Air is a Japanese visual novel developed by Key, a brand of Visual Arts. It was released on September 8, 2000, for Windows as an adult game. Key later released versions of Air without the erotic content, and the game was ported to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch. The story follows the life of Yukito Kunisaki, a traveling showman searching for the "girl in the sky". He arrives in a quiet, seaside town where he meets three girls, one of whom is the key to the end of his journey.
The gameplay in Air follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the three female main characters by the player character. The game is divided into three segments—Dream, Summer, and Air—which serve as different phases in the overall story. The title of the game reflects the prominent themes of the air, skies, and use of wings throughout gameplay. The game ranked as the best-selling PC game sold in Japan for the time of its release, and charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards. Air has sold over 300,000 units across several platforms.
Following the game's release, Air made several transitions into other media. A manga by Yukimaru Katsura was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comptiq, and later published into two volumes. Comic anthologies and art books were also published, as were audio dramas and several albums of music. Kyoto Animation produced a 13-episode anime television series and a two-episode anime mini-series in 2005, and Toei Animation produced an anime film in 2005. The anime adaptations are licensed by Funimation who released them in North America.
Gameplay
Air is a romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of three characters. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's narrative and dialogue. Air follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. Upon the completion of the Summer route, another scenario called Air is made available, which serves as the true ending to the story. In Air, the player assumes the role of a crow named Sora. As Air is set in the middle of summer, the season offers bright, sunny skies for the town during the day. In the manga adaptation, the town is described as a "quiet town with few people...with nothing but beaches and countryside." Scenario assistant Yūichi Suzumoto has commented that his impression of Air is similar to that of a folk song due to the rural setting and heartwarming story progression. and Michiru who has a fondness for bubbles that float in the air. Kano wants wings to fly, and Kanna already has them. Misuzu names a crow she finds —Japanese for "sky". Another major theme is the maternal bond, as the four heroines' stories, as well as Yukito's, revolve around their mothers, either biological or adoptive. Main scenario writer Jun Maeda commented that he prefers to include mothers in games if given the choice between only including a mother or a father, as is what happened with Air, though he backs this up by noting that in bishōjo games, women are the main focus anyway. Uraha, Yukito's mother, and Yukito himself have the ability to use magic, though Yukito is the least skilled among them. Kano was told by her sister that when she grows up and takes off her yellow ribbon, she will gain the power to do magic. However, the problems of parents leaving their offspring and poverty are displayed realistically.
Characters
{| style="font-size:90%; float:right
|-
|
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Cast
|-
! Role
! Japanese
! English
|Hikaru Midorikawa (game, film)<br />Daisuke Ono (anime series)
|Vic Mignogna
|-
|Misuzu Kamio
|Tomoko Kawakami
|Monica Rial
|-
|Kano Kirishima
|Asami Okamoto
|Stephanie Wittels
|-
|Minagi Tohno
|Ryoka Yuzuki
|Kira Vincent-Davis
|-
|Haruko Kamio
|Aya Hisakawa
|Luci Christian
|-
|Hijiri Kirishima
|Yumi Tōma
|Christine Auten
|-
|Michiru
|Yukari Tamura
|Serena Varghese
|-
|Kanna
|Chinami Nishimura
|Cynthia Martinez
|-
|Ryūya
|Nobutoshi Canna
|Jay Hickman
|-
|Uraha
|Kikuko Inoue
|Allison Sumrall
|-
|Potato
|Hiromi Konno
|Tiffany Grant
|}
|}
The player assumes the role of Yukito Kunisaki, the protagonist of Air. He lives a poor life going from town to town with little money, trying to make a living off his show with a puppet. As a young adult, Yukito sometimes acts childishly if provoked. Yukito tends to be helpful to those around him while trying to earn any money at the same time, and does his best to look after Misuzu in the Dream arc. Misuzu Kamio, the main heroine of Air, makes Yukito quite mistrustful at first by being too friendly, but eventually earns his affection. She is a cheerful but introverted, slightly clumsy and simplistic high school girl, and often utters the pseudo-dinosauric phrase gao when she feels troubled, a habit she retained from childhood. Misuzu has a great love of dinosaurs, finding the story of their glory and extinction "romantic". As a child, her fascination with dinosaurs stemmed from thinking chicks would grow into them; her adoptive mother Haruko Kamio thinks it is ridiculous.
