Last Modified: March 26th, 2006
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Air is a hentai game/visual novel produced in the year 2000 by the company Key (creators of such games as Kanon). It was originally released only on the PC as a H game, even though it contained a small number of ecchi and hentai scenes compared to normal H-game releases. An all ages version, with all ecchi and hentai content removed, was released on both the PC, Playstation 2 and Dreamcast on the 20th of Steptember 2001 (the PC version contained no voice soundtrack, while the Dreamcast and Playstation 2 versions contained an almost full voice soundtrack). The all ages version of the game was turned into an anime, film and DVD in 2005, there was also an extension of 2 episodes known as the 'Air In Summer' special which were shown in August 2005 and released on DVD in Japan in October 2005. Even though original versions of the game are now out of print, the game retains it's fame for having one of the most complex plots in eroge history, along with an emotionally moving story line. The character designs in both the anime and the game are also unique, which has helped keep the game in the mind of fans and made it one of the most popular of the last decade. The soundtrack for both the anime and the game has recieved much praise, high sales and also some controversy since it was originally released.
The lead character, Kunisaki Yukito, travels across the entirety of Japan (paying for the journey by putting on puppet shows for children) looking for the 'girl in the sky', a legend that his mother told him about when he was very young. As he continues through the town of Kasumi he meets a young, clumsy and cute girl who goes by the name of Kamio Misuzu, she takes a liking to him straight away and as he resides in their town the legend he was told, one of a 'thousand summers' begins to unfold, with the past events being told in the relationship between the pair. As the summer extends forever in every direction, the girl in the legend waits, beneath that sky once more...
Kunisaki Yukito - The protagonist of the story, he is travelling across Japan to find the 'girl in the sky' that he was told about as a child by his mother, who was told it after it was passed down through their families for generations. He makes his way through the country on the proceeds of his puppet shows, which attract hardly any audiences due to him not being able to make the puppet move well. His ancestors include Uraha and Ryuuya.
Kamio Misuzu - The lead female character in the storyline of Air. Very eccentric when it comes to dinosaurs. Although at first she appears to be a young, healthy and very excitable teenage girl, she is carrying the curse that goes with the 'girl in the sky' legend which means that anyone who cares too much about her will die for their troubles. Thanks to the curse it is also in her destiny to die as she carries the soul of Kanna (another one of the female characters in the game). Anyone who carries the soul of Kanna will die after they have found happiness and will never have the chance to break the curse.
Kirishima Kano - The second of the three main female characters in Air, she is the younger sister of Hijiri. Much like Misuzu she is plagued by a curse that has spanned generations, she posseses the curse of an estranged mother and therefore has to wear a ribbon tied around her wrist to prevent her killing herself.
Tohno Minagi - The third and final of the three main female characters in the contempary story section of air, she is very reserved and doesn't speak much. Although not involved with any storylines from the past, she is still rather odd and seperates her self from the other characters. When she first meets Yukito, her only companion is Michiru.
Potato - The strange looking dog that lives in the Kirishima household, it frequently is seen by Kano's sideand it is the only reason why Yukito and Kano actually ran into each other. It's nickname within the family and other characters is 'Piko' although no reason for this is given.
Kamio Haruko - The eccentric, outgoing and somewhat alcoholic sister of Misuzu's mother who now cares for her after her mother left. She loves Misuzu as her own although she tries to keep a distance between them as she has always been afraid that one day Misuzu will be taken from her somehow.
Kirishima Hijiri - The medical practitioner in the town of Kasumi, he has been taking care of Kano since she was young and their parents passed away. He became a doctor in an attempt to find a cure for the disease that his younger sibling has. He was the one who placed the ribbon around his sister's wrist in the first place after watching her attempting to take her own life.
Michiru - A homeless girl who remains happy and energetic. She has been friends with Michiru since they were both young although she doesn't have many other companions. In both the game and the anime she will play an important part if you follow the storyline of Tohno Minagi.
Kanna - She is known in the game as a 'winged being' and is central in the part of the story that is based in the past. Ever since she was born she had been kept in areas away from normal people, but it was only a short period of time after she met Uraha and Ryuuya that she escaped from the village with both of them in an attempt to find her mother, the only other remaining 'winged being'.
Ryuuya - A samurai whos task it is to protect the vunerable Kanna, as he becomes friends with her they eventually fall in love with each other. Although the curse that was put on Kanna meant that Ryuuya dedicated the rest of his life trying to find away to break it, eventually he realised that he was not going to be able to and he had a child with Uraha in the hopes that one of his descendants could one day break the curse that will plague her soul.
