Renmei Kuugun Koukuu Mahou Ongakutai Luminous Witches

As the united world fights for its freedom against the alien forces known as the Neuroi, human girls with magical abilities—called witches—continue to battle. With the persisting conflict affecting morale, Grace Maitland Steward, a retired witch who still serves in the army, presents a plan advocating the power of music as an invaluable support that can change the tides of war.

Unfortunately, her proposal is written off, prompting Grace to find a way to prove the potential of her idea to her superiors. She enlists the help of Aila Paivikki Linnamaa and Eleonore Giovanna Gassion—two witches who have already seen some success as singers—to recruit other witches and form the League of Nations Air Force's Music Squadron.

The campaign manages to produce seven promising candidates. Among them, 14-year-old Virginia Robertson, despite having no military experience whatsoever, seems to possess an ability too significant to ignore.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Renmei Kuugun Koukuu Mahou Ongakutai Luminous Witches was set to air in 2021, but was delayed to 2022 due to various circumstances. The series was released on Blu-ray and DVD in four volumes from October 26, 2022 to January 25, 2023.

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Related Anime

Parent story:	Strike Witches
Summary:	Renmei Kuugun Koukuu Mahou Ongakutai Luminous Witches Recap

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Characters & Voice Actors

Robertson, Virginia

Main

Narumi, Mai
Japanese

Linnamaa, Aila Paivikki

Main

Mamiya, Ryou
Japanese

Hato, Manaia Matawhaura

Main

Yuuki, Misaki
Japanese

Gassion, Eleonore Giovanna

Main

Tsuzuki, Sayaka
Japanese

Shibuya, Inori

Main

Hosokawa, Minako
Japanese

Dietrich, Maria Magadalene

Main

Konaka, Kana
Japanese

Cariello, Sylvie

Main

Yoshikita, Rino
Japanese

Ruslanova, Lyudmila Andreyevna

Main

Aimoto, Ami
Japanese

Stafford, Joanna Elizabeth

Main

Mamesaki, Rio
Japanese

Litvyak, Sanya V.

Supporting

Kadowaki, Mai
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kubota, Mitsutoshi

Producer

Tokumura, Kenichi

Producer

Fukaya, Naruki

Producer

Ookubo, Akiko

Producer

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Opening Theme

"WONDERFUL WORLD" by Luminous Witches

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Ending Theme

"Watashi to Minna no Uta (わたしとみんなのうた)" by Luminous Witches

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Reviews

Sep 25, 2022

Fircoal

Recommended

Coming into Luminous Witches I was hoping that I would have a good time with it. I was expecting more or less a typical idol show and I hoped for a decent amount of fun moments in it. But what I certainly did not expect was the amount of emotional power and impact that each episode had when I watched it. Luminous Witches shines because of this emotional impact. This combined with the fun slice of life moments made a complete show that has a lot to offer.

The fun moments are pretty easy to explain. The Luminous Witches idol group is made up of members ... of the Strike Witches army who for whatever reason wasn't fitting in their previous post. This created a fun aura around the group as most of the members tended to be more on the incompetent or free spirited side. Many fun moments were had with the members of the group creating chaos with the differences between them, or the silliness of the characters and the antics they got up to. Probably my favorite character for this was Mana who is a great example of this. Her free spirited nature made her into a fun character to watch, although not the best solider for the army. She was paired up with a sleepy character named Maria, and the various moments they had together were very fun to watch. The contrast between the two made for many humorous moments. The familiars were also utilized well for comedy as they had their own moments especially with Moffy. Luminous Witches knew when to have it's characters be charming and funny, and these fun moments generally did a great job of making the characters more endearing.

But those emotional moments are really where the series shined. Episode after episode, the strong resonant emotional impact kept on rolling in. Luminous Witches didn't just hit once or twice, it hit episode after episode, and nailed this melancholic hope combination. Many of the episodes focused on the struggles of the girls in the idol group, or the civilians that were effected by the war. There was a wide array of different issues covered with these struggles as each story covered something different, showing the different ways that war can effect someone and the situation that they're in.

