Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta

This is a strange anime. It is decent, but it never really fulfils the potential it started off with. Perhaps a longer timeline with a more complex plotline, more action, and more relevant interaction might suit it better.

It started with great potential. I hoped it would perhaps become a historico-political steampunk classic, albeit with slightly weaker art. Instead, the abstract mental struggles of the individual seemed to subsume all other themes with the loss of many key overarching elements that I would have liked to see this anime develop.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against the telling of individual stories as part ... of greater struggles. The problem, however, arises in the vagueness of individual struggles and motivations of the characters. I appreciate that any historico-political anime must tell the struggle of individuals (or groups of individuals). But while this anime tries to delve into these individual struggles, there is no coherence to these struggles and little is said regarding their motivations, other than vague love side-plots, comradeship, and a nebulous sense of duty.

This anime harks back to those frontier wars during the age of imperialism – far enough from the cores of power to be invisible, but not far enough for ordinary men to be sent to die. Like such stories, I feel this anime is not meant to make much sense; rather, it is a throwback of sorts, to the steampunk nostalgia of Last Exile and Laputa, even though it unfortunately pales in comparison.

Okay, if you are looking at my "enjoyment" score (10) and wondering why I gave the show a 5, you'll understand soon. This is a show that sells itself as a romantic story about a pilot and a girl in the midst of a gruesome war. About the compassionate love between a soldier and a lady. I was expecting tragedy that tugs at my heartstrings and the realities of war's effect on people. This would have been great if the show was written with heart, but, sadly, it wasn't...

I would not have enjoyed watching this show at all if it wasn't for my friend ... that watched with me. Because of the incredibly simple plot and terrible pacing, we were able to spend most of our time making fun of the terrible characters, making predictions on the "plot twists", and making really funny nicknames for each character. I swear, we may have figured out a way to make any anime fun to watch no matter how terrible the show really is!!!

We would dub over scenes in real time as a way of explaining how unrealistic and predictable they were. For example, while the characters were flying next to each other, they would actually just talk without any radio or normal communications device. I mean, how can anyone hear one another with two gigantic gas engine propellers on either side of the plane running full throttle?? We would dub over, "what did you say?!" and "I can't hear you with these gigantic engines running!! Try sign language!"

We named this one really fat dude Porkins, and the super hot girl that somehow liked him (seriously weird romances) Gold Digger because the only way that relationship could make sense in our minds was if Porkins was filthy rich. We also predicted that Porkins was going to die in the most stupid way, too (like in Star Wars). Turns out we were right!! the dude literally flew into enemy fire with a broken plane for no reason only after he ejected Gold Digger from his plane......WHY DIDN'T HE JUST EJECT BOTH OF THEM!!! AND WHY DID HE THINK THAT GOLD DIGGER WAS GOING TO BE JUST FINE??? seriously stupid writing, but we were laughing so hard that we had to pause the video for at least 5 minutes.

Now, lets talk about pacing! The director and writers of this show have no clue how to end an episode!! For example, Porkins' death although hilarious was supposed to be a huge emotional war hero scene....you'd think the episode would end with his death to instill the emotions of the episode, but no!! NO!! why would they do that when they can cut to the rest of the pilots standing on the runway wondering where Porkins and Gold Digger are....and then end it with the rest of the planes landing without Porkins' plane....My friend and I made a game out of this after the 3rd episode since the first three episodes had terrible endings. We would pick out which scene would be the end only to find out the show was going to make use of the last minute to show you something completely irrelevant to ruin the possible cliff hanger....of course this also gave us a lot of laughs, as well.

In the end, we ended up enjoying the show by turning it into a comedy when it was trying really really hard to be a serious war story. If you find a show similar to this, take as many steps as possible to make fun of it so that you can actually enjoy it. Seriously, Porkins was hilarious!!

Nonsense, complete nonsense, disgust, filth, these are the words that'll come out of your mouth after finishing the series and after wasting 5:30 hours of your precious life on this nonsense, first it starts with a very good story, after watching episode 1 it seems masterpiece but then later it becomes some sad depressing shit. Some scenes are very painful to watch. The ending is also kinda cliffhanger and same drama like his step sis was in love with him but she never confessed as mc was too buzy about his love, this anime is military base, well nope its not at all related to ... military, this is just a sky warfare that involves arms of modern civilization, but no, not military, the end of their journey was also kinda supernatural drama and which dosent make any sense. The mc decided to forgive the girl who killed his parents i mean wtf, his mother once told him not to get consumed by hate but this scene was just too painful and thats why I'll always regret waychimg this anime.

My advice is not to watch this garbage, this is not at all romance this is just a depressing story and some supernatural drama in ending episodes