I first became a fan of Key/VisualArt's works after seeing the TV adaptation of Kanon in 2002, and was thrilled when Kyoto Animation announced Air TV in 2004. The original broadcast kept me hooked, and it's with great pleasure that I now get to discuss the series' North American release.

Like Kanon and Clannad - Key's other best-known works - Air is a full adaptation of one of their earlier Visual Novels originally released on the PC as an eroge and eventually given a wider release with an all-ages version. (Key writes the sex scenes in their games so that they can be removed without impacting the plot, story taking precedence over titillation in their titles.)

Air's protagonist is Yukito Kunisaki, an aimlessly traveling telekinetic puppeteer who follows the KyoAni pattern of a sarcastic male lead who seems to use a lot of hair gel. The show begins as he arrives in a small seaside town, based on the Kasumi district in Kami, Hyougo prefecture. With its unique architecture, quiet beaches, and scenes at the seawall, the small town setting stands out as an everpresent gorgeous background character in a motif continuing from Kanon, Key's previous work. Where Kanon tells a tale of sad girls in snow, Air's narrative is that of sad girls in summer, beneath a vast, bright blue sky.

The story opens as the starving Yukito meets the series' heroine, the childlike Misuzu Kamio, an eccentric golden-haired girl with a fixation on dinosaurs. They exchange stories, Yukito's search for a mysterious girl in the sky and Misuzu's strange dreams in which she's flying through the sky. With some prodding, Misuzu's young mother Haruko agrees to let Yukito stay in their shed, while his puppetry fails to yield enough cash to get by. Yukito soon finds himself sucked into the stories of two other local girls: Kano Kirishima and Minagi Tohno. Further pursuing the series' fixation on themes of ancient curses and deeply-rooted family problems through a magical realist vein - a Key writing standard - these two story arcs are completed quickly and tossed aside, their central characters rarely appearing again.

Key has essentially perfected a variation on the harem genre that's not always focused on telling a love story, but rather on developing the women, which still far outnumber the men. Each of the women get their own heartbreaking stories, and each time the guy plays a critical role in resolving them. Key approaches these stories with a gentle, serene look and feel, disarming the viewer in the face of the quietly devastating stories being told. While they've used this formula several times now, they've managed to keep it fresh and interesting so far.

Less the love story the Air movie tells, Air TV centers more on the concept of family, the relationship between the series' leads feeling much more like that of siblings than any kind of lovers. About halfway through the series, following a story arc set 1,000 years prior, Yukito goes through a gutsy character transformation that effectively removes him from the narrative as an active participant. This shifts focus to the mother-daughter relationship between Haruko and Misuzu, as the latter's health declines in the final act. It proves an applaudable risk on Key's part, with an emotionally satisfying payoff.

Overall, I've thoroughly enjoyed Air each time I've watched it, but there are definitely some flaws worth noting. Though the series tries to spin things in a hopeful direction as its story concludes, it also leaves you with a bunch of unanswered questions. Furthermore, the show suffers from a similar issue as Toei Animation's 2002 Kanon adaptation - there are too few episodes in the series to tell the full story, without omitting some important little details. Kano and Minagi's storylines feel rushed; with a longer series, the arcs could have unfolded more naturally, giving these characters more time to fully integrate with the story. Likewise, upon the loss of these additional characters, the balance between the heartbreaking story and its sense of humor is swiftly broken. Even the show's appealing mascot was cut - a little stray dog named Potato who goes "piko piko" instead of barking. Fortunately, KyoAni's next Key/VisualArt adaptation - the 2006/2007 second take on Kanon - does a better job of pacing its story and balancing its sad and humorous moments in its longer run.

To wrap things up, I can only recommend Air, even despite its flaws. As you'd expect from Kyoto Animation, the show is absolutely gorgeous to look at, and the soundtrack is wonderful and evocative. The characters are likable and sympathetic - being able to make the viewer feel the characters' pain is crucial in a good "kills you inside" show - and the story only grows more fascinating as it plays out. Like any show like this, of course, you'd need to have a taste for slow-paced, depressing dramas to fully enjoy Air, otherwise you might not find much to enjoy in it once the story stops being humorous. But, as sad dramas go, Air is still one of the best in recent years, and absolutely worthy of purchase.