It sells you a Russo-Japanese war epic and then spends its time on a homeroom. That is the trick: the Amanohara is a demon-powered flying warship pointed at Port Arthur, and the actual show is Umakai Shintaro, a Russia-based diplomat who defects home, trying to teach five girls who happen to be the weapon. The plot execution is genuinely bad and the storytelling is cheese all the way down, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to protect it. What survives is the cast. By the back half you know their backstories, you like the way they talk over each other, and the comedy scenes land because the character work quietly did its job. This is the 2003 blueprint Strike Witches got famous for later. Watch it for the girls you did not expect to care about, not the war.

It's 1904, the Russo-Japanese War is under way, and Japan's small army needs help. A benevolent demon lets the warship Amanohara fly, and the ship also houses a girls' academy. Its five students form the Raimu Unit, girls who can call up powerful beings to fight on their behalf. Their new instructor is Umakai Shintaro, a Japanese-born Russian diplomat who defects and ends up as both their teacher and their commander in battle. As the Amanohara heads toward the Russian stronghold at Port Arthur, Shintaro works to help each girl overcome her weaknesses and grow stronger for the decisive fight. Along the way they come up against the Russian Spiritual Corps, which fights for the other side and includes someone Shintaro knew well. The show blends comedy, heavy ecchi content, supernatural powers and mecha action into a strange wartime adventure.