Anime: Sky Crawlers

The Sky Crawlers is amazing in its themes but damn boring in its presentation. Although one could say the same thing about all of Mamoru Oshii’s films. Whatever, I only liked his Ghost in the Shell movie and only because I had already read the manga.

So the movie is about a war sponsored by countries, only for the purposes of keeping the populace at bay. The concept is interesting, few people keep on fighting with airplanes, the whole thing is filmed and broadcasted by companies, and the people look at fear and dread at the futility of death and destruction. Without that, they wouldn’t appreciate their peace and the tension between the nations would be far edgier. At the same time, the pilots who fight and die for this purpose are not normal people. They are specially created and bred to be emotionless and following orders. After all, their single reason for existing is fighting and dying in the name of piece. Sounds weird but the human psyche is based on an equilibrium of duality.

So yes, the story is very interesting. The whole thing is seen through the eyes of the protagonist, one of the pilots, and all exposition of the specifics is done through dialogues… which is also the downfall of the film. THERE IS TO MUCH TALKING AND TOO LITTLE ACTION. Which is the director’s trademark, along with that silly dog he loves to show in all his movies. I believe in what they say about the first rule of scenario-writing. SHOW; DON’T TELL. Yes, the story is great but being described like a dull monologue is not helping much. Neither does the emo style of the characters; everybody is way too emotionless and sad. Which is excused in the context of the movie but still doesn’t look appealing to the average viewer. Or me. It all looked much better in the Ghost in the Shell movie, because everybody there was already overtaken by technology and was supposed to be somewhat robotic. Over here the feeling is not sitting well. Heck, the world still feels like it’s still in the industrialization period and there are cottages and rural areas everywhere.

I admit that the director did a wonderful job at showing how the protagonist lives and DOESN’T feel. He even made him an exception to the rule by having him questioning his purpose in life. He even included a possible romance, a sub story about the opposing pilot’s identity, even the probability of him being constantly cloned every time he dies. We never get a clear explanation about all that yet they are there as food for the mind. Not bad but not great at the same time. The whole thing is based on some sci-fi book and the movie shows very little of the whole world described there. The lack of explaining ends up being another minus, as the average viewer is not allowed to immerge in this most unorthodox setting and instead is shown lots of characters that have gone through a lot out of screen. Not a good thing if you want the audience to like your characters and world.

Beyond all that, the production values are very good, feeling like a blend of old (the style of the dog-fights) with new (the covering of the events by the media). The thing is, the character figures don’t feel too uniformed with the backgrounds. Meaning, while the airplanes and the buildings are CGI, the characters are drawn in a rather simple 2D style and thrown in the foreground, making the antithesis too obvious. And as I said the emo expressions don’t help. This is hardly one of studio I.G.’s better works.

In all, The Sky Crawlers try to show too much and only end up telling too little. Just like the Ghost in the Shell movie, you are supposed to have read the background story prior to the movie, which is a weak excuse for not showing it on screen, or throwing the viewer to stare at things he doesn’t understand and spend most of the duration looking at emo caricatures piloting sleek retro airplanes. The whole thing was better of as a mini series or a movie trilogy. As it stands it is nothing but an interesting concept with a vague and boring presentation.

The one thing that can be said for certain about The Sky Crawlers is that it is a Mamoru Oshii+Kenji Kawai film through and through. It is slow-paced, both visually and musically stunning and will likely cause you to argue with your friends over its underlying themes. Thus, before going into further detail, it is my humble opinion that if you've enjoyed Ghost in the Shell and its sequel Innocence, you should at least give this film a try.

The story, set in a World War II America resembling environment, whirls around the young, freshly transferred fighter pilot Yūichi Kannami and his commanding officer Suito Kusanagi. In a very unhurried fashion, we are introduced to the life on the airfield -- the old, tired mechanic; the iconic dog waiting for squadron's return; the cheerful buddy wingman, just waiting for the next best opportunity to hit the nearby roadside café for meat pie and run off with his favourite prostitute. Everything seems to be in a perfectly established and well worked out order with only one question remaining: whose place is Yūichi taking within the confines of his new cockpit? From hence on, the protagonist digs through the infamous rabbit hole, expanding not only on the identities and personalities of the characters around him, but their world as a whole.

To say any more with regard to the plot would simply ruin the work as a whole. Rest assured though that, as to be expected from Oshii and Kawai, you will not be disappointed in terms of technical execution either. The musical score is fitting, as are the beautiful, yet purposefully bleak, environments.

