In a barren frontier where people trade goods with each other in order to help each other survive, the Kotobuki Squadron are bodyguards for hire, led by a strict but beautiful squadron leader, an unreliable commanding officer, and a true artisan of a crew chief. Alongside pilots who don’t lack for personality, they take to the air in dogfights, letting the engine noise of their Hayabusa fighters ring out in the skies. – ANN
Streaming: HIDIVE
Episodes: 12
Source: Original
Episode Summary: Being a pilot-for-hire is a rough job, and because of that there’s some amount of trash-talking and bragging involved in a pilot’s down time. When a young man from the Nazarene Squadron gets full of himself and starts to hit on the young women from the Kotobuki Squadron, he doesn’t realize what he’s getting into. These ladies have seen it all and then some, and don’t have time to play with little boys whose 11 stars don’t stack up to their combined 200.
During a nighttime transport of goods, a transport airship is predictably targeted by air pirates. While the Nazarene Squadron is taken out fairly early in the fight, the Kotobuki Squadron, piloting their Hayabusa fighter planes, manages to fend off the attackers with little collateral damage. Kirie, the group’s hot-headed fighter, notices a familiar insignia on the wing of one of the enemies and decides to engage with it one-on-one, which turns out to be a poor decision. For some reason, though, the enemy leaves her alone after connecting a few warning shots.
Impressions: While I’ve never been all that interested in history’s vast array of military hardware, some of my very vivid childhood memories involve going over to my grandfather’s house and looking over his collection of model planes. He was a World War II veteran, and while he never shared many firsthand stories of that experience, he expressed some of that narrative through the tiny scale models he constructed beneath a hobby light and a magnifying lens. I was always fascinated by these delicate pieces of art, bits of wood and wire hand-painted to mimic famous Axis and Ally war planes, as well as bi-and-tri-wing planes from even earlier in history.
Today’s military jets are sleek and outfitted with some of the world’s most modern technology, but I’ve always been more interested in the rough-hewn, hand-built, riveted metal fabrications of the past even if what we have now is technically better and more efficient. The Magnificent Kotobuki is itself a fascinating clash between traditional and modern that seems to (maybe inadvertently) address this perennial conflict in both its story and its animation style.
Leaving its story aside for the time being, possibly the most immediately noticeable thing about this episode (and, by extension, the series as a whole) is that it takes a combination approach to its character animation. Many of the side or supporting characters are animated traditionally, while the Kotobuki members are rendered in 3DCG. It’s reminiscent of Kado: The Right Answer in that respect; both series appear to have chosen to sacrifice full integration of animated elements in favor of a hybrid approach that makes some important portions easier to animate. In this series’ case, I assume the primary characters exist as 3D models so that they can easily integrate with the 3D airplanes more completely. It’s an initially uncomfortable aesthetic clash that ever-so-slowly settles into itself as the episode goes on, though I suspect not everyone will agree with me on that. Not surprisingly, it’s the lengthy dogfight sequence in the second half of the episode that’s the most visually impressive.
I have a dual-screen desktop computer set-up at my desk; one screen is for research and writing, while the other is strictly for watching video. It’s not necessarily the most immersive way to get my anime fix, but it works for me. I’ve rarely regretted having not watched something on my big living room television, but this may be one of those rare moments. The dogfight between the Kotobuki Squadron and the air pirates is one of the most enthralling action sequences I’ve watched lately, to the point where I caught myself with my mouth open like a fish just caught up in the moment. The direction, the camera angles, the first-person perspectives (utilized judiciously and for emphasis) work together like a dance to provide a sense of danger and excitement. I’m not normally one to talk to myself, but I was tempted on more than one occasion to say out loud just how awesome certain moments were.
Because the episode spends so much time hooking the audience with flash and excitement, it has less time to devote to character introductions, which leaves us with very little impression of who the characters really are. The opening scene does a serviceable job of providing some surface-level information about the various young women – there’s the feisty one (Kirie, who gets most of the attention this time around), the emotionless one, the grown-up, the heavy drinker… fairly standard for an anime with a cast of mostly women. Knowing how director Mizushima’s projects tend to work I suspect there will be a few character-focused episodes on the horizon, but for all this episode’s “wow” factor, I can’t say that I’ve fully connected with it just yet.
That said, I’m a latecomer but I’m really starting to appreciate this director for his ability to simply construct something entertaining. You’d think that wouldn’t be that difficult, especially if an anime series is adapted from something with well-regarded source material; being an anime fan, though, I think we all realize that a great story can be animated in a way that doesn’t take advantage of what the original source has to offer. This is a series drawn up out of almost nothing (though I will probably continue to joke that this is Mizushima getting the chance to animate Third Aerial Girls Squad in totality) and yet it already feels fun and engaging in spite of some minor criticisms I might have. That, I believe, takes talent.
An ode to fluffy pancakes. 
A threatening menace appears. 
There’s a dodo, because of course there is. 
Each of the characters likely has a story to tell.
I find it appropriate that the characters in this series pilot old, somewhat obsolete planes, re-tooled with love to serve their current purpose. One of the things that I love about Japanese animation is its (possibly backward) adherence to the hand-drawn techniques of the past; with each passing season, though, I get the impression that more and more of my future favorite series will involve at least some major elements of modern CG animation. The Magnificent Kotobuki appears to exist at that crossroad of old and modern, showing that yes, you can take something old and dress it up with new techniques without losing the core of what makes it entertaining. I certainly hope this is a trait that follows the series through to the end.
Pros: The first episode is very entertaining, especially the long action scene. The CG animation for the planes is utilized well.
Cons: The integration between the traditional and 3D character animation takes some getting used-to. The characters aren’t engaging yet.
Grade: B