Anime: Gekijouban Air

(NOTE TO READER: If you happen to read this review, whether in-full, or just a skim, please rate the review. I will appreciate the feedback, negative or positive, and will return the gesture if you have made your own review.)

To begin with, I was vastly disappointed by the AIR TV series, and had not even planned on watching this movie. I did so at the request of a friend who greatly enjoyed both the movie, and TV series, and they promised me that the movie would deliver, where the series fell short.

Animation:

The movie takes a step backward here. The characters have overly bugged eyes, and everything seems to move in slow motion.

The artwork itself is good, characters seem more lifelike, and have more believable features. However, they lack the fluidity of their TV series counterparts.

The scene between Keiichi, Haruko and Misuzu toward the end is just appalling. The atmosphere is killed completely by the animation in this portion. Haruko's eyes just bob awkwardly, and her tears resemble miniature snowballs.

The flashback sequences are enough to drive one crazy. Everything constantly moves in slow motion, and the sakura leaves always seem to be blowing around. Dramatic effect is fine, but geez, I guess feudal Japan must have been pretty damned windy.

Gekijouban certainly doesn't look bad, not at all. It just isn't the ambitious attempt that the TV series had.

Sound:

Reusing the old Intro and Ending themes from the original was a great idea. It seems the new director: Dezaki Osamu knew a cash horse when he saw it.

When one hear's the sounds of these ridiculous grunting drummers, one wants to put one's fist through his computer monitor. Please, just shut the hell up, already, we get it, you're festive, you're angry, great, just shut up. Don't even get me started on Sora. (the crow)

Tomoko Kawakami gives Misuzu her same child-like sound, but does so in a way that doesn't make you want to punch her everytime you hear "Yukito-san", (which is substantially less in the movie) while Yukito gains a few bits of dynamic flare. As he performs his doll charade, he gets into his act, and shifts his voice to try and keep the attention of the children, and that was amusing. Aya Hisakawa played her comic relief role just swimmingly, but seemed somehow less authentic in the dramatic portions. (Perhaps it was due to that horrendous animation)

Story:

"Thus, the reason why I disembarked at this town...was simply by coincidence. There was no reason at all." It seems that fate plays quite a role in this world.

It's not hard to understand the irony they're using to impose their tragedy. Misuzu is reading the story of Kanna-hime, and is in some ways, reliving the exact same events. The question is: Why? Alot of things in the world of Gekijouban don't seem to make alot of sense.

What exactly is Misuzu's illness? Is it the curse from the story? Is the story she's reading a history book, or a work of fiction? If it is history, how are she and Kanna related? If not, what is she doing with wings, anyway? It's like the dots are there, but they lack connectivity.

The good news here, is that the story is paced relatively well, and it has a great ending. We're introduced to our characters, get to know a bit about them, become aware of their plight, and then we have a beautiful and touching ending.

Character:

Well, what do you know, as it turns out this time around, our narrator Yukito Kunisaki, will actually fulfill his role as the main character.

Misuzu is actually accurately portrayed as an innocent schoolgirl in this film. Her feelings for Yukito grew unreasonably fast, but doesn't every young girls? Her pain is real, and you empathise strongly with it.

Yukito is still boring. As a character, he is just so translucent, and he just screams of apathy. However, he really serves a purpose this time around, because he's genuinely connected to Misuzu. He actually quite entertains the crowds with his puppeteering trick, and seems to be much more skillful at it.

The flashbacks containing Ryuuha, Uruha, and Kanna's characters are luckily the more lame and pointless portions of the movie. (I say this, because they truly stole the show straight away from the main cast of the TV series) They exist solely inside a story that Misuzu is reading.

Value:

Gekijouban offers the chance to engross yourself into the world of AIR, without having to sit through the plethora of filler used to comprise the majority of the episode list of the TV series. This, in itself, is enough reason to watch this movie.

AIR had vast amounts of potential. Trimming up the cast and taking away the TV series ability to blindside you with a total and ridiculous story arc, make this the indisputable choice, of which to watch; The movie, or the show.

Normally I wouldn't allow myself to make so many TV series-Movie comparisons, as this is a review of the movie, and not the show. However, this is the only way I can justify giving such higher scores to most of the categories of the movie.

I can't lie though, as much as I disliked the show, I was ready to tear this movie apart as a supplement to my other review.

However, Gekijouban did something that AIR failed to. It moved me, even if only a little. Here, we have something that the original lacked: Actual Romance. The same god-awful dialogue is in this one, but at least it's a shorter trip this time around.

A slightly moving and bittersweet short story about ironic and tragic love.

The main reason I feel compelled to write this review, is that I've seen various comments saying it doesn't matter whether you watch the movie or the tv series first. While this is technically true, I definitely would not recommend watching this first - read on for why.

The Air movie, weighing in at 1.5 hours, is quite a departure from the series - I have seen the series before, so I think it would be best to emphasize their differences. I don't know anything about the game, so I can't really comment on that.

