Product: Air TV: The Complete Series S.A.V.E.
Rating: 4.0
Touching but unfocused.
Air is a story about a wandering 'performer' (who sucks at performing), Yukito, who is searching for "a girl in the sky", and the strange families he runs across. This is a rather touching story, with plenty of deep interaction, and well-acted, and well-written dialogue. The production value is top-notch, and it seems to draw people into its world. The problem: what world? This series is based off a type of "dating-sim" game released in Japan (also called 'Air'), and as such there are several 'levels' our protagonist must bypass, to get to the meat of the story. Herein lies the problem, the story is unfocused. I'm really not sure what story they were trying to tell. The main character all but disappears part-way through, and then Misuzu's aunt takes center-stage. We learn that Yukito and his forebearers are basically fated to follow this "girl in the sky" all their lives in an attempt to free her from her curse. A curse that will doom her to die if she ever loves anyone. The other two stories (the first 6 episodes or so) seem like nothing but filler, and while you think that they can tie it all in at the end (look at the feathers) they don't. The creators may have suffered from "Evangelion syndrome" in that they ran out of time to tell the story they wanted to; either that, or they are just bad planners. The final 3 or 4 episodes could have been a story in and of themselves. Finally, there's no real closure. All we know is that the 'girl in the sky' is still out there, and 'Yukito' is still going after her. We think they may have broken some of the curse at the end, but they don't really say.Overall it was a good series that still managed to tug at the heartstrings, despite being unfocused and poorly planned. Throw in some humor (mostly between Kana and her attendants) and it's a decent way to spend a rainy day. It's about PG rated, and while younger kids won't know what's going on, it's a good story to discuss with older ones.