Anime: Air

Misuzo is an annoyingly happy and hospitable girl, doing her best to get Yukito to stay at her house and be her friend, including using cunning tricks against her aunt, Haruko. She's like a robot, using Gao every time she's about to cry or troubled, tripping easily, asking a whole bunch of questions, and acting silly which somehow gets people to care about her? What? I mean why would the aunt at first disbelieve Yukito's reasons to stay and then believe him?

Too many tsunderes in the show makes it not that good even if there's fun to be had elsewhere. The amateruish writing makes Air a show that we've felt like we've seen before. Yukito is tsundere, sometimes acting cold and other times, acting likeable, making him quite inconsistent.

Misuzu is a butt, at first I thought I would like her but she just turned out more foolish than I expected! She lies, whines and makes a big deal out of small things she could've fixed, constantly stops the world for Yukito just to play with him, unrealistically optimistic and seemed too nice. She also keeps too many secrets! Come on, Misuzu could’ve been well-executed, too! Being the innocent, childlike girl sounds cool but she needs to grow up!

Characters such as Minagi seem like they serve little purpose but could’ve been well-executed. I mean, none of the characters are that good, the best is probably Yukito because he can be funny getting annoyed with that annoying Misuzu! The auntie is the cliché of the neglectful caretaker acting like an idiot but then turns caring too fast. Michiru is too loud and obnoxious. And what's the point in Kana?

The show descends into melodrama, which is a bit too much for me, I guess not well-directed. I feel that the series should’ve shown some of that overly forgetful Misuzu at school! I mean, she takes care of animals? How so?

As for the animation, well, it’s beautiful. The series is beautifully produced but Misuzu’s eyes when she was crying in the card scene made her look like she was going to fall out! Though, the character design looked dated.

Misuzu's voices the only one annoying? Well, yeah, they're supposed to be. Maybe it's the directors' fault. Michiru's is well... annoying in the dub. Luci Christian is unrecognizable as Haruko.

Too bad that Air is a sub-par series best to watch if you're bored.

Air is, to say the least, an entertaining anime. This is the first of the Key anime, which includes the likes of Kanon, Angel Beats, and Clannad. While Air is a pretty damn good anime that foretells some of the conventions of future Key series, it’s not as good as any of the newer ones.

Key anime of the romance department typically involve a single guy who is forced into a situation where a bunch of girls with issues need his help. This stems from the fact that Air, Clannad, and Kanon are all based on visual novels, and visual novels have multiple girls you can get with. So the anime attempts to tell each girls story while focusing only on a single romantic thread for our main hero. Air is different from its future incarnations as it doesn’t as much focus on that idea of multiple girls needing help solving their mental issues. It has three girls in it, two of which are the focus of maybe four or five episodes total. The others are divided into a really strange feudal Japan segment, a segment with our hero and the heroine, and another segment between the heroine and her mother. It’s not typical of what will come, and I appreciate that especially.

The story revolves around the “Girl in the Sky”, an angelic figure who has constantly been forced to be in pain through incarnation after incarnation. She is forced to die every time she gets too close to someone and reincarnate again. A man has followed her every reincarnation to attempt to free her of these horrible bonds. His soul is stuck in the body of a crow and he can become a human vagabond in his attempts to free her.

So we have Yukito, the vagabond, and Mizusu, the girl in the sky. Mizusu has no close friends, no close family, and pretty much lives her life as a lonely klutz. But when she meets Yukito during one lovely summer vacation she may have found her greatest friend and the catalyst for her finally feeling accepted. He moves in with Mizusu and her drunken and rather inappropriate aunt, Haruko, and tries to help Mizusu be freed from her eternal bond. During that time he gets a part time job at the local clinic and helps the owner’s sister as she is being possessed (did I mention Key anime have really weird supernatural plotlines?). He also helps a girl whose sister has been dead for years yet her ghost has been following her around since she died.

The two arcs with the girls aren’t particularly great. Neither is memorable and both are seriously shadowed by those stories told in Key’s later anime.

During the last half the story shifts to feudal Japan where we learn the origin of the angel girl and the man who tries to save her. These episodes aren’t half bad, but really ruin the pace and interject very abruptly. It doesn’t feel right.

