Guest Post: Unearthed Baubles with Firechick – Air (Visual Novel) 68/100

Nostalgia can be a funny thing. One of the first anime I watched fansubbed was Air, and back then, I didn’t know it was based on a video game. I didn’t even know what visual novels were at the time. I did really enjoy the anime for what it was to the point where I bought the DVDs for it, and even though it’s been years since I’ve last seen it, I remember it pretty vividly. But the original visual novel was never localized in English in any official capacity, but there were a few fan translations that were made over the years. As of now, I’ve managed to play one of them in its entirety, specifically the PSP port thanks to finally learning how to use emulators on my PC. Though in light of the fact that after almost 25 years, Key announced that Kanon is finally getting released in the US in English, I think it’s only a matter of time before Air gets this treatment since most of Key’s other games were released in English as well. Plus, I have been curious about how the original visual novel for Air is compared to the anime, especially since games tend to be longer than their TV adaptations, resulting in a lot of things getting cut. Now that I’ve finished the visual novel…well, let me put it this way: As you grow up, you can find yourself either liking something you watched/read/played just as much as you did back when you were a kid, realize it’s not as good as you thought it was, or appreciate it even more than when you first encountered it. Air as a visual novel is an interesting piece of gaming history and an important game in Key’s legacy but…honestly, it made me appreciate the anime adaptation much more.

The story is the same as the anime adaptation: Traveling street performer Yukito Kunisaki arrives at a small seaside town called Kami, having traversed around Japan in continuation of his late mother’s search for the “girl in the sky” who, according to a family legend, has been cursed to spend eternity all alone. Yukito’s sole way of earning money is by performing a puppet show by moving a doll that has been passed down in his family with magic, but he fails to gain anyone’s attention by doing so, and as a result, he’s low on money. The next day, he meets Misuzu Kamio—a sincere yet clumsy high school girl who is eager to become friends with him. He accepts her offer to eat lunch at her home, and Misuzu’s aunt and foster mother Haruko Kamio is later persuaded to let him stay for the time being. Later on, Yukito meets two other girls who go to Misuzu’s school—sly, friendly Kano Kirishima and serene, quiet Minagi Tohno—who, like Misuzu, have strange personalities connected with mysterious pasts. Any one of them could be the incarnation of this “girl in the sky,” and if the curse isn’t broken, the girl in question could die.

Before I go into this, I’m gonna mention one thing that I know people are going to bring up: I’ve never had a problem with Itaru Hinoue’s character designs and I still don’t even now. I can see why some people might find them weird and off-putting, but honestly, I’ve seen way worse. Plus, if anything, Hinoue’s art actually improved significantly since her work on Kanon, as while the eyes on her characters are still big, they don’t feel as much like they’re consuming the entirety of the characters’ faces a lot of the time. The graphics themselves are fine for what they are. The character sprites are well designed and have a variety of different expressions, the CGs are well made and can be absolutely amazing when the time calls for it, and the backgrounds are nice, too. I did notice that some CGs have the characters rendered in really odd proportions, but those were pretty rare. Again, the music is great and fits the mood and atmosphere of the game, and again, Tori no Uta is a great opening song. What else is there to say about Air’s soundtrack that hasn’t been said already?

Oh boy, here’s the part where I start to get critical, and don’t get me wrong, I want to enjoy Air’s VN more than I do, especially since I really like the anime. But if I’m being honest, I think the anime version is the better product because I won’t lie, the VN is very, very flawed. First off, Air has the same problem as One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e where a lot of scenes and conversations feel like needless filler shoehorned in just to pad out the game and make it longer, often coming across as extremely repetitve like Key thinks they can’t trust their audience to remember what went on a few seconds ago. Seriously, there’s so much of the game that feels like you could cut out and nothing would be lost. Minagi’s route in particular has this the worst, as a lot of her route consists of spamming through constant ellipses and pointless conversations that don’t really go anywhere, really slowing down the pacing. It’s a good thing the anime cut out a lot of the unnecessary fat from the game to make it feel more tight and streamlined.

Speaking of which, the overall story is fine, as the mystery behind the curse of the girl in the sky is interesting and compelling, and Misuzu’s route, both her normal and true route, are definitely the best parts of the entire visual novel in terms of how everything comes together in the end. Actually, say what you will about Misuzu as a character, you can argue she’s a moeblob all you want, but she and Haruko are the best parts of the whole game, with Haruko being the most complex, compelling, three-dimensional character out of the entire cast…though you can’t see what she’s really like unless you’ve unlocked the true route. But in order to unlock said true route, you have to go through all three of the girls’ routes and get all of their good endings, which unlocks the summer route, which tells the origin of the girl in the sky and explains the overarching mystery, and completing that unlocks the true route. Now, I have no issue with playing through different routes to unlock what’s considered the best one. Lots of visual novels do this, with AI: The Somnium Files and Code:Realize being two of them. However, in Air’s case, the road to getting there is a real grind. Kano’s route feels the most superfluous in that she has no connection to the overarching narrative, and like I mentioned in my review of the anime, she feels like she’s just there to be a red herring. Many players think Minagi’s route is the worst, mainly in that it feels way too long, and while I disagree on it being bad, as I genuinely liked the conflict in her route, I agree that it really needed to be cut down by several hours.

