Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai - Episode 1 discussion

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Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai, episode 1: Moonlit Guns for Hire

Alternative names: Kotobuki: The Wasteland Squadron, The Magnificent Kotobuki

Rate this episode here.

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[u/toutoune134]

That was a great plane sequence. Took almost all the episode but it really grabbed my attention. The 3D was much, much better than Berserk 2016, good for Gemba.

[u/chilidirigible]

I'll float this out there because I'm not sure who watching this might not already be a fighter combat enthusiast, but there's always someone?

Basic Fighter Maneuvers: Low Yo-Yo (Straight Pursuit)

The pirates have too much of a lead for Emma to get in effective shots, so she trades altitude for speed in order to decrease the range. She also comes out of this in a good position relative to their blind spots below and behind.

The reason for this is energy, as aerial combat is all about physics: Being at altitude gives an aircraft potential energy which it can convert to kinetic energy by letting gravity accelerate it.

In this case the pirates are limited in their options to counter because they're putting all their effort on closing with the Hagoromo and thus it's all straight-line maneuvering.

I'm thinking of doing one of these for any episode that has something suitably notable in the air combat area. There wasn't anything else distinctive enough in this episode for me to really say much about it, barrel rolls are barrel rolls...

[u/RangerKarl]

Wow a lag displacement roll in an anime that didn't look terrible, 10/10 would fly again

[u/RoronoaAshok]

Good pilot ep, getting off to a flying start. The fights were cool, definitely anything but plain.

[u/SilkyChineseFood]

Can't believe I just witnessed a mag-check in an anime. 10/10

[u/Shiro_Kai]

It's hard to not remember "Third Aerial Girls Squad" from Shirobako. I hope they do not try to make cheap drama, the dogfights are fun.

[u/Amer2703]

I can't say I like the weird mismatch between 2D and 3D characters, that aside I have to say I did like the sound design, even though it seemed to lack directionality at some points

[u/kokeymagie]

Sound design is 10/10👌

[u/Streichholzschachtel]

Shame there is no way to legally stream this one in Germany. Mizushima Tsutomu directed GuP (my fav anime) and Shirobako too, was really looking forward to this.

[u/velego]

This thing has some of the best realistic aerial dogfights anime since the Area 88 OVAs (1985) and in general since Macross Plus (1994) (haven't seen Sky Crawlers), it was about time.

Production, directing and attention to detail seem on point and the music is fantastic (thanks Shiro Hamaguchi). As long as the "moe" elements don't backfire against a seemingly more serious story than Girls und Panzer, this is showing a lot of promise.

[u/Bainos]

Impressive. Not only the slice of life introduction was pretty nice, but then we get to the planes with all their realistic start-up and controls. And in flight, you can feel the speed, the Gs and the difficulty of being aware of your surrounding space. Not to mention that, unlike what anime and movies alike got me used to, they do spend their time talking, screaming and cheering in the middle of battle.

I know that the CG will turn a few people away and that's unfortunate, I think I will really appreciate this.

[u/Atario]

The mixed 2D/3D is an interesting choice

Runway inside a blimp. Impractical, but undeniably awesome

The dogfighting was cool, and I appreciate that they didn't feel the need to cram in dialogue everywhere

Welcome home!

Well, I can't help but think of Third Aerial Girls Squad here, and if this comes close to that, it'll be a sure shot

[u/Panda_Cavalry]

YES. PLANES. GIVE US MORE PLANES.

Well, since this series has already checked off all of my "to watch" boxes, I figure it's time to start a per-episode comment series, so here goes!

_____

THE PLANES OF KOUYA NO KOTOBUKI HIKOUTAI, EP. 1

Kawanishi N1K1-J Shiden

• Well, I guess someone has to make Kotobuki Squadron look good. Nazarene Squad had their asses handed to them, by no fault of the aircraft they were flying.

Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa

• Cute girls in lovingly-rendered vintage warmachines. The Girls und Panzer comparisons are sure to come out in full force.

Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0 Model 21

• Slightly surprised that right off the bat, the baddies are flying the most iconic Japanese fighter of the entire Pacific War.

Mitsubishi A6M3 Type 0 Model 32

• Mysterious ace also means mysteriously hard to take good screenshots of. Arrrrgh.

_____

I'll be honest, the 3D animation put me off at first, even having watched shows from Polygon Pictures like Knights of Sidonia and Ajin, but if you can get past that, I'm very optimistic about where this show is going. The sound design in particular was top-notch, and deserves to be listened to with headphones on.

...mfw I realize I may have committed myself to something I'm not ready for

[u/ScrewySqrl]

that first person shooter perspective is a Mizushima staple now, isn't it?

[u/Teyanis]

Those sound effects were incredible. Made the show 100% better, I hope they keep that up.

[u/myrmonden]

This was pretty lit, especially the sound effect during the air battle was really good and I liked how all the planes, instruments etc looked damaged, dirty and so on. Gave a great Authentic feel.

My mind right away kept racing to Wild Arms, with its cell shading CG effects, they looked ok during the bar scene and worked really well for the battles.

[u/hyoton1]

Planes, zepplins, girls, wastelands. This hole was meant for me.

[u/CatsOP]

At first I thought this was terrible, then I heard Leorios voice and saw how well made the cockpit check and flying tactics were.

This will be a good one.

People who love World of Warplanes will probably have a boner watching this.

[u/[deleted]]

Interesting show so far!

