Air in Summer

Air in Summer is a 2 episode special that shows more of what happened during episode 8 of the anime series Air. Story: The really is no beginning and there really is no end. If you want a beginning and an end watch Air. You should watch Air before this, because if you don't you will be pretty confused. Art: Just like the series, the art is fantastic. Flawless animation. Another spectacular job done by KyoAni. Sound: The opening theme, "Tori no Uta, and the ending theme, "Farewell Song", stay. I love that =3 The background score stays but the background score has a select number of songs that areplayed for the Summer arc, and those songs are mostly played here, so we don't get to hear the full score as we do in the anime series. Character: Kanna, Ryuuya, and Uraha are the main characters. There are a few side characters, but not too many. Each character gets developed further, particularly Ryuuya, and you get to learn more and more about their past. Enjoyment: I completely enjoyed the anime so I had high expectations of this, and they exceeded my expectations. =3 Overall: If you have seen Air I highly suggest you watch this. If you have seen the Air Movie then you still might be a little confused while watching this, so watch the anime series first.

For this review, I'm considering that you've already watched the main series (Air). However if you're not familiar with the story and/or the names Uraha, Ryuuya and Kanna sounds strange, I'd recomend you to watch the main series first. Why review a 2 episodes special? To be honest, because in my opinion this special is as good as a full 24ep series. But of course this is not the reason why YOU should watch it. Air in the Summer is about the 'Imperial Japan' arc of the anime. A lot of people misjudge it and say it was boring and didn't made sense or didn't blend well withthe rest of the storyline. This is a frequent mistake. In fact Ryuuya, Kanna and Uraha stories are the core of the entire series. Air wouldn't be Air without them. Being it a 2 episodes extras, you can't expect a whole new plot for it. Basically what you have is a elaboration of the loose-ends from episode 8 and a little bit of fanservice and gags from situations that happened before episode 9. You get to see a little more of how Kanna and Ryuuya relationship was progressing, which is realy interesting because they clearly loved each other (as shown before) but both knew somehow it wouldn't work out. I mentioned fanservice, but it's not "explicit" fanservice. Just like other KyoAni's adaptations from Key's visual novels, you can't tell it was based in a adult-VN if you didn't knew about it. What you have in this special is a little more of ecchi, insinuations and actions that were not presented in Air. Like said before, a lot of people may not know or didn't notice that the focus of the entire plot is based in Kanna's story. This is the key of Air's story and in my opinion the best arc. You have all this development with historical basis, this was the period Japan's government was trying to unify the country under the same religion, buddhism. That's why they had to get rid of winged beings (older gods) but also interesting characters with so much to elaborate that they could have their own 13 eps anime. Also, if you didn't get the curse/reencarnation thing, this episodes will clarify that for you, pay attention to the ED, there's a minor change on it, but this little change have its own simbolism. Now that I mentioned simbolism... Air have a lot of it. And it can get really boring and hard to follow if you're not in the mood for it. If you're watching this special before the 9~12 episodes, it is your brake from all this metaphores and simbolism, so you can breath and watch the characters enjoying themselves. There isn't too much to talk about Sound and Artwork. Both follow the same settings as the main series (obviously) so I'll be brief into this topics. KyoAni's artwork is easily distinguishable by any anime fan. The kind-of-moe drawing and lighting effect are for sure trademarks of the production. For Air, one could tell it's very similar to Kannon (the character design and scenario), of course they have their diferences but since both follow the same kind of storyline and have common elements in it, it isn't wrong to say it. I can't complain about the soundtrack. All KyoAni's adaptations of Key's VNs had great music on it, this one isn't an exception. This kind of drama/romance always have great soundtrack and emotional OST. Great piano and acustic guitar scores with some pieces of violins and if I'm not mistaken there were even a flute. I TRIED to keep this review short... Give it a shot! it's a wonderful special (yeah, realy emphasising) and it's just 2 more episodes to watch. Better lose 40min than regret it later. Lots of specials are filled with stupid and pointless stuff, with characters having random fun and some of them realy seems like a filler episode that was ripped from the TV series and then released later with a BD/DVD "premium" edition. This one is different, it adds info and clarify everything from the main series. A must watch for everyone who followed Air and for all Kanna fans out there! The numerical score (if you prefer this way) Full scale 0~10. The average been 5. Story: 10/10 -- Characters: 8/10 -- Artwork: 8/10 -- Sound: 9/10 -- Enjoyment: 10/10 -- Arithmetic overall: 9/10 -- However, since it's just 2 episodes, I must discount a point as well. 8/10 Thx for reading ^^" If you read until here BEFORE voting down (or up), thanks!! You made my day. Pleeease talk with me! I don't bite! I'm a needy person, I need comments to improve my reviews! These heartless buttons are useless. There's nothing like interacting with humans :3