Actually, this is a good segue into talking about the characters, because anyone who’s not Misuzu contributes to the game’s biggest flaws. First off, as someone who watched the anime first, I do NOT remember Yukito being this much of a pathetic loser. He had his moments in the anime, sure, but they were relegated to just a few scenes and that’s it, and he’s much more assertive and put-together in the anime. Here he spends so much of the game being either yelled at, assaulted, or dunked on by pretty much everyone around him, often for things that are either not his fault or for no reason at all, usually by Hijiri or Michiru. Speaking of which, Air as a visual novel really fails in writing comedy, mainly because its idea of humor consists of having characters jump to conclusions about Yukito, assuming the worst about him, or constantly attacking him over literally nothing. Michiru is especially guilty of this, and she is REALLY annoying in this game. She had her moments in the anime, sure, but they were never as pervasive or overly mean-spirited as they are here. Their whole first encounter literally goes like this: “Oh noes, this random stranger just looked at me! That must mean he’s a kidnapper/pervert even though there’s nothing actually proving it! I’m gonna attack him for funsies and keep doing so every time I see him!” No, game, this is not funny, it will never be funny, and please don’t have it be the backbone of literally every single comedic scene in your entire game!

Hell, one scene early in Kano’s route has Yukito helping Kano after she gets possessed, but when Hijiri comes upon them, the first thing she does is assume Yukito sexually assaulted her, gives him no chance to explain himself, and acts so disproportionately hostile towards him that you’d think she saw him commit a whole-ass genocide and tries to gut him with scalpels. Granted, Yukito doesn’t really help himself with his explanation being the most vague, easy to misinterpret thing ever, but come on. I’m just so sick of the whole “playing physical violence as comedy towards a character who’s done nothing to deserve any of it” shtick. It’s old, it’s cliche, it’s tasteless, and a dead horse that really should have been left alone years ago. I’m really glad the anime both toned down and excised a lot of these moments, because it makes the characters much more likeable. One other thing I’m happy the anime toned down is the girls’ overall moeness. You know how in Kanon some of the girls had cutesy but annoying verbal tics or catchphrases, like Ayu’s infamous “uguu”? Air has them too. Misuzu’s “gao” noises make sense, but Kano’s “ununu” and Michiru’s constant “Wapupu! Hmmmni? Mumumu! Nyo-whatever!” all got old and annoying after the first three times, and again, the anime cuts them out, making them feel more like people than just bug-eyed overgrown kindergarteners.

Adding onto this, Air as a visual novel is definitely a product of its time, but even without its overreliance on moe archetypes and cringy physical humor, it has a lot of jokes that would absolutely NOT fly in today’s modern age which, again, the anime left out, and for good reason. There’s quite a few homophobic jokes made at the expense of gay people (Especially gay men), there are a lot of stuff some male characters say to their female friends that would absolutely qualify as sexual harassment, and it even plays sexual assault and victim blaming for comedy, which is just really tasteless and offensive. There’s a scene in the summer route where Ryuuya touches Kanna’s butt without her consent, and she rightfully gets mad at him, but it’s not only treated as her throwing a childish tantrum, the whole thing is just brushed off with “Oh, this random stranger touched your butt? You must not have covered yourself up properly! LOLZ!” Good lord, do I even need to explain just how awful this is? We do not need sexual assault and victim blaming being played for juvenile anime comedy, thank you! Again, I’m so glad the anime version cut these parts out and made Ryuuya much less of a pervert. One would think Key/Visual Arts would have learned their lesson about this, but considering Summer Pockets has a minigame where one of the prizes you get is a pair of panties owned by a 12-year-old girl (Who is secretly the male MC’s daughter!) and way too many scenes involving the male MC constantly walking in on one of the girls as she’s changing to the point where it’s a running gag…ugh, end me now. Well, to be fair, Key has learned their lesson about incest romances, what with their most recent announcements about their newest game, Anemoi, so I’ll give them that.

Man, it sucks that I couldn’t enjoy the visual novel for Air, but if anything, it makes me appreciate the anime all the more because the staff for the anime adaptation knew what to keep and what to leave out, making the anime a much better and more rewarding experience while still keeping the important qualities that make Air what it is. If you’re a Key fan and are already into their stuff, Air’s VN is definitely up your alley, but I wouldn’t consider the visual novel to be a good one, as there are several that I like way better. If anything, visual novels have evolved since Air’s conception, with many of them evolving past their sort of origins as moe waifu porn games. I personally wouldn’t recommend this one, especially not for those wanting to get into the format for the first time. If anything, I recommend you just stick to the TV anime, as it remedies a lot of the game’s flaws and cuts out a lot of the more questionable parts. If Air is to get an official English localization, I might buy it just for the sake of both supporting the visual novel industry and owning a piece of gaming history, but that’s it. I already bought the Switch port of Kanon in preparation for the English translation patch that’ll be applied to it in the near future, so expect a review of that in the coming months. But overall, Air’s visual novel is an important piece of gaming history, but it’s a very flawed game that really could have benefited from some extra polish and cutting of a lot of its extraneous filler.