Forum - View topicREVIEW: Air DVD 1
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6869 Location: Kazune City |
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I'll save a bit of time by plagiarizing myself...
And seeing the episodes again after watching numerous other dating-sim anime, I think some things set AIR apart. * Yukito -- as the review notes, he actually has a striking, distinctive design as opposed to the standard game "player figure." Also, most dating-sim males are as average and nondescript as possible, so that players can identify with them. Most are completely normal middle-class teenagers, who are often financially secure, even if their parents are conveniently dead/absent. In fact, you don't see much anime about vagrants/homeless people at all, as Tokyo Godfathers is the only other example that readily comes to mind. * Romantic attractions, or the lack thereof -- while the quantity of girls reaches harem-anime-proportions, it didn't feel like harem anime where the guy gawks at a number of girls and the girls proceed to beat him up (aside from Minagi) or deal with varying levels of attraction to them. And Yukito doesn't really show that much interest, either; he's more concerned with his quest, and while he wants to get to know and help/save these girls, he's not exactly enraptured with any of them. * Haruko -- Part comic relief, otherwise a very conflicted mother spoiler[or at least mother figure.] For me, part of the intriugue of the early episodes concerns Haruko's reasons for acting the way she does and being so distant. spoiler[cf. eps 10-12] * Fanservice, the eschewing of it -- With the summer timeframe, and all the tripping and frolicking around in creeks and such, many opportunities present themselves for pantsu shots, see-through white shirts, and other forms of fanservice. Yet none of these opportunities are taken. * Misuzu -- okay, she isn't the greatest, most unique character ever, but like I said, I didn't have any concept of "moe" going into the series. I just saw Misuzu as a cute, childlike girl with a passion for dinosaurs and something that made her just "different enough" to have difficulties relating to Haruko and her classmates. As for "introducing Yukito to the characters," I'd say that isn't a bad thing...sometimes it's better to start slow and pick up, rather than just jumping into everything headlong. Overall, I'd say the pace and setup in these few episodes isn't a whole lot different from the pace and setup in, say, Haibane Renmei. After all, both shows have a character finding themselves in a new location, and spend the first few episodes introducing the main character to the places and inhabitants of that locale, without much hint of the overall plot of the series. (Granted, HR is much more original in its delivery, but AIR at least exceeds other game adaptations like To Heart where conflicts come from seating charts and concert tickets.) Imo the next two episodes pick up a fair amount before taking the series in an unexpected direction. So, I don't want to contribute any more to the hype machine...yes, I'm aware that the review is for the first volume, but remember, the fan acclaim is based on the whole series, not the first 4 episodes 
ADV's presentation: I'm not seeing any "ruination" yet, but having heard the Japanese track, I'm a little undecided on some of the casting. Rial is likely ADV's best choice for Misuzu, and Luci Christian is pretty much an expected choice for Haruko, since she's ADV's "go-to gal" for that character type. Vic Mignona I'm honestly not too familiar with, as I haven't seen much of FMA or DN Angel in English. He's a decent choice though, as they probably would've gone with Chris "I'm in everything" Patton otherwise. Nothing against Patton of course, but I didn't want to be thinking of Yumeria's Tomokazu or FMP's Sousuke while watching AIR. I wonder why ADV didn't do a Next Volume preview, aside from the "Get DVD 2 9/27" bit. Maybe to preserve the mystery? Regarding the Kanon Kameos: I get the impression that they didn't have much material to decide how to play the voices. After all, the Japanese track had the actresses who played those girls in the 2002 Kanon series, so they had an unfair advantage. Hopefully things will improve if/when ADV releases Kanon 2006. Too bad on the Extras, though. I would've liked to hear some director/scriptwriter commentary to see how the "industry folks" feel about these kinds of series and the challenges of working with them. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Personally I can't see the point of making these genres. I mean the target demo most likely is , or has played the game, so the anime is just a flatbed to carry the fanservice on lightly skinned ( no pun intended) with a plot, to me. but then I'm not a 14 year old virgin male who has no sister.
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nuaythebest
Posts: 22 |
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Why there is a Spiderman Movie when most of target audience have read the comic? Abotu fanservice I suggest you should watch it before saying that because I hardly see any fanservice in first volume. |
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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dgreater1
 Posts: 307 Location: in the Phillipine's AIR space with Misuzu |
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Nope, not at all ecchi if you're talking about the All Age Version or the PS2 version. Although, you could say that it came from an eroge (not Hentai) it lacks what you call, ecchiness, and since it was really popular because of its story, it was ported to console. It's the same with Kanon. And despite saying it's an eroge, you'll only see the ero part at the end of the game, it's like a bonus for finishing the game. But lately, KEY has been making their game clean, take for example CLANNAD, Planeterian, and their newest one, Little Busters! Although I can say that Little Busters! have some ecchiness, it still doesn't fall into ero category. And KEY doesn't really concentrate on the ecchi part. |
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Lyrai
Posts: 173 Location: Potatoes (Idaho) |
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Oh god, AIR's out already?
