Air - Questions and Answers!

[Amaranthine]

My view of the ending is that yes, the boy and girl are reincarnations of Ryuuya and Kanna, and no, Kanna's soul can't be contained in human body (like Minoto said). So although I think the curse is broken, the ending is certainly bittersweet. She can have a happy life now... but she can't have a long one.

[Rengemaru]

Think about it this, what if the reincarnation Kanna is having is more like pouring parts of her vast souls into human containers? that would make it possible for her to reincarnate as a humen being after losing a big portion of her soul. That idea poped in my head early this morning.

And i do think the girl at the end is Kanna. Because since that girl is used in Air's logo, then she must have an importent or vital role in the series. Since an anime's Logo isn't anything to be choosen lightly. That's what i strongly beleive though.

[ryaken]

I still haven't be able to rewatch this, but definitely there is a reason the little girl in the end is a key player.

Does it seem that those children have any idea what is going on with the story?

[martino]

From the boy's comment at the end it looked like they(or at least the boy) had an idea. Of course she is a key player. Just read any post in this thread ad you'll find out. There are lots of theories and speculations here.

[Rengemaru]

I'm wondering why the boy in the end wanted to check the coastline and telling her that she wanted to know what's behind it. It wasn't a random thing he said, there should be some purpose behind it

Spoiler:

maybe since the girl was Kanna and she wanted to see the sea before she died

[nani]

Originally Posted by Rengemaru

I'm wondering why the boy in the end wanted to check the coastline and telling her that she wanted to know what's behind it. It wasn't a random thing he said, there should be some purpose behind it

Spoiler:

maybe since the girl was Kanna and she wanted to see the sea before she died

Hmmm.... my interpretation based on the game materials:

Spoiler:

In the game, "going to the sea side" had been mentioned several times:

When Yukito's mother recalled her own experience with the winged girl, she mentioned something like this : "The child would like to go to the sea side but I cannot bring her along. There were so much she would like to do but there was nothing I can do to fulfill her wishes....."

In addition, after Haruko left and Misuzu's health began to deteriorate, Yukito had attempted multiple times to take Misuzu to the sea side in order to cheer her up. Unfortunately, all attempts failed due to Misuzu's poor health (which in turn, was caused by her curse).

Up to that point, the different incarnations of the winged girl had never succeed in going to the sea side. IMO, it is a symbolic way of saying the curse is still there and hurting the winged girl.

After Yukito sacrificed himself by turning into Sora and temporarily improved Misuzu's health, Misuzu finally had the chance to have some fun at the sea side with Haruko . Later, these happy memories helped to break the curse (as hinted by the ancient poem passed from Kanna's mother to Kanna about the winged people : "if the last surviving member of the winged people can possess a happy memory, then our race's mission (of witnessing all that happened on the planet and passing the memories from one generation to another ) will be completed and we can finally take a long rest (i.e. no more memory passing) ")

At the end of the story, by portraying the girl can freely play at the sea side, I think it is a symbolic way to say the curse has been broken and the girl can live a normal life again.

IIRC, most of the above materials are covered in the animation as well. However, unlike the game when they are repeated multiple times, they are only mentioned once or twice and are easily missed.

Anyway, as I have mentioned in my previous post, there is no official anwser and the ending is an open ended one. Whether the story has a bitter-sweet ending or a sad ending depends entirely on your own interpretation.

[Rengemaru]

I really need to see the animation again, how could i've missed those points, I feel like a newb T.T

Anyway thx for your answer nani~

[Lungkisser]

I have a question and didn't feel like making a new thread for it so hopefully someone can answer it here. I'm watching through Air again (it's been awhile) and I'm wondering if anyone knows what order I should watch them in if I wanted to throw in the two Summer Specials in the middle instead of saving them for last, or if that's even possible. Just FYI, I've only seen 1-12, haven't watched the Summer Specials before so wouldn't know myself.

[Minoto]

Originally Posted by Lungkisser

...I'm wondering if anyone knows what order I should watch them in if I wanted to throw in the two Summer Specials in the middle instead of saving them for last, or if that's even possible. Just FYI, I've only seen 1-12, haven't watched the Summer Specials before so wouldn't know myself.

Personally, I'd save the Summer Specials for last. Chronologically, they come about in the middle of episode 8, and basically just fill in the first part of the journey that takes place in that episode. They make what happens later even more poignant, by giving you a better understanding of how the characters' relations grew up to that point, but they're not required viewing to understand the rest of the Summer arc. So with that in mind, I'd rather watch 1-12, to get the the whole story back fresh in my memory, then watch the specials to add that extra understanding and enjoyment of what I've just seen.

I suppose it would be possible to watch episode 8 up to the right point, then stop it and watch the specials, and finally return to the right point in episode 8, but to me it seems like more trouble than it's worth. You'll be seeing at least some duplicated material either way, but I think it's less of an issue if you're returning to it after having watched the full series.

Whichever way you choose to go, enjoy them -- they're well worth watching.

[frad113]

Toss them right in between ep. 8 and 9. Or, alternatively, during the second half of ep. 8, jump back and forth between ep. 8 itself and the Summer specials (like anyone would do that... )

Edit: and I was beaten...

