Air

When I was told by one of my friends that everybody should see Air at least once in their lifetimes because it was so good, how could I refuse. This was a person I trusted and who introduced me to Ghost In The Shell. WOW.. Wasn't he wrong. A lot of people have given Air rave reviews, but I found it to be boring and at times, down right annoying.

I found the story slow, repetitive and predictable. The major "Twists" could be seen from a mile away. The best parts of the story were the short and sweet subplots and flashbacks which I must admit, ... were quite entertaining. But the main story of Misuzu really just annoyed me.

I did think the overall art work in the series was good, it's not my normal taste in style but I thought it was cute and worked well, though some of the characters did seem a little underdrawn, even unfinished, but I liked it, it was a pleasurable change to the perfect well rounded style we tend to see everywhere else.

The characters overall were well presented and all had distinctive interesting personalities. Unfortunately Misuzu annoyed the hell out of me, her annoying voice, bad habbits, The fact that she had a mental age at least 7 years prior to her physical age, and overall demeanor were so bad that it overshadowed the rest of the good characters and made them unnoticeable.

The only other thing I feel I need to say about the characters is Potato, This quirky little puppy is reason alone to sit through the 13 episodes of crap. You are much better off just typing his name into a youtube search and watching the little clips they have of him.

From the 4th or 5th episode watching this Anime became more like work than a passtime, the only reason I watched it through was that my friend was so convinced that it was the greatest thing ever, I assumed that somewhere something happened that made things fall into place and I'd start to enjoy it. Unfortunately this was only a pipe dream.

Overall I wouldn't recomend this anime. Though to some people it must have more meaning or appeal than it did to me, as it has many many other rave reviews.

If you do decide to pursue this anime, I wish you luck.

Air, unfortunatly, was the worst anime I've ever watched. It had alot of potential, but in the end it took a severe swerve onto the wtf-highway.

Air is about Yukito Kunisaki, a young man who travels looking for a woman his mother had told him about in a story. On his travels, he meets Misuzu Kamio. The two become good friends, but a disease bed-rids Misuzu and leaves her fighting for her life.

Now, up until that part, everything in the anime had been good, all the makings for a great ending. Until of course, as you'll see, it turned for the worst. As Misuzu ... is on her last legs, Yukito comes in and sacrifices himself to save her (it was a very hard-to-explain turn of events, and even if I told you it would spoil it).

You are then sent on a long and boring arch of the life of a group of three living in Feudal Japan, and as before, its hard to explain and would spoil the anime.

So now back to the main story, what do you find? A crow. Thats right, we are now following the life of a freaking crow. Yukito reincarnate, yea, but still a freakin crow. We go into this screwed up kind of recap where we see what we already watched, but now through a crow's eyes. Except now Yukito (who is not in crow form) runs away instead of helping Misuzu.

Now we watch a few, final episodes watching Misuzu's condition decay and eventually have her *spoiler here* die. Then thats it, aside from a part where Yukito (in crow form) sets out on a journey to find the flying woman, again. But this time as a crow. Yea, a crow. This is how they end the anime.

Air had good potential and its episodes leading up to that giant wtf-moment of an ending, heck it was a great anime up until then. Yet the ending totally washed any good feeling I had for this anime out, and all around was a really bad ending.

I personally would not suggest watching this anime unless you like watching good episodes only to be given a horrid excuse for an end, but then again is up to you.

If you'd like to see my full review than leave a comment on my profile.

Glimpse:
Storyline: I tried so hard to follow the story and where it was trying to take me. Maybe if I was familiar with the game, but I'm not and the same could be said for many of the viewers out there. The story was simple enough and quite beautifully laid out for about the first half of the series, then it took a spiraling nose-dive into complete confusion. There was a side story set in feudal times that seemed very interesting but didn't fully connect with main storyline, as did a ... few other side stories. This series was just way too short for what it was trying to accomplish.

I usually don't drop anime,but this show made me simply bored.

Story 5/10

Very confusing.I like stories with supernatural elements,but this one just made no sense at all. The first two episodes started out good,but after that it was confusing and hard to follow. Also,half of the episodes are fillers. The girls introduced in the filler arcs,just disappeared after their problem gets solved,making them useless. The story itself was unique and had potential,but they showed it in a confusing way,making it boring to follow. It's also pretty predictable. I instantly knew Misuzu was the girl Yukito was looking for.

Art 6/10

I honestly didn't like it. The backgrounds ... were done nicely,but the character's faces looked very out of proportion to me. I guess that's a personal thing,but I didn't enjoy the anime for its visuals.

Sound 8/10

The sound was good. I liked the opening theme and the other music fitted the atmosphere of this show very well.

Characters 5/10

Most characters were pretty dull.

Yukito was just your typical nice guy,trying to help everyone he sees.
Misuzu was kind of unique,but very annoying at the same time.
Kano was just really pointless. They could have made her a good character,but she instantly gets forgotten after her arc.
Minagi is kind of the same,while she has a bit more emotional story,she's just a filler in the end. Also,the way she talks sounds so soulless to me.
Michiru was the most entertaining character to me.Her happiness and energy just makes me smile while watching her scenes.

Enjoyment 4/10

I really did not get much enjoyment out of this. Air had its moment,but none of them actually made me cry or feel very emotional. I just didn't feel the connection with the characters,probably because there wasn't much character development at all. The art wasn't very enjoyable either.......neither was the story. Half of the time I didn't get what was going on and it felt like a mess.

Overall 5/10

To me,Air is like Clannad with less comedy,less character development and an more confusing story. In My opinion it just tries too hard to make you feel emotional. If you enjoyed Clannad or enjoy magical stories that are emotional this anime might be for you...

