Prism Power>>Air>>Story
A young traveler, Yukito, arrives in a tranquil town on a hot summer day and begins his puppet show: he moves the old puppet without using strings or even touching it. However amazing that may sound, the show is too boring and the only two kids that are watching go away. Suddenly, a 16-year-old girl wearing a high school uniform comes up to him and starts talking. She's clumsy but really sweet and innocent, which is why she immediately invites Yukito (a complete stranger to her at that point) to stay at her house if he has nowhere else to go. Her name is Mizuzu Kamio.
As the episodes go by, we learn that Yukito is looking for a legendary winged girl that's been cursed, and apparently he's the only one who can free her... though he doesn't know how. Now, Yukito meets three girls at our mysterious town: Misuzu, Kano and Minagi. There's something magical about the three of them, and so he makes friends with them... could any of them be the winged girl he's been looking for his whole life? Each of them has a lovely story to tell and Yukito helps them out with their problems one by one... until he finds himself in love with one of them and with no idea how to help that special someone.
As innocent as the plot sounds, this anime is based on an H-game by KEY, and this is one of the reasons the show is so distinctive. As you know, most h-game based anime series are filled with naughty scenes such as panty shots, accidental breast grabs, etc. To our surprise, Air has none of those, and in fact there doesn't seem to be any romantical interest from Yukito towards any of the girls until almost the end of the series. This makes Air, to my mind, a classy anime to watch and enjoy.
Also, the plot is intriguing and complex, since Air has four stories mixed: one for each of the girls Yukito meets (that's three) and the legend of the winged girl. This last one we also get to watch in two episodes, in which new characters are introduced and we are transported to a medieval Japan.
Truth be said, no matter how much I love Air, the story becomes a little confusing towards the end. So as not to give out any spoilers here, for those who've watched the series and ended clueless (just like me the first time I watched it) I have created the "Guide to understand Air" section (coming soon), in which I try to explain a little bit the whys and the hows of the show.
