HomeAnimeAir Collection - Review

Air Collection – Review

-

Air Collection - Review 1Title: Air
Published by: Madman Entertainment (Australia / New Zealand)
Based on: The Visual Novel series of the same name by KEY
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Audio: English and Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen (16:9)
Runtime: 350 minutes
Cost: $49.95 from the Madman Online Store
Classification: This title is classified PG for animated violence, themes and coarse language.
Blurb: The second KEY visual novel Air, adapted into a anime series and holds a more serious tone to the other KEY series which focuses on family, supernatural occurences and as with every KEY series…. death. The storyline is shorter then other KEY works and because of it, I do not feel they let the series reach its full potential and overall puts across some rather bland episodes overall. The design is average however is boosted by some solid music tracks and a winning opening sequence.
Special Thanks: Special thanks goes to the Madman Entertainment PR Team for providing me with a review sample of this title.

For those that are not aware, Air is the second KEY visual novel which like Kanon before it, was originally tailored for the adult game market with an all-ages version released later on. The focus on this series is “Family”, similar to how Kanon’s was memories and Clannad was Happiness. I don’t have much to say in this pre-review blurb, so please read on for my review of Air.

 

Welcome to the 1000th summer…

Yukito is a travelling performer. He moves through this world with only the clothes on his back – driven onward by stories of “The Girl in the Sky”. Not knowing when or if he will find her, Yukito wanders, clinging to fleeting hope. Destitute and near starvation, Yukito’s life changes after the eccentric beauty Misuzu offers him food and shelter.

This fragile treasure shares with him her dreams of a life lived amongst the clouds, and he listens closely out of a gratitude which soon gives way to rapt curiosity. The unlikely pair grows close, but Yukito cannot forget his destiny – or his past. In the end, the compelling need to find “her” remains. Who is the girl in the sky? Does she even exist? The questions run rampant, but the answers float aimlessly through the air.

As I stated above, this series is a story based on the concept of “Family”, with each of the three protagonist females having different family issues they have to deal with, along with other sidestories. For the sake of this review, I shall only be reviewing the first twelve episodes as the other two are what I would consider “bonus” episodes and honestly, I haven’t even watched them myself. Anyway, Air follows the male protagonist Yukito as he arrives in a beach-side town as a travelling puppetter and is invited to stay with a girl Misuzu Kamio  who evidently has no regard to the concept of “Stranger Danger”. Over the course of twelve episodes, he will meet two other girls in town: Kano Kirishima – A girl who believes in magic however remains cursed after an incedent at the town shrine many years ago, causing her to act strange and even attack Yukito whilst struggling to hold a relationship with her older sister and Minagi Tohno – A girl almost always seen with another younger girl (Michiru) whilst harboring secrets in terms of her family life and the strange actions of her mother.

Air Collection - Review 2

As there is less time to present the entire storyline, the character arcs are not separated but instead intermingle with each other, then taking an episode or two each to conclude the girls arcs. Kano’s arc is most probably the least memorable and is over in the first four episodes. Whilst more could have been done with her storyline, more of it felt like random day to day activities such as searching for Potato (Her dog) who had disappeared to eating noodles during a lunch break at the clinic Yukito worked at for a time. The underlying concept of her arc – being cursed by a shrine and her older sister – being her primary carer making her believe in magic is interesting, doesn’t have any real end to it, more or less revealing the history of a feather and the curse.

Air Collection - Review 3

The second arc follows Minagi and Michiru and is by far a more interesting watch, with the benefit of spanning over more episodes. This arc is of more interest as it focuses on the relationship between the two girls and features a more realistic look, at how the loss of a child can cause suffering to all members of a family. I would compare it to the Clannad arc for Fuko Ibuki, where a spirit of someone not supposed to be alive appears alongside with memory loss which whilst not reaching the same level as Fuko did, still kept me interested.

The issue with both of the arcs are that after they are completed, they hold no more weight in the story and disappear completely, practically making these arcs filler for the main arc which is Misuzu’s. Misuzu’s is generally the overarching storyline for the entire series and also encompasses the Summer and Air arcs from the visual novel storyline. The focus of the first part of the storyline is to understand the personality and history of Misuzu and she is more or less, a typical protagonist female of a KEY series being clumsy, over-trusting and comes with her own adorable catch-phrase “GAO!”. The storyline between the two of them was interesting.

Air Collection - Review 4

However the storyline started to decline after they threw one too many plot-twists into the tale. First it came with the announcement of a mysterious illness which made Misuzu fall ill every time she made a friend. I thought “Fair enough, it is a supernatural storyline” to a two episode back-story taking place 1,000 years ago in Feudal Japan which I then thought “I might skip through some of this” and then there was a time loop where the storyline goes through the eyes of a crow (I shall say no more on that). The ending is heart-warming and focuses more on Misuzu and her aunt Haruko and despite ending in tragedy, I still had the warm fuzzy feeling which perhaps lessened the serious nature of it. If anything, I would call this a Truth End with a Bad End attached to it, unlike other KEY series that usually end with a happy ending.

