The third series and the last in the seasonal trilogy I have had yet to complete on my KEY checklist was this one, AIR. A runaway on his journey to find someone within the clouds, this is the story of Yukito Kunisaki.
Or well, so you’d think. Anyways, for some context, this anime is KEY’s second work created a year after Kanon but it was the first in the seasonal trilogy to be adapted by Kyoto Animation, coming out at the very start of the Winter 2005 season, one year before Kanon’s adaptation and two years and three seasons before Clannad’s. At this point, I had watched the Clannad adaptation three times with a fourth watch ongoing and I had recently come off of Kanon 2 months prior. So by this point, I was somewhat familiar with KyoAni’s KEY adaptations by now.
With that context out of the way, let’s talk about the story. The plot involves a guy called Yukito Kunisaki who had traveled to this town by bus, thought to be some runaway. What Yukito does as his job is puppeteering using an unknown skill of his which can make his doll come alive. It’s not known how he obtained it at the beginning with him just stating that his parents could do it too, but we do eventually get some closure on how he obtained this ability later on in the AIR in Summer arc. But for right now, Yukito finds himself in a beach town with hot weather. After wandering a little bit, he sleeps by and then awakens by the beach to find our main heroine standing beside him, Misuzu Kamio. She’s a girl who has been alone for most of her life and it was when she saw Yukito that she wanted to become friends with him very quickly. After acquainting himself with Misuzu, the two wander around the town for a small while, meeting characters such as Kano Kirishima and Minagi Tohno, who are the only other heroines in this story. This is by far the smallest cast for all of these works, only working off of 3 heroines in the entire story. Yukito’s purpose in this town is to find a girl with white wings in the sky and he feels as though Misuzu is the key to finding her as we go throughout the series.
The premise of this plot is much like any other KEY seasonal work you would expect, the only difference being the focus as it’s actually more on Misuzu, the heroine herself rather than the male MC Yukito in this instance and that is because halfway through the anime, we shift from perspective to perspective with each coming episode. First from Yukito’s perspective, then to Ryuya’s perspective 1000 years in the past in the Summer arc, then to Sora’s (a crow Misuzu finds before she meets with Yukito that has the future soul and conscience of Yukito after he made a wish to Misuzu) and Haruko’s (thought to be Misuzu’s mother but is really her aunt) perspective near the end. And just like the previous 2 KEY works that I have watched before AIR, it is near the end that we find two messages that AIR leaves behind for us. This being that family isn’t those who brought you into the world, rather it’s those around you who love and care about you. Similar to Clannad’s with the family aspect. But the second message is you might not avoid pain and you might tread toward sadness, but it’s all about trying your best with zero regrets of your choices and you can be strong, you can smile. Words of encouragement. And this is definitely shown clearly in the final arc of AIR with Misuzu and Haruko trying their best to build their mother-daughter bond with one another. Like I had said in my Kanon review, messages to the audience can be meaningful and resonant to that person if they are struggling themselves and need motivation, and that is an aspect of the writing within KEY works that I can admire.
With a rundown of the plot essentially done and dusted, I want to talk about the arcs of this anime of which there are very few considering only 3 heroines plus AIR only really consisting of 14 episodes. There is our obligatory introduction arc which only lasts about 1-2 episodes max, where we get used to our setting and characters, the usual stuff. Not much to be said other than it’s the standard for the seasonal KEY works.
The next arc is Kano’s arc which upon watching the outcome, really just felt empty. I understand that Kano was being possessed by some entity that made her wonder to the town’s temple at night and is seemingly violent considering the spirit put Yukito in a chokehold and that Kano wanted to use that “magic” that she had to try and see her mother again which her sister forbade her from doing by tying a ribbon around a scalpel cut she had made on her arm. The entire plot made sense, however, when watching that arc, I felt as though I was missing something and I later figured it was the development of Kano’s and her sister’s character. Those two were only present for 4 episodes before being abandoned so we never got to see their characters really shine.
Aside from the lack of development, the main major flaw of the show that I want to bring up is the pacing as I feel the pacing for the AIR anime is way too fast for my liking. Characters are literally just picked up and dropped as soon as they develop an acquaintance with Yukito, to begin with. Yeah, that’s an exaggeration but it is a genuine issue with the series, it just feels off. The only real way I can describe the pacing of the first two-thirds of AIR would be to take the pacing of Shiori’s arc from the Kanon anime, cut out some parts between the midpoint, and then make it last for 8 episodes straight and you have the pacing of AIR up until the last part of the Summer arc. I genuinely would have wanted to enjoy AIR more if the series itself had done a little bit more justice to the VN, not saying that it hasn’t already but due to the limited episodes and fast pacing, I feel as though I’m not experiencing the definitive products as it’s supposed to be enjoyed like in the VN.
The arc after Kano’s was Tohno’s which did fare a lot better. The emotional beats between Minagi and Michiru worked wonders for this arc. The only reason Michiru existed was that everyone there believed that Michiru was a real girl but was actually a long passed younger sister of Minagi’s which she and everyone else around her insisted was real, but when she had to go, he convinced everyone that her leaving was a happy memory and to smile even when they said goodbye, reinforcing message number 2 back to our audience. In painful circumstances, stay strong and try your best. In this case, try your best to retain your happy memories of Michiru.
