Yukikaze

Originally a sci-fi novel, Yukikaze is a five episode long OVA that takes on a rather clichéd anime tradition - the story of a mentally troubled pilot, and the machine he has to pilot in order to save the world. Except this time, the machine is a fighter jet, and not a giant robot. Centring on the life of a fighter pilot (who, out of all things, is called Rei), Yukikaze's story focuses on a war between human fighter jets from the FAF airforce, and a breed of aliens called the JAM who came and invaded Earth through an inter-dimensional portal from Antarctica.

That's probably the simplest synopsis I can provide for a backstory as complicated as Yukikaze's. A lot had to be explained.  As a novel adaptation, it perhaps assumed that its viewers are familiar with the story to begin with. But for those who haven't read the novel, like myself, Yukikaze takes a bit of effort to get into. Yukikaze does a rather poor job of introducing the viewer to its world considering how complicated its backstory is. Unless you pay close attention to every word (or Google, which was my tactic), watching Yukikaze might well be a very alienating experience. 

Shows that follow the same sort of tradition Yukikaze is on tend to spend a lot more time talking about the pilots than the machines they fly. Shows like RahXephon and more famously, Evangelion, are much more interested in making us sympathize with Ayato and Shinji than to merely entertain us with giant robots. Like those two shows, Yukikaze isn't really about the action - it's about the life and psychology of a socially withdrawn pilot. But it takes a lot of effort, and a long time, for a viewer to truly sympathize with a character like that. Had Yukikaze been twelve episodes long, Rei could've very well been another Ayato, another Shinji, another character who goes beyond his social anxiety. Unfortunately, that never happened.

So much, then, for character development. Or a followable story, for that matter. But Yukikaze is still worth watching for its animation. Fortunately, for what it lacks in characters and backstory, Yukikaze makes up its flaws with its superb animation. For just about every aspect of Yukikaze is superbly animated. The fight scenes are always a treat to watch, while the more idle scenes of watching Yukikaze gliding through the skies felt very soothing. For a show that, supposedly, is about the relationship between the man and the machine, Yukikaze's redeeming points lies solely with the machine.

Yukikaze is an ambitious attempt to give us some insights on the daily lives of ordinary pilots. And tell a good story. And entertain us with explosions. Unfortunately, it only succeeded at doing one of these things. Perhaps Yukikaze could've been a classic had it been a TV series, or a movie. But there's only so much you can do within the space of five episodes.

No, not that Yukikaze!

Katanagatari

Shows set in medieval Japan tend to fall into one of two categories. Shows that fall in the first categories, like Samurai Champloo (or better yet, Gintama), don't really take their subject matter all that seriously. These shows are, more often than or not, excuses for their creators to make fun of the present-day, to break the fourth wall, and do all sorts of silly things. Shows that fall in the second category, like Shigurui and Sword of the Stranger, are more like your typical swashbuckler films, filled with blood, violence and at times, misogyny. 

Katanagatari, then, should be seen as an attempt to fuse those two categories. To make something that's entertaining, but not necessarily slapstick. To make something that errs on the serious side, without descending into mindless violence. 

And for the most part, Katanagatari made it work.

Like its Monogatari predecessors, Katanagatari is also a LN adaptation. But unlike his previous works, Katanagaari is Nisio Isin's attempt to create something a bit more serious, a bit more dramatic, while keeping all the puns and wordplays that Nisio is famous for. A road trip around Japan, looking for a dozen lost swords sounds rather like a collage of the shows I mentioned already. Add a bit of romance here and there, and you get Katanagatari.

What makes Kanatagatari original, then, has little to do with its genre. If one is to find the road trip of a man and a woman actually interesting to watch, there has to be something special about the man and the woman. And Togame and Shichika are very special indeed. As the episodes went on, their personalities began to fully blossom. Togame, like a classic tsundere, became more and more dere and less tsun. Shichika turned from an unemotional tool into someone with a conscience (with a few existential crises in between). Pledging his love for Togame at the very beginning, Shichika became a genuine lover only after all the arguing, and the jealousy, and the drama. 

What makes Katanagatari particularly interesting, is that it actually does a very good job introducing its secondary characters. From Nanami's cold-blooded nonchalance to Hitei-hime's smugness, every character in Katanagatari has a redeeming feature that sometimes makes it hard to distinguish the protagonists from the bad guys. But Katanagatari is also exceptional in that its characters are distinctive not just in how they act, but via the way they talk. Pengin's stutters, Togame's 'Cheerios' and Konayuki's lolita voice have all become the essential traits of the characters they represent.

Despite this, Katanagatari's dialogue actually leaves a lot left to be desired. At times, Katanagatari's characters talk for the sake of talking - and it doesn't always work. At its best, its long dialogues provides insight and drama, such Togame's death scene. At its worst, they can be a pain to sit through, like episode two's mind-numbing trip through the desert. Perhaps it has to do with Kanatagatari's length - its fifty-minute-long episodes requires at least some fillers. But the excessive talking can be a real turn-off at times.

Comedy and drama and romance don't always come together naturally. But in the case of Katanagatari, those things somehow came together and created a highly watch-able package. Combine that with a distinctive art style and an excellent soundtrack, Katanagatari is a show that's definitely worth watching and re-watching. It's an interesting, original spin on a classic genre, and we would almost certainly remember it for many years to come.