I don't hate this anime,but I found it kinda boring. I guess it's just not my type of show.

"I guess people can't live without their memories, but I don't think it's possible to live on nothing but memories, either. Everybody has to wake up from their dreams sometimes." - Michiru

Now with videographix! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ0e-7SSI00


"Do YOU have magical powers?

Are you now or have you ever considered becoming a broke vagrant?

Well, fret no more! In Bum Simulator 2005, you can be all of these things- and for your troubles, a myriad of schoolgirls with health problems and terrible home lives will flock to you!
...
Such things like feeding yourself from the garbage and finding a dry bridge to sleep under will never be a problem again! They'll give youmoney, invite you into their homes, and feed you, all for free! Life has never been better!"

Until life hits you right in the tragedy.


Artwork and Animation: 7

Air is 10 years old this year, and while not a bad looking show by any means, it has moments of weakness. There are a lot of great qualities about it though, especially the backgrounds and scenery. Occasionally the character models fall off and drop to a very low detail level and there are more than a few stillframes and pans over them, but overall a nice looking show- even if I don't care for the enormous bug eyes that take up a third of each female character's face.


Sound and Voice Acting: 9

Honestly, this is about as good of a performance as one can get from Monica Rial and Vic Mignogna. Vic sounds appropriately indignant, bored, and playfully angry, along with an emotive performance, befitting of a young man who actually cares about his female companion's well being.

I've long maintained that Monica Rial was best in Panty and Stocking, but I might have to reorder my list after this. I did not know that she was capable of playing a dramatic, tragic, and nuanced role as she did in Misuzu. She was legitimately awesome in this; totally believable in the role of an immature, wistful, and sick, but hopeful young girl.

There were no hammy performances, and no false-feeling emotional scenes- every bit of it was all one could have hoped for in a heartfelt drama.

The music in Air is the true beauty- with soft, melancholy piano melodies, and a mixture of ethereal, airy sounding background music, including an excellently fitting opening song, "Tori no Uta"; (Bird's Poem) that combines danceable bass beats with the celestial qualities of the vocals and string sections.


Contrivances and Story:

I think the whole show could be described as a very long, very thin Red String of Fate. This theme of long distant past events affecting the present day is fairly common in media, however, Air's usage of it relies on several plot conveniences that I just cannot forgive. I understand that they were trying to make the plot into a tragic love story, but the means by which they use to get there are, honestly, poor, and would have functioned much better and been more believable with only very slight changes to the story.

I was following along well up until episodes 8 and 9. I lost it when the plot decides to make an unexpected jump off a cliff straight back in time a thousand years. That one paragraph of exposition at the end of episode 9 mostly straightened it out, but still, the show was about 70 miles into a 100 mile trip, flipped on the left blinker and cruised straight out of the country and into the ocean.

I was, and am certainly not alone in being totally lost in 8 and 9, didn't know who the characters were or why I should care that this character's mother died; I just really didn't know why I was supposed to care about these characters you force on me for two episodes in the middle of a story- with very little explanation as to why it's important, only to have the supposed importance of it absolutely quashed in the end in favor of a emotionally manipulating tragic ending.
The show had just spent the last 7 episodes building this relationship between Misuzu and Yukito up, only to hand me three new characters who, by the end of the show, aren't even that important.

Also, this trip in time was supposed to make me feel bad for the winged people because they were used as weapons?? What kind of tacked on tragedy is that? Why can't people just hate them because they have wings?? Why do these people even need to have wings? Why can't they be just some minority that the feudal Japanese of the time discriminated against?


This little episode also introduced the absolute thirstiest chick I've ever seen in anime.
Woman to her best friend's lover: "Ryuuya, there's only one way to help Kanna now, you and I must have a child together."

Okay seriously? The lover and best friend of the afflicted winged person have to have a child so that the child of their great great great grandchild's grandchild's great grand child MIGHT end up helping the reincarnated form of your friend???
What made them think that was going to work???
What if one of the kids 200 years down the line decides, "you know what, screw this girl in the sky garbage, who even cares?" and it ended there?
What about infertility?
What if one of the descendants got cholera and died before they had children? They didn't have Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccines back in 994 AD.

The show relies on this convenience heavily, only for it to totally come apart and mean nothing at the end!


The whole story could have been revamped with a much simpler, yet equally tragic plot without relying on these extreme conveniences for melodrama: make the main heroine just ill, with a hereditary terminal disease instead of inheriting a cursed soul that her body can't contain. Male character who's unaware of her condition and just thinks she's a bit strange befriends her, they develop a relationship, and then it changes from a cute love story to a terrible tragedy of lovers. The other characters do their best to help treat it, to no avail, and eventually (if you want your magic tie-in), through some circumstance, a miracle happens, and the girl is saved, or- maintain the tragedy and she becomes more ill anyway.

None of this thousand year old curse nonsense that even MANIFESTS ITSELF AS A DISEASE! No ridiculous "my descendants will help save this person's reincarnated form in the far future!", and no stupid reincarnation. Magic in shows is fine, but this show takes a couple pages out of the rule same book Code Geass got its internal consistency from.

Minor Gripe:

I don't even remember how Kanna KNEW WHERE HER MOTHER WAS! She said in the beginning that she didn't even remember her mother, and then she and her friends magically knew where to find the mother because of the female best friend's magical "woman's intuition" equivalent of GPS tracking.
And a guy becomes a crow.
Seriously, I can't make this up.


Enjoyment and Overall: 6

I want to like Air, because it's a pretty sweet story about tragedy, but there were some so incomprehensibly stupid moments about it that broke it for me. In spite of a forgettable cast of supporting characters and a few plot threads that really don't go anywhere, I'll give it a pass, because it's a nice little story, and I enjoyed it for the most part- it just could have done with some good editing before it was put to paper in the form it came out in.