Shit. I watched this on fansubs and spoiler[cried like a little girl at the end. Seriously, it's massively sad. Crying time again!] Gorgeous series. Did want to mention though, the soundtrack for the anime is lifted straight from the game. A few tracks are tucked here and there, but there's no new songs. Tori no Uta, Farewell Song, everything's pulled from the game. |
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Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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Visual novels aren't games in the sense most people think of when they hear the word "game". Characters are represented in still images, and you read text that describes what happens. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18211 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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This series is one of those odd cases where knowing one of the major spoilers (i.e. what "The 1000th summer" actually refers to) is the only thing that will keep me watching; I'm a sucker for spoiler[an effective tearjerker], after all.
Based on the first volume alone, I wouldn't continue with this series. Although I can see the point some are making about the mood-setting quality of the first few episodes, the story structure mimicked the standard dating sim set-up too much for that to work for me. The gentle piano numbers in the soundtrack being interrupted by the irritating character themes also didn't help. (I'm not surprised at all to hear that they were all carried over from the game.) I'm most curious to hear more reactions from people who are seeing this series for the first time without knowing anything about it, as this one gives me the impression of a series where you have to see most/all of it to fully appreciate it. |
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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Very similar to the poster who opened the other recent Air thread. Saw it on one of the on-demand anime networks, gave it a whirl. My impression was a show that was 1/10 attractive background animation and 9/10 a cliche cyclone: Lanky, sullen, anti-social goof as protagonist.........check Female character polite beyond all reason and utterly passive........check Odd mother/Family situation.....check Shrouded, angsty quest...check As I wasn't really a fan of those conventions the first time I saw them, let alone the 9,000 iteration, I decided re-watching 'Ninja Nonsense' was the way to go. That's not to say 'Air' is a terrible show, I watched no where near enough to give an honest review opinion, but it had nothing appealing to me beyond my appreciation of some nice animation. -In general- I'm also aware a good portion of 'Air' fans may rather take hot coals to their eyes than watch 'Ninja Nonsense', so all taste is relative, which brings up a point. There's a difference between a show being very enjoyable within it's genre convention, and being good enough to appeal to mainstream tastes. For example, I really love 'The Daichis - Earth Defense Family ', and though ostensibly a comedy/mecha parody, I would defend it as having enough qualities to be considered pretty solid to a wide audience. On the other hand, I also really enjoyed 'Nerima Daikon Brothers', and while I think it's a great comedy I wouldn't really expect a good portion of viewers outside of the comedy genre to love it. So it's a great show in its convention, but isn't necessarily gangbusters for general audiences. 'Air' seems as if you'er a fan of the drama/angst genre, there may be a lot to like. However, when your particular to a certain genre you tend to overlook weak points which may dampen general appeal. When a reviewer looks at a title, they usually come at it from a 'mainstream' point of view, as a 'genre fan' approach can lead to a lot of misleading reviews. So for 'Air' fans who are upset with a so-so review, if your into the genre 'Air' may indeed be a highlight show, it just doesn't seem to have a big dose of wider audience appeal. That's something you can say about a ton of shows. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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It's been a long time since I saw Air and I only saw up until 6 or 7. I plan to buy the DVDs at the next TRSI sale and finish it then.
From what I remember, I think I agree with the issues mentioned except that I enjoyed the slow laid back pace to introduce the characters. While Yukito has a unique character design instead of the generic anime lead design, he wasn't particularly interesting or entertaining to watch. I think. My memory of it is really fuzzy. |
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Veoryn87
 Posts: 808 |
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I actually don't find the character designs very appealing at all. I hate the moe look. I'll still give this show a try.
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Murasakisuishou
 Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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I think I'll be renting this just to hear Vic Mignogna as Yukito. THERE'S something that's really hard for me to picture o.o Especially since he's normally the VA who bothers me the most in any given dub.
Anyway, I agree that the first few episodes of Air don't really contain anything that would make the rest of the series seem worth watching. Also, yes, the introduction of all the cliches at the beginning is sort of forced and makes it really obvious that the anime is based off of a dating sim type game. I personally didn't really get into the story until the summer arc, when spoiler[they finally explained what the heck was going on.] Overall, I would say this is probably more of an anime to watch when you want to chill out in front of something calming than when you want to be entertained. |
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belvadeer
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After having seen the Japanese version, I have to admit I did like it a lot. Sure, the first two episodes say little, but that's usually how it is. You don't expect to generally hear the plot of a story in the first two chapters, do you? This anime is definitely one of the better new age ones in my opinion. It's powerful enough to tug at the heart strings and bring a tear to male and female viewer alike. I really would like to hear the U.S. voices just to see how well they capture the sadness and melancholy of the girls. Tomoko Kawakami did superbly as Misuzu, so I'm hoping her U.S. counterpart did an equally good job. I suppose it's the teary-eyed moments that interest me in the dub if anything, and to see who got cast for what part.
Last edited by belvadeer on Sat Dec 10, 2011 7:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Em, no.  She played Haruko.
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18211 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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That is incredibly far from the point; neither I nor anyone else was saying we expected that. What I do expect from the first two episodes of any series is: 1) Some indication of which direction the plot is going (more than 95% of anime series manage this); 2) Something to catch and keep interest in the series (all of the better ones have this); and 3) Something which distinguishes the series from others of its type. Air is, at best, weak on all three points in its first two episodes, although it sounds like it should improve greatly on all of them in its second volume. |
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) It's been said that AIR is very much a love-it-or-hate-it series, but there's a chance it could go either way, right?
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