Yukikaze Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2008-08-16 (updated 2013-09-03)
• 3.5 stars out of 5 (?)

I'm not quite sure what to make of Yukikaze. On one hand, it's absolutely gorgeous--the aerial combat sequences between the wickedly fast JAM aircraft and the just-the-far-side-of-real human planes are arguably the most spectacular ever put on screen, and the mechanical design and animation is uniformly gorgeous. The drama, as well, is emotionally nuanced and full of multilayered allegory about how those who devote themselves to fighting to protect others distance themselves from that which they risk their lives to protect. On the other hand, the dreamlike setting makes it hard to get emotionally invested in the characters and over-pruning from the source novels leaves the series lacking the setup, background, and backstory that makes the characters' relationships and the how and why of the setting and political story make sense. It's also rather slow at times, though the skilled voice cast does a lot with the taciturn characters and subtle drama.

If you're the sort who goes for vague implications and read-between-the-lines characters, you might well love it, but in the end I can't get past thinking of it as an extraordinarily pretty, somewhat experimental series missing too much substance to get caught up in.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2008-08-16 (updated 2013-09-03)
• 3.5 stars out of 5 (?)

A mix of military-aircraft-fanatic extravaganza, spectacular computer-animated aerial combat sequences, melancholy antisocial relationships, multilayered allegory, and surreal imagery, Yukikaze is almost as strange and scattered as it is gorgeous. As interesting as it is, the plot seems to be missing key pieces and I'd call it something of an acquired taste.

It's nigh-impossible not to be in awe of the lavish Gonzo animation. The aerial combat sequences between the wickedly fast JAM aircraft and the just-the-far-side-of-real human planes are arguably the most spectacular ever put on screen, in any medium. They flawlessly capture breathtaking speed, precision among chaos, and brutal firepower in a violent ballet of believably near-future hardware and palpably real physics.

The particle effects alone--billowing clouds of flame, smoke, water, and snow--are practically worth the price of admission, and I'd believe it if you told me the whole thing was an exercise to show off Gonzo's fluid dynamics modeling software. Another Gonzo trademark that further heightens the sense of reality is the absence of music in these sequences (and little elsewhere), only an enveloping three-dimensional soundstage of aircraft noise, explosive impacts, and radio chatter.

Yukikaze is named after the protagonist's intelligent aircraft, a work of mechanical art made up of futuristic arcs and apparently-real aerodynamics. The sense is of a beautiful technological marvel of precise engineering that is nonetheless operating so close to its physical limits that it could shatter at any moment, giving the battles a unique sense of tension.

I do not toss around adjectives like flawless lightly, but that and a couple of dozen other gushing words of praise are entirely deserved by the action sequences in Yukikaze. The rest of the artwork is also of the highest caliber, in particular the realistic, finely-detailed character designs. Considering the two comely male leads and equally pretty hardware, it's a bit ironic most of the women aren't terribly attractive, but they look unique and full of character.

The visuals are otherwise notably soft, with muted colors and an almost dreamlike quality--we spend far more time in the green skies of Fairy than on its surface, for example--which contributes heavily to the atmosphere of the series. Notable exceptions are a few detailed interiors, and a couple of massive, awe-inspiring flying fortresses.

This surreal atmosphere and the low-key drama that takes place in it are in stark contrast with the adrenaline rush of the action sequences, and while they are an integral part of the series' makeup, it's also where I started having problems with it.

The story is built around the relationship between the detached, apathetic Rei and the emotional, sad-eyed James, nominally his superior officer. Although the nature of their relationship isn't explained, it's hard not to interpret James' interest in Rei as more than just one friend trying to pull another back from the brink of an emotional breakdown; if there was no romantic subtext intended, it certainly came across that way. Either way, the emotional nuance is memorable--Rei's subtle mood changes whenever he's in the cockpit and James' corresponding sense of forlorn desperation.

Rei's relationship with Yukikaze is interesting from a number of perspectives. The angle of competition for Rei's affection is one possibility (interesting to note that no one refers to it has having a gender--they only call it by name). However, the machine shows very little personality past the terse phrases of loyalty and advice that flash across its display. It could thus be interpreted as nothing more than a somewhat loyal machine that Rei has latched onto as a lifeline in a world where death is never far away. The third option would be somewhere in between, and this seems most likely since later in the series James and a staff psychologist analyze Yukikaze's AI and explicitly discuss its emotions--it just doesn't have any way to express them outwardly.

