Winter 2019 gave us two VERY different cute girl plane animes, one where the girls are the actually jet fighters that is Girly Air Force, the other, Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai and well…
Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai for LA felt like it fell under the radar in a ways due to all the popular sequels and slammer of an anime that was released at the same time but if anything Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai seems like a diamond in the rough if see can find it.
Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai is about the daily lives of the Kotobuki Corps, a band of girls piloting plane fighters as bodyguards for hire and though the anime is mostly an episodic anime looking at the various characters within the Kotobuki Co, the anime subtlety adds in world building and a bigger threat that is ALL connected to the missions Kotobuki Corps gets wrangled into fighting in the process.
Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai also has a way of subtlety adding in little details about both the minor and main characters and they “show don’t tell”, this especially when the dogfighting ensues and they allow the great executed 3DCGI use on the planes to used in full effect. As a side effect to both the show don’t tell as well as less exposition overall, the anime does seem a bit aimless at first let alone the sense of a lull as the episodes goes along as we continue to see the Kotobuki Co. helping with missions, be it if they wanted to or not.
As for the characters, well due to the majority of the main character focus mostly going to Kirie voiced by Sayumi Suzuhiro, Reona voiced by Asami Seto, Zara voiced by Hibiku Yamamura and Kate voiced by Sayaka Nakaya, the rest of the characters slightly get afflicted with being satellite characters, for the characters that do get heavy development, we see all sorts of strife coming from their character developments with Kirie getting the most out of it end the end when all the episodes threads converge. Kirie gets backstory as to why she wanted to fly planes has a stake in the bigger narrative and grows as a character of not being so cocky and her naivete getting the best of her, Reona gets a more personal development as well as her judgment as leader of the Corps even when her boss and client does what Reona doesn’t want to do. Kate gets development thanks to her brother as her brother is integral to the bigger plot at hand and Kate obviously cares for him due to him being wheelchair bound from an incident. LA’s favorite character is actually Kate as her calm, stoic demeanor, cracking deadpan jokes and having a stake in the plot helps as well. Lastly Zara get an episode to herself where it’s pretty much “don’t judge by appearance” situation and she’s a badass on land AND air. The only two main cast members that gets shafted in terms of development are Emma and Chika, both have butt monkey status to them but Emma especially while Chika is the genki but also gets into trouble for running her mouth as well type.
The minor cast have great amount of screentime, showing that the plot cares about the main cast as much as the minor cast moves the plot forward and there are some mysteries within some of the minor characters, like a mysterious plane that bugs Kirie, a councilor always seeking the Kotobuki’s help, a nerve-wrecked and indecisive mayor and a trickster magician going into politics who’s also renowned as a fighter pilot.
LA is going into spoilers, but with the world building given to this anime and the revelations of the “hole” sucking up the OCEAN thus the barren wasteland that Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai resides in and later on when we find out that the Yufang are actually Japanese, if the hints are lining up to something and this is just LA’s speculation so hear LA out, so what with the entire oceans sucked up and planes being sent into Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai world….are Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai and Girls und Panzer linked in a ways?, LA says this as Girls und Panzer’s world is FILLED with oceans and the means of transportation of their main cast are carriers, so like alternative world theory?, heck we can add in the fact that Tsutomu Mizushima was both the director for this anime AND Girls und Panzer so he might be making a foundation for something bigger later?. LA is throwing speculations out there so take it with a grain of salt.
With that being said, the animation done by WAO World and GEMBA did actually a great job integrating the 3D CGI to fit in with the CGI planes, as well the character designs are entirely 3DCGI besides some traditional animation here and there. This works as the planes are completely CGI and the stunts the planes goes through as well as the dogfighting that ensues in this anime, this anime really feels like Arpeggio of Blue Steel but with planes!, heck the dogfighting in Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai was much more engaging, intense and impressive than Girly Air Force from the same season and that is saying something. One of the few rare 3D CGI animes where the 3DCGI use was utilized and executed extremely well to be perfectly honest.
Voice acting wise, the voice cast had ALOT of chemistry with one another, especially Sayumi Suzuhiro and Miyu Tomita as Kirie and Chika respectively. Asami Seto was typecasted but still did a great job and both Sayaka Nakaya and Hibiku Yamamura did great as well. There are LOTS of minor characters but LA is speculating and by chance did Nao Touyama voice the waitress in the bar?…just LA?. Nonetheless decent cast with some great chemistry, great considering the anime has lots of talking making the camaraderie between the girls that much better from their banters.
Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai may seem like a “3DCGI anime with planes” but it is soo much more than that once the bigger plot arises and it full blown turns into a air warfare for superiority over a tyrannical and somewhat crazy leader out for something of the unknown…….witty writing and direction and subtle character development from the half the cast at that and brilliant world building as well. Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai is to be honest, LA’s dark horse of Winter 2019 and aher diamond in the rough in terms of 3DCGI animes.
LegendAqua 