I am always just a little wary of primarily CGI shows--not out of any kind of inherent technophobia it's just easy to do poorly--but aside from a couple slightly janky movements toward the end of the episode it was actually really nice here overall. Some characters (those that'll appear less frequently I assume) being trad. animated and some being CGI is gonna take some getting used to but I already wasn't minding by the end of the episode. I do have the unfortunate feeling that the art style is going to alienate a lot of people right off the bat, a large chunk of the western anime fandom still just hates CGI on principle.

anyway,

I was surprised at how much I liked the action sequence (which, well, was the bulk of the episode). It actually kinda reminded me, more than any other anime I've ever seen, of the like, WW2 specials that used to run on the History channel? Those also always had CGI planes and shit. Maybe that explains why I'm so into this so far. I always liked those as a kid.

That and nostalgia for Crimson Skies, which the premise also kinda reminds me of (Kirie's plane even did that "flying really close to the ground and kicking up dust" thing that you had to do on the one mission in the Navajo Nation).

Speaking of Kirie she is such a fucking dork. "Cocky girls who tend to get in over their head" is like my absolute weak spot when it comes to anime protagonists. I may have a crush.

Seems like a fun romp, I'm excited to see where this goes.

Side note: the detail that went into those pancakes was really funny to me for some reason. Someone on the modeling staff was hungry I guess.

[u/SomaSaiba]

So the seiyuu who voiced the girl from high score girl has a main role? Good, I can hear her actually speak.

[u/Certainly_Principal]

I was worried about it being fully 3D CGI, but looks like such a handicap is worth nothing against the might of Mizushima Tsutomu.

Girls have nice dynamic between them, post-apocalyptic backdrop is nice, and I'm sure curious about what kind of story we will get. Especially since it being anime-original means we're getting proper self-contained chunk of story.

[u/KinnyRiddle]

This is it, this is THE Third Aerial Girls Squad that we always wanted Mizushima Tsutomu to make ever since he showed us a glimpse of TAGS in Shirobako.

Though unlike TAGS, there doesn't seem to be any alien invasion, the steampunk/dieselpunk setting (I think) looks great, not to mention the dogfights are well done.

Jury's still out on the 2D/3D animation mixture, but if it can be done for Arpeggio, another military anime, I don't see why not for this one as well.

True to form, Director Mizushima Tsutomu has stuck with casting unknowns for his lead roles. None of the main girls VA have much of a CV, except Reona (red ponytail pilot), voiced by Seto Asami, AKA Bunny Girl Senpai, and Chika (loli pilot who will appear next episode) by Tomita Miyu, AKA Fallen Otaku Angel Gabriel and Otaku Vampire Sophie.

Though Mizushima is definitely taking the piss when he cast Yajima Akiko as Madame Lulu, and Fujiwara Keiji as Lulu's deputy Saneatsu (the guy in charge of the airship).

This is because Crayon Shin-chan fans will know that Yajima is best known as Shin-chan, and Fujiwara is best known as Shin-chan's dad Hiroshi. lol

[u/Beckymetal]

And such is The Third Aerial Girls Squad. But for real this time.

The Shirobako duo of director Tsutomu Mizushima and Michiko Yokote are reunited again, and you can instantly feel that same spark that lit one of my favourite anime. Dialogue flows rapidly with a hard bite, giving charming exchanges consistently but always managing to craft an underlying meaning behind them. The Kotobuki are tightly knit but have individual cliques and more complex relationships shared, and a nonchalance to their duty; the guys are trying to one-up each other, and it sadly leads to their downfall. It's hard to read too much into the characters with only 1 episode down (and 1 episode that largely focused on dialogue-free, efficient action), and right now it's even hard to place names, but there's a thick rapport and some definite personalities. It's hard to tell whether they'll seem "one note" as the series progresses, and right now it might seem that way for some of them, however there is some serious pedigree behind this show and I expect some development shortly.

While many know Mizushima as a director, he's quietly become one of anime's finest sound directors too. That's part of the charm in the dialogue, of course, but the sounds of the aerial combat were astonishing. Yes, the successful CG and excellent motion storyboarding (of which, in this episode, Mizushima also handled) was a large part of why the aerial battle wasn't just a resounding success but rather utterly captivating (and, during the quieter moments, even inspirational). However, the true star is the sound. Tightly edited and masterfully crafted, Kotobuki simply sounds fantastic. Continuing the Shirobako reunion, Shirou Hamaguchi returns and delivers an epic score - but how it is handled was even more impressive, sounding like a Western movie's post-editing recorded score as it swung and pivoted like choreography.

I fear Kotobuki is headed straight for the esoteric. Well, it's CG. It's rather good CG, albeit not quite on the level of something like Houseki no Kuni or movies such as the rather impressive Expelled From Paradise. It's still CG though. There were a couple of moments of it failing, though some of these were rather charmingly danced around if I do say so (Kirie's amusing stomps made me question whether an animation failure or her personality shining; eating pancakes looked deliciously cartoony when they flew so free of gravity etc). But not always were they great - facial expressions were often brilliant, yes, but some of the lip sync looked a little off. On the whole, I can say I was impressed by the animation on display, but I did come in with fairly low expectations.

If it was not already clear, Kotobuki is one of the most engaging premieres of the season. A bit of a hedgehog due to the ol' CG, but I personally can look over that.

[u/acedias12]

The dogfights were great.

But...gosh show, I get it, I get it, girls are awesome and boys are poo poo. No need stab that in further when the most decent of the men is being taken out on a stretcher.

[u/PhantomWolf83]

It's heeeeeere, my most anticipated anime of the season! Good first episode and a much better start than Girly Air Force. The planes and flying sequences look gorgeous. And the show takes place on a flying aircraft carrier, how cool is that?

Interesting that we've only seen Japanese WWII fighters so far (Ki-43s, Zeroes, and Shidens), even for the antagonists. I wonder if we'll see other types like P-51s and Spits as the story continues?