The second of the three heroines Yukito meets after Misuzu is Kano Kirishima, a girl attending the same school as Misuzu. She is usually energetic, playful, and tells jokes by saying nonsensical things. Kano is friends with a strange stray dog named Potato that follows her around and is able to communicate in his strange manner of speech. Kano still believes in things she was told by her older sister Hijiri as a child as a way of coping with her past. The third and final heroine Yukito meets is a girl in Misuzu's class at school named Minagi Tohno, a top student in the school who is introverted as well. Until she met Yukito, her only friend was Michiru, with whom she often blows bubbles at the abandoned train station in town.
Story
Air story begins on Monday, July 17, 2000, when traveling street performer Yukito Kunisaki arrives at a small seaside town. As a young adult, he has been traveling 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 in this town. 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. A few days later, Yukito meets two other girls who go to Misuzu's school—Kano Kirishima and Minagi Tohno—who, like Misuzu, have strange personalities connected with mysterious pasts. As Yukito grows closer to Misuzu, he realizes from the dreams she has been telling him about that she is in fact the girl in the sky. Yukito recalls his mother telling him that after the dreams, the girl in the sky would start to first physically weaken, followed by feeling pain from an unknown source, then forgetting about those closest to her, and finally be doomed to die alone. Yukito realizes that his mother had once had her own encounter with the girl in the sky, but she had been unable to save her from her fate. Ultimately, Yukito decides to stay with Misuzu, regretting that he did not play with her more when they first met. Yukito uses all of the accumulated wishes that his ancestors have imputed into the doll to grant his own wish to stay by Misuzu's side, and as a result, Yukito disappears.
In the summer 1,000 years prior during the Heian period, Kanna is one of the last winged beings who has been held prisoner at a Shinto shrine for much of her life. Kanna is set to be executed following a political change in the Imperial Court, but she escapes with the help of Ryūya, a member of her samurai guard, and her loyal retainer Uraha. They decide to go in search of Kanna's mother Yaobikuni, who according to rumor is imprisoned somewhere south of Kanna's shrine. Although they eventually find Yaobikuni and free her, she is killed by a group of archers soon after. In an attempt to save Ryūya and Uraha, Kanna sacrifices herself, leaving herself cursed by Buddhist monks to relive painful memories in the sky for eternity. This eventually weakens but does not go away entirely, allowing Kanna to continuously reincarnate as a human girl, with Misuzu being one such reincarnation.
Yukito's final wish to stay with Misuzu is granted in the form of his memories inhabiting a young crow Misuzu finds on July 16, 2000, and names Sora. The events of the previous timeline with Yukito play out again, but after Yukito disappears after the doll grants his wish, Yukito's memories within Sora surface, allowing him to give Misuzu the necessary encouragement to be strong until the end. Haruko tries to show Misuzu more affection than she has over the past ten years they have been living together, but by this point, Misuzu's condition continues to worsen, eventually mentally reverting to how she was when she and Haruko first met. Haruko continues to care for Misuzu, and Misuzu shows that she truly cares for Haruko by choosing to stay with her instead of leaving with her father. Haruko and Misuzu spend the next three days together as mother and daughter, culminating in Misuzu's death. As a result of Misuzu dying happily with her family, it is implied that she takes her happy memories back to Kanna, effectively breaking the curse. Metaphysically, Yukito's and Misuzu's present incarnations are shown to be a young boy and girl playing on the beach on July 17, 2000, as they are watched by Misuzu with Yukito asleep next to her.
Development
After the release of Key's debut game Kanon (1999), video game director and Key co-founder Naoki Hisaya resigned from Key. Hisaya had led the planning of Kanon and was its main scenario writer in conjunction with fellow Key co-founder Jun Maeda. Hisaya's resignation resulted in Maeda leading the planning for Key's next work, with Maeda wanting to produce something different from not only Kanon, but also Moon (1997) and One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e (1998) that Maeda and other founding members of Key worked on previously as part of the brand Tactics under video game publisher Nexton. Maeda put pressure on himself to make something structurally different from Kanon, but he also took it upon himself following Hisaya's resignation to continue to produce "crying games" for Key's fan base. Scenario assistance was provided by Kai, Tōya Okano and Tomotaka Fujii.
