Tag Archives: Air

Funimation takes over anime, aquires THIRTY ADV Titles

Friday, July 4, 2008 – 1:13 pm

I’m guessing this is all part of the fallout between ADV and their licensing partner Sojitz as many of the titles on this list were on the list of suspended shows in February:

  • 009-1
  • Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy
  • Air Gear
  • Air: The Movie
  • Air TV
  • Blade of the Phantom Master
  • Comic Party: Revolution
  • Coyote Ragtime Show
  • Devil May Cry
  • Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor TV
  • Jing, King of Bandits: Seventh Heaven
  • Jinki:Extend
  • Kanon
  • Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora (once titled as Shattered Angels by ADV Films)
  • Le Chevalier D’Eon
  • Magikano
  • Moeyo Ken TV
  • Moonlight Mile
  • Murder Princess
  • Nerima Daikon Brothers
  • Pani Poni Dash!
  • Project Blue Earth SOS
  • Pumpkin Scissors
  • Red Garden
  • Sgt. Keroro 1st & 2nd
  • Tokyo Majin
  • UFO Princess Valkyrie
  • Utawarerumono
  • Venus Versus Virus
  • The Wallflower
  • Welcome to the NHK
  • Xenosaga

All titles were on the list in February except for Shattered Angels, which was licensed after the snafu, Murder Princess, who previously hadn’t had a licensed announced for it, and Sgt. Keroro, possibly because it had no scheduled releases yet.

Shows on the list in February which are not on the list above include 5 Centimeters Per Second, Best Student Council, Ghost Train, Innocent Venus, Kurau: Phantom Memory, and Synethesia, so they are reportedly staying with ADV Films.

The bad thing for ADV in this deal is that it is quite possible that ADV didn’t get a penny from the transfer since the Japanese company they were partnering with held the actual licenses.  This could also be why ADV is in a hurry to license so many new shows, so they have a stream of income to replace these shows, since these constitute the bulk of all the shows that ADV has released over the past couple of years.

By Josh | Posted in Various | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Anime Credits - Air and Kanon OPs and EDs

Friday, June 27, 2008 – 9:24 am

I’ll give you a double dose since it’s been a while.  This time it’s a Kyoto Animation/Key Visual Arts theme

By Josh | Posted in Anime Credits | Tagged , | Comments (1)

Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode 75

Sunday, June 8, 2008 – 5:07 pm

Josh\'s Anime Blog Podcast Episode 75Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #75 is now online! In this podcast, I review Air: The Movie.

This week’s Podcast Stats:
Time: 19:24
Download Size: 13.3 MB

Opening theme:
“Kimi + Boku = Love?” by Tegomass
First opening theme to Lovely Complex

Ending theme:
“If Dreams Came True” by Eri Kawai
Ending theme to Air: The Movie

You can listen to my podcasts in the following ways:

Flash Player:

Directly: http://www.joshsanimeblog.com/podcast/JABPEpisode75.mp3

You can also download or add my podcast-only RSS feed to your favorite reader or add my podcast using iTunes.

By Josh | Posted in Podcasts | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anime Review - Air (TV): 88%

Monday, March 31, 2008 – 4:12 pm

The Essentials

AirName: 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: 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 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 adopted mother and aunt Haruko. He seen 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 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, we explore 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 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 is 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: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anime Review - Air (Movie): 80%

Monday, March 10, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

AirName: Air: The Movie
Genre: Drama, Romance, Supernatural
Episodes: N/A
Released: February 5, 2005
Based On: Air dating sim by Key
Director: Osamu Dezaki
Produced By: Toei Animation, Frontier Works
US Distribution By: Funimation (originally ADV Films)

Major Japanese Cast

Misuzu Kamio: Tomoko Kawakami
Yukito Kunisaki: Hikaru Midorikawa
Haruko Kamio: Aya Hisakawa
Kannabi-no-Mikoto: Chinami Nishimura
Ryuya: Nobutoshi Canna
Uraha: Kikuko Inoue

Major English Cast

Misuzu Kamio: Monica Rial
Yukito Kunisaki: Vic Mignogna
Haruko Kamio: Luci Christian
Kannabi-no-Mikoto: Cynthia Martinez
Ryuya: Jay Hickman
Uraha: Allison Sumrall

Scores

Animation: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: 8/10 (x 1 = 8 pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)

Total: 144/180 (80%)

Review

Air: The Movie is about a traveling puppeteer, Yukito, who is looking for a “winged girl in the sky” of whom his ancestors have searched for, and a young girl, Misuzu, who has missed school for the entire year due to an illness.  Despite this, she asks to be able to do a summer project, and thus is assigned to do a report on the history of the town. This leads her to look into an old story about a winged woman, Yaobikuni, and her daughter, the Kannabi-no-Mikoto, who, legend holds it, used to be kept in the town in antiquity. In his desperation to be able to survive until he can make money at a summer festival that’s going on in the town in a week, Yukito helps Misuzu in her investigation in exchange for room and board at her house.

As the pair learns more about the Kannabi-no-Mikoto, and as Yukito learns that Misuzu suffers from an mysterious and apparently incurable disease, he starts to wonder if Misuzu is the girl that his mother told him about. Meanwhile, Yukito and Misuzu’s situation starts becoming more and more intertwined with the story of the Kannabi-no-Mikoto and her lover and protector Ryuya.

Air is story of both romance and mystery as Misuzu’s condition is slowly revealed over the course of her research into the story of the Kannabi-no-Mikoto and Ryuya, and the parallel stories seem to work well together as pieces of the old legend are often told to go along with what we learn about Misuzu’s continually deteriorating condition. While the story is fantastic overall, the ending seemed to come rather abruptly and didn’t seem to really resolve the core of the story which was whether Misuzu was the girl Yukito was looking for and whether he was really able to “save” her some how, and what the ultimate connection between Misuzu and the Kannabi-no-Mikoto was.

The more technical aspects, particularly the animation, could use some work as well. The movie is riddled with scenes with excessive ambient lighting and washed-out stills which were probably supposed to serve some stylistic purpose, but what that purpose was supposed to be, I’m not sure. In any case, the animation quality appeared to be quite a bit lower than one would expect from a theatrical film in today’s age. The background music is OK, but is bolstered by the fantastic opening and closing songs, and the dubs are probably overall above-average.

Overall, Air: The Movie is definitely a movie that many people could enjoy, if they’re willing to overlook some significant weaknesses along the way.

First Watched: January 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Indifferent

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (2)

What I Want to See: Air

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 – 10:58 am

AirAfter watching Kanon and enjoying pretty much all 3 Kyoto Animation series that I’ve either finished or are in progress of watching, I thought I’d add a fellow Key visual novel-based series produced by Kyoto Animation to the list of what I want to see.

Reading a non-spoiler description of it on wikipedia and Anime News Network, Air sounds a little more unusual than most visual novels that I’ve heard of, though I guess I’ll see.

I almost kind of find it humorous that the things with some of the best stories that I’ve seen are all ero visual novel games. I’m not sure if it’s because people who play these visual novels justify the ero part by saying “but it has a good story too!” or if people who play those games are secretly all mushy-mushy.

When watching or playing anime or anime-like visual novel games, very few have caused me to blubber, but all three either visual novel, or anime based of visual novels have invoked that reaction.

I’ll see if Air is similar in this regard as well. It has a good rating on Anime News Network, so that’s a promising start. Unfortunately I have to wait until mid-August for the first DVD to come out.

By Josh | Posted in What I Want to See | Tagged | Comments (0)