An often raised point is lack of character development, something I'm prone to both agree and disagree with. Whilst some characters do indeed seem to be mildly unnecessary and underdeveloped, others are already known to us before saying their first line of dialogue. While it might sound like shallow characterisation, Oshii once again displays a masterful use of both ambiguity and stereotypes to create characters that are both expressionless yet bursting with emotion, unknown yet vaguely familiar, static yet evolving. This ever so elusive transition becomes particularly clear towards the end of the film, when all cards are on the table and there is nothing worth holding back.

To summarise, the enjoyment you will draw from this film depends heavily on your expectations thereof. This is neither an action-packed war movie nor a make believe love story, but a film as powerful as it is critical on more than one level.

A word of advise: Like all Oshii films, Sky Crawlers heavily depends on visuals and uses dialogue only when necessary and appropriate (although "monologue" would perhaps be a more appropriate term). Make sure you watch it in best available quality.

I am also going to have to say that this movie was a complete utter waste of the time it took to watch. In fact, if I could get that time back, I would wish for nothing more. It was that bad. I firmly believe that if you have not seen this movie and decide to watch it, you will feel the same way!

Firstly, the human characters were very poorly drawn and did not possess very much personality. It seemed to me that they all had down-syndrome or something and portrayed no energy at all. This was a major point of disappointment for me, as I found it very hard to get into the story because of it. The other major disappointment for me was the rate at which the story progressed. I kept waiting for something to happen, and was unfortunately continually disappointed right up until the end credits.

The story -- by itself, minus the crappy characters and poor voice acting -- did not seem all that bad. In fact, this movie could have easily been redone and made into something exciting to watch. The computer graphics of the planes and battles were pretty fun and beautiful in 1080p, but WAY too far and few between. I would have to go as far as to say, these were the ONLY saving graces of this movie and the only reason I kept watching it.

(Note: While I try to abide by AniDB's guidelines on creating a mostly spoiler-free review, there are a number of minor spoilers in this review that were necessary to mention, so keep that in mind while reading)

Adapted from a series of novels by Hiroshi Mori, The Sky Crawlers is Mamoru Oshii's latest animated film. Plaintive and subdued, The Sky Crawlers echoes the cinematic style of his previous works (Angel's Egg, Patalabor, Ghost in the Shell) while achieving a distinctly more imperative tone by the movie's end. Moviegoers less accustomed to Oshii's style should understand that it is densely philosophical and introspective, and that it should be approached with a clear and open mindset.

The story begins with the arrival of Yūichi Kannami, a fighter pilot employed by a private military corporation called Rostock (named after the German city), to an airbase under the same corporation. His recent transfer to this new base brings him in contact with an unfamiliar cast of fellow fighter pilots, including the enigmatic base-commander, Suito Kusanagi, who he takes an immediate interest. After adjusting to the base, Kannami asks Kusanagi if she is a "Kildren"--a person belonging to a genetically engineered group of humans who are forced to remain in a perpetual adolescence. Upon hearing this, Kusanagi's detached expression suddenly melts away as her eyes dilate into shock, presumably because she never expected Kannami to be so straightforward--an important indication of Kannami's perceptiveness. She chooses not to reply to his question, and soon afterwards he leaves the room, leaving her staring pensively out the window. The subtle tension that bursts through this scene is one of the first clear indications of there being something more behind the stoic atmosphere surrounding the base. Indeed, all of the characters seem strangely content with the utter monotony of their daily lives; one pilot at the base continuously goes through the ritual of folding a newspaper after finishing it, while another lounges around drinking a bottle of beer and grinning lazily. There is no progression in their lives, no sense of change amidst their everyday proclivities; consequently, Kannami perceives all of this, but his demeanor is equally passive to the stagnant air surrounding his life. Despite seeming much older, he still possesses a boyish innocence; one day he might go and shoot down a couple of enemy planes flying under the flag of the opposing corporation, Lautern, while another he might tag along with his friend, Naofumi Tokino, to see a couple of beautiful prostitutes. But amidst this complacency lies deeper, darker chords of mystery surrounding commander Kusanagi, and as the plot progresses, both characters become intertwined with each other's fate.