After Tohno’s arc, we get an episode with Yukito and Misuzu finally figuring out the problem with her “disease”. Her disease is
It is here that the Summer arc begins which takes place between Episode 8 and Episode 9 and also includes the AIR in Summer OVA which is a sort of retelling and extended version of events from Episode 8. This arc involves brand new characters Ryuya (a guard for Kanna’s temple), Kanna, the winged being hinted at through the series and the last of her race, and Uraha as they escape from her temple to go and see Yao Bikuni, Kanna’s mother. This is carried out and through years of battling with soldiers and armies, Yao Bikuni is tainted and she didn’t want either Ryuya or Kanna to touch her because touching her would then lead to the person receiving her curse. Near-death though, Kanna could not resist as it was her mother and hugged her before her ultimate demise and Ryuya had touched her body to dispose of arrows that she had been shot with. This lead to the two receiving the curse, Kanna disappeared into the night sky and has not returned for 1000 years and Ryuya was set to perish a year from then with the only solution for bearing his will being that he would conceive a child with Uraha and the chain would continue for generations until someone would eventually free Kanna from her prison in the sky. It is now evident that this links back to Yukito and Misuzu, in that Misuzu experiences the same pain and dreams that Kanna does and that Yukito now bears both the will of Ryuya but also the same “puppeteering” skills that Uraha had learned with monks. If I’m being honest, this side story was hinted at us from the beginning however the story in and of itself came as a departure from what we had been used to in the main series, it’s definitely not a bad arc by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just that would have expected more from the characters, development, and placement if it weren’t for the pacing of this series.
But next up from Episode 10 to 12 is the final arc of AIR where I feel that this anime really does shine. Episode 10, it’s mostly a retelling of events from the perspective of Yukito as Sora the crow (which was the wish that would let him be beside her) by Misuzu’s side just before she met the human Yukito, this episode is where we get information from Haruko about how she truly feels about Misuzu and that she really wants to be as close to her as possible, like the parent she should have been. Episode 11 then shifts perspective from Sora to Haruko with her wanting to actually fulfill the role that she had wanted so badly in trying to have fun with Misuzu.
The OST was much like any other KEY works such as Kanon or Clannad, very melodic soothing tracks with heart and emotion. Sadly, no musical terms or references like in Kanon but still nice to listen to. The OP reminds me somewhat of Kanon’s ED which I also liked for its bounciness but with emotional melodies within which made it distinct.
The art and visual style, much like I stated in the Kanon review, was what I expected for mid-2000s KyoAni anime to be like. Once again, this type of animation was in its early stages at the very start of 2005 and it seemed KyoAni was testing the waters with their animation style which was inspired very much by Hinoue’s original art style from the VN. But despite my fears for the art style appearing too jarring, especially since it was the first adaptation, I find no issues with this art style much like I didn’t with Kanon.
Like before, to summarise AIR, I won’t say it resonated with me. It had its good moments and all, yes, but I didn’t feel like any other moment was calling to me with the exception of maybe the last episode and its scene with Misuzu and Haruko there. But even then, while it is a really good scene and way to end off albeit quite vague, it wasn’t as resonant as I had thought it would have been. I guess I’m just a particular person when it comes to resonance with characters and certain scenes.
Was the message in the details strong? Absolutely, to smile through a rough time and to cherish those close to you like your own family are very much strong messages and much-needed ones to have, learn from.
Did I enjoy it for the duration of the time? Well, mostly. I didn’t necessarily like how Kano’s arc was handled too much in all honesty, I wish there could have been a bit of a tweak to Tohno’s arc so that it was much more resonant aside from the last scene with Michiru and I still don’t exactly know how to feel about the Summer arc with Kanna and it’s abrupt placement in the story feeling almost like a different story from what we had experienced.
Do I like the characters? Yes, most characters were pretty pleasant actually. Wasn’t sure how to feel about Ryuya making odd comments on Kanna though but considering the time it was set in, I guess it doesn’t really matter? I don’t know, it feels sort of odd but not too odd, not as odd as other characters from weirder series.
In conclusion, just like Kanon, I think AIR is also a solid SoL in its own right and a good one to start on if you would like to get into KEY works. In terms of an adaptation though, unlike Kanon, I feel as though if I were to experience AIR again that I would want to read the VN. Mainly because I feel as though I was missing quite a bit from watching the anime, that combined with the pacing issues that I had experienced culminates in me assuming that the adaptation is somewhat inferior to the original product. Though I can’t really blame KyoAni for this, it was one of the first adaptations of a KEY work, not counting Toei’s Kanon adaptation from 2002. Even with the issues, it was still a solid enough watch that I enjoyed it by the end either way. I personally consider the AIR anime to be just below Kanon, meaning sadly it is the weakest out of the three seasonal works but it still has an influence on me somewhat. Because of that reason, it only made sense to give AIR a 6, the AIR in Summer OVA gets a 6 as well for the sole reason that I wasn’t sure what to make of the Summer arc and its placement but the anime makes it to a 6 which I feel happy about, I know it has its flaws and shortcomings but I still enjoy it regardless. High 6 makes the most sense for me.
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