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Strike Witches

Everytime summer arrives, the big-budget Hollywood movies come too. It seems to be the most lucrative season of mainstream film the whole year, as blockbuster after blockbuster gets released in a span of a few months. Granted that there are some exceptions to the rule, but generally, summer blockbusters are usually shallow, popcorn entertainment for the masses. It’s not Oscar season, and so they are just raking in the big bucks for now by offering simple yet fun movies that one would probably forget after a while. In a way, this is how I felt Strike Witches was for me. It is an equivalent of a shallow, popcorny, simple and fun anime blockbuster… with a heavy slice of fanservice.
Continue reading Strike Witches

Air TV

Air

The days which are wrapped in the scene of summer and to pass gently
An encounter with the girls repeated in the sunlight
Summer continues to where as well
She is waiting in the air…

One of the best bishoujo game based anime ever made. And for good reason.

Made by [Key->], which also made [Kanon->] (a historical landmark in bishoujo games), Air continues on the tradition of a visual novel, where the player makes some game choices, and the rest is reading and enjoying the visuals and sound. Air is one of the most popular bishoujo game titles. In fact, it’s one of the longest during its time, and gamers are pulled into this world with magnificent settings, lovable characters and incredibly good storytelling. The original concept and story of this title is very dramatic. People who don’t know too much about bishoujo games would immediately classify them as adult-only games (because of certain content), but as I’ve said so many times, some of their stories can even rival those of actual literary novels. Air wins because of its intricate character development and storytelling. Basically, to see is to believe, so I won’t even spoil one bit of the story to you. Besides, you’ll probably be initially attracted to it anyway because of the incredible visuals.

And hell are the visuals so incredible. DVD format is seemingly not enough because the original HDTV broadcasts of this anime are really crisp and amazing. CG-like visuals, backgrounds, and character animation that pays attention to detail. And the simple beauty of all the characters really shine in this anime. It’s one of the best animations to come out on TV, that even OVAs and movies are having a hard time to compete with. What’s better is that there is no noticeable quality loss in any episode. This anime helped Kyoto Animation’s reputation as a powerful animation company in terms of having that wow-factor.

And not only the visuals, the direction of this anime is superb. Usually animators are having a hard time translating a game like this into anime. One reason is that some games have too many multiple paths and endings. Furthermore, to compress an entire visual novel into 13-26 episodes is a hard job. I guess it’s kinda lucky that Air’s story in the game takes a little bit more linear approach. The animators capitalized on that, and in effect, the anime stayed very true to its original game roots. It’s like having a direct manga-to-anime translation, only that it is a game-to-anime one. Fans are quite happy with that, especially when you have amazingly nice scenes to animate. Air has so many funny, happy and dramatic scenes that lifted all of human emotions.

The music is the same. This is quite a surprise, mostly because it wasn’t done before. Air the anime uses the original game soundtrack, and nothing else. It further recreates the feel of the game that way. The songs here, which are made by I’ve Sound, are some of the best I have heard from them, and it clearly complements the story through its lyrics. The seiyuu are composed of some prolific ones and some of my favorites. They make the characters come to life with their excellent voice acting.

The only thing bad about this is that it has to end someday, and seemingly 13 episodes (and 2 more upcoming in a few months) are not enough. But if you had watched it, it would be one of eternal memories. How good is Air? Well, let’s compare it to the real, actual air. It’s there, you breathe it, but you take it for granted. Like that, Air is one anime that may probably be ignored by some, but is actually something special.

This is a [Summer of Bishoujo->] feature

Beyond the Clouds

Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho

Mere 320×179 screenshots can’t do this one justice. This anime movie is absolutely gorgeous. So many scenes look like lush CG to me, and the cinematic depiction of a wide sky with clouds rivals those of Kyoto Animation’s [Air->air-tv]. All this coming (mostly) from one man, Makoto Shinkai. He gained extreme popularity some time ago by releasing a one-man anime project, which turned out to be Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star). Yup, he did all those 24-or so minutes of animation all by himself on a Mac. He also does some short stuff, such as She and Her Cat and openings of various bishoujo games such as Wind –a breath of heart–. Now maybe with more staff and powerful computer hardware and software, he made this movie.

See that huge line among the clouds? That is a tall tower soaring across the sky. We follow the lives of three people. Two boys are attracted to this one girl, as well as their wanting to reach the tower by plane. And so they make a plane and made a promise, that the three of them will go to the tower. These characters live in a world where Japan is divided into the North and South, and much like North and South Korea, the divide has brought about intense pressure politically as well as technologically. The tower is at one regime, and the three characters are in another. Under the circumstances, will they fulfill their promise?

The plot thickens when the girl is having these strange dreams. Over time the characters were separated. One boy joins a research facility, and is also secretly in a terrorist faction aimed to stop the impending war of the two sides. The other boy continues on life in another city. The boys would know later that the girl they adored is in a coma for three years now. When fate brings the three together again, what will they do? Knowing that the girl’s sickness is related to the tower, will they finally fulfill the long-forgotten promise? To fly the plane in the sky to the tower?

Besides the love, friendship and promise story, there is a sci-fi element to the movie regarding the girl and the purpose of the tower. Apparently in this world, there are other parallel worlds, and somehow the tower is able to communicate with those parallel worlds, being able to replace the surroundings of the present world to those of the alternate world it connects to. The girl is also a vital part of the communication. All these science mumbo-jumbo veered me away from the main point of the story for a while, but it isn’t as annoying and confusing as some of those crap from other anime.

Again I say, the animation and art is absolutely amazing. Of course it’s a movie so it should be that way, but the backgrounds in particular look so superb it’s like playing a 2D Half-Life 2 with a very powerful computer. It even kicks bishoujo game CG out of the competition. Only recent Studio Ghibli movies are as beautiful. The angles of the shots are so cinematic, and the character design, though kinda simple, blends well into the picture. Gotta love those shadows, lens flares and other lighting and weather effects. Like Air, it is as if DVD-quality is not enough (need something higher than DVD resolutions, like HDTV) to store the quality of the work. And at last, after months of drought, I have found another soundtrack to remember. The music is absolutely amazing also, it mixes with the scenes very well, and the themes stick to my mind even now.

Of course, it has some shortcomings, such as the ending which may be left to multiple interpretations, the potential story points which have abrupt ends, and the slow drag of some parts of the movie. If this movie were shorter, it would have been a candidate for a classic. But these are mere nitpicks, and considering that this was (mostly) made by one man, that alone is quite a shocker. This movie is a definite must-watch.