Anime with Airplane Wings

"Without airplanes, anime would be a mistake." Nietzsche || Blog is on an indefinite hiatus :(

[roseillith]

[roseillith]

[ghibligif]

ocean waves (1993) dir. mochizuki tomomi

[animatejournal]

Lupin III Part 2 | Creator: Monkey Punch | Studio: TMS | Japan, 1977-1980  

[animewithairplanewings]

Free!

Free! (Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club in English) is a TV anime sequel to Koji Oji’s competitive swimming light novel High Speed!  It was directed by Hiroko Utsumi and produced by Kyoto Animation starting July 2013.

The anime follows high school student Haruka Nanase, a one time competitive swimmer and full time aquaphile.  He relearns the meaning of friendship and his love of competitive swimming after some old friends badger him into helping them start a team at their school.

I went into Free! with low expectations, it being a high school sports anime, and for the most part it lived up to those fears.  Even when they have to travel to get to training camps and competitions they drive or go by boat (if the travel is even shown at all).  That being said, there was one particular scene near the beginning of the show that, to break up the dialogue, showed an airliner flying across the sky.  That way, however, it.  Don’t go into this show expecting much more than that, I know I won’t.  Not until a later season when they’ll maybe fly to another country to compete.

Free! earns itself 0.25 airplanes out of 5, with the hope that it will eventually get a little better.

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[squirrelstothenuts]

[animewithairplanewings]

けいおん!

K-On! is a four-koma music comedy written by Kakifly and published in Houbunsha starting 2007. The anime adaptation was directed by Naoko Yamada and produced by Kyoto Animation, starting its run Spring 2009.

The anime follows Yui Hirasawa as she makes friends and learns to play guitar in an attempt to revitalize her school’s light music club.

This anime, like many a high school slice of life anime, doesn’t really have anything going on in the airplane department.  There is an off-hand comment during the first episode about “giving an airplane as a prize” to the first person to join the club (as it is hurting for members), but this is ultimately a throwaway joke and easily forgotten. Not that there was really much space for airplanes in general, but, with Kyoani’s known attention to detail we could have at least had some in the background.

Unsurprisingly, K-On! is getting low marks, and receives 0.25 airplanes out of 5, because they at least talked about one once.

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[mobpsycho100]

[animewithairplanewings]

Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill: Volume 1 is an American martial arts drama written and direct by Quentin Tarantino and released in 2003.

Wait? An “American” movie is on this blog now?  I thought this was an anime review blog. Welp, time to unfollow and forget this sellout ever existed.

Now just hold on one second, hear me out.  While it is true that the movie as a whole was live action and created by an American guy, it still fits the bill because there is indeed an animated, nay, an anime sequence.  And I call it “anime” with confidence, as that portion of the film was directed by Kazuto Nakazawa (who has an extensive resume as a character designer and animation directed, and even directed a few anime himself) and was animated by Production I.G.  If that’s not anime, I don’t know what is.  Anyway, back on track.  Because only a portion of the film is animated, I’ll focus on that.

O-Ren Ishii witnesses the death of her parents at the hands of a brutal yakuza boss, and exacts her revenge.

It’s only a small portion of the movie, so I understand that they wanted to dive into the character drama, but unfortunately that means that they neglected to include a single airplane.  I mean, c’mon, they hand airplanes in other scenes, why not that sequence?  Woulda really made that part.

Anyway, I digress.  There were no airplanes in that one single portion of the film that I’m worrying about, and so the whole movie gets 0 airplanes out of 5.  Try harder next time, Tarantino and/or Nakazawa.

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[dotwav]

[animewithairplanewings]

アグレッシブ烈子 2

Aggretsuko is an ONA based on characters by Yeti for the mascot company Sanrio. The show was written and directed by Rarecho, and produced by Fanworks.

Season two continues to follow the life and times of Retsuko, an office lady that is no more content with her lot than she was last season, and on top of that now she has to deal with an uptight trainee.

“But Garrett,” I can hear you say, “You already passed judgement on Aggretsuko not too long ago.  Normally when you review shows that have multiple seasons (such as FMA or Naruto) you just lump the whole thing together.”

Well, dear reader, that is a completely valid point.  I whether or not I delineate by season in my reviews in entirely dependent on if I delineated by season in my viewing.  For Aggretsuko I finished season one, wrote my review, took a short break from the show, and then watched season two.

I went into season two of this show expecting more of the same office drudgery, but what I got surprised me.  No longer does this show just pay lip service to airplanes, we actually get one, on screen, in a fairly major role.  Now, I won’t get your hopes up too much, it’s more to demonstrate certain attributes of one of the new characters, but it does show up in multiple episodes with varying degrees of screen importance.  This development was so out of left field that its importance did not strike me until I started the next episode.

A second season should build on what the first started, improving what it can in the process, and season two of Aggretsuko does just that. Though the inclusion is fairly limited, Aggretsuko 2 earns itself three and a half airplanes out of five.