"Y'know everybody holds the idiot ball from time to time. Except this one girl played keep away with it... Forever. She took it home and never gave it back."

Air, like Clannad is based off a visual novel by Key but unlike Clannad it falls flat on the viewer.

There's nothing wrong with the art, sound and story of Air. The story is an interesting concept and at first I was excited to watch this series. I hoped it would be like Clannad, and also, my boyfriend was telling me to watch this series and he normally has good tastes. It started to feel like a chore after only a few episodes.

My problem with Air is that it needed to be longer. If it was longer, I believe that would have fixed the major problems ... that I have with this series. The story centres around the main character helping three young girls with their troubles. Since this also created by those that made Clannad, expect drama and tragedy to be apart of these girls' lives.

Normally, I don't have a problem with tragedy as long as the character development is okay, as opposed to being melodramatic or manipulative into making you think you care about the character... Well, Air seems kind of like a mixture of the latter two things I said. Not enough time is given to develop the characters before their drama is introduced and absolutely no time at all is given afterwards to see how they changed after receiving help from the main character, with the exception of the main character, Misuzu. If the whole series focused on Misuzu from the start without needing to include the other side characters' stories, I think it would have been better. The sudden turn of events that affects Misuzu near the end seem rather sudden...

Also, the series has a few episodes devoted to back-story inserted right into the middle of it. It was a change of pace... but a slow, boring one. I think it would have been more bearable to watch if the back-story was chopped up into little snippets sprinkled throughout the first half of the season, but alas, it was not. Instead we are forced to watch some random characters that appear out of nowhere for a few episodes before returning to the true story of Misuzu.

Misuzu was truly the only thing I cared about in his anime. As a character she is interesting, and the most well developed, and pretty unique despite being a "cute, clumsy and childish" girl.

So, in the end I give it a 6/10. If you are a fan of Clannad you'll probably like this, despite it's failings.

Whenever a person writes a paper for school, they always start with a rough draft. They read it over a few times to check for grammatical and punctuation errors. Then, they will show their paper to their peers to get advice, take it to their school’s writing center for review, and perhaps read it out loud to themselves. Until the words flow on the paper just right, and the point of the paper is made clear, the paper should not be turned in.

The way the story of Air is told kinda feels like the rough draft for Kanon (2006), which would then become improved ... in Clannad.

So, if you look at my profile, you will see that I am very fond of Kanon and Clannad, being my 5th and 1st favorite anime respectively. Just in case you’re not in the know, Air is the first among three Kyoto Animation adaptations of Key visual novels (Air, Kanon, and Clannad). Going into Air, I knew that I had already experienced the cream of the crop, but how far behind in quality Air really was to its peers was very disappointing to me at the time.

Before getting into the review part, I will suggest that you only watch Air if:
a.) You’re a big fan of romance/harems
b.) Supernatural elements in a slice-of-life anime don’t bother you
c.) You have already seen Kanon (2006) and Clannad

Let me make it extra, extra clear that I highly suggest you watch Kanon and/or Clannad before you watch Air. It would be a shame if watching Air soured your tastes to the genre of anime, rendering you unable to enjoy its successors. I will also make some comparisons between the three anime, and there will be some spoilers coming up.

At the beginning of Air, the story shapes up to be a very straight-forward harem anime. We have the main-male protagonist (Yukito) who randomly gets caught up with a few females, but there is that one girl that sticks out among the rest (Misuzu). Then, after that, we have 13 episodes of Yukito helping all of the girls that wish they could be main characters with their respective problems until Yukito and Misuzu realize that they love each other, get married, have children and live happily ever-after.

Well, I wish Air could have gone down like that, but the thing is that Air tries to make things way too complicated for itself.

Now, for the first few episodes, that’s kinda how things happen. The relationship between Yukito and Misuzu is the main focus while two other girls make some brief introductions. Normally, these two girls would get their own arcs of 4-6 episodes to develop their characters, while also being long enough for the plot to progress adequately. The problem is that instead of arcs, each girl gets a whole two episodes to cram in some development for them so they can seem important. That’s not to say that these episodes are bad though. I actually enjoyed the first episodes of the show. Still, the ultra-fast pacing of these episodes sucks out a lot of the fun. Many will be outright turned off by this. In fact, there is something else about Air that turns me off.

Time to make the comparison between the members of the KyotoAni trinity, so some spoilers incoming.

All three members of the KyotoAni trinity have some number of supernatural elements. In Clannad, while they were there, they were by no means excessive. There was the end of Fuko’s arc, Misae’s backstory with the cat, the Illusionary World, and the ending. Supernatural was sprinkled around over 40 episodes to increase the depth of the story, but Clannad mostly just felt like a romance/slice-of-life. With Kanon, the supernatural was not used as conservatively. The arcs belonging to Makoto, Mae, and Ayu (especially Ayu) had a moderate amount of supernatural. With the exception to the end of Mae’s arc that revealed she has superpowers or something, it still didn’t bother me. However, Air has way too many supernatural elements for me to take it seriously.

The reason why Air ends up using so much magic in my opinion is that it tries to be more complicated and convoluted than it should be. There’s a decent bit of magic used in the beginning, but at episode 7, it starts to spiral out of control. Yukito starts getting all of these crazy flashbacks and whatnot, and that’s when the plot shifts from this century to 1000 BC. The sudden time shift is very shocking. While it does relate to the plot just a little bit, we go from harem anime with supernatural elements to a story about a cursed girl with magical powers being rescued by a samurai in medieval times. Still, once I got over the shock, I did enjoy the next two episodes a little bit. Next, the setting shifts to the present time, and you realize that the previous episodes have little to no impact on the main story. Yukito becomes a bird because lulz, and the remainder of the story is about the relationship between Misuzu and her mom. And it didn’t help that I found the last few episodes of Air to be pretty boring.

