Air (TV) Review
One question I struggle with is whether or not Visual Novels count as video games. They’re sold on steam and published on consoles. They have to fail states and defined goals, but most of them lack a primary gameplay loop beyond choosing an occasional dialogue option. There is less interactivity than text-based adventures because at least they require you to move your character. This is besides the point other than Air the first of Kyoto Animation’s golden trilogy of Key visual novel adaptations.
Key Visual Studios is a company hell-bent on extracting as many Otaku tears as possible through the medium of fragile waifus. Their stories are often centered around a young man surrounded by the most tragic people imaginable. No scenario is too contrived for them to exploit. Their favorite is young, innocent, sweet-hearted girls dying of un-diagnosable diseases. Nevertheless, it takes someone more jaded than I to come out of one with dry eyes.
Air centers around wandering hobo Yukito, who travels across Japan in search of a mysterious winged girl who he has very little information about, no one else knows anything about her. In all honesty, it sounds like a far-fetched fairy tale. Along the way, he puts on telekinetic puppet shows for the children of the land. Unfortunately, his act is boring, and children have some taste. One day, he finds himself in a mysterious seaside town where there are no police to chase off homeless people trying to extort minors for ramen or sleeping atop seawalls just outside of a school zone. It is in this pleasant seaside town, Yukito meets the show’s crop of walking tragedies, disguised as schoolgirls. There is Misuzu, a lonely girl who loves dinosaurs, hates studying, and just wants a single friend to play cards or run on the beach with. Then, two others who don’t actually matter in the long run.
This brings me to my biggest problem with Air. The first half of the show mostly centers around the other girls, but after Yukito solves their problems, they just piss off, never to be seen again. You could skip episodes two through six and not miss much. It’s not uncommon for shows like this to fill the first half with filler arcs. It helps establish the characters before the main plot kicks in. The problem is, something happens in the second half that negates the progress Yukito made. At one point, Air switches setting, cast, and main character. For two episodes, we follow a group of travelers in the medieval period. These characters work surprisingly well for how little time they got. We also learn more about what Yukito’s quest is actually about. But then we come back to the present day, and well he’s technically there, but he can’t actually do anything. Instead, it turns out someone entirely different was actually the main character.
The last few episodes are confusing. A lot goes on in the background. Luckily, the action in the foreground makes up for it by tearing at our heartstrings. Like how Godzilla tugs on powerlines while stomping through a substation. Key has a problem with contrived plots. Once you put aside the supernatural elements, Air is a wonderfully tragic tale of isolation. If the show was more about mental illness or disabilities, maybe it would have been more effective. Unfortunately, the story about reincarnation and angel girls left me scratching my head when I was supposed to be crying.
Air is a perfectly serviceable series of good moments. They just don’t quite come together for a great whole. I have a hard time recommending a show where half the show might as well not even be there, and the other half is too confusing. The only reason the other girls were there is that they were part of the original visual novel. The show massively improved near the end, but that’s eight to ten episodes in. Luckily, the show is only twelve episodes long, plus two bonus episodes. It’s short, and I got the DVDs for practically nothing. That said, I’d only recommend it if you’ve already watched Clannad and Kanon and you want to complete the trilogy. I like the show, I just can’t say whether or not you will.
I fancy myself a writer, twitch streamer, and I’m overly critical about entertainment no one cares about anymore. View all posts by Blind_Aviatrice
Published
Originally published at http://delmiterwriting.wordpress.com on January 13, 2021.