[Matthew Sicherman]

I am so glad I watched the final episode of Strike Witches as soon as the live stream became available, because now I get to give everyone else on this board their best chance for seeing it. Let me start from the top.

For the past few months, an officially subtitled version of the anime Strike Witches has been "airing" as a live stream on http://www.crunchyroll.com Now, there has been some low-key super strength, but not really noticeable, just the girls hefting with one hand weaponry that 2 grown men struggle to lift(as seen in an OAV separate from the main series) Gertrude Barkhorn in particular dual-wields some pretty impressive machine guns. But in the final episode, we get to see some full-bore ubergirl action. First, at about 5:27 we see a guy laying on the floor who's obviously just had the hell beaten out of him, and it seems pretty obvious that Gertrude is the one who provided the beating(the animal ears and tail is evidence that her magical abilities are active) the rest of the men in the room look like they're scared she'll do the same to them if they step out of line, but the money shot is a short time later at about 10:40. The girls' Striker Units, which they need to fly out to fight the robot that was supposed to be their replacement before it went berserk, are inside the hangar. But the hangar has been sealed with a series of metal girders driven vertically into the pavement in front of the door, no doubt by heavy machinery. The solution is obvious: Gertrude fires up her magic and lifts one of the girders(which is as wide as she is) out of the pavement and with a mighty heave tosses it to the ground outside.

Now, the stream is currently available for free, but that'll end at midnight(not sure if it's midnight Eastern or midnight Pacific) after which, you'll need to pay a few bucks to download the episode. Yeah, I know, that sucks, but it's all we've got. It's not like it'll ever be officially licensed for distribution in the United States, due to the high amount of fanservice, and the fact that a number of the girls in question are underage(some of them are actually over 18, but with the way they're drawn, it's a little hard to tell which ones are jailbait and which ones are legal just from looking at them. Rampant fanservice plus underage characters probably means that no American company will touch the show with a 10-foot pole. I'm pretty sure Gertrude is legal, though. She's been fighting the Neuroi long enough to accumulate over 200 confirmed kills, and the Neuroi attacks only consist of one aircraft every few days(the war itself has been raging for 10 years or so)

Anyway, I won't waste any more of your precious time so you can go watch the episode(or at least the relevant sections of the episode) before the free stream is disabled. Here's a direct link to the episode: http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-408162/Strike-Witches-Episode-12-Strike-Witches.html

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