukan Academy. The series is animated by J.C. Staff, also known for their work on ‘Food Wars’ and ‘Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?’
SPOILER ALERT!
In the opening episode, audiences are first shown a battle sequence featuring Altair Torte challenging a 5th dimensional being known as an Ob’li. They fail to defeat it though, letting it slip away.
Next the viewer sees the girls getting ready for a day of school. A voiceover informs that there is more to the Academy than meets the eye.
The girls are shown going about their daily school and extracurricular activities. Yuumi appears to be the comic relief, and is berated by the teacher for putting dangerous weaponry around the school - her quest to make ‘seven legends’ to make the new school interesting.
The newly assembled team meet after school with the final member, Tsubame, who seems to lack much memory. While heading home, the girls receive a call informing them that the school trains girls capable of being ‘Strikers’ for a force called Fifth Force. After another anomaly is picked up in the area where a different team has taken out an Ob’li, Altair Torte is called in to finish their unfinished business.
For a first episode, it should be commended that the show has not taken the familiar path that other franchises are guilty of: overloading viewers with excessive characterisation in the first episode, complete with catch phrases for each.
The pace is moderate, and the content quite generic at times. As an introduction to this world, this episode is average – nothing tends to stand out.
For fans of the mobile game, there appears to be lack of Easter Eggs for enthusiasts to relish.
From an animation standpoint, there some unfortunate moments where the art diminishes in quality, but these are not bad enough for it to detract attention from the show’s content.
In terms of voice acting, it is mediocre at best. Kaori Ishihara (voice to one of the lead girls, Tsubame) lacks the vocal quality expected for a character of such emotional depth - one who is missing a large portion of her memory. There are some potential vocal talents in the episode, but we will have to wait for further episodes to see whether they stand out or not.
For an action-based anime, ‘Schoolgirl Strikers’ shows some potential, though fans of the mobile game hope it doesn’t continue to lean too much on showing slice-of-life style plot lines to progress its characters’ development.
‘Schoolgirl Strikers’ is now streaming on CrunchyRoll.
