Review of Girly Air Force

I went into this show with moderate expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. Was expecting the CG battles to be much worse, but the studio pulled it off well, to the point where they were one of the most enjoyable parts of the show. The plot was on the better side of typical LN fare, but still not for those who prefer "big brained" shows. I liked that a major element of the early episodes was Kei and Gripen working around each other's limitations, and also that despite the cast of cute girl characters it didn't really turn into a harem show. Even thoughyou could reasonably guess the main cast was safe, I still felt a decent bit of suspense in the battles. The enemy certainly could have been more fleshed out, but their mysterious nature was also part of the atmosphere of the show.

I liked that Kei often had to use realistic aircraft controls and wasn't tied into the magic neural controls that the Anima used, and that the aircraft stayed in aircraft form the entire show, instead of turning into mechs.

The soundtrack was excellent, Break the Blue (opening song) in particular.

For me at least Girly Air Force was a comfortable watch with a great atmosphere, and I will probably rewatch it occasionally. If you like planes and cute waifus you will probably feel the same. There's a number of questions left open for a sequel, which unfortunately may never arrive. If an English translation of the LN existed I'd probably read it.