I LIKE PLANES.
I love their style, the…almost retro feel of the old dogfighters, relying on instinct
and skill and not electronic instruments to fight and take down your foes.
You know what else I like?
Mizushima Tsutomu as a director!
He directed not only some of my favourite slice of life comedies like Squid Girl and
Girls Und Panzer – which, by the by, going from tanks to Planes raises my hype level
significantly – but he also directed Shirobako, my favourite anime of 2015, in which they
make an anime about a group of girls who fly around in planes JUST LIKE THIS.
COULD MY HYPE GET ANY HIGHER?!
Probably, but I’m glad it didn’t, because you know what they say: the bigger the hype,
the harder the disappointment.
Wait, wait, wait, hold up.
With that intro you are going to think that I don’t like this show.
And I do!
I do enjoy it!
It’s just that it has problems alright?
We’ll get into those.
Ok continue the intro.
THE MAGNIFICENT KOTOBUKI
To start, I feel like I need to clarify something because otherwise I think people might take
my opinion on this show in the wrong direction.
There can be such a thing as a show that is not brilliant, but also not trash; a series
that is more of a disappointment, rather than just being plain bad.
The Magnificent Kotobuki is not a bad show.
It’s actually been a rather enjoyable show, but I’m unfortunately finding it much easier
to come up with disappointments instead of positive notes.
Kotobuki is a series about a squadron of mercenary air pilot dogfighters,
taking on jobs and doing a crap-ton of flying and fighting.
It’s half awesome dogfighting show, half slice of life with the main characters,
which is both good and bad.
And I just listed both of those as things that I enjoy.
Believe you me, as someone who goes out of my way to watch slice of life shows, this
one hurts.
This is due to a number of reasons.
The cast itself is quite large.
The squadron contains six pilots, plus there is also Madame Lulu who owns and operates
the corps, the commanding officer of the zeppelin that the squadron uses as a home base, the
mechanic who takes care of their planes, and the various other crewmates and officers who
are required for the group to do what they do.
The show as of yet – and this could still change – has been taking its time in really
trying to flesh any of these characters out.
Some, like the commander, don’t need it.
We don’t need more past his introduction scenes to know what he’s about.
But even just focusing on the squadron, after three episodes I could only confidently say
that I know enough about 3 of them.
And now, after 9 episodes, I still don’t feel like I know enough about them.
I assumed that eventually we’d get a better glimpse of most of the cast beyond one-liners
or comedic bits, or out-of-nowhere fan service.
For a long time, I expected that we would just learn more about them as time went on,
but that seems to be less and less the case as the series progresses.
For me, when you have a series like this one that wants to lean heavily on its cast for
their enjoyable interactions, I need to have a reason to care.
I need to know what their story is.
Why are they flying?
Are they flying for someone, because of someone, or do they simply just love flying?
I know some of these answers, but too often I get the feeling that certain characters
were created solely to fill out the squad.
They are given the spotlight in such a way to make it look like they are supposed to
be main characters, but they barely have enough development to qualify as secondary characters.
But enough with my complaints, let’s get to some of the good stuff.
The real highlight of the series, even if it’s a bit “make it or break it” for
most viewers, will of course be the dogfighting.
Most dogfighting scenes tend to take up a full quarter episode thus far, so if you don’t
enjoy this, then you probably won’t appreciate the series as a whole.
There is a lot to like though.
The planes really do make use of the 3D animation in a positive way.
The soundtrack flares when it needs to, but it also stops at all the right places to make
the ambient noise of both the engines and the gunfire do the heavy lifting for extra
excitement.
The only major issue I have with the dogfighting is that I kind of wish there was a better
way to distinguish the aircrafts in the fights themselves.
When the majority of planes aren’t painted fully everything just looks like a flying
metal box and occasionally that makes it difficult to distinguish which plane is for which side,
especially when the plane models are similar enough.
Eventually you come to recognize the shape of the Kotobuki planes, but it’s not incredibly
obvious from the get-go.
There is, sadly, one last negative that I’m going to have to talk about.
So here’s my problem, my absolute biggest problem with the whole series.
It has an absolute disregard for animation consistency.
To be clear, this is not me bashing the show on its use of 3D, at least not specifically.
Rather, I have a problem with the show’s use of both it and 2D animation in conjunction
with one another.
Because you see, when I watched the PV and saw all the other promotional material, I
assumed that this show would be entirely in 3D, which would have been fine.
You can have issues with 3D animation but still have an enjoyable series, see Kemono
Friends, and I thought that the production staff knew what it was doing.
I don’t think that was a good assumption.
If the 3D was bad, then I could at least just register that in my brain and start to ignore
it over time, but that’s not the issue with the show.
First, there are scenes that are animated in 2D.
I don’t know what the criteria were for them to choose which scenes would be done
in this way, but the decisions were made.
That, however, is not the worst of it.
The worst is when you have both 2D and 3D IN THE SAME SCENE.
When your environment is rendered in 3D, the 2D characters stick out like a sore thumb.
Plus, you never know at the start of the scene, what new 2D thing will suddenly decide to
reveal itself.
I keep finding it increasingly difficult to focus on the story, when instead my mind is
distracted by, “Oh, they decided to swap animation styles here.
But why?”
KEEP IT FREAKING CONSISTANT.
Just have some kind of uniform standard, that’s all I’m asking for.
But hey, they did all of the fan service in 2D.
Priorities, am I right?
Sure, I suppose it could be something you come to ignore as the series goes on, but
I find it hard to recommend this show when all the problems just boil down to, “You’ll
get used to it, I promise.”
This is a shame, because I really do enjoy other aspects of this show, however I can’t
not mention these things.
I wish I didn’t have to.
I do enjoy this show as a nice fun and fancy free slice of life, with a little bit of action into it
that just makes it enjoyable to watch.
I just can't in good conscience not mention the other stuff.
So...maybe it'll get better
Then again, this is only my
First Reaction to the series.
with a little luck, it’ll turn out quite different from what I’m expecting.
Thank for joining me for this quick discussion on the Magnificant Kotobunki.
There will be streaming links in the description should you require them.
I'd also a very special thank you to Eleven Arts for sponsoring this video in preparation
for the theatrical release of the anime film Penguin Highway.
Penguin Highway is an absolutely beautiful film that will be making its way to US theatres
Next Month and I’ll put some links in the description so you can potentially find a
showing near you.
This is a film you’ll want to see on the big screen.
Trust me on this.
Of course let me know down in the comments what you have been following this season.
I realize there is not much of this season left and really I probably won’t be covering
any other show on an individual basis but...
You know maybe I'll get to talking about some of them in some kind of future video
in the FUTURE
*Crazy Ark*
So let me know about that and lastly, a big thank you to my patrons, who make these videos possible
You all are amazing, and until next time, WATCH
MORE ANIME! – and stay frosty.