Air & 5 Centimeters Per Second

 

If you appreciate beautiful music and art, you will like these…

Air

Air

For New Year’s, I stayed up watching Air until midnight. Air was the last of the “Key Three,” three animes based on visual novels by Key Visual Arts. Kanon and Clannad were the other two.

The story is about Yukito Kunisaki, who travels around doing a neat puppet show, and lives off of the generosity of the people who watch. He’s traveling around because he wants to find the “girl in the sky” that his mother searched for. Upon entering a small seaside town, he meets Misuzu Kamio, a girl who eagerly wants to become friends with him. Stuff happens, and they find themselves entangled in a story that began a thousand years before.

Of the Key Three, Air was actually my least favorite. In retrospect, I watched them exactly backwards. I should have watched Air first, then Kanon, then Clannad. Kanon was pretty good, and Clannad was a masterpiece.

Even though Air isn’t one of my favorite shows, the opening definitely is. Here you can enjoy Air‘s elegant visuals and music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObgRk0ruWbQ

Kanon has a nice opening as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvwlrlqPvZk

In Clannad the art, music, and everything else all come together in a way that makes you just sit back and go: “Wow…”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2HmP6Sl5RQ

The “Key Three” are all available on DVD at Amazon:

Air TV: The Complete Series

Kanon: Complete Series

Clannad: Complete Collection

————————————————————————–

5 Centimeters Per Second

5 Centimeters Per Second

5 Centimeters Per Second is a 2007 Japanese animated feature film by Makoto Shinkai. It’s a story about how the passage of time can cause people to drift farther and farther apart.

Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara start off as elementary schoolers who grow to really like each other. At the end of their final elementary year, they have to move away from each other. But they write letters back and forth.

To be honest, the story is really nothing to write home about. It’s your typical romantic tragedy deal. However, the art is some of the best art of all time. “OF ALL TIME!” Anyway, the art rivals even Clannad. I didn’t think that was possible, but by golly it is.

Here is a short trailer of pretty scenes accompanied by beautiful piano music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxKn5AwOTis

5 Centimeters Per Second will be released on DVD April 26, 2011, and available for purchase at Amazon.

Visit Xbolt’s blog at: http://blog.xboltz.net

1 Comment

Add a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.