Luminous Witches did a great job of showcasing these different struggles while staying true to the feeling and not overdosing itself with the sad feelings. These sad moments were generally understated rather than made to be over dramatic. The OST in particular was utilized well, knowing when to play itself up, but most importantly knowing when to let itself be understated and let the negative moods build up. The mood setting for these struggles was perfect as the show still managed to have fun moments all through these struggles but still set up this feeling of sadness surrounding them. The negative effects of war shone through the work extremely well, not by being overly depressing but by showing the negative while also giving a lot of positive and showcasing the resilience of the main characters to fight through it and to try to help each other and those around them.

I loved seeing the main characters help each other out and always have each other's back. The idol group was split into subgroups to help with the various parts of creating their idol show, which worked well as the different subgroups got focus and were able to be built well and gave a lot of power to their bonds. It was very heartwarming to see that despite the circumstances, despite the fear, and despite their differences they were able to come together and support each other. Each character in the group had their own struggles and their own unique situation in life. And each of them were covered, helped, and made them feel together in the group. And all of these struggles and episodes hit well leading to a strong group that was hard not to love.

I also really enjoyed the framing of the idol group in world. I loved the focus on bringing music and morale to the people and the ability that one has to help others out despite not being on the front lines in combat. I feel like often times morale boosting and other less direct ways of helping tends to be overshadowed and underappreciated, so I enjoyed them showcasing what their music and spirit can do for those effected by the war around them.

Overall Luminous Witches shines. It offers a strong cast, a good amount of fun moments, and a whole bunch of emotionally impactful scenes that warmed my heart so much. If you want some great heartwarming content I highly suggest that you watch Luminous Witches. All of those heartwarming moments, a fun cast, and some fun moments makes a great show that is very worth watching.

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Oct 1, 2022

valiantslakr

Recommended

Now as a long time fan of the "Strike Witches"/"World witches" franchise who has seen S1+S2, the movie, and Road to Berlin (S3 or right after the movie), as well as Brave Watches, I feel bad for this series because at this point, it has a VERY niche audience to seek out. Newcomers would be easily turned off by the very premise of the idea of "Witches", real world WWII ace pilots turned into cute anime girls with kemonomimi ears and tails that fly around in "striker units", and long time fans would be put off by both the lack of any actual fighting against ...

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Dec 2, 2022

SIG442

Recommended

Spoiler

Great story, European theater as main focus but the plot armor is present.

I love how the studio did this show, however we have something different this time from the fighting witches. This is based up on the ladies who sang to boost morale during World War 2. A topic rarely even addressed in any media unless it's specialized documentaries pretty much. The story does ask for tears to some extend, which shows the studio did add in a great deal of feeling for all characters and the story.

I do have a feeling there could be need for a few changes. Using a bomber as transport ...

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Poll: Renmei Kuugun Koukuu Mahou Ongakutai Luminous Witches Episode 12 Discussion Stark700 - Sep 25, 2022	28 replies	by amlg »» Nov 24, 2022 11:33 PM
Poll: Renmei Kuugun Koukuu Mahou Ongakutai Luminous Witches Episode 11 Discussion Stark700 - Sep 18, 2022	14 replies	by amlg »» Nov 24, 2022 11:09 PM
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Renmei Kuugun Koukuu Mahou Ongakutai Luminous Witches

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Robertson, Virginia

Linnamaa, Aila Paivikki

Hato, Manaia Matawhaura

Gassion, Eleonore Giovanna

Shibuya, Inori

Dietrich, Maria Magadalene

Cariello, Sylvie

Ruslanova, Lyudmila Andreyevna

Stafford, Joanna Elizabeth

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Renmei Kuugun Koukuu Mahou Ongakutai Luminous Witches

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

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