I think I’ve added three or four already in the past couple days and I’ll probably end up adding more. Looking at some other people’s blogrolls made mine look pathetic, so I thought it was about time to expand mine a little bit. So fear not! Some good has come from all of this!

Name: Air
Genre: Drama, Supernatural
Episodes: 15 (12 for series proper, 1 recap, and 2 Air in Summer episodes)
Released: January 6, 2005 – March 31, 2005; August 28, 2005 – September 4, 2005 (Air in Summer)
Based On: Air dating sim by Key
Director: Tatsuya Ishihara
Produced By: Kyoto Animation
US Distribution By: Funimation (previously ADV Films)

Major Japanese Cast

Yukito Kunisaki: Daisuke Ono
Misuzu Kamio: Tomoko Kawakami
Haruko Kamio: Aya Hisakawa
Kano Kirishima: Asami Okamoto
Minagi Tohno: Ryoka Yuzuki
Hijiri Kirishima: Yumi Touma
Michiru: Yukari Tamura
Kannabi-no-Mikoto: Chinami Nishimura
Ryūya: Nobutoshi Canna
Uraha: Kikuko Inoue
Potato: Hiromi Konno

Major English Cast

Yukito Kunisaki: Vic Mignogna
Misuzu Kamio: Monica Rial
Haruko Kamio: Luci Christian
Kano Kirishima: Stephanie Wittels
Minagi Tohno: Kira Vincent-Davis
Hijiri Kirishima: Christine Auten
Michiru: Serena Varghese
Kannabi-no-Mikoto: Cynthia Martinez
Ryūya: Jay Hickman
Uraha: Allison Sumrall
Potato: Tiffany Grant

Scores

Animation: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 8/10 (x 2 = 16 pts)
English Dubs: 8/10 (x 1 = 8 pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)

Total: 176/200 (88%)

Review

Air is about a traveling puppeteer – Yukito – who is searching for the “girl in the sky” which his mother told him about when he was younger and which his ancestors have been searching for for 1000 years. Over the summer he stops in a small town and attempts to earn money by performing a stringless puppet show, but doesn’t have much luck. Soon he runs into Misuzu who allows him to stay at her house with her adoptive mother and aunt Haruko. Yukito also meets Kano, a young girl with a ribbon on her wrist who says she can perform magic once she takes her ribbon off when she grows up, and her older sister and doctor Hijiri, as well as another girl, Minagi, and her friend Michiru.

As Yukito spends time in the town, he starts unraveling the mystery behind each of the girls in the belief that one of the girls may be the reincarnation of the “girl in the sky” whom he is looking for, as well as the connection that they – and he – may have with an old legend connected to the town. In Air in Summer episodes, the show explores the adventures of the characters from the old legend beyond what we see in the main show.

Air is a rather well put together show, with several levels of complexity to each of the main girl’s story arcs. However, the most depth is reserved for the final girl – Misuzu’s – arc as the march towards a conclusion slowly draws one into the realization that there may not necessarily be a happy ending. However, the complexity of the story – especially in the concluding episodes – can start to get confusing as one tries to figure out exactly what is happening and where on the time line we’re currently at. What ultimately happens in the end is not necessarily obvious either. However, this doesn’t necessarily take away from the power of the show’s final arc.

My other issue with this series is that the first two arcs don’t seem to really fit in with the rest of the story. Yukito does his thing in the first two arcs, and then those girls are essentially removed from the series for the duration. One could have probably done the story without dealing with their arcs at all, even if they were interesting in their own right.

As is typical of Kyoto Animation works, the animation and music are stellar, and the dub in the US release is also good, though not great.

Overall, if you don’t mind a well-told sad story there is a good chance that you’ll like Air.

First Watched: August 2007 – March 2008
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes

Go Straight to the Screenshots | Go Straight to the Review

The highlights of this episode:

• Nagisa and Okazaki walk to school to take supplementary college-prep classes over summer break (even though Okazaki has no plans to go to college) when Kyou suddenly rides up between them on her scooter, of course causing Okazaki and especially Nagisa to get all flustered.
• During lunch that day, Okazaki has gone off to Sunohara’s, leaving all the girls to eat together. However, Sakagami notes how Nagisa is still calling Okazaki “Okazaki” instead of “Tomoya” even though they’re dating.
• Meanwhile, over at Sunohara’s, Sunohara can’t believe that Nagisa and Okazaki haven’t even held hands yet. Misae then shows up and tells Sunohara that “a cute girl has come and wants to see him.” Sunohara predictably shoots out to see what cute girl has come to see him and, equally predictably, it’s his sister Mei.
• The next day, Nagisa, Okazaki, and Mei work at the bakery, giving Akio and Sanae a break, but before they leave, Sanae gives Mei some of her bread to try. But in a brilliant out, Mei gets by by saying that Sanae’s bread “looked good” and Nagisa and Okazaki take note of this brilliant move.
• Once Akio and Sanae leave, very few people come to the store due to everyone being out for summer. However, Mei gets an idea and suddenly runs outside. All of a sudden hordes of people (mostly males) start coming into the store. Realizing something’s up, Okazaki runs outside and asks Mei what she’s telling people, and she tells Okazaki that she’s just telling people that there are cute girls in the bakery. When Akio and Sanae come back, they remark how they’ve never sold that much in day before. Even Sanae’s horrifying bread sold out.
• The next day, Okazaki is hanging out at Sunohara’s when Mei comes by and asks to speak with Okazaki alone. Mei says that she’s decided to become the Cupid of love – with Okazaki thinking Mei means for Sunohara. Sunohara remarks how he doesn’t think anyone would be a suitable partner, but Mei says that one is right there. Okazaki goes into fantasy mode thinking of a hot and steamy Sunohara x Mei brother-sister relationship before Mei finally pulls him back to reality, asking him “not to imagine such a terrifying thing.” Okazaki then realizes that the only person left “there” is him and he suddenly starts imagining him x Sunohara and is extremely put off by it.
• Finally Mei corrects him and says that she means Okazaki and Nagisa and the fact that their relationship hasn’t progressed at all despite dating for weeks. Mei asks Okazaki how he thinks Nagisa could be better, and he says that she should be more confident, and Mei agrees. Then Nagisa “just happens to” come by and Nagisa, who decides to start calling Okazaki “Tomoya” go out. However, Nagisa starts acting strangely in accordance to “the plan.”
• Finally, Sunohara catches Mei spying on them and confirms his suspicion that Nagisa’s behavior was her idea, but Mei ends up running off, having been caught. Nagisa explains that Mei told her that since Okazaki is a delinquent, that he can’t be proactive, so Nagisa should try being more assertive instead. However, with some day still left, Okazaki decides to go with Nagisa on a little walk until dinner.

This was a cute little episode, even if it didn’t really add anything to the main story (as we kind of expected as it was an “extra”). I guess if anything, one could look at this as After Story Episode 0 or something.

I’m not really sure what there is to say other than I thought Mei was brilliant in this episode. She’s kind of like the ultimate little sister character. I love how she mischievously was like “we have cute girls in our shop!” to get more people into the bread shop.

We also satisfied our siscon and yaoi fans in this episode thanks to Okazaki’s imagination, and I had to laugh at both Okazaki’s “I’m getting so turned on” as well as Mei’s “stop thinking of such horrifying things” comments in relation to the Mei x Sunohara fantasy. The only thing we needed was a Kotomi/Ryou scene or something to make the yuri-fans drool as well. Well, maybe we’ll get that in the DVD-only episode.

As for when After Story will come out – I kept expecting that Haruhi 2 would air this Spring, but that obviously isn’t going to happen. I guess the next expectation would be Haruhi 2 in the summer and CLANNAD: After Story in the fall both as probable half-seasons.

Summer makes sense for Haruhi 2 as well given that most summer series start in July, July 7th is Tanabata and, of course, Tanabata is an important day in the Haruhi timeline. I wouldn’t be shocked if it premiered on July 7th (a Monday), especially since the Tanabata event is rumored to be in the first episode. Then assuming Haruhi 2 is a half-season like the first season was, then After Story would be on track to start in the Fall 2008 season. I’m not sure when we might hear what or if KyoAni will air something in the summer, though.

In any case, luckily I can still consider this series incomplete, and thus can still hold off on rendering a judgement, which is good because if you read my last episode comment you’d see that I thought this series was missing quite a bit as it was.

Go Straight to the Screenshots | Go Straight to the Review
The highlights of this episode:

• Mitsuki is making dinner in her apartment when her female roommate comes home from work. Mitsuki’s roommate, whose name is Tsujimura, asks Hayase if she’s found a job yet, but Hayase says she hasn’t and may start looking for part-time work so she can help pay her part of the rent. As it turns out, Tsujimura is a former swimming teammate of Mitsuki’s who happened to run into her when they were both looking for apartments in Tokyo.
• Meanwhile, Shinji enters a bar to meet Takayuki after the incident with Haruka at the train station. Shinji asks Takayuki what he plans to do about Haruka, and Takayuki tells him that they’re going to “stay apart for a while.”
• Back in Tokyo, Tsujimura asks Hayase whatever happened to Takayuki, guessing that they have broken up since Hayase is in Tokyo. Hayase confirms this, also confirming that she came to Tokyo because they broke up. Tsujimura ponders why Hayase wasted her swimming potential by dating Takayuki, but then remarks that she’s not one to talk since she quit the team soon after Hayase did as well. Tsujimura also tells Hayase that allowing Hayase to room with her is kind of a way to clear her conscience for thinking bad things about Hayase at the time.
• Back at the bar, Takayuki explains to Shinji that he thinks Haruka wants some time off because she’s worried that Takayuki hasn’t found a full-time job yet and that he’s having to choose between work and her and feels guilty about it. So Takayuki has “agreed” to time off so that he can get time to get a good footing and make Haruka feel more secure.
• Back in her apartment, Hayase starts telling Tsujimura how Haruka and Takayuki started dating, but that Haruka got in a car accident and went into a coma and how Hayase blames herself for it. She explains how Takayuki became almost obsessive about staying by Haruka’s side to the point that Haruka’s parents asked him to stop for his own good, which sent him into a depression. Hayase started caring for Takayuki and dragging him out places and eventually Takayuki got better until Takayuki invited Hayase out to go to the Aquarium for a thank you, but the two ended up dating afterwards. Then Haruka woke up and Hayase became desperate to keep Takayuki, but that the two ended up breaking up in the end.
• After Hayase finishes with her story, Tsujimura tells her that she’s a victim too, and the person really at fault was the person driving the car that wrecked into Haruka.
• Back at the bar, Takayuki tells Shinji that once he finds a full-time job, he’ll move into a place together with Haruka. He explains that he wants to do things carefully and in the right way this time instead of rushing into it and making the same mistakes again. Shinji then notes how much Takayuki has changed from his whiney pitiful little self back in KimiNozo.
• Back at the Suzumiya residence, Akane remarks how it’s been a while since Takayuki has visited…

Well, in my write up for the last episode I asked “I’m also wondering how much of Rumbling Hearts gets axed.” The answer from Hayase’s timeline of events appears to be “quite a bit.” I’m not sure if that’s because there are the events that happened on Haruka’s route instead of Mitsuki’s but there is a noticeable difference – namely that in the original TV series, Takayuki is in a deep depression and the visit to the aquarium is the real turning point in him leaving it. Meanwhile in Hayase’s timeline in this episode, the trip to the aquarium is more of a celebration of his recovery from his depression.

That’s a rather significant departure from the original timeline as in the TV series, Takayuki and Hayase basically got together because of Hayase’s guilt and Takayuki’s depression. In this new version, Takayuki ends up hooking up with Hayase basically “until Haruka wakes up” and Hayase pretty much admits as much. I don’t know about anyone else, but this makes Takayuki a far less sympathetic character overall.

My other note of concern is that I’m not exactly what the “problem” in this series is. If the main issue to be resolved is Haruka not wanting Takayuki to choose between her and his job, with the resolution being Takayuki just finding a full-time job, this series is going to end up sucking bad (though probably not as bad as Akane Maniax).

However, I’m wondering if Takayuki is giving Shinji the full story. The end of the first episode was hardly Haruka and Takayuki mutually deciding to “take time off” as Takayuki portrayed it, unless Takayuki and Haruka had spoken to each other since, and Haruka refusing to pick up the call from Takayuki suggests this isn’t the case. That may mean that the situation is more complicated than Takayuki is portraying it (yay! conflict!)

I’m also curious about Tsujimura and her past considering her response to Hayase’s story. It would be nice to learn more about it, but I’m not sure we’re going to have the time.

I’m still mostly “meh” about the animation as well. It still feels kind of Gunslinger Girl 2-ish to me (though not quite THAT bad).

I think this series can still end well, but I’m just afraid that this will just be another lame OVA spinoff of KimiNozo. I hope I’m wrong, though.

Factoring this in, the following is what I have selected as my Spring 2008 blogging slate:

Kamen no Maid Guy, Special-A, Nijuu Mensou no Musume, and Candy Boy

Three notes here:

First, no, I don’t have any series which is a confirmed half-series, partly because I’m not confident that any of the shows that I might want to blog would be half-seasons, so I just picked the one I most wanted to blog.

Second, yes, I have four series, not three. The reason for that is that Candy Boy is only 7 episodes long, and starts after my summer break for my masters classes starts, meaning that I’m in the clear as far as school is concerned by then.

Third, these are dependent on being available on torrent subtitled (which can be an adventure sometimes. See: Gunslinger Girl 2) and not licensed.

As for other shows that I’ll probably end up watching (but not blogging) in this season, I’ll probably watch Real Drive, The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of URUK if for no other reason than to try out GONZO’s new anime distribution experiment, Kure-nai, and maybe Allison and Lillia, plus any other series that sound like they have potential based on what other people write about.