[panzerfan]

Now that I think of it, perhaps one thing that might have eluded Uraha and Ryuya about the crushing soul of the winged beings is this:

Why would you use only 1 container at any given time to hold the water of the ocean? That and couldn't a container offload itself to another? As long there's countless containers that will carryover what floods out of the next the containers will last much longer... if not drain the ocean eventually. No individual will have to bear the full weight alone by having a growing reservoir of container. Of course, that will mean myriads of prople will have soul portion of winged being, which also satisfies Rengemaru's comment on losing a big part of the soul.

[Rengemaru]

Since the curse has been lifted, Kanna's soul is reincarnated into a human container (as a last effect of the curse or just because of the nature of life/souls/nature, make your pick). It could be that:

1.As some has said, her soul is going around in circles of reincarnation but it's not possible according to Uraha's statement at the end of the summer arc. (Human body can't contain a winged being's soul)

2.Having her soul being drained into small fragments in little human containers (compared to the Winged being's containers). Where every container shatters/dies whenever it's filled, and then moves into the next container.

Although many people would prefer theory 1 but it's not efficint to free Kanna from this. But in the end she was freed and finally got the chance to life a normal life, thus theory 2 should be the best choice for now.

A question pops into our mind, what is the fate of Kanna's incarnations? Are they treated like the lives of normal human beings or are they gathered back again or something?


Another question would, why was the legend called 1000th summer? since it was a folklore for atleast 300 years if not more. I think it's another clue to stating that Kanna has finally gained a normal life.

[panzerfan]

Well what I pieced together from all the speculations would be that...

1. The torrent of Kanna's soul breaks any one individual container and that the assumption I have based on what I've seen is that there's supposely only 1 container at any given time.
2. Kannabinomikoto's soul started the reincarnation cycle after her banishment curse wanes, which took 200-300 years.
3. After Fujiwara no Michinaga took absolute control from the emperor at about A.D 1000(they appeased the Buddhist elements by supressing any related material regarding to the winged beings.) he elevated Buddhism.
4. In the history books it stated that there were buddhist faction infightings that essentially ended during AD 995 with the burning of the Temple that Kannabinomokoto was held at by lightning strike. I suppose that if you look at that from the POV of AIR's storyline you can assume that the record was altered to the benefit of the Fujiwara cloistered rulership.
5. After the fall of Fujiwara (took only a century) and going into the era of strife that ended with the beginning of Kamakura period, the entire story of the winged being was covered up and ignored.

I always see the 1000th summer as merely a millennia has come to pass since the banishment of Kannabinomikoto. From the looks of it, none of the container gets to maturity, they all lead solitary existence and... normal I suppose means allowed to reincarnate, not so much to 'live normally'.

[rei]

I really wanted to ask this long ago but then, I forgot. "Does Yukito has any other relatives?"

[Jeiku]

We see Yukito's mother in a flashback, who apparently places her soul into the doll that Yukito carries around with him. I do not think much else was revealed of her though, other than she too was a magical puppet master. And, I don't think anything was mentioned of any other potential relatives, such as siblings or even a father.

[Rengemaru]

Yes, there was no clue or hint about that. But that could be answered better depending on game materials, but from the anime POV, big NOPE

[yuujyo]

Well, I just started watching this, and I was confused after He disapeared in the 7-8th eppie, What happened? Then you see something new. But I can't tell, is it like the past or something? or is it a totally different story?

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by yuujyo

Well, I just started watching this, and I was confused after He disapeared in the 7-8th eppie, What happened? Then you see something new. But I can't tell, is it like the past or something? or is it a totally different story?

Episodes 8-9 comprise the Summer Arc. This takes place in the distant past, during the Heian period of history, 794 to 1185 AD. While this is a totally different story, it is related to the story of the present. Watch it and you'll see how the events of that time created Misuzu's situation now.

[Samatarou]

Originally Posted by chintimz2

how is he able to pass on his knowledge to future generations?
.... Yukito hasn't produced any offsprings

See, those scenes in the H-game are important! He may well have produced offspring!

Re pouring big souls into small containers, I think the water analogy only works up to a point. I think of a soul as a unitary thing, I don't see how you could decant it amongst a number of containers. The way I see it, the whole of it goes into one person, e.g. Misuzu. However it takes time to reach its full potential so it doesn't kill her right away. It's like when Skuld put too powerful an engine into Keiichi's motorbike, when he opened the throttle it shook it to pieces.

The only solution for the soul thing is for the cycle of reincarnation to stop, through her achieving peace. My disappointment with the series was that this didn't seem to have happened, even though some happy memories were generated. However this assumes that the children at the end were the next cycle.

[panzerfan]

Depends on how you come to look at it. From Christian POV, no matter the sect, the 'active force' would be the closest thing to this and flows forth like water. From a Buddhist POV soul really is individualistic and indivisible... atomic in some ways.

That said, in transmission of data, you can breakup a whole into packets... and you can divide a file into several chunks. In streaming of data, as long as the segments are in contiguous order you can view their content (making sense of a fragment is another story).