Air - Reviews

Story: I became really confused at a lot of the story for AIR. Some of it I didn’t accept and other parts were just downright confusing. For starters, I do not accept the whole Michiru part at all. I’m not going to spoil but, unlike the Fuka-chan arc in Clannad, I wasn’t ok with it. However, it is a deep story. The plot is profound and original. It is slow-paced but does have random bits of humor to downplay the seriousness. It has much more drama than comedy but it isn’t too dark. Don’t expect a happily ever after but the ending isn't completely depressing either. I don’t really know whether or not I liked the plot. I’m still ambivalent towards it. Also, despite the fact that it only had 12 episodes, it felt really long.

Animation: Like Kyoto’s Animations other works, the animation was impeccable. I’m not a fan of the droopy eyes that all the females had but that was my only flaw. Emotions were done amazingly and the scenery was just breathtaking. Characters were very pretty and the little details really made them stand apart from each other. I loved this animation and I don’t have a lot bad to say about it.

Sound: To start off, I watched this in English. It was free and legal on Funimation so I can’t say much about the seiyuu’s performance. I’m not a fan of the female English dubbed voices. I listened to a little (and I mean very little) of the original and the voices were fitting. However, the soundtrack, OMG, the soundtrack! It was phenomenal. One of the best soundtracks I have heard. It goes up par with Tsubasa’s soundtrack and that happens to be my favorite. I would go out and buy it. It’s one of the reasons I picked it up. I mean it’s honestly one of the best parts of this show.

Characters: The characters were far from shallow and 2-D. They had a lot of depth and emotion to them. You had a group of real characters even if the things that happened to them were unrealistic (which is granted knowing that this show is essentially about the girl in the sky). There relationships were also deep. All of them were even given the short time frame that they needed.

Overall: Amazing animation and sound. The characters and plot, I’m not sure about. AIR isn’t bad but I had trouble finishing it. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. I think it was just a little too out there for me. I would definitely recommend you trying it out though and, at the very least, you’ll come out listening to an amazing soundtrack with animation to match.

Story

Focused on the history of the visual novel, Air begins with the arrival of Yukito Kunisaki, a puppeteer who travels looking for a girl with wings that always stands alone, to a city on the coast. There he meets a girl who develops an interest in him, Misuzu Kamio, who sees the ocean passively along imagining flying days.

In town, Yukito also meets Kano Kirishima, Tohno Minagi and other inhabitants of the city as the sister of Kano, Michiru, and Misuzu’s aunt. Although you can categorize Air as a romance anime, it is certain that this is not an abundant element in the series; the characters develop tension or interest but not become anything more than that.
The anime places an emphasis on family relationships and bonds we develop with those around us. Lessons such as forgiveness of self, family, recognition of a mission or purpose and acceptance of the life and changes are recurring themes in the story.
The episodes pass slowly, as history has no relevant action scenes or large movements. Every scene is basically on the same locations.
As for the drama within the story, this is the most important element. Each of the heroines has passed or is passing through difficult situations in their life, is in these events that the importance of family relationships and the characters come to accept and carry out these "traumas" Thanks to them, mainly the last part of the story is where most of these elements are.

Animation

Air was one of the first Kyoto Animation works. One of the great achievements of the animation are the landscapes and colors of the horizon, blue skies and orange sunsets adorn several of the scenes giving some touches of realism to the scenarios. The same happens with the architecture of the city, which shows a very good job in creating spaces and offer viewers a sense of reality with respect to the rooms and walls.
In contrast there are the characters, although not badly drawn, with eyes too large in proportion to your body and are more inclined to take a look Moe instead of creating realistic faces.

Music

Probably the best in the series, the soundtrack of Air has won numerous awards and recognitions. We have a variety of background melodies with hints of classical music, parks, listen to the cicadas and the beach sounds of the waves. There is also a great harmony between music and the scenes where the drama without taking center stage of history, the music creates an atmosphere conducive to getting the best out of each story.
As for the characters' voices, speaking of the voices in Japanese, I think they are very well achieved. Each voice fits perfect with each character, including Misuzu tic of repeating "Gao" creating a very intimate once we move in its history.
The opening "Tori no uta" played by Lia has a congruency with the rest of the story to show a certain melancholy. The ending "farewell song" also played by Lia though perhaps the pace is not enough to fit into the melancholy of history.

Characters

Although few episodes, these are enough to help the adequate develop of the characters. Yukito, the male protagonist (and almost the only man to see in the series) is the typical personality a bit careless and selfish, but it shows a good heart and cares about people he knows. Later we see a big change in Yukito and show us the most romantic scenes in the series.
Of the three heroines of the series, none of the three is a great character, there is not enough time with each of them to create a bond with them. About Misuzu, I’m not even sure if I found her interesting or just annoying, because throughout the series she does not do much to please the audience, but towards the last episodes her character takes a leading role and impressive.

Opinion

This anime plays with the emotions of the audience, showing very dramatic events in drama, especially Misuzu’s story. It had great success on the music and animation but the story is not good enough. Still is an anime I highly recommend due to the large amount of emotion that manages to convey.

I'd have to say, this anime was one of the best anime's i've ever seen. I do wish it was longer though, because it's so amazing. All the emotion, and chemistry between each character, is incredible. I really love the animation. It was beautiful. Each character was also drawn lovely. The story line of this anime was very very good. It's a good anime for all ages. I never was bored while watching it. I finished it in one day. I reccommened this to anyone.

Anime is an entertainment form. That is to me at least should be the main goal of any anime creator when making their show.

Air! did not entertain me at all. It did only One single thing good and that was get out an amotional response from me. But this response was nothing but sadness. Every time it did anything to make you think things were going to be ok it just got worse and worse and through out the whole series you just felt depressed.

Making people sad isn't in any way a bad thing for entertainment, in fact doing that generally means that the viewer has connected with the characters, Clannad is a good example of this, I felt sad plenty of times but I also felt happy worried and other emotions for them. In Air I only felt sad, and truthfully I wasn't feeling very invested in the characters either. I dread to think how depressed I may have been afterwards had I actually cared about the characters...Which all in all I found them more annoying than anything else.

I was recomended this Anime and watched it all the way through and by the end wish I hadn't. I don't mind sad stories but they really do need some kind of silver lining. Doing nothing but making the watcher depressed right till the end and ending on that emotion isn't a good thing.

I watch Anime to be entertained not to make me want to go cry in a corner. Second the anime was done I boxed it up and never plan to watch it again...Only left bad memories behind and each episode felt like a chore to watch...

Would not recomend.

cant watch i dont know why