The final arc is of mother and daughter. Well, aunt and daughter. Yukito is a crow who is made to watch as Haruko makes amends with Mizusu and claims her as a daughter rather than a niece. This is the best part of the entire anime, a very touching and well executed arc that builds on the character of Haruko and makes her the most likeable character of the entire anime.

The ending isn’t the greatest. Now, I’m all for a sad ending, but I felt kind of cheated. I hate when an anime is just a small part of a bigger story and we really don’t see that story concluded. It’s just part of a story, a segment of a whole. And while Air contains a good enough story and characters, I want to see what happens to those characters and how the story plays out. Does the Girl in the Sky ever get freed? I really want to know the answer to it.

The character department is pretty sparse of anything worth mentioning. As I said, the two girls at the beginning are decent enough characters with decent enough stories, but they really don’t matter in the long term and their characters are not real exciting. This is doubly so for the main characters. Yukito is pretty dull all around. He’s what I like to call a cardboard character. He’s flat as a pancake and doesn’t shine at all. The same can be said of Mizusu. While she displays emotions, she’s a typical cry baby with an issue that needs to be resolved. I wasn’t really a fan of hers.

Meanwhile, I grew to enjoy the character of Haruko. While at first I liked her as the drunken, idiot aunt taking care of her sister’s daughter, as you learn more about how she has had to distance herself from Mizusu, you grow to like her and feel empathetic to her having to stay away from a girl she really does love. As Haruko finally steps into the motherly roll and despises the fact she hadn’t done it sooner, you continue to love her. And as Mizusu loses her memories of her mother (she loses her memory of a person if they grow too close), and is nearly returned to her real family, it’s enough to bring you to tears as she struggles to return to her aunt’s arms, the woman she considers her mother.

For Haruko’s character alone, the series is worth watching. While the ending, as I said, isn’t at all what I had hoped, nor is the rest of the show too special, the final stretch is good and memorable.

Overall, I can’t give an enthusiastic recommendation as this is only going to appeal to fans of Key or romance in general, but I can say it’s a pretty good anime. The opening is really fantastic, the animation is good, the story is okay, and the characters are okay, but taken as a whole it’s a fun little experience. Not particularly as memorable as later Key anime, but it still contains the heart that you’d expect.

Oh, and try and find the Kanon characters that show up in one episode. It’s a pretty cool cameo!

Oh boy. Oh man. Oh Gods. Oh Hell. Oh fuck. Not... THIS!!!

Let me tell you something, folks. I HATE dating sims (only dating sims, NOT VNs, just to clarify) for so many reasons. First of all, they are the most boring games ever. I mean click-click-click-click-choose an option wherever to snoo-snoo her or not-click is stupid. Solitairie, or even SimHealth has more damn gameplay from every one of those "games". Secondly, the whole thing with trying to score a 2D girl/part of the programming code is simply... wrong. First of all, it's not even 10% realistic: real life girls will not fall for you instantly, nor are innocent. I understand this is a way for those virgin otakus to score with a chick, and works like a placebo drug: makes you feel well, while it does NOTHING at all. In the end, I have so much against these kinds of softwares (again, I will NEVER count them as games). Tried 2 games. First time, I didn't even know that they existed. Second one, wante to see if they are actually like that. Yup, they are.

What's even worse is that they make anime series out of them, and they all fail miserably. They have no plot whatsoever, no story to begin with and the list goes on and on and on and on...

The only anime adaptions that I enjoyed watching are Clannad and Kanon. Those were good to watch and had that touch that varies it from the rest. And all this in the beginning of my anime-watching "carrier". I watched so many anime, both good and bad, and I was in the search of what genres I love and what I hate. So, this falls in my hands. And I watched it 'till the end. And... I hated it. Vey much...

First things first, let's talk about... THE PLOT!!! *dramatic music*

One guy in the search of a winged girl (Hawkgirl?) leads him to a small town where he meets a girl and seems that girl to have some connection with that girl he seeks for. After that, it's getting lost. With every episode, we get introduced with a new girl, has a problem that only the male protagonist can solve and then she takes her leaving. Also, during the middle of the season we get to the past, at the era of samurais and then back to present. That made no sense whatsoever. Also we have TWO recaps in a bloody 13 eps series. TWO. FUCKING. RECAPS!

