Since Strike Witches 2 is now airing, I’ve given some thought into how I got into the show in the first place.
Hold on tight, this might take a while.
Early 2010, I was pulled by my casual writing circle to play a tabletop homebrew RPG named Dive Into the Sky. At first, I was apprehensive to the idea, since I had never really liked the idea of mecha musume before. While a fan of both giant robots and charming little girls (cute, not pedo), I wanted to appreciate them separately, lest I be confused.
So I jumped in without much knowledge. Thankfully, the version of our DitS game didn’t require one to have seen Strike Witches or any other mecha musume anime at all, as our kind DM was able to graciously handle all my ignorant questions. I made a kuudere meganekko PC who is named after a certain WWII Norwegian pilot-turned-author of children’s books. (In keeping with the Strike Witches tradition of making real people turning over their graves, that is.)
Maybe I felt bad about pestering so much before the first game, so I actually started watching Strike Witches. Even if mecha musume wasn’t particularly my fancy, maybe I could appreciate it at least.
And I did.
While the “mecha” aspect of the show is underplayed in favor of some rich character dynamics, Strike Witches boasts a surprisingly good amount of mecha tropes. Yoshika may not be the most appealing character for me, but she is essentially Amuro without pants. And who could not forget about mecha-Yamato? The enjoyment I had with the show allowed me to have more fun with our gaming sessions.
I became a fan. I played around with our in-game fluff, and grew to develop an attachment to my PC. I fleshed her out more, and gave her an obsession over tentacled monstrosities. Even better, my DM decided to take the idea and run away with it. Between sessions, I would write fluff, and other people soon followed through with their own.
Soon, our game started to become something bigger than just a weekly campaign, encouraging more creativity with its players. And isn’t that wonderful? Spending more time in our PCs’ heads helps build a sense of ownership. Being a casual writing circle, our games were composed of 75% role-playing and 25% rolling, and missions were always kept exciting.
However, about a dozen sessions later, our campaign became virtually unplayable, thanks to the last mission requiring all seven players to continue (we had to cut the game since it wouldn’t fit into one session). A logistical nightmare ensued–for weeks at end, the game kept being postponed, since at any given time one person wouldn’t be able to come. Our game was put in indefinite hiatus as a result.
To get my /tg/ fix, I played Maid RPG with fewer people, tried out Trail of Cthulhu, and play-tested a friend’s homebrew SRW RPG on my Friday nights. But my mind kept going back to DitS. It was a damn shame.
Then one of my other friends offered to start a new campaign, this time set in the Strike Witches world proper. I decided to create a character who was spiritually similar to my previous one, with a more aggressive playstyle.
The end result became:
…more or less.
And then, Strike Witches 2. It’s no longer something I watch to “get” mecha musume. Game or no game, this one’s a keeper.
Continuing World 
This is totally awesome. I wish I knew how to do homebrew RPGs and had enough friends who would want to do one where all the characters had to be little girls lol.
I’ve never been into mecha musume to the extent that Shance is where he can name prominent mecha musume artists and shit, but I knew that I liked the style as soon as I saw it. I actually own a mecha musume figure that has *insane* levels of customization, so that’s pretty cool. She sadly wears pants, though.
Strike Witches works for me for the exact reason you would think it does – I like cute girls wearing no pants and fondling one-another while being likable and kicking ass. But for some reason, even though the show itself isn’t that important to me, the culture surrounding it is huge for me.
LMAO Konpaku Youmu would be an amazing Strike Witch!
You just need to find people online, since we play our games on IRC. A real tabletop game would own, but my DM has the proper amount of otaku self-loathing that keeps us from doing that.
You probably own a Busou Shinki figure. Most of them have pants or something, and have a more mecha feel than Strike Witches.
And Youmu sure is. Too bad the game is stalled again! Curse you, real life.
Reppuumaru!
It’s really amazing. When I first casually began watching the simulcasts on youtube back when Strike Witches was airing (I watched out of principle in support of what I saw as a good development, since youtube just looked way better than crunchyroll), I never actually anticipated I’d come to love it so much.
It’s just this really great show with appeal and service layered at so many levels and leveled at so many different interests. The fact that most of those different interests are exactly the kind I like, just pushed all my buttons.
Really, the only shame with Strike Witches 2, despite the huge development of a somewhat yet-unseen-side of Sakamoto (Yelling out attack names! Hotblood!), I’m forced to mourn the passing of her trademark laugh.
Too bad about Saeko Chiba, yes. But we get The Sword That Cleaves Evil, now!
I wish those other Witches would appear again.
Mio is a shinigami.
What is her bankai?
Creator of Dive into the Sky here. And this is…something. I never would’ve thought my little game would inspire such things in anyone. I also still think it’s a travesty of an RPG and doesn’t work too well. It was made in under a week.
However, I’m posting to say first of all that I’m touched that people enjoy it anyway. And that I’m working on a new version of the game that, well, sucks less. It’s not finished yet, though, so I’m not saying much about it anywhere.
Hello! Me and my friends have gone through three different campaigns, and while all unfinished (difficulty of player attendance on IRC, etc), we managed to have lots of fun!
It helps that we’re more writers than RPG gamers, so the rules-light gameplay totally works for us.
Right now we’re on a break on mecha musume pretend, and are playing magical girl pretend (Magical Burst) instead…
This is a fairly old post I’m responding to, but is there any chance of getting hold of the updated version of Dive Into The Sky? It would be greatly appreciated.