Air

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

Japanese: AIR

More titles

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 12

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jan 7, 2005 to Mar 25, 2005

Premiered: Winter 2005

Broadcast: Fridays at 00:30 (JST)

Producers: Pony Canyon, TBS, Movic

Licensors: ADV Films, Funimation

Studios: Kyoto Animation

Source: Visual novel

Genres: Drama, Romance, Supernatural

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.28¹ (scored by 154,054 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2828²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #809

Members: 298,438

Favorites: 2,712

Available At

Official Site

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

Yukito Kunisaki is on a journey in search of the Winged Maiden who was bound to the sky centuries ago, after hearing an old childhood tale from his mother. As Yukito shows his puppet show to people in an attempt to make some money, he finds himself in a small town in which he did not expect to stay very long. However, when he meets an unusual girl named Misuzu, things take a drastic turn as he is invited to stay with her.

By staying in the quaint town, Yukito soon becomes friends with the locals. As he gets to know them better, he learns of their problems and decides to help, putting his search for the Winged Maiden on hold. With his search on hold, and his growing attachment to Misuzu and the small town, will Yukito ever find the Winged Maiden, or is she closer than he thought?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:	Air
Side story:	Air in Summer
Alternative version:	Air Movie
Summary:	Air Recap
Character:	Kaginado, Kaginado Season 2

Ono, Daisuke
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Hatta, Youko

Producer

Nakamura, Shinichi

Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue

Producer

Ishihara, Tatsuya

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Edit

Opening Theme

"Tori no Uta (鳥の詩)" by Lia

Edit

Ending Theme

"Farewell Song" by Lia (eps 1-12)

Reviews

Jul 24, 2008

MedliSage

Recommended

Air
~ The 1000th Summer...~

Story (9/10)
Air the story of Yukito Kunisaki, a young man carrying on his family's journey to find the "girl in the sky" and free her from a curse. Stumbling upon a sleepy coastal town, he meets three girls: Misuzu Kamio, Kana Kirishima, and Minagi Tohno. He comes to spend more and more time in the town, living at the Kamio residence with Misuzu and her adopted mother.

Some may know, others may not, but Air is based off an ero visual novel by KEY. Thus, each of the main heroines (Misuzu, Kana, and Minagi) each have different scenarios to explore. The short anime ... tries its best to explore each scenario, but since it was so short, it felt somewhat rushed and the arcs of Kana and Minagi felt somewhat detached. Thus why the story only gets a 9/10.

However, I still rated it so high because the main story (the one of Misuzu) is simply beautiful. It's original, fresh, tear-jerking, and just beautifully done. I'll admit it, I cried at at the end.

Most consider Air to be confusing when they watch and don't understand the Kanna arc. I myself got it the first time, but if you don't, just watch it over -- you won't regret it. Most understand it the second time and come to appreciate the series much more.

Art (10/10)
Kyoto Animation, the company that animated Air, did a stunning job as always. The scenery felt alive like I could just step in, everything flowed smoothly and they're weren't any inconsistencies. Air is set in the summer, and like to watch parts of it in winter when I feel cold -- that's how real it feels. The clouds and skies in particular were stunning, and kudos to them for that, since the sky and flying are important symbols of Air.

Sound (9/10)
I love, love, love the opening theme to Air ("Tori no Uta" [The Bird's Song] by Lia). It's beautiful and the mood and lyrics reflects all the emotions and events in the series. The ending theme ("Farewell Song" also done by Lia) as well complimented the story and plot wonderfully. The BGM was nicely done, giving off the perfect aura for whatever was going on when it was played. Kudos to the voice actors, also -- they did terrific work on their roles. The character's emotions were conveyed convincingly and they spoke with such emotion it could tear your heart out.

Character (8/10)
The characters in Air were all alive and I felt for each and every one's issues. The designs on them were varied and I never was annoyed by any character in particular (a nice change for once). However, the reason this rating isn't higher, is because since the anime was so short most characters did not receive the development they were in need of.

Final Thoughts
I gave Air an "enjoyment" rating of 10. I don't let this affect my score, however, since it's really a personal thing -- someone who isn't a romance, drama, supernatural sort of thing probably won't like this. However, I loved Air every moment, from beginning to end. If you're looking for a nice romance with a touch of supernatural fantasy and great characters, I highly recommend Air.

Open

Gift

Aug 10, 2008

Drew013

Mixed Feelings

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, ...

Open

Gift

Dec 30, 2011

kkslider5552000

Not Recommended

Oh boy, I'm not gonna be popular after this, meethinks. I saw the japanese version, btw.

Well, I think you can immediately tell what I thought about this and downvoted me respectively. Cool, whatevs. But I really did not like this series...mostly. Haven't seen anything else from this series, I believe it's based on some visual novels or whatever. I don't know, but these 13 episodes were ulitmately not a good experience by themselves at least.

There is technically an overall story to all of this. It's a shame it's far too vague and pointlessly cionfusing in an attempt to be deep. I mostly get what they ... were going for but it just didn't work. It was just boring and with some painfully obvious sky, above the clouds, birds etc. metaphors all about the same general idea.