In terms of gameplay, Air was designed to emphasize its story compared to its adventure game elements, with the development team opting to include very few choices to diverge the plot, which Maeda later regretted. According to Suzumoto, some players complained that Air did not feel like a game as a result, and that some found it boring because of a lack of these choices. The limited edition came bundled with the remix album Ornithopter remixing background music tracks featured in the visual novel. Key released on all ages version on July 27, 2001, for Windows. An updated all ages version of Air compatible for Windows Vista PCs was released by Key on July 31, 2009, in a box set containing five other Key visual novels called Key 10th Memorial Box. Another updated all ages version compatible for Windows 7 PCs called Air Memorial Edition was released on May 28, 2010.
The first consumer console port of the game was released for the Dreamcast (DC) on September 20, 2001, by NEC Interchannel. A PlayStation 2 (PS2) version was released on August 8, 2002, also by NEC Interchannel. The PS2 version was re-released as a "Best" version on September 1, 2005. The PS2 version was bundled in a "Key 3-Part Work Premium Box" package together with the PS2 versions of Kanon and Clannad released on July 30, 2009. To compensate for the lack of erotic content in the consumer ports, extra scenes were added. A version playable on SoftBank 3G mobile phones was released by Prototype through VisualArt's Motto on May 1, 2006. Prototype later released a VGA edition produced by NTT DoCoMo playable on FOMA phones on February 5, 2008. The version for the FOMA phones was split into two separate files: the Dream story arc comprised the first file, and the remaining Summer and Air arcs comprised the second file.
A version of the Dream story arc playable on Android devices was released on July 27, 2012. A version containing the Summer and Air arcs for Android devices was released on August 15, 2012. A full version Air on Android devices was released on October 24, 2012, in two editions: one without voice acting, and one with voice acting, including Yukito. Two versions were released on May 2, 2013: an adult version for Android devices and an all ages version playable on iOS devices. A PlayStation Portable (PSP) version of the game was released in Japan on November 22, 2007, by Prototype. A downloadable version of the PSP release via the PlayStation Store was released by Prototype on September 2, 2010. A Nintendo Switch version was released in Japan on September 9, 2021. Both the PSV and Switch versions contained a visual novel version of Yūichi Suzumoto's short story as a prequel to the Summer story arc about how Kanna and Uraha met. In the original release, there was no voice acting for the characters, though this was later changed for the DC version, which except for Yukito included full voice acting, and the PS2, PSP, PSV and Switch versions, which had full voice acting. It was released on Nintendo Switch on July 14, 2025.
Adaptations
A short story, titled and written by Yūichi Suzumoto, was published in the Kanowo appendix to Kadokawa Corporation's Comptiq magazine on December 1, 2000. Jive published two volumes of an anthology titled Air Anthology Novel between September 1 and December 1, 2004.
An Air manga was serialized in the Japanese computer game magazine Comptiq between August 10, 2004, and February 10, 2006. The individual chapters were later collected into two separate volumes published by Kadokawa Shoten. The story was adapted from the visual novel version that preceded it, and was illustrated by Japanese artist Yukimaru Katsura. Between the two volumes, there are 15 main chapters (nine in volume one and six in volume two), and two bonus chapters included at the end of each volume. The manga version goes through the Dream and Air arcs in detail while the Summer arc is only touched upon briefly throughout the manga. The main focus is on Misuzu's story with Kano and Minagi serving as minor characters in comparison. However, Minagi's story is explained in the bonus installment at the end of volume two.
Drama CDs
There were nine drama CDs released based on Air released by Lantis. The first three focused solely on each of the main heroines separately per CD where the cover of the album would depict which of the girls to be presented. These three albums were released on August 24, 2005.
Anime series
On November 17, 2004, a teaser DVD named "Air prelude" was produced containing interviews with the anime's cast, clean opening and ending theme video sequences, and promotional footage of the anime itself; it was a limited edition DVD, with only 20,000 copies produced. The anime television series is produced by Kyoto Animation, directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, written by Fumihiko Shimo, and features character design by Tomoe Aratani who based the designs on Itaru Hinoue's original concept. Thirteen episodes were produced by Kyoto Animation: 12 regular episodes, and a final recap episode which summarizes Misuzu's story arc. The anime also follows the game by splitting the series into three parts; Dream (episodes one through seven), Summer (episodes eight and nine), and Air (episodes 10 through 12), with the recap episode (episode 13) following. The episodes aired between January 6 and March 31, 2005, on the BS-i Japanese television network. The theme songs from the Air visual novel are used for the anime's opening theme, ending theme and soundtrack. After the conclusion of the anime series, a mini-series which added to the Summer arc of the story called Air in Summer aired on August 28 and September 4, 2005, a week later on BS-i. Air in Summer consisted of two episodes and was produced by the same staff as the anime series. The episodes were released to Region 2 DVD between April 6 and September 7, 2005, by Pony Canyon in limited and regular editions containing two episodes per volume. The DVD for Air in Summer was later released on October 5, 2005, in Japan. Additionally, Air became one of the first anime series to be released in Blu-ray Disc format on December 22, 2006. A new version of the Blu-ray Disc box set was released on November 28, 2008, in Japan.
