Product: Air TV: The Complete Series S.A.V.E.
Rating: 5.0
Heartbreakingly sad!
(Spoiler alert!) Up until I saw this beautiful series, I had thought Angel Beats! was the saddest, most heartbreaking anime I had ever seen, but Air was much more heart-rending than Angel Beats!The story centres around lonely, sickly teenager Misuzu Kamio, who is gorgeous and cute, but has no friends, and is a bit strange, to say the least. She meets and befriends wanderer Yukito Kunisaki, who is wary of her at first, but warms to her quickly. As he is homeless, she invites him home for a meal and a bed for the night. However, her foster mother Haruko Kamio (who it turns out is actually her aunt), who is a bit of a chaotic character (regularly crashing her motorbike), and drinks a lot, isn't keen on him. But, they muddle along, and various other characters join the plot. Sisters Kano and Hijiri Kirishima, plus cute dog Potato (who for some reason, doesn't bark, but says 'Pico, pico!' all the time), join the fray, along with beautiful Minagi Tohno, and the mysterious Michiru. I won't go into details, beyond saying the story is absolutely heartbreaking; I never cried so much in my life. I was left bereft for days after finishing watching the series; even now just thinking about it still chokes me up. If you are looking for something light-hearted and easily forgotten, don't watch this; if it doesn't break your heart, you must be already dead!The Amazon description is wrong in that it says the aspect ratio is 4:3; it isn't, it is 16:9. Animation quality is beautiful, as is the music score (some of the songs being sung by well-known and beautiful voiced Japanese singer Lia), which sets up the very emotional story perfectly. Unless you don't like sad endings, I cannot recommend this series highly enough; it is a keeper!