AIR Images

General Information:

Air first came out as a Japanese adult visual novel by Key Studios with themes of drama, fantasy, romance and tragedy.
Air was released for the Windows PC back on September 2000.
Key later released an erotic version of Air for the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.
A manga adaptation of Air was in works which was published in Kadokawa Shoten’s Comptiq magazine and illustrated by Yukimura Katsura, who coincidentally worked on Yumeria and Kashimashi: Girl Mets Girl.


Tatsuya Ishihara, more known as the man behind works of art like Clannad and Inuyasha, directed the anime television series Air together with Fumihiko Shimo and Kyoto Animation Studios.
Air was licensed by Madman Entertainment and Funimation Studios for a North American release which aired on Anime Network.
Air debuted on BS-i on January 2005 which ended shortly after on March 2005 with 13 heart-breaking episodes.

Opening:

Ending:

Plot:

Air follows Yukito Kunisaki, a wandering traveler, on a journey in search of the elusive winged maiden who was said to be bound to the sky centuries ago in a childhood tale he heard from his mother.
As a struggling entertainer, he travels from town to town making money off of his puppet shows trying to find clues as to this so-called “winged maiden” that he keeps hearing from his mother.
He later finds himself staying in one peculiar town than he usual.
Fate takes a drastic turn the day he met the peculiarly unusual girl named Misuzu who invites him to stay with her.


As a wandering traveler, he did need some kind of stability in life and that’s what this quaint little town offered.
Yukito soon befriends the locals in an effort to connect more with the people.
As he gets to know them better, he later discovers their own problems and decides to help them in any way he can while putting on hold the search for the Winged Maiden.
With his search on hold, will Yukito ever find the mysterious yet elusive winged girl his mother searched for in her life, or is she ironically closer to her than he thought?


Characters:

Yukito Kunisaki is the wandering traveler in search of the elusive winged girl of the sky he heard from his mother. He lives off his trade making money with his puppet shows. His unusual nomadic life is put on hold the day he met the unusually peculiar Misuzu who invites him to stay over. He has grown to love Misuzu over the course of time.


Misuzu Kamio is overly cheerful and slightly clumsy girl who has grown attached to Yukito and decided to invite him to stay over at her place. She has the unnerving love of dinosaurs to the point where she even believed baby chicks were dinosaurs for a time. It was later revealed that she is suffering from a rather mysterious illness whenever she gets too close with a friend.

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Update:

Kyoto Animation and Director Tatsuya Ishihara worked hand-in-hand on the 2-episode sequel of the original series which premiered on August 2005 to September 2005.
Toei Animation on the other hand worked on the animated film of the same name together with Director Osamu Dezaki.
The movie is based closely on the novel and hit Japan’s movie theaters on February 2005.


The romance and drama scenese, one would recommend shows like Kanon, Clannad, sola, ef – a tale of memories, Myself, Yourself, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien would come out on top of the list as somewhat similar to Air TV.


source: Zerochan; written by carllustre87