One could blame Air’s shortage of episodes available for the story not succeeding, but the truth is that Air really doesn’t know what kind of story it wants to be. It drastically shifts from harem/romance to some kind of fantasy anime, and then back to a drama between Misuzu and her mom that seems virtually unaffected by the rest of the episodes. If the anime just stuck to one of those things for 13 episodes, it probably could have succeeded at all of them.

As much as I just kinda trashed Air, I really did see Air as an insight to the process of creating Kanon and Clannad. Without it, we might not have gotten the quality of what turned out to be my favorite anime. There are also some good things about Air. If you’re tastes are similar to mine, you will find the sense of humor in Air’s first few episodes refreshing, and Yukito is a pretty good main in my opinion. I mostly liked the side characters, and the song in Air’s opening will stay in your head for days. Even so, I still have to come to the consensus that Air is just a bare-bones average anime.

Just to reiterate, do not watch this anime if you already know you don’t like the genre, or if you haven’t seen its successors. Watching Air is like reading a classic novel; you watch it as a way to see how it influenced others. But, if you don’t want to watch it, that’s fine too. I watched it just because I felt obligated to. But who knows? Maybe you will receive Air better than I did.

Air is an anime based off of an Eroge, or erotic game. No, I have not played the game, but it's pretty disturbing when you notice that most of the major female characters look and act like they're around thirteen or fourteen years old. Fortunately, the anime removes all the erotic content. So the real question is if the story aspect is strong enough to gain appeal by itself or if the game was only somewhat popular for the shameless and disturbing sex appeal.

The story revolves around a young traveler named Yukito who arrives in a small village. He collapses from hunger and ends up ... meeting a strange girl named Misuzu who offers to let him stay at her house. Yukito quickly gets caught up in the strange events surrounding several girls in the village, including Misuzu. The story is pretty simple, but it's very sloppily written. There are several episodes that exist solely for unnecessary exposition, I call it "unnecessary" because you should have figured out all the details that are relevant to the major plot if you've been paying any kind of attention. Then there are important details, like the thing with Sora, that are glossed over and don't make much sense. The ending could have been really strong, but the last few minutes of the twelfth episode are just really random and stupid and then there's a pointless recap episode. As I said, very sloppy work.

Most of the characters are pretty flat. They only play a major role in a couple episodes and then they fade into the background. You aren't given time to acclimate to them or any real reasons to care about them. The only characters that you have any incentive to care about are Misuzu, Yukito and Haruko. To be fair, the three of them do get some really good interactions and develop nicely over the course of the series, but the lack of depth or development for the other characters makes those few episodes surrounding them rather pointless.

The art is decent. The character designs are pretty well done, but the backgrounds look pretty bland most of the time and there are a few moments where the art visibly degrades for no real reason.

The voice acting isn't bad but it isn't anything special either. There aren't any really spectacular performances nor are there any really terrible performances. It's all very mediocre. The music is really soothing and does suit the series pretty well.

The yuri factor is a 1/10. All of the major interactions between female characters explores a familial bond, mostly maternal. You get some interaction between Misuzu and the other girls, but she's more of a passive observer during those moments and she doesn't really interact with the other girls.

My final rating for Air is a 5.4/10. It's mediocre overall. It has some charming moments, but the writing is really sloppy and every truly good moment is offset by several pointless and/or downright stupid moments. If you like Kanon you'll probably enjoy this as well, albeit slightly less. Otherwise, you may want to try it since it's short and does have some charm, particularly in the last couple episodes (not counting thirteen). Just be aware that you're going to have to slog through a lot of pointless interludes to reach those moments so you might just want to skip it.

This review may contain spoilers.

So here we have Air. I have heard much praise for this one before I saw it myself. It had an impressive pedigree, its sister show Clannad is among one of my favorite anime shows. As such I put myself around to watch it. I can say with some certainty, that all in all it was disappointing.
The story was a train wreck beginning to end. Our protagonist with irksome hair is the aimless drifter, who has ... happened into the town which serves as the setting. The thing is he is not aimless at all. In fact he has the lucid and reasonable goal of find a flying woman that his late mother talked about in the stories she told him. With that very obvious goal in mind he just wanders about in search of her. When he arrives in town he meets several girls each with an issue of there own. Here is where the story takes a very Clannad turn. He spends an episode or two helping the girls with there problem, and then they never appear again. Even saying that, he doesn't actually help anyone do anything. As a matter of fact he doesn't do much of anything throughout the series. The first girl, the energetic girl who is great with animals, who may I add also had wings sprout from her back is just about forgotten the over the next few episodes. You know nothing serious. The next girl, who is also the only girl I was close to liking, has an imaginary friend of sorts and a mother who doesn't know she exists. While this is all happening our ditsy heroine is busy doing nothing as well.
Writing this out reminds me how terrible this show is. Also I am out of room to type so final thoughts, Don't bother watching this series unless you wish to bore yourself.

ok after seeing everyone elses reviews i'd thought i should have my say!

i was really enjoying this anime until the story went all wierd!!
i dont want to spoil it for anyone so i'll leave it at that.

it started very well great animation good characters and a well thought out story
just didn't like the twist they put in couldn't really understand it and in the end i thought the story was made up as they went along all in all i was really disapointed with this one.

