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Thirty three years before this
straight-to-video anime begins, the “JAM”, an alien race, invaded Earth through
a wormhole from their planet to ours via the Antarctica. Now, based on the series
of novels by Chōhei Kambayashi, the
human race pushed them back through the passage, back to their planet “Fairy”,
and keeps guard on that side. Yukikaze’s
author, Chōhei Kambayashi, is a
prolific author in science fiction, with this series one of his most known. It
is neither the only one to have had an anime adaptation, as an obscure OVA
series The Enemy's The Pirates! (1989) is
based on another of his works, imagining a space cop duo where one of them in
an alien talking cat.
Yukikaze is a considerably more somber premise, but to factor in as
well, this was a ten year anniversary for the animation studio GONZO, which could seem odd as they were
founded in 2000 as the studio most known them for. This ten year anniversary is
because, whilst the animation studio most will known was founded in the year
2000, the original company Gonzo K.K.
began in 1992, working with other companies and on video game cut scenes.
Whilst they still exist, financial problems between 2008 and 2009 eventually
led to the company being merged with Gonzo
K.K., taking them out as a prominent animation company even if they still
work to this day. GONZO before them,
between 2000 to 2005 at least, were a prominent company for me as I got into
anime at that time, as the late ADV Films
released so many of their productions over in Britain, nostalgic to think of
but with a sensibility to know their flaws. They had shows like Chrono Crusade (2003) I loved, but hesitate
to return to, and others like Hellsing (2001-2)
were works with were divisive to viewers. One of their biggest issues which
was obvious even back in my barely developed years of taste, and is found with
Yukikaze, is that they were a company cursed by the journey it took to keep a
long form production consistent in narrative and quality, even in terms of pure
sod’s law as both of the titles mentioned, for example, were cases where the
source manga were unfinished and they had to create new endings within only a
handful of episodes. They were once a high profile name, even to the point that
arguably one of their most successful and highest profile productions was not a
series but a Linkin Park music video, Breaking the Habit, which with the nu
metal band was something non-anime fans would have seen at a time when anime
and other pop culture crossed over multiple times.
Yukikaze however is an example of the problems with organizing and
pacing their projects. For years my only knowledge of the show came from one of
the longest lasting and running anime podcasts since 2005, Anime World Order, where the five part straight-to-video production
was buried as a sci-fi story which absolutely failed. The build up over a
decade plus means that I actually found material in Yukikaze of virtue, and what was once jokes on that podcast1
have by accident been more salient as this presents one of the most (accidental and at times intentional) and
compelling psychodramas one could have wished was in a better managed project. Truthfully
the bar was set so low I found so much to enjoy here, something compelling but
an undeniable mess that, could have actually succeeded. Even in terms of the
unexpected content, the fact that the central relationship between its male
leads, James "Jack" Bukhar and Rei Fukai, has moments beyond platonic
friendship but potential romantic readings is something you are likely to find
in a lot of anime. Sometimes it is deliberately placed in shows even if with
its own moral questions, as this can be done in anime as a way to appeal to
certain female audiences attracted to “yaoi” and subtext of possible
relationships between male characters, something with its own questions as that
means it is not necessarily for a gay viewer’s benefit first in
characterization. What is unexpected, and was merely presumed a joke in that
podcast I listened to many times, is how even if unintentional, this platonic
relationship ends up being a triangle between these two men, struggling through
this battle against an alien menace.. and a sentient fighter plane.
It feels less like a joke either
to say that, as there are two sides to the Yukikaze project in terms of the
production, and one of them (the most compelling) falls further into this even
if an exaggeration of the actual content seen. One side, despite its sci-fi
setting, is realistic aerial dog fight scenes which made this an expensive
project, using what was cutting edge CGI animation for the sequences, and the
other is a drama. The latter’s character dynamics became, even if by mistake,
in certain dramatic choices more psychologically idiosyncratic and deeper than
intended. Rei Fukai, our lead, is clearly written in script and in depiction as
psychologically disconnect from the world, close to the point of becoming a
savant who would not be able to function in the ordinary society back on Earth,
but found harmony helming the Yukikaze, a fighter plane which has such advanced
A.I. It and Rei have developed a bond, strong enough that he follows its advice
to even shot what it consider an enemy without question.