This final interpretation of course presents the cruel dilemma: Every time Rei works with Yukikaze he's staring down death, yet if there were no war to fight there would be no need for either of them--though James tries everything to change this, Rei is as much a combat machine as Yukikaze. This is allegorical to the message in the broader story; the SAF's sole purpose is to protect Earth from the JAM, yet it exists in isolation from Earth. The message of the entire series seems to be a musing about what happens when people devote themselves to fighting to protect others, yet in doing so distance themselves from that which they risk their lives to protect. The relationship between Rei, Yukikaze, and James is a personal-scale allegory, while the war story is more of a sci-fi illustration of the same.

This is where the dreamlike atmosphere of the series fits in--it evokes the other world (both literally and emotionally) that the SAF exists in. In a literal sense, the JAM are revealed to employ manipulation of physical space to play psychological games; the fact that everything on Fairy has a sense of being slightly detached from reality drives the same point home subconsciously.

My issue with this is that the sense of detachment also left me feeling detached from the characters, and so less involved in the story. Others may not feel the same way, of course, but that made me a lot less willing to overlook a number of other flaws.

For example, it's rather slow, Rei has several temptingly symbolic dream sequences that end up going nowhere so seem like artistic filler, and the political end of the plot is a challenge to follow, mostly because we seem to miss key bits of background information. Any of the above could be a plus or huge minus, depending mostly on your taste, but that last one gets at the real problem I have with the whole affair: It doesn't make sense.

More accurately, Yukikaze is missing all the setup, backstory, and structural details that would make it make sense. First and foremost, Rei and James' background is almost completely absent save for the briefest of flashbacks implying--I think--that they were friends. Given how much of the drama rides on their relationship, not having any idea what, exactly, their previous relationship was--Friends? Teammates? Lovers? All three?--left me having a hard time understanding why James is so attached to Rei, and an even harder time caring one way or the other. Having such finely-realized characters without any explicit history made the whole thing feel like melodrama for the sake of itself.

We're similarly in the dark about the how or why of Fairy's vast amount of literal and political machinery, even taking into account the intentionally vague setting. Such basic sci-fi stuff as the SAF relying heavily on the decisions of a central computer is barely mentioned, let alone justified as part of an otherwise exceptionally realistic military apparatus. As with the characterization, this makes all the military detail feel like window dressing.

I assume the blame falls on over-pruning during the transition between novels and anime--it's telling that many of the confusing technical details, at least, are laid out clearly in the supplemental material that comes with the videos. Reading the background first does help, but not with the characters, and I still see that necessity as a failure of the anime.

At least the final episode explains, in speculative terms, what the heck is going on, and does (a bit surprisingly) thoroughly conclude the story, so it's not totally unsatisfying or left up in the air. Incidentally, be sure to watch through the final credits--there's a significant extra scene afterward.

The only other thing to comment on is the acting. I've only watched it in Japanese, and the two leads are well-cast and voiced with skill. Joji Nakata gives James' voice a palpable sadness to match his eyes, and Masato Sakai (normally a live-action actor) as Rei is monosyllabic without seeming stiff. The remainder of the smallish cast is equally skilled, with a pleasant-sounding, older writer from Earth voiced by Masako Ikeda narrating occasionally. More memorable, however, is the constant barrage of military radio chatter, most of it in English, ranging from native skill to abbreviated but acceptably accented aviation-speak appropriate to the multinational SAF.

On balance I'm not quite sure what to make of Yukikaze. On one hand, it's absolutely gorgeous, and the action sequences are in a class of their own. The drama, as well, is emotionally nuanced and full of multilayered allegory. On the other, the dreamlike setting makes it hard to get emotionally invested in the characters, and for all the depth there are big holes where the backstory and emotional hook should be. If you're the sort who goes for vague implications and read-between-the-lines characters, you might well love it, but in the end I can't get past thinking of it as an extraordinarily pretty, somewhat experimental series missing too much substance to get caught up in.

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Related Recommendations

The more consistent (and generally stellar) Macross Plus is the most obvious parallel on every level--intense, adult relationships, Top Gun-style sci-fi setting, and gorgeous visuals. The relatively obscure and less stellar Big Wars is even more similar, right down to an alien adversary who uses both aircraft and subtle manipulation of humans. Monster is worth noting as a similarly intense, detailed series, though it's completely different in setting and details. Gasaraki is a somewhat more traditional anime series, but it does have a similar cast of detached, introspective characters and military workings. Finally, Boogiepop Phantom and Serial Experiments Lain deserve a nod mainly for their distorted sense of reality, which bears some similarity to Yukikaze's mood. Oh, and Rescue Me: Mave-Chan is a sort-of-spin-off/parody that references the mechanical design, if not much else.