OK, I don't give a lot of details, 'cause at the middle of the series, my mind went numb, stopped absorbing of whatever it happened and in the end I got lost. So MANY points of the plots are being lost in the way, and in the end I stopped caring about story, plot, characters, messages, consistency, food at the oven, water for shower getting cold. I mean, damn, dude. Pulling the hair from my ass is more fun than this! Also, it has a big weight in the "Romance" tag. Seriously, what romance? Where romance? I didn't see any kind of romance. Or at least, I didn't notice any of it. Maybe it's the "Twilight" kind of romance: Stupid and only the weak-hearted and emotional-with-every-lame-romance-there-is dudes and dudettes. The drama here is also lame. Isn't drama's purpose to make you feel bad about the ones who suffer it? I was laughing my ass with it, in an inappropriate way. Also, since there is nothing remarkable good that spices the story, it's getting boring. And this is why, ladies and gentlemen, NANA takes the cake of drama and romance, for me.

But, hey, we don't watch something JUST for the story right? I mean, we also have the characters of it. Even if the story isn't something LoTR/Star Wars-epic, or Matrix-original, or simply it's soap opera-plain, the characters can always spice it , right? "Oh, Odin All-Father, please grant me strenght to endure them". This is a small summary of "Holy Mother of Fuck and Shit, please!! Someone kill them!! Oh please, Gods! I can't stand them! They are stupid, one-dimensional, morons, and they should get kicked square in the nuts!!"
OK, let's try to be more... polite and more gentleman.

Let's begin with the secondary cast (we gonna save the best for the last, kids ;p ). No matter how many they butt in, either they leave or simply they are forgotten as time passes by. This goes mostly for the girls. They have a problem, they seek the help/guidance/advice of "guru" Kunisaki Yukito and when it's solved (or the episode ends) they dissapear and never to be mentioned. If you are gonna have such cast in a 13-eps series, please have them in the series for some time. It feels cheap, that we see a new character coming in the show and then dissapearing in the same fucking episode. If your intention is to throw them right away when their part is done, then WHY EVEN BOTHER MAKING THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE?! This results into not feeling any sort of connections and likeability and you will forget them in the end. Look at the cover. It has three girls on it and not the main male protagonist. Automatically, you think that all of them will be the biggest part of the anime, right? Well, guess what. Only one of them plays the biggest part. The other two are gone in the middle of the series. Grrrrrrr....

Now for Kunisaki Yukito, the main male: I really couldn't bring myself into liking him. He is acting like a jackass the whole freaking time, doesn't care for what happens around him most of the times and it makes me wonder how he is in the "game".

Of course the worst one is Kamio Misuzu... She is NOT a cute, innocent girl. She is a moron. She is STUPID. Sorry, but when you go around and say that chicks are baby dinosaurs... Picard Facepalms(TM) are ensured to come out. Plus, the constant "gao gao" (what is supposedly to be dinosaurs' roars) is irritiating to the ears and getting in your nerves. I like dinosaurs too (hell, those mighty beasts are fearsome and great), but not to the same point with her. And even when her drama came out of the surface towards the middle to the end, I couldn't like her or sympathise. The fucking damage was done!

The only character I liked from the whole series is Misuzu's foster mother. She was drinking constantly and forgetting her past and going away from her responsibilities, but towards the end she opens more and becomes a better person and mother. Hell, I liked that. That was development.

Animation and art were great for something like that (makes me pity them for being wasted here and not for a better series), although those huge eyes freaked me in the beginning.

Music is also good, with nice BGMs, voice acting is also good. But that "gao gao" thingy gets you really quickly.

So, in the end. I am not fond of it. It really is a good anime for bishoujo lovers, but for anyone else, it will NOT be enjoyable.
...
Wait, I am done with it? YES!! I am done with it!!!! FREEDOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
Suck it, bitch!! Fuck you... and fuck your marker moe girls!
Now let's grab da real shitz, mon! *starts watching Shigurui (Highly recommended)*

A wandering puppet performer meets a mysterious girl who dreams about flying into the past. A low class samurai meets a flying winged-beast. In Air, these two stories are merged into one very complete and compelling package. This is a remarkable masterpiece in terms of art, sound, as well as thematic development. This was one of the first animes I've watched and the one that pretty much convinced me to watch other shows.