The film progresses with a reserved and languid pace; however, acute viewers will notice a gradual development in all of the characters, as well as an ascending level of tension that explodes near the film's climax. Viewers more accustomed to the vivid vivacity and hyper-energized nature of more typical anime series will probably feel downright knocked cold upon watching The Sky Crawlers. There are no clichéd approaches taken in the film's characters; everyone acts appropriately detached exactly because they are detached from reality, living their lives in an endless loop of boredom, gratification and death. Thus, it becomes fascinating to watch how each of these characters respond to this static environment, and eventually, how some seem to break free from it.

Prior to the film's first screening at the Venice Film Festival, a short videotaped presentation revealed some of Mamoru Oshii's thoughts on creating the film. He commented on how many young people of developed nations seem to have become totally complacent with the lack of progression or development in their lives, and are now content to live in familiarity and with little motivation of pursuing a future. Kannami embodies this stagnant youth that has come to plague modern Japan for decades, where there is a shocking abundance of NEET's and Hikkomori in the population. Consequently, The Sky Crawlers becomes more of a social commentary, and certain motifs like the repeating dogfights serve as representations of how individuals with no sense of future for themselves can easily become indistinguishable fighter planes that rise just as easily as they fall. Without a sense of direction in one's life, individuals merely become tools of larger forces just as the "Kildren" remain as tools for the Rostock and Lautern Corporations.

To compliment the harsh reality surrounding the "Kildren", Production I.G. has put together a stunning visual and audio package. The gorgeous CG dogfight sequences spiral, chug, and crash maddeningly into destruction and grace, while richly composed sound effects splatter and roar as artillery meets metal and flesh surfaces. The only small drawback to the whole experience is the slight usage of shortcuts in certain animated sequences, along with a somewhat jarring mix of CG and 2D animation in some scenes of the film. However, the backgrounds are beautifully composed, with intricately detailed textures and a somewhat subdued color palette that re-enforces the somber atmosphere of the whole film. Furthermore, an interesting metaphor appears with the usage of the vast and mostly empty roads across the European landscape, which emphasizes a state of emptiness and lonely vastness and becomes a key detail for a thought that occurs to Kannami at the end of the film.

Because of the film's unabashed pacing, some viewers may find The Sky Crawlers somewhat soporific. However, those who appreciate a film that doesn't resort to commercialized gimmicks to draw in its audience will most certainly enjoy this quietly dramatic masterpiece. It is a remarkably beautiful film and a profound social commentary, one that questions and urges its audience to take direction in their lives, and to strive for a future.

Highly Recommended.

I was expecting quite something from this movie, being it from a director I esteem as Mamoru Oshii. Oddly enough, while all in all it isn't a complete failure, it's mostly lacking right in the direction department.
Most ingredients are quite tasty if not delicious: pretty neat CGI, good sound effects, a promising plot cue to draw on; however they are poorly, almost half heartedly mixed, and the cocktail ends up just... bland.

Most common viewers will find this movie boring; that's not a problem, being boring for a large slice of the common audience seems more often than not to be a needed trait for any good, mature movie or series (animated or not). The issue here is the opposite: the feeling is that the most bored ones this time were the makers themselves. This apparent lack of enthusiasm in the making somewhat affects every aspect of the product, even the best ones, plaguing 'em with lots of uninspired touches, ruining what could have really been a noteworthy work.

The basic outline of the plot is already clear from the description offered on these pages (not to mention that there isn't much more going on in the plot apart those few lines), thus, we can proceed straight on dissecting.

Scalpel.


Animation

As already noted before by fellow reviewers, the sometimes breathtaking CGI is paired with a lackluster traditional animation. And while the lack of facial expressiveness could well have been planned to follow a nichilistic atmosphere which quite failed to be effectively conveyed in the end, the overall bad fluidity really have no excuses.
But, is the CGI really so great? I'm afraid not. It's true indeed that some of the scenery and landscape shots are simply stunning thanks to an interesting photorealistic effect obtained through (it's pretty obvious if you know something about computer graphics) a blend with textures taken from real landscapes, but everything else has limits once you close in to the details.
As soon as the landscape isn't a natural scenery but a city, where textures from wide photos couldn't be used, the photorealism is utterly lost. And the "traditionally" CG rendered buildings are... no less than amateurish.
The planes themselves are usually very well rendered, but once in a while an awfully bland texture kicks in, standing out so bad that it makes the whole scene almost laughable: such as it happens a couple of times with the Teacher's plane. Dogfights are usually pretty good looking, also thanks to some interesting camera twists well timed with the admittedly top notch sound effects, but at the same time most particle effects are poor, and there's a considerable lack of tiny details.
One of the things which distinguish japanese CGIs from western ones, something where the Japanese definitely have a solid lead, is the sheer amount of details and particles even outside the main focus of the scene at hand. This is the simple result got from the amount of work usually put into those scenes rather than any actual technical lead; here, however, it often seems to be looking at "made in Disneyworld" CGIs on that front. Once the result was deemed pretty - and indeed it is anyway - well, it seems they didn't bother to do much more than the bare minimum requested. As we usually do.


