Coming to Kotobuki, there are lots of aspect that catch my attention: it’s from a famed director Tsutomu Mizushima who can turn the most trashable and genre-able concepts into something intriguing; it’s an CG show about air pilots: it has extended aerial combat set-pieces. Watching it till the end, I have to tip my hat off to Mizushima. Kotobuki certainly isn’t for the mass, nor does it ever intend to, but there’s always a clear sense that this version of Kotobuki is how Mizushima envisioned it to be. For the strengths of it are pretty clear, at the cost of its own narrative, its characters’ depth or any thematic context. The thing is, I believe this show is a success, as it fulfills all goals that it set out to do. As for those of you who didn’t follow the show, Kotobuki is about the titular Squadron, an air fighter team for hire to protects goods from air pirates and the likes. As with his previous Girls und Panzers, Kotobuki spends a good chunk of its time for the CG aerial combats. It also benefits on a tongue-in-cheek style where the show pretty much eschews all the tropey conversations we usually find in anime for more realism and natural take. Lastly, Kotobuki favors small characters dynamics as opposed to conventional developments, as the result it might not have any deeper layer, the characters might not feel that developed, they are still a constant fun to watch.
I figure that at the end of the day Kotobuki will mostly remembered for their extended CG aerial combats. Those set-pieces usually take up half the length of an entire episode, but to its credits the show makes it with styles. The lengthy aerial dogfights are well choreographed, the CG animation looks realistic and most of all, the sound designs are sublime. Whenever the bullets hit the plane, for example, we can hear the metal sound. That CG visual comes with a cost, however. The characters animation looks stiff and in some case, their facial expression and the way their heads move stick out like a sore thumb. Narrative-wise, the plot moves really straight-forward. Since it has a length flight sequences, the rest doesn’t feel flesh out enough. There are so much else that I want to know more, such as the dessert world building or the characters.
Another feature that differentiate Kotobuki show from the rest is its rapid fire dialogues in a casual manners. Right at the very first shot, we get that very sense. Characters go on and on in random topics, most of the dialogues are unimportant or have nothing to do to advance the plot or deepen the characters. So why include these lengthy conversations then? It is because it feels natural. Characters bounce off each other seamlessly, and they feel as if they’re belong to this very world. It’s also fun to see these characters having their own speech patterns, their own way of speaking and behaving interact with each other. It helps that Kotobuki’s smart enough to follow up those mini-conflicts with their own tempo (one such example: the drawing girl reappears in the Big battle to give the disloyal guy hell). The Squadron cast, like I said, doesn’t flesh out that much, but they all have their own distinctive personality traits, and Kirie or Reona can still carry the show by their own.
I’m not really sold on the final conflict, as I see the “holes in the sky” subplot kind of comes out from nowhere. But apart from that the show ties up its plot threads nicely. Kotobuki might not be a great show, but it never aims itself as one, instead it enjoys itself thoroughly.