The AIR Summer special was just an excuse to show Kanna doing cute things and getting into fights with her protectors. It fails to add any extra character development, it just elongates the montage in the series of their travels. Timeline wise, it belongs in the series around Episode 9, however, it is rightly not part of the AIR TV series. It only exists to drag the story out. As much as I love Kanna and the AIR TV series, this didn't cut it for me. For fans, it's best to pick up another Kyoto Animation project instead. Animation The animation is as strong as theoriginal AIR TV series, nice colors, beautifully detailed backgrounds and fluid animation. I have no complaints in this department. Sound The Opening and ending songs are the same as the series, and so is the sub par BGM. Story As I said, when you get to the part in the AIR TV series when they show the montage of Kanna traveling and practicing her juggling, this Summer Special elongates it, by filling it with lots of mildly entertaining, but pointless scenes. If it had enough story value, it would have been part of the series. Think of this as "AIR TV deleted scenes". They are entertaining but not essential. Character The characters are just as likable as they originally were. No character development appears in these 2 episodes, though. Value Little to no value. Even if you are an AIR TV fan, I would avoid this. AIR TV was at its greatest as the 12 episode series. Please don't try and make it longer. It was 12 episodes for a reason. If you want something similar to AIR, Kanon 2006 and Clannad have been getting rave reviews. Give those a try.

If you are considering this two-part OVA special, it is under the assumption you have completed the main series of Air. The plot of "Air in Summer" is merely an expansion on the events that transpire in episodes 8 and 9 regarding Kanna, the original winged-maiden alluded to in the main series. The first episode of this OVA's runtime spends about a fourth showing events from episode 8's events to give context. At first this gave me the allusion the special was going to basically be the main series' episode 8 and 9, with a few new scenes. However, episode 2 broke awaymore into events not seen in the main series' portrayal of their journey. Does the special add anything new to the show? Yes and no. While one could easily skip the special and lose nothing on the outcome of the show, it does give some treats of more insight into "the little things," as well as a definite push of more character development to Kanna, Ryūya, and Uraha. For example, we are given a small dabble on the affections between Ryūya and Uraha, Kanna's protectors. In the anime, their eventual union (episode 9) is pretty much devoid of any hints of infatuation before they decide to wed, so this gave a bit more understanding. We also get a look into Ryūya past and upbringing in the second episode which is definitely a pleasant expansion in terms of exposition. This special gets a low rating in my book because of personal bias. It frankly was the least enjoyable part of the show for me in the main series. And even though this OVA deepened the three characters from episode 8 and 9, I still didn't find it extremely necessary to the show. It was a fine addition for sure, don't get me wrong....but it wasn't "great." The art is obviously of the quality of the main show and the sound does not deviate either. Again, if you are here, you obviously finished the main show and most likely enjoyed it. You'll be right at home. For someone who only gave the main series a rating of 6, it's difficult to rate this special very high right from the start. I felt these specific episodes (in the main show) shifted away from the established setting too much, and would argue it is where the series started to decline in my investment towards the outcome, as well as getting a little too confusing for its own good. Overall, a good solid special if you enjoyed the show or are simply completing your experience of Air.