Sound

The dogfighting sound effects are definitely top notch. It was already very well explained by others before me, and i have nothing to add. Simply amazing. Unfortunately, everything else isn't living up to them.
Background music is everything but noticeable, and voice overs are exceptionally dull. Again, this is something that was probably intended, at least to some degree: like the chara design, it should have mixed into that nichilistic, oppressive flow this movie should have had. But when the story and most of all the director fail at conveying that feeling, the result tends to look just quite stupid. And pretentious.


Story

The basic idea behind the plot could have been pretty interesting, though really nothing new under the sun. The human need for war - or better said losses and understanding of suffering, but also competition - to know what peace is and then being able to keep and defend it. Thus the point in transforming war into some sort of game, and competition between companies; whithin clear rules and performed only by selected sacrificial lambs, and thus without collateral damages (ok ok, I know it's ridiculous, since we all know one of the basic point of war in modern society is the rebuilding business afterwards... but a story about human nature can sometimes avoid being true to human society and still be quite valid).

However, this is just what we get, the basic idea: nothing else is really developed. And while there's no development of sort to depict in the story nor in the morals supposed to be conveyed, there's not even any deepening on the setting where the story is set. Who? where? when? and most of all why is this happening? The only "explanation" is a couple lines monologue by Kusanagi, so simplistic and naive without any background to support her that it sounds simply childish and laughable. This leaves us with the fifth proverbial "W": What?!

It's obvious the intent wasn't to focuse onto the setting, to keep it a timeless, placeless story, orbiting around the nichilistic


In conclusion, let's be fair: there's really no story here, dot.
And that tiny tiny moral under the roof could have well been conveyed by a 10 minutes short film. Probably better since it wouldn't have felt so stupid in such a context.
Still, that lack could have been overcome by a direction capable of oppressing you as intended; too bad it never succeeds at it.

An intelligent viewer can come up with thousands of meanings even in front of a blank piece of paper. But a smart viewer will still recognize it's just that, a white, blank piece of paper. The work of a writer is to propose a story which will be able to move the reader and encourage him to think about its implications; it's not the work of the reader to devise those implications to give the uninspired writer an alibi for getting his royalties from thin - though maybe good-smelling - air.


Characters

Poor little characters, they suffer from the faults of everything else. With such a story, and the atmosphere they should have been playing under, they can't turn out to be much more than dull puppets. You can't sympathize with them since they are blatantly void, and neither that sort-of-intended voidness succeeds at moving you the tiniest bit.
It doesn't help, I've got to say, that some of those "childrens" have voices worth of a tenor... it seems their bodies aren't growing, but their testicles do indeed to an exceptional extent. Can't blame 'em, I too feel quite... weighted down... down there, after this watch.


Value and Enjoyment

Well, it could be reccomendable for the decent - though definitely not over the top - eyecandy worth... and that's about it, covering my own enjoyment too.

Actually, while I believe most of its faults can be traced up to Oshii, since as told the single components alone are either good or could have been so, I feel the root of the issue here was broader. 'Cause Oshii talent should be indisputable, and this leaves me with this undismissable mental image of a producer behind his desk in a dark room...
"Yeah Mamoru-kun, I know, it wasn't the best subject and it turned out worse. But don't despair, you know how it works: take the dullest, most boring meatloaf and sell it well... maybe even send it to Venice as if it was worth it, and those brainless pseudo-intellectuals will dig it just to look smart at their self confidence delusions, calling it philosophical, finding meanings where there are none to embellish themselves. It's much better than sending 'em a good movie to be raped by critics for those same delusions of grandeur reasons."

Sky Crawlers: Snores on a Plane
The take-off was great, but the engines died in midair.

Story 3/10
In the Sky Crawlers, Mamoru Oshii presents his take on the tried and true 1984-formula as put forth by George Orwell back in 1948: Constant war for eternal harmony.
The single continuous story told centers around a small group of pirates and their daily life during the war. There are some faint traces of romance, but nothing near shoujo-levels. And that's about it for the spoiler-free part of the story.