Considering dreams Rei has
include depicting him in a jail cell and Yukikaze itself, which means “snow
wind”, depicted as a female fairy creature on the other side of the bar he
yearns for, the production may have accidentally loaded so much more meaning to
his bond to the plane, especially as the tension with his senior officer James
Bukar reads too closely to a crush between them even if it was just meant to be
a close friendship in dialogue. Even if pure accident, this is the material
which is the strongest of all of Yukikaze because it is at least memorable, and
aspects that are clear in dialogue suggest even Chōhei Kambayashi’s
source writings had an unconventional characterization for Rei himself. One of
the odder details is how the two met, James meeting Rei in a canteen mashing
peaches and peas together in a meal, a bizarre touch showing Rei’s unsociable
form, and there is a lot to Yukikaze which I would not be surprised is from the
books and in a fully fleshed out form would have more eccentric but compelling
to witness. Even if meant to be platonic friendship between the two, their
drama is still interesting even if the result in this anime makes Yukikaze extremely weird. That would
clearly be the idea of James being the one person who cared to help Rei,
finding friendship with him, and the constant fear for his safety as Rei is
attached to the Yukikaze more to ordinary life. It is obviously a metaphor for
the dehumanization of war, where Rei only feels alive in the peril of danger
and aerial combat, but when a female superior, Rydia Cooley, tells James he is
losing Fukai to Yukikaze, you get one of the multiple moments where the show
may have unintentionally made Yukikaze more compelling as a story by making
that plane a rival for Rei’s heart and mind. The plane, thought it downloads
its consciousness into another machine, even has a sad send off in Episode 1 to
emphasis their place as the third main character of this material even over
human characters.
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The project without this
idiosyncratic melodrama has a compelling premise which could have breathed into
something truly engaging. It is a well worn one, an invading forced known as
the JAM which are totally unlike human beings, but only seen as horrifying
sentient goo, the plot also brings in an enticing twist in terms of a Body
Snatchers concern, that the JAM are replacing members with copies to infiltrate
their higher ranks. Even without the central relationship with James and Rei,
the psychodrama of a plane’s A.I. being able to understand Rei more, this could
have been an anime that could have knocked it out of the park as an intense
sci-fi drama, set with some realism, where the war in the alien world has a
greater paranoia as more members are said to be “taken”. The anime can also be batshit with some
ideas. I can just mention the character who has a plutonium powered atomic
heart which prevents him from entering certain countries, never mentioned again
after his episode, but the kind of idea out-of-nowhere that wins me over as
well in terms of how imaginative this could have been.
The issue with Yukikaze is that it is neither fish nor
fowl. The post digital animation look of the time, a muted realistic one of
grays, is a contentious aesthetic touch to consider in itself, but the show
also lacks energy, crossing over from a mood piece with an unintentional level
of what you can read into it, with James’ fears for Rei in safety and
psychologically the one thing keeping this for me from becoming sluggish. The
aerial battles themselves are also the weakest segments of the entire
production. Aging is less than issue with them but that, expensive to produce,
they are not interesting and there are times where you will struggle with whom
is who in the alien skies without combing through the scenes, not telling the
plot visually well. Flaws creep in more and more into the script, and it is
clear the show, with episodes two to four being thirty minutes long each, that
the span of time was a bad sign to how it was moving along, only being fully
released between 2002 to 2005 rather than taking a lot quicker to complete.
Basic explanation of the premise
is not done, such that whilst it is explained at the beginning this is set on
an alien planet, you forget in the seemingly normal desert this is set in an
alien world, and a lot of characters are left with not enough given time to
stand out. Rydia the female chief or Edith the psychologist (who is also her
niece) are two examples, but more jarring is a figure who gets a lot of time
for herself back on Earth, Lynn Jackson the journalist and acclaimed novelist
who we get the back-story of. She is the face of the normal person who
witnessed the JAM invasion as a child, by the news on Christmas with her
parents, and devoted herself to researching the events when an adult. She has
become the figure now standing out as someone who devoted her life to
documenting the JAM invasion which many are wary in believing in nowadays, an
enticing concept in how human beings do not learn from the past and become
complacent. Her story is closed abruptly on Episode 4, when the story returns
to Earth fully, and how her tale is a candle randomly snuffed out shows the
problems this project had, considering how much time was devoted to her with
one or two prominent scenes by herself. It shows one of GONZO’s biggest flaws as mentioned, not being able to finish a work
without struggles in the plotting and pace.
