劇場版AIR... こんなのAIRじゃない～～～～～～（≧ヘ≦）

Just finished watching the movie version of AIR... and I felt like betrayed. Give me back my youth (wrong)!! I already knew the movie is nothing like the original game or the anime from ja.wikipedia, but it was still a big let down for me, especially considering that I gave the anime series a grade of A-~A and the Summer Specials a B+.

Given the relatively short time frame of a film, it's understandable that the story line would have to be narrowed down to focus on only few characters. However, the pace still seemed rushed, and the love relationship just blossomed too abruptly and felt forced. I mean, a week? They didn't even talk or interact that much. Not to mention that both the plot and the characters were altered quite drastically, for the worse.

While it cleverly weaved the Summer episode with the present through Misuzu's field work research, the story for the mutated Summer episode was so lame, it reflected on the present plot line and killed much of the emotional elements that made the title. I didn't shed a single drop of tear, nor did my eyes get moist during the movie. The festival day was pretty good, though.

The character design deviated a lot from the anime version that I was so used to, and I never got around that to the very end. It just looked generic to me for some reason. Design style aside, the art was good when it's good and bad when it's bad. And by bad, I mean bad. The difference between the good and the bad was so great that you'd think it's produced by two separate teams. Toei Animation is clearly no Kyoto Animation, and the artistic gap is painfully apparent when they both make the same title. It also didn't help that I watched the Summer Specials right before watching the movie... Orz

The overall film was rather static, and quite a few of the 'action' scenes resided on the bad side. I did find the use of the traditional art board drawing a nice and interesting touch.

The seiyuu cast and the music were the only highlights for the film, though those were basically from the original game/anime and weren't enough to save the film adaptation for me. Midorikawa Hikaru's Yukito felt a bit like Zelgadiss, gloomy and people/self-loathing, while Ono Daisuke's Yukito had more spunk. Not having played the game, I can't say which is closer to the original Yukito. But then again, the main character of an H-game is usually invisible anyway, since the player is him... I was also pleasantly surprised to hear Miki Shinichirou and Okiayu Ryoutarou.

I'd go see it in the theatre, but not buy the DVD. I can imagine people watching this because they had played the game or seen AIR TV, but I can't imagine people get converted because of this. I gave the film a grade of B-, which, despite all the above bashing, is still a decent score. I don't see myself watching this again, RIP...