Characters 3/10
In some movies, the characters are almost fluid: changing temperaments, evolving goals and ideals, swirling emotional states and realistic transitions through stages of life. In Sky Crawlers, we are shown the exact opposite: A group of vague stereotypes set in stone. Except even stone changes with time. I guess a better analogy would be “congealed in formaldehyde”.
One could, however, take the opposite standpoint and knowledgeably point this out as reference to the Cycle of Samsara, in which case I will congratulate you one hundred and eight time on your grasp of the Bhuddist dharmas.
The star of the movie is arguably the dog, especially considering the excellent acting shown near the ending.

Animation 6/10
Top notch CGI and smooth movement. Awe-inspiring renders of the airplanes, with a realistic looking landscape underneath.
And the characters? Not so much. The characters were pretty much done in Mamoru's trademark style, as seen in Jin-roh and partly through-out the Ghost in the Shell series. However, in Sky Crawlers the characters, apart from being strangely difficult to even tell apart, seemed pale to the point of exaggeration. As for facial expressions, everyone seemed to have a stiffened apathetic gaze, like a death mask of sorts, only switched for a hollow smile or an teary-eyed grimace once in a while. Considering the story, this might have been a conscious decision, but if it was not... Production IG really need to hire new animators, because the budget-to-character-animation-quality ratio is waaay off. I'm not really picky about animation quality, easily forgiving poor animation in return for good story and voice acting, but the total lack of emotion presented in this movie made interactions a chore just to watch through.

Sound 8/10
The absolutely great sound effects present throughout the whole movie balances out the forgettable soundtrack and uninspired voice-overs. Roaring engines, teeth-rattling machine guns and earthshaking explosions? All present and accounted for in the Sky Crawlers.
The anime industry of Japan can pride themselves on having some of the best voice actors in the world, the legendary seiyuu, but they are somehow absent in this movie. Instead, we are presented with a bunch of mumbling and bored people who seem to have been hired by lottery-ticket. Also present in the movie is the by now classical Engrish. As someone who grew up without english as a native language and as someone who studied said language over 12 years, I can relate to the feelings that English sounds and feels “cool” and “fashionable”, but to me, the sometimes overwhelming and oftentimes unmotivated use of English in anime is starting feel more and more like... lingual fanservice.
Funnily enough, there are a few non-Japanese voice talents doing quite okay work in English and Polish(!) throughout the movie.

Value 2/10
Would I watch this again? No thanks. Would I go out and scour the net for the collectors edition or the directors cut? Hah, dream on. Would I recommend anyone watch this for other reasons than sheer curiosity? Probably not.
In the end, this just isn't a memorable movie by any stretch of the word. It wasn't on the so-bad-it's-offensive level, but it just doesn't hold any appeal, even for anime-buffs. This might however be a good movie to give to some with the intention of discouraging them from anime, but I really hope you won't try anything that mental!
If this movie is still being watched outside conventions and anime clubs in 10...no, 5... make that 3 years from now on, then I'll be officially surprised.

Enjoyment 3/10
There is a bit of pseudo-philosophy involved in the movie: “How do you stay in control of your feeling in this endless war?”, with the answer being “Not knowing whether I'm awake or asleep”. This was coincidently also the feeling I got from watching the movie.
I had quite high hopes for this movie: Airplanes, aerial dogfights, Mamoru Oshii behind the wheel and with him the promise of a slower pace than the kind of waste Hollywood regurgitates nowadays. What I got was... well, it wasn't exactly a steaming pile of crap, it was just... nothing. There's just NOTHING GOING ON in the movie. There's no apparent beginning, there's no “real” ending and there is no goal. I actually paused halfway into the movie, proceeded to sleep the rest of the night, returning to watch the movie the next day. And to be honest, I could have skipped that first hour from the beginning without any change in the final enjoyment.
That said, Mamoru Oshii has done some outstanding work on the Ghost in the Shell series and I do look forward to his future works. Unless he's doing a sequel to this plane crash.

Summary
Are you looking for a good anime about airplanes and dogfights? Go for “Last Exile” instead.
Are you looking for a great anime-movie about airplanes and dogfights? Try “Porco Rosso”.

If you missed the Sky Crawlers at the film festival in Venice, here's a golden opportunity for you to miss it again!