Episode 5 is weird as suddenly
the production trying to become The End
of Evengelion (1997), where everything goes to hell, whilst everyone is
having tea and cakes on the veranda as everything explodes. It is not this
truthfully in a twist, which abruptly brings in fictional reality when never
evoked before and makes this episode even messier in execution. It is by this
point, whilst Yukikzae became
entertaining for many reasons beforehand, why this production was forgotten,
where even by this final episode there are key details it has to suddenly
explain, the heavy burden also with the disappointment that this also includes
tantalizing ideas it will now not be able to flesh out, such as that the portal
would have been closed long before to the JAM if it was not for human greed,
and the JAM’s ability to both tempt humanity with possible resources and to
complete manipulate reality. It is a work which fascinates throughout its
length but also left so much on the table. Even the unexpected sense of platonic
love between your two male leads, arguably one of the few things that reaches a
proper conclusion, could have been fleshed out even further then what we got.
Yukikaze got released through Bandai
Visual, an ill-advised off-shot to Bandai
Entertainment started in 2005 for the USA, and merged back into Bandai in
2008, which tried to bring Japanese pricing schemes to the West, which only Aniplex in the United States have
managed to get away with, i.e. much more expensive cost for physical media like
for Japanese anime fans. In Britain, Beez
Entertainment, Bandai’s late European
division, released the series. Sold by itself, despite being less than thirty
minutes long, is a tie-in production called Fighting Fairy Girl Rescue Me Mave-chan which should be brought up
too. This follows in a genre of anthropomorphizing non-sentient objects, like
vehicles to even soda cans, into characters with a trend for cute girls if occasionally
cute guys too. This is an early one, and it is a slight production, an ode to
otaku promoting both Yukikaze and Stratos
4 (2003) to an audience who would have likely bought the DVDs in Japan
beforehand.
A nervous teenage boy, braving
himself to go to an anime convention, steps into a bathroom to calm a panic
attack only to end up on Planet Fairy from Yukikaze,
where the sentient planes are now young women who can fly and fight aliens. It
is slight, though promises sequels and like Yukikaze, this has an abrupt aspect to it which is explicitly part
of itself in script and meaning. This is not likely accidental thought, and is
explicit in this case, as it has a very cynical idea that these characters know
they are merely characters from an anime, brought to life by fans but knowing
that when they are constantly under threat of obscurity. Once the fans are more
interesting in a new show, they like other characters (like a blurred out
parody of Lum from Urusei Yatsura)
are to be forgotten and to disappear from existence into a literal void. It
feels like Toy Story if you envision
the toys discarded in the attic, and it is a bleak idea to centralize in a
one-off episode, even if having a happy ending. Though it is clearly made to sell
Yukikaze, even by cynically having a
busty blue haired female character the most prominent even over the one (Mavi-chan)
named after the show, you also cannot help but read into the creators through
this premise. Made by GONZO too, it
feels like a response to how for all the work into Yukikaze that took three years, a work to celebrate GONZO itself, it was going to disappear
and be discarded by the new shiny animated production afterwards. It feels
abruptly frank from the production team even if meant to be a cute tie-in.
It is even more ironic now as
poor Mavi-chan is forgotten, whether the homicidal one who attack strangers
with knives or the plane in a deep bond with its male pilot, a deeply flawed
and messy production that was meant to celebrate an entire studio not one of
the titles you bring up talking about GONZO.
GONZO themselves, as mentioned, are
still producing titles but are no longer upfront in their name being promoted
alongside their anime productions, and it is perversely a review like this
which talks of the deep flaws with Yukikaze
which will also however nod to it out of respect too. There were ideas here
which worked and some which probably hinted at a level of unconventionality it
never likely intended. It managed to have the least expected psychodrama one
would presume from this title, between two people in a bond and the combat
plane which divides them, and I only wish that I could have said it managed to
be this successfully. What could have been legitimately great in terms of its
production and storytelling, if it had taken some radical steps to focus, is
instead just a curiosity.
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=====
1) Anime
World Order Show # 81a – Rei Fukai, You Are Worse Than Michael Jordan,
published on July 2nd 2009. I will warn that aspects of the podcast from this time, in humour and tone, have dated badly or may offend, which the hosts, who have started from 2005 into the 2020s, have admitted to. They have become a significantly better podcast into the 2020s just in terms of the quality of the reviews, but if you can step beyond some of the humour, older episodes
like this one are still rewarding and in this case are apt to refer to.
Listening to this episode over years perfectly sums up the lowered expectations
until I finally saw Yukikaze myself.