Begin Air

Air is an anime that I’ve been anticipating without actually knowing anything about it other than a picture of a girl by the sea with her hair caught in the wind. A deep blue sky, a sublime wind, and the feeling of loneliness. Is it enough?

Air begins with Yukito stepping off a bus just outside of an idyllic seaside town. He’s a wanderer who earns money by performing a streetside puppet show, but it’s not going well, so he’s broke and hungry. After passing out on top of the beach wall, he wakes to find Misuzu who had been waiting for Yukito to awake. She befriends him and convinces her mother to let him stay at their house, but her mom forces Yukito to be her drinking partner. Her mother puts up a tough and carefree exterior, but she’s weighed down and likely sees Yukito as a way to take some of that weight off her shoulders. I’m guessing this will be the main story of the show that gets developed bit by bit in between the stories of the other characters we meet through Yukito.

Air is totally unreal, but in a passing sense it resembles how I wish the world could be sometimes, a world filled with ocean breezes and perfect sunsets. A place where the lonely haven’t grown bitter and are just waiting for understanding or for their wishes to come true. Reality treats misfits and dreamers with far less kindness.

If Misuzu were a real girl of high school age, she’d likely freak me out. It’s sad to think of an innocent soul like Misuzu that way. And that’s the huge appeal of Air for me, the ability to witness the innocence of someone like Misuzu or the masked despair of her mother without the reality to spoil it.

Volume 1 DVD Notes

The first volume of Air TV released by ADV contains episodes 1-4. Both language tracks sport a 5.1 mix and I didn’t notice anything odd with either audio track. Other than occasional line jaggies, the video looks great on my standard definition television. The only “extras” on board are the textless opening and closing sequences.

ADV’s English Dub

The dub is all about Monica Rial as Misuzu. Her portrayal of Misuzu is a key to how much I love spending time with Air. It’s sweet and open, as if cynicism never existed, rather than any sense of it being phoney. This is perfect casting. I have heard a lot of Rial’s voice work and there’s always the threat that even a solid performance can come off as rehashed when one is quite familiar with an actor’s long list of roles, but her Misuzu feels honest to me. It is Misuzu, rather than just using a cute voice to approximate Misuzu. From what I’ve heard of her Misuzu so far, this is my favorite Monica Rial role since Haruka Shitow in RahXephon.

I have read complaints about Vic Mignona as not being a good fit as Yukito. It certainly is a departure from Daisuke Ono’s performance. Personally, I like the casting decision here for the English version. Mignona has a slight rasp to his voice, a raggedness that suits a wanderer, and his higher pitch works for me better than Daisuke Ono’s deep voice. In English, a voice that is pitch similar to Ono’s wouldn’t match the character very well as deep voices tend to be associated with cool, laid back, and hands-off. I think I’d have a harder time believing the character with a cold and deep English voice, particularly when Yukito spazes out or that he’d be concerned with Misuzu. Anyone used to Ono’s portrayal would probably have a hard time being compelled by Mignona’s portrayal, since they are a bit different.

Overall, the Kyle Jones directed dub is pretty good and will likely keep most English dub watchers on that track. I don’t feel either language track is likely to compell or repell viewers to switch from their default dub language preference.