(Aggretsuko 1)

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[animewithairplanewings]

Memories - 大砲の街

Memories is a three part anthology of sci-fi stories released by Otomo Katsuhiro, which was animated by Studio 4°C.  This post is the last in a three part series reviewing each of the films separately. For the final film, Cannon Fodder, Otomo worked as both the director and writer.

This film follows the day of a family, following their life in a hyper-militarized, dystopic society centered on the production and use of artillery.

Fodder has a lot to say about nationalism and militarism, and uses airplanes in part to make its point.  The last scene, a dream sequence, includes a shot of eighty-two (eighty-eight, if we include the six hidden behind the flag) bombers flying across the sky in the background.  Though it is done in a way to argue ultimately against their existence, these eighty-some-odd planes do fly across screen, and Otomo gets points for making a statement with them.

Cannon Fodder earns itself Two and Three-quarters Airplanes out of Five, because even though they are used as a background element, they speak to a grander message.

(Links to Magnetic Rose and Stink Bomb)

Thus concludes the Memories saga.

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[animewithairplanewings]

Memories - 最臭兵器

Memories is a three part anthology of sci-fi stories by Otomo Katsuhiro, released in 1995 by Studio 4°C.  This post is the second in a three part series reviewing each of the films separately.  The screenplay for Stink Bomb was written by Otomo Katsuhiro, and it was directed by Tensai Okamura.

Nobuo Tanaka, a researcher at a pharmaceuticals laboratory, has the flu that has been going around, and decides to try out his company’s newly developed medicine.  One problem: he clearly did not read the list of side effects, and now the military has to get involved.

This film is an over-the-top military farce, and in this case that includes a swarm of helicopters and Phantoms going after a single guy on a scooter.  There are only a few shots with the airplanes in them, but Studio 4°C did a great job animating them.  We get detailed cockpit views and shots of them maneuvering.  I could have watched a whole show about these guys, but the little that we do get was enough to put this film on my good side.

While there is not a whole bunch, Stink Bomb does deliver, and so it earns itself Three and a Half Airplanes out of Five.

(Links to Magnetic Rose and Cannon Fodder)

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[animewithairplanewings]

Memories - 彼女の想いで

Memories is a three part anthology of sci-fi stories by Otomo Katsuhiro, released in 1995 by Studio 4°C.  Over the next three weeks I shall be releasing a review for each, as they are self-contained stories and I feel it would be unjust to review them as a unit.  The first of these, Magnetic Rose, had its screenplay written by Satoshi Kon, and was directed by Koji Morimoto.

A team of deep space salvage workers receive a distress signal from the graveyard of space. There they find an enormous station that is haunted by the ghosts of the past.

This film takes place in deep space, far away from any atmosphere and the spacecraft follow a more realistic style, meaning that because they are not restrained by aerodynamic drag, they do not look like airplanes.

The interior decoration of the ship is that of Victorian England, Rococo France, or some similar pre-airplane fashion, reflecting the fact that the Lady of the station was a famous opera singer.  Her memories, and the memories she brings out of the others, reflect this sensibility, and so there are not even planes in the flashbacks and remembering.

The total lack of airplanes means that Magnetic Rose gets Zero airplanes out of Five.

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[animewithairplanewings]

アグレッシブ烈子

Aggretsuko (Aggressive Retsuko in Japanese) is an office comedy ONA based on characters by Yeti for the mascot company Sanrio.  It was written and directed by Rarecho and produced by Fanworks.

The anime follows the daily life of Retsuko, a twenty-five year old office lady who hates her job. She secretly sings death metal karaoke to quench her rage while trying to find some way out.

Despite some talk early on in the show about a friend being a world traveler, there is nothing to bite into here.  Retsuko lives a normal life working at a normal office, so right off the bat I knew there was not much of a chance, but even so I held out for maybe a vacation or business trip. Neither happened, and so there was never the opportunity for an airplane to become plot-relevant to this show.  Even the characters that are birds do not fly around, they walk and take the train just like everyone else.

For its complete lack of flying, Aggretsuko gets Zero planes out of Five.

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[animewithairplanewings]

もののけ姫

Princess Mononoke is a historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli, released on the 12th of July, 1997.

Ashitaka, an Emishi prince, is cursed by a mad god while protecting his village.  Banished, he must travel west to save his life, and ends up in the middle of a conflict among gods and men.

This film is set in roughly 1400’s Japan, which meant that I knew it was on shaky footing to begin with, but I held hope in my heart anyway.  This was Studio Ghibli we are talking about after all, and more importantly Hayao Miyazaki.  I have gone on record stating that “Miyazaki is good at airplanes.”  He can normally seamlessly incorporate them in his works, and capture such a raw form of their appeal that it is truly striking. Unfortunately, in this movie, he does no such thing.  Over the two hour runtime of this movie there is not a single airplane, fantastical or otherwise, nor is there even friendly flying god or dragon to give Ashitaka a lift. Out of every Miyazaki movie that I have seen, this one is by far the worst.

Princess Mononoke

does a great job damaging Miyazaki’s credibility, both as an airplane guy and as an artist, and earns itself a big, fat zero out of five airplanes.

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