On April 27, 2007, ADV Films co-founder and executive Matt Greenfield announced the acquisition of both the anime series and the film during a panel at the anime convention Anime Matsuri; it paid $145,000 for the TV series. The 12 main episodes and two Air in Summer episodes were licensed for North American distribution by ADV Films. The episodes were released on four DVD compilations between August 14 and November 27, 2007. The second DVD volume was sold in two editions, with the difference between the two being a series box all four DVDs could fit inside. In July 2008, the license for the anime series and film was transferred to Funimation, which is now branded as Crunchyroll as of 2022, who continued to produce them in North America in English. Funimation released a three-disc series box set of the Air anime on April 21, 2009, which did not include the recap episode. MVM Entertainment announced a UK DVD release of Air with Air in Summer to be released on April 4, 2022.
Film
An Air animated film directed by Osamu Dezaki premiered in Japanese theaters on February 5, 2005. The film, animated by Toei Animation, is a reinterpretation of the original Air storyline which centers on the story arc of the female lead Misuzu Kamio. Yukito Kunisaki arrives in the town of Kami for a chance to earn money at the summer festival and meets Misuzu on his first day in town. They soon become friends and a story one thousand years old begins to unfold. The film was later sold on DVD and released in three editions: the Collector's Edition, the Special Edition, and the Regular Edition on August 5, 2005. The Air film was originally released on DVD by ADV Films in North America on December 11, 2007. Funimation continued the release of the film as of July 2008 when the license was transferred from ADV to Funimation;
Music
The visual novel has three main theme songs: the opening theme , the ending theme "Farewell song", and as an insert song. Each song is sung by Lia of I've Sound and the lyrics were written by Jun Maeda. Five of the characters have leitmotifs, or background music theme songs—the three heroines, Kanna, and Michiru. Misuzu's theme is ; Kano's theme is ; Minagi's theme is ; Kanna's theme is ; lastly, Michiru's theme is . A piano arrange album was released in December 2003 called Re-feel which contained five tracks from Air and five from Kanon. A bonus symphony CD titled Shinwa e no Izanai was released with the special edition Air film DVD on August 5, 2005. Overall, Air music has been well received, and the original soundtrack for the visual novel has met with high sales. The opening theme was involved in copyright infringement in 2005.
Reception and sales
According to a national ranking of how well bishōjo games sold nationally in Japan, the original Air PC release premiered at number one in the rankings. The game ranked twice at 42 in November and December 2000, The original release appeared on the charts twice more: the first in late September to early October 2001 at 26, and again in the last two weeks of May 2002, ranking in at 43. The regular edition of the Air PC release premiered at number 13, ranked in at number 41 in the following ranking, and 42 in the ranking after that. The PC all ages version premiered at number seven in the rankings and had a final ranking at 30 in the next ranking. The Air Standard Edition premiered at number one in the rankings. The Air Standard Edition ranked in twice more, at 34 and at 28 in the next two rankings. Air was the highest selling game of 2000 selling 102,080 units, which was about 25,000 more units than the second highest game, Inagawa de Ikō!. The Dreamcast version sold 42,445 units in its first week, and was the fourth highest selling console game in Japan that week. The video game magazine Famitsu scored this version a 30 out of 40, and it ultimately sold 50,406 units to rank as the 53rd highest selling Japanese Dreamcast game ever, as of 2007. NTT Publishing reported that over 300,000 units of Air have been sold.
Air was described as a game that stands out, much like Key's first title Kanon, due to an intricate plot that keeps the player interested, and has a good replay value as well. In the October 2007 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, poll results for the 50 best bishōjo games were released. Out of 249 titles, Air ranked eighth with 43 votes.
Notes
References
External links
- Key's official Air website
- Air anime official website