Uraha - A female servant who previously worked to keep Kanna, although they became friends and when Kanna escaped to find the 'winged being' that is her mother she took Uraha with her. It turned out that in a time of need, Uraha had powers beyond what was previously thought and could protect the trio. She had a child with Ryuuya and it has resulted in all of her descendants having certain levels of her power gifted down to them.
Soundtracks for the game, movie and anime series were all released seperately, although it is the soundtrack of the game that has created the most controversy after a musician from Singapore named Shaun Yu plagiarized two songs from the soundtrack, 'Tori no Uta' and 'Tenshi no Kyujitsu' respectively. The artist blamed it on the producers who claimed to have licensed the song for use in China although the album was released in Taiwan before they could aquire marketing rights for that region. Key refuted this claim and instead demanded an apology and for the writing credit of the song to be corrected, the record company behind Shaun Yu, Sony BMG responded by pulling all copies of the album off the shelves and recalled all albums that had previously been sold.
The anime based on the all-ages edition of the game was broadcast on the TBS BS-i channel starting on the 6th of January 2005. It contained thirteen episodes and there series was split into three parts dealing with different parts of the story. The final episode, episode thirteen, was not part of the story and only recapped the series. The series was pre-empted by a teaser DVD called 'prelude' of which there was only twenty-thousdand produced, it contained extra information such as interviews with the cast and crew, clips from the series and the clean OP and EDs. The name of each episode in the series is listed below:
The movie adaption of the air storyline (produced and animated by Toei, who also made the Kanon anime) was released in the home nation of Japan on the 5th of February 2005. It was directed by Dezaki Osamu and ran to precisely 91 minutes and 35 seconds. The DVD of the movie adaption was released on the 5th of August 2005 in three seperate editions - the standard release, a collector's edition, and a special edition. Tickets for the movie in cinemas went on pre-order on August 21st 2004 in two seperate categories - one was a limited edition pre-order which came with a dvd and the other was the standard pre-order. The limited edition pre-order tickets were only sold from the 21st of August to the 19th of September 2004. The movie has not yet been licensed, although it is too early whether to say there is a possibility of it being so in the future or not.
This game stands out, much like it's predecessor Kanon, due to it's amazingly intricate plot and storyline that will keep you playing for hours on end, and even once you have finished the game it's replay value is beyond amazing, you will want to explore every choice that your character had and see all of the endings that are available to you as you take your path through the game and try and break that curse that has been haunting the soul of Kanna for centuries. We would recommend that if you are looking to play this game on PC that you find one of the original adult only versions that contain scenes of moderate ecchi and hentai, as then you will get the full circle of the story, although the Playstation 2 and Dreamcast versions are equally as good and include features such as an almost full voice soundtrack and extra scenes to make up for those that have been cut in order to allow the game to go on sale to those of all ages. You can find the original PC edition on many auction sites and in second hand PC game shops, whereas the all-ages console and PC versions are still on sale and can be obtained easily online.
You will start to feel pathos for the characters straight away as the game lands you thick and fast as it changes pace and setting regularly in order to give you the full background of the story and information on why certain endings will be so tragic if you cannot break the curse that is haunting Misuzu thanks to the soul of Kanna. The artwork in the game, both the character designs and the scene design, is simply amazing and many hours of work must have gone into producing each one of them because they full replicate the city they were based on and they really give the feel of the '1000 summers' that runs throughout the game, in fact it does this so well that as summer comes to a close you begin to feel sad that it is ending and your time spent with the characters is also coming to an end, be it happy or sad depending on the choices you choose throughout the game. Although it must be warned, even the happiest endings available are very heart-wrenching and tragic.
This is a must have if you are a fan or even just getting into the eroge genre, and the reason for that is the fact that it pretty much defines eroges, this is one of the games that has shaped the entire platform as a whole and it has created a level that developers nowdays struggle to reach in order to get their games on the market, this game made the focus of h-games come back from being the sex scenes and the ecchi scenes to the storyline and how the characters interact with each other, their relationships and what happens to each character and their emotions as the storyline progresses. By doing this they have created a unique game that has now gained worldwide fame thanks to the anime and movie based on it, and it can only be seen to be getting more popular, which we can only hope will one day lead to it being licensed and released in the US and other western countries with a translation.
An English fan translation project for the game was closed due to a change in priorities of the people in charge of translating, no attempt has been made to translate the game after this and it is unlikely that the game will be officially licensed due to it's age.
The town that is featured both in the game and the anime based on the game is a real city located in the Hyogo prefecture of Japan, it's name is Kami. The fictional town of Kasumi in the game was based on both Kami and two other cities that the producers chose, although it is Kami which bears most of the resemblance to the town in the game. Features in the city included in the game are the observatory, the large sea defence walls, the metro train station, the large over water train bridge, the school and the small shrine.
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