AIR 1
A guy gets off a bus in a new town very hungry (for some ramen), but without any money. A group of kids walks by, so he takes out this puppet and makes it walk around and do tricks, no strings attached or anything. But the kids don't like it, so no money for ramen for him :(
When he wakes up the next a morning, a girl is standing there beside him. She buys him something to drink, and being a dojiko, falls on the way back from the vending machine. The guy promptly pours it on the ground since it's something he doesn't care for. She keeps following him around and asking questions. He's in the town for work -- doing stuff with that puppet like he did earlier... but he lost it, so they both search for it and find it. Now they can play :) She's Misuzu, he's Yukito.
Yukito ends up going home with Misuzu and having a nice big bowl of that ramen he wanted. He doesn't have a place to live in town yet, so Misuzu offers to let him stay. Her mother should be okay with it... said mother arrives at home on a motorcycle and comes in asking questions of Yukito (with a Kansai accent). But she'll let him stay, on two conditions. One, he keeps an eye on Misuzu (the girl is kinda.. well, you know) and rids her of that habit of saying "gau~~", and two, he has a drink with her. She's Haruko. Yukito's been traveling and came to the town to do his work just like his mother did, he tells them while doing his tricks with the puppet.
The next day, after walking Misuzu to school, Yukito finds a strange creature that looks like a dog, but sounds something like a Pikachu. It seems to like his puppet, so he takes it out.. and the dog runs off with it so he gives chase. And in the end he ends up in a stream... a girl that's taking care of the dog (its name is Potato) comes and helps Yukito up.
Yukito meets up with Misuzu after school and they to a train station so Yukito can earn some money... but the one Misuzu took him to is closed. There, they meet one of Misuzu's classmates, a very bright girl named Tohru. And Yukito also has a run in.. or gets run over by your usual hyperactive kid, Michiru (voiced by Tamura Yukari), a friend of Tohru's. She doesn't seems to trust Yukito, the "hentai kidnapper", and they fight a bit before everyone finally goes home for the day.
As the sun sets, Yukito and Misuzu are once again at the beach. As Misuzu looks up at the sky, she says that she feels like there's another her up there... For Yukito, this was the beginning of a summer that seemed as short as the twinkling of a star, and as long as eternity...
My first impressions of AIR are pretty much all positive. I guess this was one of the shows I was looking forward to most this season, having already seen the op/ed and various other promotions for it before, and rather liking the character designs for it. And speaking of characters, seems like we've got an interesting cast of them here. There were a few good laughs to be had during the episode, with Yukito's messing around, or Misuzu's dojiko-ness, or Michiru, so on... And Potato is rather strange for a dog ;)
Those last words of Misuzu seemed really interesting.. and the next episode preview makes it even moreso ("The thing I'm searching for might be the other you", etc.). Definitely looking forward to more :)
I want a Potato plushie if they have one! That dog is ssssssooooooo cute!
I so happy with AIR coming out, and I know it'll be one of my top watched for the season. LOL, already re-watched it like four times since it's so fun to watch. Even more so with the excellent vocal cast.
Tomoko Kawakami: makes Misuzu so adorable! And the "gau~~".... oh man.... <3
Aya Hisakawa: rocks, period. I love 90% of the roles she does, and Haruko is no exception. I kept thinking Kero-chan from CCS when she was talking though ;)
Yukari Tamura: usual energetic voice. Good stuff. The "fight scene" between Michiru and Yukito was classic!
Daisuke Ono: if I didn't know any better, I would have thought it was Hikaru Midorikawa (who actually VAs the same character for the movie version). The guy does a good job playing Yukito, so no complaints here.
BTW, question. What exactly was Haruko talking about when her and Yukito were drinking. Something about getting a love confession...?
Im also looking forward Air TV and the Air movie, the art style are similar to Kanon, with a lot of improvements.
It sounds interesting, and I love the character designs. Didn't know that the clumsy girls were called dojiko, and they're generally my favorites. ^_^
You gotta wonder about Misuzu's Mom though, she just accepts a random strange guy and asks him to watch over her daughter? o_O
They rushed the story here. Lot's of minor jokes in the game are excluded. (I'm disappointed that they didn't include Yukito's sacarstic dialough to Misuzu when they first met particularly that one little talk about him asking her to go to South Pole to look for the puppet and Misuzu saying that she needs to take a bus to get there.)
By the original pace of the game, Ep 1 was suppose to intro only Misuzu and Haruko, Ep 2 Kano and Hijiri, and Ep 3 Minagi and Michiru. But I understand that this is a 13 Ep of 25 min series, so there's a need for the rush. A pity that they could not have more fundings to make this a 26 Ep series to remain more faithful to the game, not that Ep 1 isn't faithful enough.
Edited by Matthew: Lay off the spoilers for now, Orochi, 'kay? :)
I have two thoughts:
A) Everyone in this show is insane
B) They have poured two series worth of money into the animation budget.
Hearing Kero's voice coming out of a woman was such a bizarre moment. The fluffy pikachu was also bizarre. Love the animation though, the girls' eyes are beautifully done.
Misuzu's so adorable, I think part of it is she acts like such a child, even the Gauuu is apparently childish (the Koi fansub said it's a childish way of saying grr, and her Mom says Misuzu's being do it since she was little because she loves dinosaurs). I think that's part of her charm, she's so innocent you want to protect her. ^_^ (And as trusting as she is, she certainly _needs_ someone to protect her.)
I loved Yukito's remark after meeting the second girl "are all the girls wearing that uniform insane?" ^_^
Heh, finally got to watch the raw last night..this is certainly going to be a good series. A different feel than Kanon, it seems..a little lighter, and more active (maybe because there's no snow here...).
I agree with Maestro's comment about Misuzu-chan's mother asking Yukito to watch over her daughter, right out of the blue...but then again, perhaps lack of street-smarts is just hereditary in that family.
By the way, is this a 12 or 13 episode series? I've heard both...
I love Potato! Pico picori! I want the plushie of him! Sadly, I'm broke at this momment. Air is a great series! Can't wait till I can watch the movie!