I still want to get a little more critical mass for Simoun so it's not, like, Morbane and one other person each year who are familiar with it.
In brief: priestesses whose priestess-ing consists of pair-piloting ancient aircraft to form magical shapes of great power more or less get drafted into war when this power turns out to be useful against their country's enemy pilots. Almost all-female/nonbinary ensemble - in this society, everyone is born female and chooses their permanent sex when they come of age. The characters are all there for different reasons - to pray, to help the war, to put off their coming of age, to advance in society/class, as a family duty - and part of the extended theme/conflict is about their having to reckon with being an airforce now. Some canon f/f ships and some other non-canon ones with a good femslashy dynamic; lots of dynamic types to choose from.
It's not actually a magical girl anime, but as far as themes and aesthetic it's kind of Magical Girl Evangelion. And the music is really nice. It's a little fanservicey in that the uniforms are weirdly skimpy and they have to kiss to start the aircraft, but not in an enduringly gross way. Other warnings: incestuous sexual assault backstory, some other attempted sexual assault, a loli ship.
Re: Yuletide
In brief: priestesses whose priestess-ing consists of pair-piloting ancient aircraft to form magical shapes of great power more or less get drafted into war when this power turns out to be useful against their country's enemy pilots. Almost all-female/nonbinary ensemble - in this society, everyone is born female and chooses their permanent sex when they come of age. The characters are all there for different reasons - to pray, to help the war, to put off their coming of age, to advance in society/class, as a family duty - and part of the extended theme/conflict is about their having to reckon with being an airforce now. Some canon f/f ships and some other non-canon ones with a good femslashy dynamic; lots of dynamic types to choose from.
It's not actually a magical girl anime, but as far as themes and aesthetic it's kind of Magical Girl Evangelion. And the music is really nice. It's a little fanservicey in that the uniforms are weirdly skimpy and they have to kiss to start the aircraft, but not in an enduringly gross way. Other warnings: incestuous sexual assault backstory, some other attempted sexual assault, a loli ship.