Mysterious flying creatures known as Zai suddenly appear, and in order to fight the creatures, mankind creates fighter aircraft called “Daughters,” as well as the automatic fighting mechanism “Anima,” which are shaped like human girls. The story centers on a young man named Kei Narutani, who yearns to fly in the sky, and an Anima considered to be humanity’s trump card, a girl name Gripen. – ANN
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 12
Source: Light Novel
Episode Summary: The Xi (rhymes with “sigh”) are an enigmatic, hostile group of aerial fighters currently targeting humankind. Kei Narutani and his adopted sister Minghua are attempting to evacuate Shanghai by carrier ship when they come under attack from a squad of Xi fighters. The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force arrives to defend the civilian vessels, but they’re no match for the maneuverability and speed of the enemy planes. All seems lost until the arrival of a mysterious red-hulled fighter jet that navigates as well as the Xi and shoots them down before crashing into the ocean. Kei exits his evacuation vessel to rescue the pilot – a beautiful pink-haired young woman – who states some incomprehensible words before kissing him and passing out again.
Kei feels like this experience may have just been a dream, and after he and Minghua manage to settle into their new lives in Japan it might as well have been one. Kei can’t leave the experience behind, however, and even begins to research joining the Japan Air Self-Defense Force because of it despite Minghua’s protests. As he’s heading home from the convenience store, Kei swears he sees the mysterious red fighter plane being taken by truck to the local air-force base, so he sneaks out later that evening to see if he can catch a real glimpse of it. Minghua follows him, and they’re both blindfolded and taken onto the base. As it would happen, Kei’s presence seems to be the only thing keeping the animus, the artificial pilot of the experimental jet, from rebooting itself. He’s invited to join the project in hopes of helping to finally defeating the Xi.
Impressions: Girly Air Force is one of a couple of flight-focused anime this season, and not really the one I was most looking forward to. Its odd title is a bit of a turn-off and suggests a type of content that isn’t typically of interest to me as a viewer. The first episode is a bit of a mixed bag that manages to provide a fair amount of exciting action and avoid some of the expected content pitfalls while seriously stumbling in other areas.
The episode really wears its priorities on its sleeve, and it’s fairly easy to extrapolate where most of the animation resources were concentrated. The opening scene is fairly lengthy and involves not only a slow-speed escape via ship, but also a fast-paced aerial dogfight between friend and foe. The fighter jets are unsurprisingly all 3D models, which are competently constructed and are up to the task of portraying the quick and breathless action sequences. The Xi planes, as well as the red-colored Swedish Gripen jet that enthralls Kei, are embellished with glowing design elements and the Xi vehicles also undergo various physical transformations – things which would be much more difficult or impossible to portray traditionally. In short, the mechanical elements of the episode look very good and the scenes where they’re put to use are the most successful, in my opinion.
Less successful, unfortunately, is the character animation, which just doesn’t quite seem up to the task a lot of the time. As I’ve said before, I don’t like to complain too much about the quality of hand-drawn animation, because I have some idea, especially with Japanese animation, of the long hours, hard work, and sub-par salaries that go into each and every TV anime series that I watch. Most of the time, especially with the slower-paced and more drama-focused series that I tend to watch, the animation isn’t that big of a factor anyway. In series with an action focus, however, character movement and rendering is more of a concern, so when the two major visual aspects of a series like this clash in quality so much, it’s difficult to ignore.
The story itself is a little bit messy and I haven’t quite decided where I “land” (har har) with regard to some of it. Going in, I’d anticipated something to the effect of “girls fly special planes due to archaic gender-related reasons.” While that isn’t quite the case, the reality leaves itself more open to frustrating interpretations. In the case of this series, it appears that the young women actually are the planes in some manner; rather than use human pilots whose reaction time and tolerance to gravitational forces are sub-par in comparison to their enemies, the military has chosen to go the route of their opponents and develop autopilot systems that can do the job better. It just so happens that these systems, for reasons that are thus far mostly unexplained, require human forms and the avatars chosen were – surprise! – cute teenage girls. Naturally, our lucky protagonist is the one person who has the ability to set the Gripen anima in line.
It’s not a surprise to me that the “key” to unlocking the power and control over this lovely avatar might flow from the hands of the series’ protagonist, but it’s a predictable turn that I wish had been subverted in some way. It’s easy to grumble about male power fantasies; it’s like the low-hanging fruit of the anime criticism world to point them out. To be honest I think everyone gains something from being to imagine themselves as having more power and influence as long as that fantasy is harmless and remains in the realm of the imagination, so they don’t bother me in principle. But these twists are so ubiquitous and therein lies the issue; the sheer number of anime plots that rely on the idea that “this one guy has the answer to it all” means that they all start to feel exhausting and cliche.
Kei, for his part, appears to have a good heart and a desire to put his talents to use, thus his push to join the Air Self-Defense Force to help with the war(?) effort and to provide an outlet for his interest in military aircraft. It’s in this detail, though, that I think this series has lost me. I’m not strongly anti-military, but my personal stance is that I support the efforts and sacrifices of military personnel while longing for a future where they’re no longer required in order to maintain peace and safety. Kei’s enthusiasm for the JASDF, his knowledge of and fondness for military aircraft (and their apparent fondness for him), and the general tone of the episode start to feel like a low-key recruiting commercial after a while. Personally, I don’t enjoy feeling like I’m being actively sold on something while I’m indulging in an unrelated hobby, especially if it’s something I have ambivalent feelings about.
For folks with more of an interest in planes (especially military aircraft) or for fans of sci-fi harem series which aren’t focused on being overwhelmingly titillating, I think there’s probably more to enjoy here even considering the lackluster character visuals. The action components of the episode are genuinely enjoyable to watch, and at the very least the CG jet models are cool to look at. I just can’t get over the feeling that this could be interpreted as a recruiting tool in disguise, and that bothers me enough that I’ve mostly lost interest in watching more episodes.
Pros: The aerial dogfights are exciting and entertaining.
Cons: Kei’s power over the plane avatar is a predictable development. The episode feels like a push to get viewers interested in the JASDF.
Grade: C-