Yomigaeru Sora ~Rescue Wings~
(All episodes watched):
Being an aviation otaku and a fan of shows like Area 88 and Airbats, I looked forward to watching this show. I think episode one did a good job of introducing Uchida, plus revealing his frustration with his unwanted assignment and the impending troubles with his girlfriend, Megumi. The CG of the aircraft is quite good--maybe a little too good, as by comparison it makes apparent how ordinary the animation of the characters themselves is (which makes it a little difficult to suspend disbelief and think of them as real people). Not a major problem, and the character animation is certainly not poorly done. One problem, however, is that with everyone wearing uniforms and having military haircuts and realistically colored hair, I fear I'll have a hard time telling them apart! Actually, only a handful of characters are playing important parts, so this isn't turning out to be a problem after all. Somebody has clearly done some homework, as the tactics of the rescue unit are sophisticated and realistic, and therefore interesting. I'm impressed--touched actually--at the nice job episode four did of fleshing out the main characters, Kazuhiro and Megumi, as she pays him an unexpected visit. I wasn't sure if she would actually play a major part, or would remain largely in the background; so far, so good. There was no actual rescue work in this episode, yet I enjoyed it a lot--that's a good sign. Another good sign is that episodes frequently seem shorter than their actual 23-odd minutes, which definitely indicates I'm getting into them (it's been a while since I've noticed this happening during a series). I had feared that the show might rely on cool technology while having a stereotypical plot, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The two parter story in episodes 6 and 7 was good. On the other hand, I don't see how the crisis on the "ropeway" would cause a runaway boy to turn his life around. The final three or four episodes involved the last mission, namely rescuing mountain climbers lost in a blizzard. I like the way it turned out only partially successful, when it would be so easy to just make these heroes superhuman and have them handily accomplish everything. Likewise surprising is Uchida's admission that he hasn't completely overcome the bitter disappointment he felt after being transferred to Air Rescue (but he's getting there). All things considered, the series ended well and left me feeling good. Rescue Wings strikes me as a series which embraces an unusual topic, doesn't expect or try to be wildly popular, but does a good job of meeting it's modest goal.
P.S: There is a 13th DVD episode, which doesn't feature main character Uchida (not even as a background character) but was interesting and moving nevertheless. There's also a three minute short feature, "Rescue Angel" which is a sort of music-video with all original animation and a character I didn't recognize. The explanation is that "This film was created before the production of Rescue Wings to test the feasibility of the project". Apparently it was decided to drop the Tachikoma-like robot, however!
Last updated Sunday, November 11 2007. Created Wednesday, June 07 2006.
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