I'm giving the animation a 4, not because it's "bad", but because there hardly was any. The way the movie is put together, almost all the action takes place in 5-10 second segments, which are scattered between a huge amount of "art" frames, where they show a still image, with added grain, "lens flares/sunlight sparkles", or out-of-focus pans. It's almost a slide show. In its defence however, everything has been redrawn - there is no re-use of material from the tv series. The sound was a mixed affair. The voice actors did an excellent job of getting their characters across in such a short time. Unfortunately, all the sound effects were either incredibly fake or entirely out of place. Why does a bicycle falling over on a sandy beach, sound like a garbage can filled with bottles being rolled down a hill? The story has been changed quite a bit, both in execution and depth. Almost all of the secondary characters have been removed, and those that weren't are only glimpsed extremely briefly - if you've seen the show you'll know who they are, but if you haven't these cameos would probably seem irrelevant. You'd think by doing this they would have time to develop a deeper plot, since they chose to focus on the main characters' love relationship. But that's not the case. It is also full of references to the events of the tv series, but doesn't explain them, either. It reduces them to meaningless background chatter - which is why I personally don't think the Air movie has any sort of replay value at all. Strangely though, the movie's version of the story is a lot more coherent - maybe due to it's brevity, maybe because it was simplified so much. If you've already seen the series, there is a slight possibility you'll enjoy this as a sort of otherverse outtake. But with no time for beauty and intrigue, it just isn't worth the time it takes to watch it, and I honestly can't recommend it.

I thought I'd add a second review from the perspective of a person who has not seen the TV Series.

The Animation is pretty good. Nothing spectacular. Its very colorful and bright. Lots of nice scenery. THe Charcaters could be more detailed but they weren't bad either. There were quiet a few still shots though. They'd go from motion picture to still pastel shot.

Sound was top notch. I loved the music. There's a piano tune in there that's just the bomb :) The music definitely did a great job setting the mood.

Character and Story. Its basically your average boy meets girl love story. While the story on its own is nothing original or special, the way its told against the backdrop of the legend of a winged princess was pretty cool, and very nicely done. The pace is slow but feels right for this type of movie. It slowly but gradually builds a relationship between the viewer and the characters and soon you find yourself bonding with misuzu and yukito.

I didn't feel I missed out on anything not having seen the anime. This seemd like a self contained story. I found it to be a very touching story that might choke a bit of emotion out of even the most gung ho amongst us. I plan on watching the TV series now because of this movie. I recommend it for people who like dramas, love stories, or both.

Edit: I thought I'd add an afterthought after watching the TV series. I felt the TV series would be very confusing if had not seen the movie before it but on the same token the movie would make more sense if you saw the tv series first! Its almost like a chicken and the egg question.

IMO if you watch the TV series first, you might need a second viewing because it can be confusing. Plus you'll miss little clues and events related to plot that you did not pay attention to the first time because they seemed insignificant.

In that sense watching the movie first will give you the advantage of most likely avoiding a second viewing. So I recommend the movie before the series. However watching either first will not reduce your enjoyment of the other.

Base in the Bishoujo game release in PC, DC and PS2, later on turned into a wonderful anime of 12 episodes, but now unfortunately the movie lacks what the Anime had, but it also gives some moments that the Anime lacked as well, so lets see the different aspects of this Movie.

Animation: Ok
I was expecting something of a high quality presentation in this movie, but my hopes were too high for the matter, the characters designs are a little less detailed than the anime, the animation work its not as smooth and detailed as the anime series. The backgrounds are good, but they don't have the beautiful sky animations of the Anime series, so nothing to be amaze in here.

Sound: The same
Its the same sound of the Anime, the same Voice Acting, the same music, so nothing new here, maybe the ending song is new, but I'm not 100% sure, still even if it was the same i enjoyed it since the OP song is just a great song a really catchy, also the Voice Acting fits the characters really well and makes you feel more in touch with their feelings, so its ok.

Story: Good in a way
The story is basically the same, but only focusing in Misuzu story, so the other characters like Kano, Hijiri, Minagi and Michiru are out and they don't have an important role, or you could said that none at some point, which is good in a way since after seeing the anime you thought that Misuzu Story was not fully developed then this movie will fill that lack from the anime. Although the story change in a way ( I'm not saying spoilers ), it change in a good way up to some point, you manage to see lots of scenes you should had wanted to see in the Anime, so i strongly recommend to see the anime before the movie in the story matter.

Characters: Same minus some faces
The characters personality changed a little, i don't want to tell unnecessary informations, but they are all lovable characters, they change thought the movie and manage to keep the charm from the anime, plus you see some new emotions that were out of the anime that might give the fans some good moments. So since the story only focus in Misuzu you will miss some of the other memorable characters, which that is quite sad, but thats was the point of the movie.

Value: Good
Unfortunately its not as good as the Anime, but the Value is quite good, and it good to watch now and then, but not as strongly as the Anime series, still give it a shot you will enjoy it, specially to the Drama lovers.

Enjoyment: Nice
I strongly recommend you to see the Anime or play the Video Game ( doubt there is a English ver of it though... ), before seeing the Movie, you will miss a lot of good stuff by just watching the Movie, but if you see the Anime first then the Movie you will find in this Movie moments you wished to see in the Anime, so to truly enjoy it watch it as i am suggesting.

In the end, it was a Ok movie, if you enjoyed this kind of stories you should also watch AA! My Goddess, thought the story is more touching in Air, but is a good recommendation, so as i have been saying thought all this Review ( which was made to give you an idea of the movie and not spoiling it as much as i could ) see the Anime first then this Movie.

Thanks for reading, and sorry for not giving a strongly detailed review, i just don't want to spoil your experience, so enjoy the Movie if you are going to watch it!