Okay, I decided to write this review because, from what I've seen, most of them speak of how great this anime is and how much they loved it, and I just thought I'd share another perspective.
It didn't start all that badly with the main character Yukito. He was funny and really likable (not to mention cute), and I found myself laughing out loud with him and that puppet of his. He is the reason why I give the anime a 6 and not a 4.
However, I found the other characters really uninteresting, and the plot revolving round them was extremely eye-roll inducing, at least for ... me. Once the problem was revealed, it was ridiculously easy to predict the rest of the plot.
One story I thought was actually pretty neat was the Feudal Japan one. That is probably because it spent less time trying to induce you to start crying and more time being entertaining (not saying there aren't supposedly tear-jerker moments in it). All of the 3 characters were much more likable, including the princess/winged girl a.k.a Misuzu's past incarnation. She seemed to be a much stronger girl than meek Misuzu - which, despite what anyone says, I mostly pitied, and I don't think that should be the main emotion you feel towards the driving character of a series. I mean, sure, you can feel sorry for her position, but she should fight back and stay strong and whatnot, right? At least, that's the kind of character I root for.
It went downhill fast when *SPOILER* Yukito turned into a crow. How could they do that to the best character in the anime?! Sigh.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a really dramatic anime with burdened, fragile girls, this is for you. However, I won't be going round advertising this one for anyone else.

Air is an extremely difficult show to rate as you would others since an individual's enjoyment is largely dependent on whether or not they understood what the bloody hell actually happened. It's certainly a confusing show, but whilst it may have failed miserably in some aspects, it doesn't do as poorly as my overall rating might make a person think.

We'll start with the positives.
Of course, being from KyoAni, the visuals are stunning. Even though the character designs (with their large eyes, bizarre hair and pointy noses typical of KEY) could throw off a viewer, each character is still well-animated and the backgrounds look beautiful. Heck, ... even the sky in the opening sequence is gorgeous viewing. Yes, the animation might fall far short of the stuff we have coming out today, but considering that Air was made around eight years ago, it's really very good next to other stuff of its time.

The music adds to this atmosphere: not just the opening and ending themes, which are naturally good, but also background music. There is nothing particularly unusual about it, but in its simplicity it really shines, and not a single piece fails to evoke the right mood for the scene it's played over.

Unfortunately, in terms of actual content, the show is...
I hesitate to say 'poor' because it tries. It tries so hard to tell us a different, inventive story, and in the originality stakes it certainly did a great job. But that's just the problem: the show tries so hard to be different that it ends up losing a lot of viewers in the process, because it gets incredibly bizarre and doesn't seem to have any real sense of direction.
The ending of every story arc is very rushed- sure, we always have our resolution, but it's never fully made clear why or how the resolution came about. And before we've had time to fully comprehend what just happened, there's a new plotline to focus on. Maybe this just really isn't the sort of show you're meant to marathon in one sitting as I did, but I found this jarring.

And, unfortunately, the characters suffer too. This is possibly the saddest thing about the series, because most of the characters were very likeable and interesting, but we never got to see a lot of real depth to them and this would really have made the series more gripping and involving than it actually ended up being. The last two or three episodes did actually become more absorbing emotionally, and might even bring a tear or two to the eyes of some viewers, but it was too late by that point for it to make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

I appreciate that the issues with a poorly explained plot and poorly developed (albeit likeable) characters was mostly down to the fact that Air only had twelve episodes in which to tell its story, but I get the feeling that if Air had been more focused in regards to whose story it wanted to tell and how, it could have been a much better series. It's just a pity that the lack of focus mixed with the short length meant that Air failed in the aspects a show like this relies on most heavily.

To be honest, I'd never say that Air is an awful show or that people should never watch it, because its redeeming qualities do shine through and I know that other people have genuinely really enjoyed the show as much as I'd hoped to.
But I certainly wouldn't put it on a 'must watch' list, because as animes go, this is one that's worth the watch on a rainy afternoon, but could probably be missed overall.

You know, I could say that this is the first time I’m reviewing something from the Key/Kyoto trilogy of moe anime but then again, I watched Clannad a month ago but I do understand the formula to most of these shows to an extent. Some people will complain about the story, the characters, the moe designs of every female character and how sappy it might be. Who knows? That might be true once I watched it but I’m the type of guy and reviewer that’s open to anything type of genre of whatever I’m watching or listening.



When Yukito Kunisaki's mother died, she left him with ... two things: a talent for puppetry and stories of a lifetime search for a girl with wings who flew through the sky. Yukito takes on the quests as his own, eventually finding himself in a small town where he does odd jobs and looks after a clumsy girl named Misuzu to earn a living and place to stay. Though Misuzu also dreams of a winged girl and harbors several odd quirks, she is not the only girl/young woman in town with a story and boatload of peculiarities. Teenage Kano has a personality disorder that may or may not be related to a curse borne since childhood, Kano's adult sister Hijiri had to finish raising her after their parents died, Misuzu's hard-drinking biker-chick mother feels unfit to serve the role, and so forth. Gradually Yukito finds himself wrapped up in their stories while trying to figure out if any of the tantalizing allusions to a girl with wings mean anything.


I will agree that this is one of the saddest anime that I have ever seen but it is also the sappiest anime that I’ve seen, mainly due to the story in some parts was overdramatized and it left me not caring as much as the show wants me to, not that most of the feelings you get from this were justified. The main storyline of the show is the basic line of this vagrant meeting a bunch of characters that are more likely one-time characters that you might forget about in the next episode and then in the second half of this 12-episode series, there was another flashback storyline that lasted about 2 episodes which stumble me for a bit, like they wanted to make a show like that but only fill that part for so little time. Then there’s Misuzu’s sickness, which was never really explained thoroughly and I think by them not explaining what she’s gotten, it’s supposed to make us more concerned for her but really it still raises some questions to whatever she’s got.


