Yukikaze

Publisher
Bandai
Director
Masahiko Ohkura
Production
Bandai, GONZO, Victor Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
OVA
Running time
5 episodes
Year
2002

Yukikaze - Volume 1

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
28th Apr 06

How do you review an anime title involving fighter-jets, aliens and advanced artificial intelligence systems without thinking about Macross Plus? Answer: You can’t!

Whilst watching the first episode of Yukikaze your trying to grasp just what is going on in this semi-futuristic Earth whilst at the same time follow the story of the episode. We’re given a brief introduction that some aliens, named the JAM (which is possibly the least threatening name for an alien race ever), form another dimension suddenly attacked the Earth through a dimensional door over Antarctica. The UN military managed to push the aliens back through the door on to their home world of “Fairy” (another scary name) where the war still rages. We’re introduced to Rei Fukai a young very introverted pilot in the SAF (Elite Special Air Force) who pilots the Yukikaze, a fighter plane with advanced A.I., which Rei shares a very “special” bond with. The UN has been making moves to replace all human pilots with purely A.I. driven fighters. Whilst it seems the JAM have infiltrated the SAF when several SAF aircraft are identified as being JAM by the Yukikaze.

There are very few human characters in the show. Including Rei, who arguably could be considered a machine the way he thinks and acts, the only other major characters of note that have any interaction with Rei are Major Jack Bukhar and Captain Edith Forth who both see Rei in entirely different lights. In the background of these first two episodes is also an author who is writing a book on the JAM, who at first seemed to be just a convenient way to introduce the background of the show in episode one, but appears in the other episode as well.

The visuals of the character scenes are often quiet and dark, but they are also somewhat slow and dose bare resemblance to Macross Plus in terms of visuals. The battle scenes involving the Yukikaze (or other fighter jets) have more in common with the mecha scenes from “Voices from a Distant Star” using CGI, and are very impressive also. Although you realise that the seriousness visuals of the character scenes and the CGI just don’t mix well together. In addition, there is a lot of mystery held over the viewers head, there’s a lot going on and next to none of it is reasonably explained to the viewer, and there is little indication of where this rather short series seems to be heading. The English voice acting is a little dull but that seems to be due to the problems of the show as a whole rather than the English voice actors, and the soundtrack isn’t up to much either.

As Yukikaze is only five OVA episodes and about three DVD volumes, long it is possible that things turn around in the next volume and Yukikaze turns into something a little special, but this volume certainly lacks a spark.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English/French Subtitles, English/Japanese Audio Track, Trailers, TV Spots. Making of Documentry

Release information: Publisher: Beez Released: April 17th 2006 Classification: 12 Running Time: 100mins

Notes: The Making of documentry is pretty detailed, on how the CG planes etc were created. If that sort of thing excites you then you'll enjoy it, if not then the documentary dosen't hold much draw power.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 28th Apr 06

Yukikaze Images