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Out of every anime that has come for Key visual novels, Air seems to be a complete outlier to me. Clannad, Kanon, Angel Beats and Little Busters! follow a similar path of man goes to high school and finds out who he really is. Charlotte and Rewrite both revolve around high school students with special powers which are used to lead the cast towards a certain ending. Even Planetarian and Prima Dolls (which I haven't watched) both revolve around robot girls being, well robots.
Air fits into literally none of the categories. It isn't set anywhere near a high school for the most part, there's no 'special powers' the characters hold and obviously no robots (sorry to disappoint). Its by a country mile the most unique Key work, and the fact its genuinely cast aside by most is, to me, a complete injustice. I want to give it the justice it deserves, so if you want to see me describe this wild ride, keep reading.
Of course, I'll leave topics where I get into more spoiler territory at the end, so if you haven't watched it and get to that point you can stop reading.
If I had one word to describe my experience watching Air, it would 100% be 'uneasy'. From character design to what people do to the events that take place and even the fucking background, I felt a uneasiness throughout watching Air. I honestly think some part of this are unintentional like the backgrounds, I think that mainly comes down to it being a 2005 anime with a lower budget, so of course the art would be off. However, one thing I'm 100% sure of is that most of it is intentional.
I think its best shown in the character design. Most have their weird quirks that show that something is off, its subtle but it honestly works. For example, just look at Kano. The design is mostly normal apart from one single ribbon that's just there on her arm. Along with its striking yellow colouring that seems very out of place compared to the rest of the outfit, it succeeds in turning this design from bland and uninspiring to one that pops out and makes you uneasy with how weird it is. Its a prime example of what this anime is trying to achieve.
Also this is the best image I found, sorry!Much like every Key anime after it, this anime is a showcase of pure human emotion that spews out on the screen. It showcases a multitude of emotions through the weird events that transpire. It includes the usual suspects for Key anime like love, tragedy, regret, but I think the fact these occur in not only a unique way but during all this weird shit that happens is the best part of this anime. It displays how emotion transcends any barriers or obstacles it throws our way. How even during events that the characters couldn't possibly comprehend, their emotions always shine through all the way, which makes this anime great.
This is one of the times when I will say that: yes, the animation does bother me. Of course its 2005 animation, you can't expect much right? Compared to other anime from this era like Kanon (2006) for example, the animation is just bad. Characters look shiney and even simple. The backgrounds are so low res it makes me want to cave my skull in. It feels just choppy at times. It has its good moments, however I just can't reasonbly justify that the animation is just fine, its just bad. Compare it to other Key works, its only better than the first Kanon anime in 2000
This next sections get into more spoiler territory, so this is a warning to stop reading if you don't want to go into this anime spoiler free.
One of my favourite aspects of this anime is the fact it goes from the current point in time to 1000 years into the past into the Heian period (794-1185). I love this, it whats sets it apart from every other Key work. It goes back in time to show us how the our two main charcters Yukito and Misuzu end up getting to their fate at the end of the story, and how the two kids also will (presumably) end up sharing the same fate. It gives me the anime a overall message to me, and that is that love transcends time, past what we can comprehend and how truly love never breaks, even 1000 years on.
More on Misuzu, I think one of the most interesting aspect is how she is has mental breakdown when she gets close to people. It really intreguise me because its never explained why this even happens, but somehow it just fits? Like fair enough theres a bunch of weird shit that happens so it naturally fit even without explination with the rest of the weird shit, and you could make a arguement about how what happened 1000 years ago has made her become this way, but nothing from back in that time should of made her that way in the first place. I honestly have no analysis for this I just wanted to comment on it.
Watching this anime, you wouldn't think theres more than 3 main charaters, you'd assume that Yukito, Misuzu and Haruko are all mains. I mean they are in every episode apart from one where we go to Heian period. However theres 4 and Haruko isn't even one of them. Kano and Minagi get like 3 and 2 episodes each respectively, which is fine, but they aren't mains by a long shot. Kano basically doesn't exist after her episodes and the exact same can be said for Minagi. While they're good displays of mental health and the regret of losing a sibling (kind of) respectively, they don't deeply influence the story at all. Haruko does and especially at the end, she basically guides the anime to its conclusion, and is in a lot more episodes than Kano and Minagi.
Lets look at Little Busters! for example. That anime has 11 main characters. Literally 11, and they all deserve to be mains. Yes they all get their own episodes like Kano and Minagi, but the difference is they stick around and without even one of them the anime would feel immcomplete. Kano and Minagi could be removed and the anime could still end the same. I'd honestly argue that Kanna makes more of a impact to the anime than the two of them. In short, Haruko is a main and the other two mains aren't.
I think this anime is criminally underrated. Its a great 12 episode watch to just binge if you want something fresh and new, an experience unlike any anime you've seen. However, the drawbacks this anime have do hold it back a little bit from its full potential, but it still makes for a great watch.
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