The mysterious “deep sea fleet” or “abyssal fleet” has taken over the world’s oceans endangering trade and destroying thousands of conventional warships. A hope in combating this dangerous threat are the Kanmusu, girls who possess the magic and spirits of old Japanese warships. Much like in Strike Witches, these girls are given magi-mechanical units that let them glide across the water wearing special rigging suited for their class of ship: destroyer, cruiser, battle ship, or aircraft carrier. The girls sail off every day on dangerous missions to keep the abyssal fleet at bay.

The story begins when Fubuki, a destroyer, arrives at the Chinjufu Naval District to train and join her squadron. She is initially assigned to the Third Torpedo Squadron by the Admiral, a character we never see, but we know he’s admired by all the girls. Fubuki is a very raw recruit with no combat experience, and is a liability to herself, and others, out on the seas. She is driven to train night and day to go from barley staying upright, to a commanding fighter. We see a lot of similarities between KanColle and Strike Witches. The plots both have young girls fighting an unknown threat to humanity with magi-mechanical weapons. We follow a green recruit in both stories and watch them grow from liability to asset; and along the way we see a lot of cute girls wearing very short shirts firing very large weapons. We even get a bit of yuri magic in the way some of the younger girls idolize the more mature larger ships.

We all know the key to a young girl becoming more popular with boys, graceful and refined is learning the art of driving a multi-ton death machine into combat. The premise of Girls & Panzer is built upon that concept. The schools in this universe not only offer the traditional sports and cultural clubs like track and flower arranging, but also the sport of Tankery, driving tanks and fighting in mock battles. It’s a popular activity among high school girls, especially since boys don’t seem to have the aptitude for tank combat.

The story centers around Miho Nishizumi, a short high school girl with short brown hair who comes from a long line of famous Tankery masters. Due to a traumatic event, she has chosen to avoid the sport, even transferring to a school without Tankery in hopes of never setting foot in a tank again. Her dreams are quickly dashed when the school revives its Tankery club and for all intents and purposes drafts poor Nishizumi, the only one at the school with tank experience, into it. The student council’s goal is to have shot at the national Tankery competition. Will Nishizumi, her friends, club mates, and a handful of old salvaged tanks have what it takes to compete? You’ll have to watch this animated crew of Sailor fuku wearing girls drive their excellently CG animated tanks to find out.

The world has become a more nautical place, at least in the world of High School Fleet’s Japan, as much of the country is now underwater. To maintain its integrity as a nation, Japan takes to the seas building massive cities floating in the water. It defends them with a massive navy and coast guard. A division of this coast guard “living by the sea, protecting the sea, and journeying across the sea,” called the Blue Mermaids, is an all-female navy dedicated to protecting the shipping lanes. You need to start early in life to become one of these sirens of the seas, so you start by going to Yokosuka Girls’ Marine High School. Even as high school students, you can crew and command a massive naval vessel like a cruiser, destroyer, or battle ship.

Akeno Misaki is an unlikely captain, not scoring too well on her proficiency exam, but is captain nonetheless. She commands a crew of unique and spirited individuals, including a cranky ship’s engineer, who we’d love to see break into a Scottish accent and say “captain she canna take much more of this!” Add to that a gung ho torpedo officer ready to fire away at anything, and an overly conservative first officer constantly annoyed with her captain breaking protocol. The maiden voyage (which takes on a whole new meaning when it’s a crew full of high school girls) doesn’t go that smoothly as a mysterious virus turns friend to foe and cruiser against battleship. There are a lot of similarities with Strike Witches. In the cuteness category you have girls with big eyes, pigtails, crushes, and a lot of affection for each other. We even get some major similarities in the pluckiness of the heroes and their drive to work harder for their friends and meet their responsibilities. The girls of Haifuri may not be mechanized-moe but they are militarized-moe, ready to fire broadsides and plunge into battle to save a friend.

The universe is made up of five parallel worlds: the black world, Darkness Embrace, where night and magic rule; the red world, Terra Rubiri Aurora, protected by gods and prayers; the white world, System White Eguma, where science and technology rule supreme; the green world, Grunewald Silt, controlled by guns and the military; and the blue world, Earth. The Halo, which connects all the parallel dimensions, opens a portal connecting the five worlds. It’s a potentially dangerous change in the laws of the universe. The five worlds are drawn toward each other and if they all connect each universe shall end in cataclysm. Ourboros, a trans-dimensional menace, is doing its best to hasten that destruction; the only thing standing in its way are the Exceed-wielding Progress and their Alpha Driver partners. These are young girls from all the worlds who developed powers after the Halo opened. They gathered on Serian Island on Earth to train and fight to save the world.

The story revolves around Saya Sougetsu, an Exceed, and her teammates on one of the less powerful teams of girls. We find that in order to become stronger they all have to deepen their relationships and sense of shared trust. Ange Vierge is filled with action as cute girls use magical weapons that range from rifles and jetpacks to swords made of light. The ensemble cast of Saya’s team each get a chance to have their own episode and deal with their hang ups and neuroses. We also get plenty of down time between battles, which of course is spent in the enormous outdoor bath with plenty of well-placed steam and bubbles. The similarities between Ange Vierge and Strike Witches aren’t just flying young girls with magical powers fighting to save the world. You will see a lot of the story is based on the relationships between the team members and how trust and working together are extremely important when the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

The Earth is at war with an alien threat called Worms that leaves the male population decimated. Women and girls of the world pick up the slack, and form a bulk of the workforce and the military. The powers of the world are worried by signs that the Worms may be returning and begin various research and development projects to find new ways to combat them. The 13th Aviation Corp developed flying exoskeletons called Sonic Drivers that use a biological synchronizing system to create perfect harmony between machine and pilot. A team of three test pilots, all girls around the age of 16, were chosen for their genetic compatibility and various talents.

Sky Girls has several similarities with Strike Witches. The first is young women chosen to fight because they have something “special” about them, in this case genetics, instead of magic. The second similarity is using an exoskeleton to fly without wings. The third main similarity is the alien invasion. Strike Witches and Sky Girls both have aliens with overwhelming power that take extreme measures by the conventional military to defeat, leaving the women warriors to defeat the enemy without destroying a city in the process.