hirty-three years ago, an alien force known as the JAM attacked Earth, arriving on the planet via an interstellar portal they established in the Antarctic. After "countless battles," the JAM were driven back to their own planet, which the Earth forces nicknamed "Fairy." These days, most people on Earth think of the JAM as an urban legend, but the U.N.'s special mission force, the Fairy Air Force (FAF), continues the battle on Fairy itself. Though the FAF has established a sizable mission force on the alien planet, it still hasn't learned much about the JAM, or even about the planet itself. It simply fights battle after battle with alien ships, which are inhumanly fast, maneuverable and implacable.
The Special Air Force (SAF) is a tactical sub-unit of the FAF, tasked to collect data about warfare against the JAM; typically, its fighters fly high over the scene of any battle, observing but not interfering, and therefore drawing the resentment and hatred of ordinary FAF pilots. Still, SAF pilot Rei Fukai seems to end up in combat fairly often, and whenever he does, strange things happen. When things get particularly hairy, Rei's fighter jet, an advanced-tech unit named "Yukikaze," tends to display the message "I HAVE CONTROL" and pull bizarre maneuvers. Rei's behavior is just as bizarre; he skulks around silently, looking out at the world from under a pulled-down baseball cap and through a curtain of hair. (All other considerations aside, "Yukikaze" features the shaggiest pilots in the history of aerial combat.) His one friend seems to be Maj. Jack Bukhar, who functions as a combination of superior officer, den mother and clingy, jealous boyfriend.
Jack and Rei don't necessarily have an actual physical relationship, but Jack's protective, maternal attitude is decidedly unmilitary, and his emotional reaction whenever Rei's in danger can be a little creepy, given the degree to which he's willing to contravene military protocol and endanger others on Rei's behalf. Especially when Rei goes out on a mission and drops off the face of Fairy altogether. Still, Rei seems a lot closer to Yukikaze than to Jack.
Melancholy moods and dazzling dogfights
Yukikaze is best tailored to audience members who maintain a close relationship with its supplementary material. The series itself, with its dizzying, complex dogfights, its jargon-packed combats and its mountain of assumed knowledge, is more than a little baffling, but the "Mission Briefing" and glossary included on this initial DVD fill in many of the blanks in the complex backstory, and clarify the elements that are present, but presented subtly at best. There's a lot to work with, from the structure of the military groups to their relationship to Fairy to their changing attitudes toward how combat should be waged.
Meanwhile, the show itself is more about silent, surging emotion and frenetic action than about the details of military engagements or alien encounters. Evocative piano/synth music, long wordless pauses, sentences that trail off into weighty silences and a heavy, broody animation style all combine to give Yukikaze an oppressive and desperate feel, and Jack and Rei's own habit of lurking and brooding contributes as well.
But that sense lifts whenever Rei enters combat. The CGI-assisted aerial fights are essentially showcases for gloriously dynamic, experimental animation, in which vehicles loop, bank, soar and dive amid cloudbanks and canyons, between the exploding ships of enemies and allies alike. It's all fast and furious enough to become viscerally exciting, and it lets the series wake up and focus between dreamy Rei-and-Jack interludes, or debates over whether a shift to unmanned, remote-controlled fighter jets is wise.
And speaking of dreamy interludes, Rei's recurring dream involving a beautiful caged woman with dragonfly wings opens up a clear indication that there's more to this series than battles and battle aftermaths. The meaning of his dreams isn't yet clear (though two distinct possibilities present themselves), but they remain an intriguing element of a military series that's pitched more at the senses than at the intellect. So far, Yukikaze is hypnotic on several levels, whether it's lulling audiences or leaping out at them. Even those who don't normally like yaoi shows (which Yukikaze isn't quite, though it veers close) may find this smart, subtle and serious enough to enjoy.
One gripe: The supplemental glossary and mission briefing contain a lot of useful information, but they're presented in a very hard-to-read format: Cleverly angled and distorted to look like screens of data on a monitor angled away from the reader, they're convincingly styled, but distorted enough to make casual read-throughs impossible.
— Tasha
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