As I mentioned above, I don’t want to go into it in much detail, but the collection also comes with two bonus OVA episodes titled Air: In Summer, which focuses on characters introduced in the Feudal era arc and honestly, I watched half an episode of the one in the series and had to skip it, I found it too bland for my tastes. However that being said, the storyline isn’t bad, however doesn’t live up to the potential it could have had, especially since the ending in particular was a strong point in the series. Character development is also solid for all three main girls, however in the case of two of them, they have been put in for no particular reason which may have had more of a presence in other media. The main character Yukito however, benefits from the fact he is not a high school student, and allows him to progress the storyline without the limitation of going to school (Apparently all students go to school during their Summer break).

Air Collection - Review 5

The character designs are nowhere near bad however were not great. Whilst all characters all have unique appearances and the female characters are designed well for their personalities, the quality of their design was not up to scratch with what I was expecting to see. The environmental designs were of no problem to me, captivating me with the high quality backdrops I would expect from Kyoani and a beach town alike. They clearly put across what they intended to, a semi-rural town with nothing fancy, but adding all the little bits you would expect. The animation was well done, and with the exception of the fast paced clouds in the opening sequence which were unrealistic and looked terrible, there were no issues.

Air Collection - Review 6Air Collection - Review 7Air Collection - Review 8

Opening Sequence
Tori no Uta by Lia

I am not keen on the animation as whilst it is an enjoyable watch, the quality dips down very low at some points ruining it even if some of the other parts are well designed. The sequence does a good job at introducing all the main characters in the series, and even gives Yukito a few seconds to shine in it. The winner for me however is the song. Being a rather big fan of Lia’s work, it meets the same quality as I would expect from her.

Ending Sequence
Farewell Song by Lia

As with a lot of ending sequences lately, all I can say is take all the positive comments from above and reverse them, I was not keen on this sequence at all.

Air Collection - Review 9

If there is one thing from this series that will remain memorable to you, it will be the music. As with the other series, I assume that all the music is derived from the original VN soundtrack and besides their storylines, I would say that music is the other thing that makes their series stand out. The music is generally softer then most series to match the lack of action in the series, and is pleasant and well suited to the setting. The voice acting is also very good and comparable to other ADV Films English dubs. Monica Rial and Vic Mignogna taking the leading roles as Misuzu and Yukito and suiting their roles well. Serena Varghese takes the role as the child-character Michiru similar to what she did with Mei Sunohara in Clannad. I felt Kira Vincent-Davis as Minagi was perhaps a bit too soft for her role but still nothing too bad and Stephanie WIttels as Kano and does a very different voice from other roles I have heard her in, which adds a bit of individuality to the role. The winner however out of the cast was Luci Christian as Haruko who manages to express all the emotions portrayed by her character effectively.

Air Collection - Review 10

The packing for this collection primarily has the sky theme. The front cover which you can see at the top of this review has the three primary female characters on the cover with the sky backdrop and looks surprisingly effective. This is carried over to the back cover which has all three girls again in a different pose with the normal blurb and screenshots attached to it. However, there was a spelling mistake in the blurb. Misuzu’s name is spelt M-i-s-u-z-o instead of M-i-s-u-z-u which according to all other sources, is the correct spelling. A minor issue however I just had to CTRL+F every reference to the name in this review. The inside over is a double cover spread of all the female characters in the series sitting on the grass with the sky in full view. The disc art is generally the same as well, generally featuring Misuzu on the first two (with other characters) and the In Summer disc consisting of Kanna and Ryuya. Overall, it is actually a very nice package.

However, after my previous review of Princess Tutu and this originally being an ADV Films title before closing down and being picked up by Funimation Entertainment in the US, I cannot help but feel disappointed in the bonus content attached to this series, which consists of nothing more then a Clean Opening and Ending sequence alongside a few trailers.

Air Collection - Review 11

This is by no means a bad series, however if you were to compare it to Kanon which was written prior to Air, you might end up feeling disappointed. I liked the concept behind the ending storyline, however that rendered the first half of the series completely pointless and would have benefited from either incorporating those characters more or giving them a reason for not appearing. However, despite the issues with the storyline, the characters were likable with Misuzu and Yukito being strong sources of comedy but at the same time, brought an interesting concept into both family and death.

Final Score

Storyline / Character Development: C+
Design: B-
Music/Voice Acting: A
Packaging/Extras: B-
Personal Preference: C+
Overall Score: B-
Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Advertisment

Recent Posts