Overview

I'll admit that I didn't go out looking for this particular series, and that I probably wouldn't have picked it up if not for the fact that I didn't know anything about it. That having been said, I'm glad that I decided to pick up the first three episodes of it when I saw them flash by in my RSS feed from Tokyo Toshokan. The series in question is Yomigaeru Sora - Rescue Wings, and it's about a young man named Uchida Kazuhiro. Kazuhiro is a pilot, freshly out of academy, and wants nothing more in life than to fly fighter jets. It's been his life-long ambition... so needless to say, he's not particularly happy when he finds out that he's been assigned to the helicopter search and rescue squad of the Komatsu air squadron.

Review

Rescue Wings is about as far from the sort of series that I would normally pick up as I could possibly get. It's not science fiction, or fantasy, or even about a magical girlfriend. In fact, it's what classifies as a human drama - the characters, and situations are all very real world events. The squadron itself is based on a real air search and rescue wing, flying out of the JASDF Komatsu Air Base. Kazuhiro's new squadron is a quick response unit sent in for emergency aid and assistance in areas hit by disasters, mountain search and rescues, boat capsizes, anything like that. Yet, as Kazuhiro arrives at his new station, he's far from eager - something that his new commander, Hongo Shujiro recognizes immediately upon setting eyes on him. Normally I'd dock points from a series for having such a hard ass character as Hongo, but in the case of Rescue Wings, I'll forgo that. Not only do I know that people of Hongo's temperament are out there, but I'd sure as hell one one of them leading any rescue attempt for me.

Kazuhiro gets a rather abrupt baptism in fire, even though he's only a trainee and technically not cleared to be sent out on rescue missions just yet. A major - 7.6 - earthquake hits the Komatsu region, and the base commander calls him and asks if he would like to come along as an observer in the operations following. Once he reports to base, it turns out that one of the regular squad members was injured in the earthquake, and Hongo rather loudly - since Kazuhiro is across the room and not part of the conversation - wonders if there's anybody that would be brave enough to volunteer themselves to fill in for the injured crewman.

While I'm not going to cover any more of the story from there, there's a particular reason for that, in this series. You see, it caught me off guard. In fact, it's fair to say that Rescue Wings got me with a real sucker punch of an event. The series managed to do something that only a handful of series have managed to do - I found myself crying at the end of the third episode. I'll let you chew on that for a little while, while I move on with the preview.

I've been enjoying the music thus far in this series. The opening sequence - not the actual opening theme, mind you, just the first five minutes of the series - had a nice bluesy sound to it. The other themes so far have all been surprisingly good, and most importantly, suitable to the moment. The Op theme is decent, definitely worth a couple listens to. I'd also like to say that they've used the ending theme remarkably well - in most of the episodes, it's been a fairly subdued piece, average stuff... The end of episode three, though... Like I said, the series hit me hard that episode, and the ending theme was sharp and a lot harder edged than it had been, too. Excellent work on the part of the writers - I can honestly say that I want to see what they've got coming up down the line.

The animation is top-notch, but here again is the simple fact - this is a human drama. You're not going to find the stylized anime look that we've all come to know and love. Big eyes, little mouths, overly endowed teenager girls, hair bright enough a blind gay man would say, 'That is loud, this isn't Carnival honey!'... They're not here. Instead, the character design is about as realistic as anime can get. Not only are they realistic, some of the characters are down right plain - plain as anybody you'd meet on the streets of Tokyo. CG animation is used for the aircraft, and has, thus far, been excellent, melding almost seamlessly in with the regular animation. Incidentally, they did an excellent job of modeling the aircraft too, especially the chopper that Kazuhiro's been assigned to.

A human drama would be nothing without its characters, and again, Rescue Wings has done an excellent job in this area. As I mentioned above, Hongo Shujiro defines the tern hard ass boss, and he's barely laid off Kazuhiro since he arrived. He's not without reason, either. Try as he might - and he's not trying very hard - he can't hide the fact that he wanted to be assigned to the fighter squadron. That sort of attitude gets people killed, though, so I'm glad to see Hongo being such an ass - it's realistic. The writers have done an incredible job of setting up the character dynamics of the flight squadron, and how Kazuhiro is starting to fit in as of the fifth episode. They're not afraid to pull punches, either - one of the squad mechanics says, quite bluntly, that Kazuhiro is rather incompetent, something that I see slowly starting to change already.

Overall

I can't stress this enough, folks - this series is a human drama series. Don't watch it expecting action - though there's plenty - or bevies of bountiful bouncing babes - though there are a couple lookers. Don't look to be stunned by interesting and unique character designs either, though feel free to be impressed with just how normal some of the characters are. Rescue Wings gets my highest marks on a preview - it's an excellent series, well paced, and extremely well written thus far. The first episode does feel slow - don't pay that any mind, it's just because events accelerate rather rapidly out of control after the earthquake. Give Rescue Wings a look folks - you won't regret it, even if human dramas aren't usually your thing!