For the most part, characters are fairly balanced with a good amount of personality traits in them but the secondary characters are largely forgotten in the second half for Misuzu’s arc when she was sick and even the main character Yukito wasn’t much of a presence in those episodes, not that it matters, because he wasn’t exactly a character that I actually worry about often. Yeah, he’s smarmy in the beginning but soon he turns into a different man, but I totally expect that in this type of show. Haruko, Misuzu’s mom (well, foster mother or aunt) is pictured as someone who was just stuck with Misuzu after her real parents either died or something like that but sooner or later, she and Misuzu do get close as a small family, but to say more would be spoilers.


Animation is fairly great in this part of the show, although I have some gripes with that and the character designs, being that most of them looked younger than they are, like Haruko looks like a teenager than who I suspect be a 30-something woman. I know it’s a small town but it just felt like it was barely living like the mentioned characters only inhibit this town. Character designs are very moe as suspected in an anime like this.

The music overall fits the tone of the series, although it’s not as manipulatively sounding as the show is, it’s very relaxing to hear, especially both the opening and ending theme songs and they are both singed by Lia, who’s also the singer for another Key series, Angel Beats. The ADV Films dub was an alright effort but not nearly enough to call it impressive. Vic Mignogna, Monica Rial and Luci Christian do deliver great performances but the others were either theatrically hammy or just awful.


FINAL VERDICT: Air can be sappy at some times but as it tries to make you feel sympathy, you are left with a feeling of confusion, unbalance, and just not being into the story or characters as much. I say that you should give it a chance for yourself before you turn it away but if you liked this kind of anime, you might like it but for others, I suggest you avoid at all costs.

Before going into Air, I was perfectly aware that many people deem it as being the weakest of the Holy Trinity. But, yet I decided to watch it because I was craving some KyoAni. And to be honest, this anime had me hooked- but only during the first six episodes- after which it went so downhill fast that I became more depressed by that than any of the tragic moments in this anime. And that my friend, is a huge problem.

Air, for me personally wasn’t as emotional as I wanted it to be- but it did still did make me go. ‘Aww…that sucks.” But, then ... again after five seconds later, I’ll just completely forget about it. The pacing in Air was just awful to say the least- and it's pacing is some of the worst I have seen.

Normally, I like shows that tend to be fast paced- but Air’s speed was like five times that of any other normal anime. It’s like they tried cramping so much material into only twelve episodes. Air had several arcs which all had potential of being something memorable. However, they all fell flat due to the poor execution of it. Arcs that should have been four episodes long were instead less than two- but yet despite that flaw I still thought Air was something enjoyable.

But, then even finding enjoyment in this anime came to a bitter end- when the story decided to completely take place in a different time period. This was in order to somewhat explain Misuzu’s reason for being sick and also Yukito’s search for the winged maiden. Those episodes however felt really boring to me- and I couldn’t care less about those characters in that certain arc. Giving them screen time, instead of our main protagonists felt like a complete waste to me. Speaking of which- let’s talk about the characters.

Unlike, Yuuichi from Kanon or Tomoya from Clannad- Yukito doesn’t have that big of a harem to brag about . It only consists of Misuzu, Kano, Minagi and Michiru even though the latter didn’t have the honour of being featured in the opening credits. To be honest, none of the supporting characters stood out to me- but they were okay in my opinion. Nothing good or bad. The three characters that I did care about was Yukito, Misuzu and Haruko. Like, this anime would have been a whole lot better if it just focused on them and their daily life and struggles with Misuzu’s illness.

Yukito to my surprise was distinguishable from Tomoya and Yuuichi- but he did have that same charm those other two did. He was very likeable for a main character and I also really like the bond he had with both Misuzu and Haruko. Sadly, his bonds with the other girls weren’t as well handled though. Misuzu is just a really sweet girl- and she contributed to some funny moments earlier on this anime. Her relationship with Haruko was really good and if this anime had more episodes to further develop it- then maybe there relationship would have garnered more praise from me. But, during the final episodes- seeing them together did tug at a couple of my heartstrings at least.

Also what the hell is Potato? Is it a dog or a Pokemon as it keeps saying Pico Pico?

As for the animation, it’s pretty decent- given the anime came out almost 11 years ago. I guess, what I liked about the animation the most was the way it made the clouds look realistic. The scenes with sunsets were nice to look at too from time to time. The animation did a good enough of job creating the eventful summer that the story takes place. I liked the character designs too but the colouring of some of the characters hair just didn’t feel natural to me. I wonder if that makes sense- because the hair looked very subpar to me.

The opening for Air is one of my all-time favourite things from this anime. It is my second favourite Key opening and for good reasons too. This opening makes me want to fly, no kidding and I never dared to skip this opening. Lia’s singing was so lovely and so she better sing the opening for Rewrite too. The intro with the clouds just makes my shoulder do some weird dance. The opening is just amazing to say the least.

Finally, before I assign the show with a score- I must sing praise of the dub. Unlike the Clannad dub- this one is really good- but I guess that would be because it was done by Funimation. Vic Minogna was really good as Yukito- and Monica Rial too shined as Misuzu. But, my favourite performance was definitely Luci Christian as Haruko. This is one of those roles where Lucy Christian doesn’t voice a cutesy high school girl- and she does an excellent job at that.

Overall Air had a lot of potential- but sadly it got all wasted away in my opinion. Even if I did enjoy the first half- the second half was just so messy- not to mention the info dumps on the Winged Maiden that has some connection with both Misuzu and Yukito was not helpful- and iit was something I didn’t appreciate. In fact, what they did to Yukito towards the last couple of episodes actually made me mad- but I can’t tell you cause that would be a spoiler.