The characters are a different story. Normally I complain in a series that the secondary characters aren't used enough. This series has the opposite problem. Those 3 other girls that aren't Misuzu I honestly can't stand. It is the perfect mix of the most generic and boring comedy from them, followed by some poorly written tragedy. The 2 "sisters" story is honestly one of the best examples ever of making tragic events combined with magic and suicide symbolism...and being boring. It's just dialogue not said by any human being and I can't stand it. I just feel somewhat depressed watching it, yet at the same time bored. And it really feels like it's trying way too hard to be deep and annoys me. So by episode 6, I was hating this series (and while previous episodes were better, they weren't that much better). And I came into this series expecting it to at least be good, so I was truly dissappointed.

And then those characters were basically never seen again, focused on characters that mattered and it got better real quick. I was actually enjoying it after that. Flashback episodes with character names I can't remember had characters that were fun and kinda funny and enjoyable to be around and not depressionly boring. My god, that was fun. They have an adventure and find her mother. I liked those characters for what they were. It wasn't like amazing but I liked it, and I do admit I like any sudden increase of action in a series that at first has none. The ending of that story was silly but ok.

And then we spend the rest of the series focusing on Misuzu and her mother. Again, some weirdness, but the sad parts work. I can see why her mother acted as she did and her struggle with her relationship with Misuzu felt genuinely touching. Not to mention the twists, while kinda dumb, made you sad but not bored this time. You wanted to see both characters are ok, which is always important, I think especially for a series like this. I was not exactly in tears but it was really sad, a good story, I enjoyed it.

And of course the big final episode is a recap...wait what? Really? Couldn't let the show end on a high note I guess or it was used to advertise some sequel OVA or I don't know. The point is that I hated the first half but kinda liked the 2nd half for the most part.

The art was ok. I don't know, the faces I didn't exactly like but...the art was ok. It was too bright at times but it still looked decent. Sound was mostly ok, although the voice acting could get annoying for those secondary characters I don't like. But that's made up by the performances of Aya Hisakawa and the late Tomoko Kawakami. Misuzu's aunt is the best character and the voice acting helped...or maybe vice versa. But I did buy from her voice the drama of those last few episodes. Misuzu herself was also good, a role that could have been annoying is made genuinely sweet yet tragic. Most of the rest are just ok, not worth mentioning at all really. Same with the music, but that being said, I really like the OP. Good stuff.

Yeah, maybe this series isn't one made for me. But one of my favorite series is the fairly depressing Welcome to the NHK!, which was written infinitely better and got how to make characters act and talk like real people more than almost any fiction I've ever seen. This show, rarely got remotely close sadly. And I know a decent amount of people who agree so at least I know I'm not alone. It isn't an awful series if you can get past episode 6, and in fact if you ignore episodes 2-6 I would likely call it a good series. But those episodes were awful, could not enjoy it at all, and the rest of the series was unable to make me fully forgive that. And I've kinda not interested in other series that I at least assume are similar anymore.

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

ENSON

by Yue_kun

32 Entries · 10 Restacks

Provincial horror and paranormal anime

by RobertBobert

26 Entries · 88 Restacks

Frutiger Aero Aesthetic (2004-13)

by eblf2013

48 Entries · 65 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

View All

More news

Recent News

Key Confirms 'Kaginado' Crossover TV Anime

Visual novel studio Key opened an official website for a crossover television anime titled Kaginado (Key, etc.) on Monday. The anime will feature chibi renditions o...read more

Apr 19, 2021 5:50 PM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (38 comments)

New ADV August releases on DVD

ADV announced the release of Air TV on August 14 and Innocent Venus on August 21.

Aug 10, 2007 2:47 PM by Darkanger | Discuss (0 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Air Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Animatronix - Mar 27, 2008	197 replies	by EmmyMoomin »» Jan 11, 8:18 PM
Poll: Air Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) hznu - Aug 20, 2008	62 replies	by EmmyMoomin »» Jan 11, 7:25 PM
Poll: Air Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Piroko - Nov 12, 2007	100 replies	by KingYoshi »» Oct 12, 2023 12:37 AM
Poll: Air Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Genix - Oct 16, 2008	58 replies	by Xenocrisi »» Oct 5, 2023 6:59 AM
Poll: Air Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Yukia-Kontan - May 30, 2008	74 replies	by Xenocrisi »» Oct 4, 2023 12:30 PM

Recent Featured Articles

What Kyoto Animation Means to Us

In loving memory of those who lost their lives.

by Shymander

142,959 views

Spoiler

Air Lays the Foundation for the Kyoto Animation "Holy Trinity"

Although it is often overshadowed by Clannad and Kanon, Air is a highly influential anime that lays the foundations for some of Kyoto Animation's greatest works.

by MAL_Articles

39,919 views

Spoiler

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Kamio, Misuzu

Kunisaki, Yukito

Toono, Minagi

Kirishima, Kano

Potato

Kanna

Kamio, Haruko

Ryuuya

Michiru

Sora

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Air

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-