Year in Review: She’s Going the Distance, a Great Feat of Strength
Going to mention a list of 12 lists of 12 items each. So a nested list. All 144 items. Annotated for the most part. Don’t ask me why I use these pronouns the way I do…
The Sky Crawlers Is More WW2 Fighter Fanservice than Crazy-Loli Sex, But It’s Close
[My blog’s ISP was having RAID farm problems todayyesterday, which is why the site was down. You can blame them for their lameness or blame me for the low price I pay for this hosting, but I apologize for the service interruption either way]
The general impression I have of The Sky Crawlers (thanks, Sony Pictures, for the North American screenings!), is basically “beautiful, if a little confusing.” I guess that’s most of Mamoru Oshii’s works in a nutshell. Just tweak the dials on “beautiful” to max and adjust “confusing” as you’d like and you get all his movies! At least this time around, it isn’t all that confusing.
Nonetheless, I can really use a rewatch. It was thought-provoking enough to warrant it. Or maybe because I was just so engrossed in the visuals the whole time and didn’t really think about the story? I had to pay attention to the visuals to really soak it all in, and there was just a TON of details, everywhere. It is definitely one of the most beautiful anime I’ve seen, and considering the subject matter it’s a difficult feat. That is, mixing 3d CG with 2d CG in a nearly seamless manner.
One thing I was told (couldn’t find a source in a jiffy) was that the Ace Combat team that made the Wii game for Sky Crawlers actually had a hand in animating the CG sequences. Just a head’s up for those aerial combat game fans.
And I think there just isn’t a lot to say about that. It is plainly gorgeous. It is something you just have to see and soak in. Words alone cannot describe the visual orgasm that filled this film.
As to the rest of the film, well, it’s in typical Oshii manner. Think more Jin-Roh than Ghost in the Shell. There’s some philosophical stuff, there’s some plot twists, but is about a harsh, futuristic reality that sucker punches you as you realize what is really happening.
The characters, however, are my favorite part of the movie. As impressive as the visual was, there’s just something about an air combat squad full of lolis. Sure, they were more boys than girls, and they aren’t really loli in a typical fashion–they have bodies of teenagers and behaviors of adults, yet they’re somehow child-like in random instances–but it was a strange turn-on for me. Ok, the sex with the gun scene was great, I have to give it that. There was just something special there, I don’t know what. The more I think about it, there’s this strange sexual tension that fills the film, perhaps to the testament of that adolescent frame of mind.
Despite that, The Sky Crawlers remains mostly sublime. Maybe it’s the Simoun fan inside me? There were a few scenes where the lead female character, Kusanagi, was pacing around the buildings near the runway, looking skyward. There were scenes of flybys with everyone’s favorite (as required in a modern Oshii film) Basset Hound running to and fro along the grassy runoffs, sniffing its poop like cute dogs do in the cutest way possible. It was a honest-to-goodness WW2 airfield drama. Fuuko’s boyfriend is a pilot indeed.
(And Fuuko was some exotic hottie. The tatoo on her chest pwns. Oddly, she reminds me of Yotsuba&’s Fuuko. Uuh, yeah.)
Except The Sky Crawlers isn’t lively as you would imagine such a war drama. Well, I don’t want to spoil too much, but the spirited members of Chor Tempest are exactly what was not in The Sky Crawlers. If anything, I think the two shows complement each other in extraordinary ways thematically. (To note, this is a post-viewing observation, and it didn’t impact my viewing experience).
And as they should. The NYC showing of The Sky Crawlers was accompanied with a short video message from Oshii at the start, who basically explains the main theme to the movie–about children who don’t want to grow up, and the consequences from that. A no-brainer, right? It makes me wonder how I didn’t think of the Simoun connection earlier. (FYI, the English Production IG site has a brief blurb talking about the nature of the film from Oshii’s POV.)
Anyways, the music to the film is done by Kenji Kawai, and it’s one of his best that I’ve heard. I am not the biggest Kawai fan although his music rarely disappoints. This time around he really hits my sweet spot though. It’s like a less shrilly Ghost in the Shell 1 sound, and just generally more pleasing.
As for the voice acting, Sky Crawlers employed popular actors and actresses. Academy Awards nominee Rinko Kikuchi voiced Suito Kusanagi. Ryo Kase (Letters from Iwo Jima) was the male lead, Yuuichi Kannami. We also have Shosuke Tanihara and Chiaki Kuriyama playing fairly big roles in the film. It’s definitely not your usual fair.
With all that said and done, the only things I want to say is that, yeah, it’s a turn-on. And I want to watch it again. It’s a hard movie to like, but at the same time it’s hard to deny that it’s a well-crafted film, both by anime and non-anime film standards. The tragedy is just that these are not the components to a popular movie; a formula for artistic obscurity. Certainly it makes you wonder who would spring for the 43,050 yen special edition Blu-Ray box set next February. It makes the 8,190 yen normal BRD release look like a basement bargain!