Animation:
Superb. The detail and backgrounds are crisp and create a very unique mood combined with the OST. The overall look of the rural ocean town makes me want to live there. If you're looking for a calm scene to relax with after a long stressful day of classes/work, look no further than the blue ray release of this show.
Yes, the characters have very wide faces and are unrealistically thin, but the lighting, vivid colors, and attention to detail in the animation more than make up for this.

Sound:
The sound track is very open with lots of pads and reverb in the mix, creating a very "air"-like open feel. It goes perfectly with the calming scenery and the innocent personality of Misuzu. I really like the opening song and an insert song is played perfectly at the climax of the show. The voice acting includes many veteran VAs and they do a terrific job at bringing out the characters. Daisuke Ono ftw.

Story:
At first, this series seems to go really slowly. There are a lot of moments that seem slice-of-life, with the characters reflecting while the camera pans around some beautiful scenery. It takes time to build but, if one uses the time to reflect on the themes and what is actually happening, it is worth it. There isn't much humor or flirting in this series.
There are essentially two interconnected stories in this anime, that of the modern relationship between puppet-player Yukito and a mysterious girl named Misuzu and their ancestor/pre-incarnations one thousand years ago. This is told in three arcs with the second one being of the pre-incarnations. This plot sequence is masterfully done as the watcher slowly makes sense of what occurred in the first arc and comes to realize what will happen at the end. Be prepared for some very emotional moments.
The conclusion is one to remember. It leaves certain questions unanswered and begs the watcher for a second watch. I ended up spending a good two hours after finishing this just thinking about the ending and its implications. Well worth it.

Character:
The characters in the modern portion of the series are very likable. The development of Yukito is very well done. He is looking for a "girl in the sky" and the ocean town has three girls whom all seem to have something to do with that girl. What will happen as he grows attached to them? I also really liked Misuzu as her innocence and clumsiness combine with her "gao" phrase to create a very loveable character.

Value:
This is a very mysterious yet calming series that is definitely among my favorite animes. It makes one think about reality and what it means to be alive. I've watched this multiple times and still pick up new subtleties and themes. Overall, double thumbs up for Air TV.

Enjoyment:
This is both a laid-back show and a thinker's show. You can sit back and enjoy the perfect harmony between the atmosphere and the BGM, or you can ponder the themes that underlay the show. Either way, assuming that you're not liable to get too comfortable and fall asleep, it will be a fun ride.

This series was really good, but it could have been so much better.

The art style was wonderful. Each frame of animation was amazingly detailed and wonderfully colored. The animation wasn't the smoothest, but it didn't need to be. The artwork held it through. One tiny thing I didn't like about the art, however, was that there were far too many shots of the sun rising and/or setting. I started to get sick of them by the time I got around three-fourths through the series, but that's just nitpicking, everything else was beautiful.

Now the story was great, but it had one problem which kept it from being amazing: focus. During the course of the thirteen episodes, a few of them went off into completely self-contained mini-stories, which drew all of the tension built from the main story away. These mini-stories did not assist the main story, which made them completely pointless. I don't know if they were added for more episodes, or what, but I do know that if they were taken out of the series, the story would remain perfectly intact, and would probably be much better than it was. Despite this flaw, the ending was very moving, one of my favorites because of how emotionally powerful it was.

If it didn't have it's flaws it'd probably be one of my favorite anime, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it by the end. I definitely recommend this series to anyone interested in non-action/adventure/thrillers.

Air is an interesting case. It looks and sounds great, is based on excellent source material, and is largely faithful, but still isn't all that great. That's because it ended up being semi-coherent after they tried to jam the entire game into twelve episodes. If you don't mind not being entirely certain what's going on, I recommend it. If you do, stay away.

Animation:
Excellent. One of the best-looking series ever. The skies are especially beautiful, which is appropriate.

Sound
Quite good. Not much to say about it.

Story
As mentioned above, this is it's weak point. Most of what happens in Misuzu's arc is poorly explained, and occasionally disorienting. This is especially unfortunate as her arc is the main, and most interesting one. The other girl's arcs are of varying, though high, quality.

Character:
One of it's stronger points. The characters are interesting and likeable. This is good, as it's based on their relationships.