The only bits of this anime that made me sad where the ones regarding Misuzu and Haruko- whereas the rest had no impact on me. That was mainly due to the fact- that the arcs revolving around certain characters were rushed and so it didn’t give me much time to grow attached to them enough to care about their situations.

With all that in mind- it pains me to give Air TV a 5 out of 10 and that you should probably SKIP IT. I really wanted to like Air as much as Kanon and Clannad- but I guess somethings are not meant to be. I don’t however hate this anime- it’s just it was very disappointing in my eyes. Also, do you completely disagree with my points, because it’s fine, if you do cause we do have differing opinions and I am aware that all a lot of people love this show and it sucks that I am not part of that group.

The protagonist, a traveling performer has just come to town, meeting plenty of cute moe girls, each of which desperately needs someones help...

The first half of the show was good, but unfortunately was somewhat compressed compared to the source material. After that however it goes downhill fast, going way of topic for like 3 episodes and while the ending was decent for what they had to work with, if the show was about 26 episodes, it would have been much better. The ova's are a real disappointment as they are really just filler as apposed to something that makes up for how compressed it was.if ... you like harems give this a try, otherwise don't expect this to change your mind on them, though i would definitely recommend the visual novel/porn game it was based on...

Before i start the review. i want to let you know that i mainly focus on slice of a life anime's. I will be reviewing all the slice of a life anime's i've seen so far, so don't mind adding me as a friend if you are just like me a big fan of slice of a life anime's and want to discover more>


Ah... Air. Let's start with my personal opinion. For me it turned out not great. It might turn out great for you. But this is something that made me dissapointed.
Don't get me wrong i didn't hit my head or something. ... The most reviews around here are really positive about it. I will explain in this review why I didn't like it.

Story,
The first Key classic formula story. This is where story's like clannad and kanon have to thank about the way they are. And i can understand that people would love this kind of story. But there's just to much wrong here in this story. A girl that just allow's some hobo to live in her house. And the mother agree's with this. Then the story goes really slow. Nothing special happend's really. and then it suddenly turns into something weird. (I don't want to spoil stuff) But you get a view of an old ancient story. And that it affects the main story. That's uhm.. Interessting. But then the complete story replay's. It just felt so rushed. When the last episode hit's the credit's it just made me think whadufaq? Did i missed something. So i decided to watch the movie and yeah. Same thing but a little different. I am sorry. But it's not my fav anime i've seen. Sorry key. Here's a 6.

Art
Something that key never dissapointed me. It's awesome drawed and i'm a big fan of this kind of art. Can't really tell more then that i'm giving this an 8.

Sound
Same as the art. It's good. Doesn't really stand out. But it's not making my ears bleed. Here's an 7.

Characters.
As for the male mc. I alway's can find some sort of connection with them if they are from a key anime. But this one just made me the feeling that it was one big douche. I didn't really like this person.
As for the girl. She's actually the first one that made those weird sound's. As you have Uguu from clannad. And Wafuuu! from Little buster's. you have Gao (sound that a dinosaur make's) That's one of those thing's that i enjoy from key anime's. Some small connections with other anime's. I give it a fair 6.

Enjoyment.
Like i said before the ending just destroyed it for me. I've never been so dissapointed with an ending like this. Specially when it had allot of potentional in the start. So sorry here's a 5.

Overall.
If you are a big fan of key i would say you can watch it. Also if you like anime's where you have to use ur brain give it a shot. But there are so many more anime's that just gave me a much better feeling while watching it. And after i finished it.

Air is (yet another) KyoAni anime adapting a KEY Visual Novel, just like Kanon 2006 and Clannad.
In my opinion, Kanon feels like a prototype of Clannad (in the sense that they have similar structure, storytelling and themes). As for Air, it felt like less than a prototype for Kanon, as it takes similar stories, but without the level of writing or structure of the other series.


STORY
Yukito is a traveller looking for a "winged girl in the sky." He settles in a town where he meets several girls, and (of course) each girl has tragic backstories that we get to learn one after another.
The setting was ... quite interesting. Whereas Kanon and Clannad were rather realistic (despite the supernatural elements, the stories and their themes were deep and ground-to-earth), Air chooses to be a complete dream.

The prominent theme is "Sky". Yeah, this is definitely not a deep theme, especially compared to Kanon (which theme is "regrets") or Clannad (which theme is "Life" as a whole). Where Kanon and Clannad can be Life lessons, there's nothing to learn from Air.

But this is not what brings the series down to me. The worst is the huge lack of detail and explanation. The series is short (12 episodes) but still has plenty stories to tell. As a result, each story is wrapped up in 2 episodes, leaving no time to develop either the characters or the story. Everything felt rushed, which ultimately destroys any kind of impact the story could have.

Long story short, the stories are nice, but way too fast to have a huge impact like Clannad or Kanon had.


ART
It's the same style as Kanon and Clannad, a bit less polished as it is a bit older, but it's not ugly. Only the animation was quite bad sometimes, but this is minor in this series.
Overall nice, but not exceptional.


SOUND
I love the opening. It is dreamy, catchy, and in the end, memorable. As for the OST, I like the main theme, but overall I found the music less memorable than that of Clannad or Kanon. That said, it does fit the scenes and never breaks it.

Now, the seiyuus. Overall they're not bad... except Misuzu's mother. Most of the time she just annoyed me, and in the final episodes she utterly destroyed the drama. She was so off sometimes!


