League of Nations Air Force Aviation Magic Band Luminous Witches

Series Overview

League of Nations Air Force Aviation Magic Band Luminous Witches (Renmei Kuugun Koukuu Mahou Ongakutai Luminous Witches / 連盟空軍航空魔法音楽隊 ルミナスウィッチーズ) is an extremely long title. From now on, I will refer to it simply as Luminous Witches. And the first thing I want to say about Luminous Witches is that it’s bad.

To set the stage, I never expected Luminous Witches to be good when I picked it up at the start of the season. But, I picked it up anyway because Shaft (my favorite animation studio) animated it. This is also why I picked up RWBY, which is a terrible series.

On top of the fact I picked up this series only because of the studio behind it, it’s a spin-off. Luminous Witches is an anime original spin-off of the Strike Witches series. I have not seen Strike Witches. So, I get that I’m probably not the target audience for Luminous Witches.

With the stage set, it’s time to get into the series itself. It’s a weird one. When watching Luminous Witches, I felt like it didn’t know exactly what it wanted to be. Or, it could be more accurate to say that it was trying to be too much.

It’s an idol anime — there’s no doubt about that. But, it also incorporates so many other “gimmicks” that all feel so forced.

These girls aren’t only idols. They’re part of the UN military during WWII against aliens. They also fly using propeller boots. And they’re witches who use magic and have familiars. Oh, and they also combine with their familiars to turn into animal girls.

I assume that most of these gimmicks come from the main Strike Witches series. However, that doesn’t change the fact that they’re nothing more than gimmicks.

Luminous Witches

There are 9 girls in the Luminous Witches group. It seems pretty obvious this is because other idol series like Love Live! popularized having 9 members.

Virginia “Ginny” Robertson is the only character whose name I remembered. She’s also the protagonist of the series. Ginny is originally from Britannia (UK) and her familiar is Moffy, a fat bird.

Lyudmila Andreyevna “Milasha” Ruslanova is the best character because she’s cute. She’s from Orussia (lesser Ukraine).

Inori “Inorin” Shibuya is from Fuso (Japan). She’s one of the “more main” of the characters. And yet, I kind of forgot she existed until now. Though, that’s true of most of the Luminous Witches.

Manaia Matawhaura “Mana” Hato is from New Zeiland (New Zealand). Her familiar is a kiwi (I remember because it’s a kiwi). Mana is the energetic tomboy who likes to eat a lot of the group.

Eleonore Giovanna “Ellie” Gassion is from Gallia (France). The aliens invaded her homeland, which I believe is the only reason she’s relevant at all.

Aila Paivikki Linnamaa is from Soumus (Finland). Milasha is obsessed with her, and she’s the reason Milasha wanted to join the UN military band.

Maria Magadalene Dietrich is from Karlsland (I don’t know, Germany?). She’s pretty annoying because she’s bad at everything, but gets mad at others for it.

Sylvie “Silvi” Cariello is from Romagna (Italy?). The big twist is that she’s actually a member of the royal family or something like that. She was important for one episode, and that was it.

Joanna Elizabeth “Jo” Stafford is from New York, Liberion (US). Despite how annoying Maria is, Jo is easily my least favorite character. They tried to make her a rough New Yorker by having her use slang. I’m not even from New York, but it was cringe.

Almost the Worst Anime of the Season

I don’t want to say Luminous Witches was bad because it didn’t explain things. There was a lot left unexplained because this is a spin-off. I’m sure people who actually watched Strike Witches knew what a Night Witch was.

But, for someone like me, we had to guess. As far as I can tell, a Night Witch is just a witch with a glowing antenna that can broadcast her voice. It’s a witch with a built-in long-range communication device. And also I guess they have more magic than other witches.

That last part wasn’t entirely clear. I don’t know if Ginny had a lot of magic because she was a Night Witch or because she’s the protagonist. It seems like the latter. But, both could be the case in reality. Anyway, that kind of stuff isn’t why Luminous Witches is one of the worst anime of the season.

What makes Luminous Witches a bad anime is that nothing about it is good (duh). None of the characters are particularly interesting. The plot is boring and episodic for the most part. And there are like 1 or 2 original songs throughout the whole thing.

The song complaint is one I also made about the first season of K-On! And as in that review, I’ll say here that Love Live! may have spoiled me on music anime. An idol anime should be all about the music. So why aren’t there more songs?

Anyway, I wasn’t paying much attention while watching this series. There’s no need to. And you won’t miss anything by skipping this anime. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. You’re better off watching nothing than watching this series.

Conclusion

In the end, I’m going to give Luminous Witches a 3/10. It’s a very bad anime. But, I can’t say it does anything particularly wrong. It just doesn’t do anything right to the point that it’s extremely boring. It doesn’t even have any value as a casual watch.

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