Originally published January 3, 2012on tumblr
this was my 3rd chem re-watching it… possibly my 4th….
how i cam across this show. a friend of mine from class liked anime
and wondered if i had seen a show called Air. He described it as a show
that looked really pretty and had a kind of interesting mystery plot.
i had never downloaded anything and was skeptical but i eventually caved and watched it.
And thus i was introduced to the world of Visual arts/ Key.
Now i will say this… the show has not aged well at all… the eyes look
extremely odd and are too far apart…. the character have chins that
could be used as weapons they are so large… BUT the animation is still
really nice and fluid. The music is memorable and characters for the
most part are well designed.
To date (as far as i know) there have been three adaptations of
Visual Art/Key games. Kanon (which was adapted both in 2000 and 2006),
Air (which got a tv show and a movie) and Clannad (which got two seasons
and a movie. ) and out of all of that…. Air is probably my least
favorite. It’s still good but boy does it have problems.
out of the three it is the shortest (i didn’t see kanon 2000 which i
think is also 13 eps but in this case i’m not counting it) and each
story is told in fairly concise arcs.
First we have Kano’s arc which takes place over 3-4 episodes…. she
seems to have multiple personality disorder thanks to touching a magic
feather when she was young. Yukito, the main male character, eventually
uses some of his telekinetic ability to heal her or something….
Then we have Minagi’s arc which the bulk of it takes place over 2 eps
but goes on at the same time as the Kano arc…. so i’d say again 3-4 eps…
more tragic then Kano’s story in my opinion… she is always found
playing with her younger best friend Minagi since her mother is going
through trauma after having a miscarriage. this is that baby would have
been called Michiru and the mother even has forgotten about Minagi and
is calling her Michiru…. but it gets better… the young best friend
Michiru really is the dead baby who asked for life from the girl with
wings…. but due to…. whatever it’s time for her to go… the scene where
she leaves always brings tears to my eyes. it’s really well done.
Next is Yukito’s arc where we learn more about why he searches for a
girl with wings…. again this lasts most of the show but is focused on in 2
episodes… as Misuzu, the main girl, continues to have dreams and gets
weaker he tries to leave her to avoid getting ill himself…. however he
learns that he doesn’t care anymore and goes back to her side…. again
through means that aren’t ever completely explained he gives up his life
through a single wish to try and help her.
The we have the winger being arc…. lasts 2 eps (not including the
special episodes) and we learn more about the winged beings, the curse
and why yukito has powers….
then we get what i call the crow arc…. because we start back at the
beginning of the show but instead Yukito is a crow…. human yukito is
there as well but we never see his face… we get an exteremly condences
recap but instead we see there's a crow with misuzu…. which is odd cause
throughout the show we see this crow but now it’s not in the same place
and…. ugh my head.
the crow arc lasts till the end of the show… other then one instance
Yukito never comes back and misses out on the last episode drama. The
last episode… though not the saddest key/visual arts moment is pretty
high up there. in fact i think this is the only key/visual arts story
where there isn’t a later retcon to being someone (or multiple
someones)back from the dead.
so then the story ends on disk three….. but wait i have another
volume…. special episodes…. one that can be called misuzu’s arc (it’s
just everything from misuzu’s perspective with both yukito’s story and
the crows mixed together…. so a glorified clip show) then two episodes
to go more indepth into the past.
so by the end of this show…. it’s recapped 3 times.
That is probably my biggest issue with this show…. second issue is
the fact that yukito… who is the main character in my opinion isn’t
technically there…. yes he’s a crow but thats not good enough in my
opinion. A lot of things think they are explained… but they aren’t…
why does michiru suddenly have to go? why does Kano have a mark on
her wrist and was it there before she tried to commit suicide? how does
Misuzu know that that one night was her last dream, why does yukito turn
into a crow of all things… i get that's it’s for him to have wings but
why specifically a crow which tends to be a bad omen. why does the dog
say “piko”?
and why does it need to recap so much? granted it doesn’t recap 8
times (no i will never let that go) but still it’s too much for such a
short show.
It is still a good show…. you can tell it’s one of the first titles
from a company (dunno where it falls in game wish but i know the anime
was done after Kanon so i will assume the game came after kanon as well)
and you can tell they wanted to try new things. i also love how fluid
the animation is even though the faces can look really funny.
also between air, Kanon and Clannad i’d say this show has the best intro song next to After story’s intro.
if you get a chance pic this show up… it was licensed by ADV before
they went down but i think Funimation holds the rights now… shouldn’t be
too expensive. if you want a shorter summation then get the movie… it’s
pretty much a retelling of the anime but with more focus on the past….
it is odd to think that this is based off a hentai game since
a) the girls are a little young
b) i don’t see where it could really fit in other then the arc in the past.
the game has been released many times in japan…. it’ll probably never
come over to North American soil cause there doesn’t seem to be as much
of a market for it…
also these things keep getting longer and longer…. oh boy
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