CHARACTER
I loved Misuzu, and I liked Michiru's story. Kanna was very fun to watch as well. As for the others, I didn't find them particularly attaching. But this is due to the very short time we get to know each of them. I'm sure it would be better in the VN, where each story takes more time.
As for the MC, I found him very unlikable. Although he was fun to watch in the beginning, and in the end I did like his story.


ENJOYMENT
Just like Kanon and Clannad, Air is fun but still has tragic stories. But it is way too short for what it has to tell, so everything is rushed, which destroys all the impact the series could have.
Air is very dreamy, so it may be the best to escape reality ; but on the other hand, it has nothing to teach, which brings it down compared to its "sisters".
Overall I would say it is worth watching after Kanon and Clannad, but without expecting the same level.

(This review is spoilerfree)

How strong can a mother's love be? How far can a daughter reciprocate that love? Air is a good take on how powerful a mother-daughter relationship can be.

The most powerful theme presented by Air, without a doubt, is the bond between a mother and a daughter. We are then presented by “mini-arcs” involving the girls, Kano, Minagi, Kanna and also Misuzu.

While the stories are undeniably touching (mostly thanks to the brilliant soundtrack behind the scenes), their impact cut short by how quick the pacing can sometimes be. In only 12 episodes (episode 13 is merely a recap and ... a commercial for Air in Summer, damn it), much to my chagrin, we aren't given much exposure to the each of the girls.

As such, characterization suffers, most notably to Kano and Minagi, whose arcs actually provide very little significance to the overarching plot. In a way, I believe that this happens because Air is based on a visual novel, by seeing their arcs to the very end, we get to see a feather float up into the air and dissolve into the air in the form of shiny particles. With my little experience with Key's visual novels (most notably Clannad), this is a way to determine your “completion rate" and how close you are to the real and final ending of the game.

Another thing is that Air is a dating-sim game, and an eroge, to boot. In the game, you can choose one of the 3 main girls - Kano, Minagi and Misuzu to target and make her your lover. Ultimately the real and final ending is actually, Misuzu. So she takes up most of the screen time and we will spend more episodes reaching the conclusion of her arc, which puts a dampener onto the other two girls’ arcs, a sad thing if you like them more.

Supernatural elements are heavily featured here, and to a point I felt that it did not bode well with the how the show is trying to blend that into a slice-of-life show. All the dramatic incidents are all supernatural and in some way, it makes difficult to connect with the characters as whatever happens to them, won't really happen in real life. It may work better should the supernatural side be heavier, but unfortunately, the slice-of-life vibes are way too overpowering that I felt like these two themes are like oil and water.

Another thing is, viewers expecting a romance show should turn away, for the end product of Air yielded zero romance, which is weird for a dating-sim visual novel that features eroge. The most powerful theme that viewers should look forward for, is mother-daughter. I'd say this might make a decent viewing with your mom during mother's day (lol).

Presentation wise, as expected from the soundtrack by Jun Maeda, dude knows how to create tear jerking moments using powerful music, not to mention the songs can get very memorable and inflict sufficient tear jerking damage simply by listening to it. “Tori no Uta” is a very popular and revered song among the anime community, and it is not difficult to see why, for it is indeed one of the best openings I've ever heard.

Though, I am still begrudged by the fact that, the vocal version of "Natukage" is nowhere to be found in the entire show.

Sadly, the animation could have been better. During the age of Kanon, Air and Clannad, the animation design from Key can be quite horrific - unusually large eyes on the heroines that are too far apart, and terribly small nose and mouth. The resulting face can be quite revolting, but at least Kyoto Animation did a very good job to tone that down as much as they can so it's not too cringeworthy. However, aside from the grotesque faces, other things can pretty well made.

My final problem with Air, is the poor ending that leaves me very, very dissatisfied. I was hoping that episode 13 can be an alternative ending or something but sadly, episode 12 is the real and final episode. Still, it is a decent show if you want something that reminds you how great moms can be.

Final result: 6/10 fair.

Before we begin, I’m new to the whole review concept, so I apologize if it isn’t what you are used to.
Look I’ll be honest, I’ve tried watching this 3 times before I actually finished it. Let’s go through my praises and then my criticisms. My biggest praise is the sound design for Air. The moments where I felt most investsted were those that had a soundtrack playing. The Ending was easily skippable but that’s besides the point. My second praise is the characters and their personalities. I really enjoyed the moments with the supporting cast and found that was where I enjoyed most. This brings ... me to my biggest critism. The story. As each supporting cast’s problem was solved, they just disappeared from the anime entirely. I get they moved on and them leaving was explained, but after the supporting cast was gone, I was left with Ms. Blondie and Mr. Protagonist. (I apologize but I’m really never good with names) Mr. Protagonist was fine as I enjoyed his presence in Air and Ms. Blondie is just kinda annoying at this point. (This point being Ep 12) Once Mr Protagonist was gone I had to slug my way to the end, finishing a full ‘nother anime before moving onto episode 8, and then I finally finished it all tonight. Being blunt here, once the supporting cast was gone, the show lost any and all emotion I had with it. I had feelings for the cast of characters who ended up leaving, only to come back for a recap episode in Ep 10. In episode 11 I got invested twice for a reason I could not explain until the end of Episode 12 and that is, “I got invested, because there was another person there”. Just having 2 people in an entire episode can become boring, especially when one of them was greatly glossed over for the majority of the season. Here’s what I’m trying to say: say you buy a game, and once you pop it in you are immediately thrusted into the action, and throughout the entire game you have nothing about the world or characters explained to you. Sure the game might be fun, but it would feel incomplete. That’s what the latter half of the show felt to me. In the end, 5/10. I apologize to all those who deeply love the show.

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.