The ''

Air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series is based on the

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

'' by the Japanese visual novel brand Key. The episodes, produced by the animation studio

Kyoto Animation , often abbreviated , is a Japanese animation studio and light novel publisher located in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. It was founded in 1985 by husband and wife Hideaki and Yoko Hatta, who remain its president and vice-president respectively. Kyoto ...

, are directed by

Tatsuya Ishihara is a Japanese animator, television and film director. Working for Kyoto Animation since 1988, he has directed '' The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'', ''Clannad'', ''Nichijou'', ''Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions'' and '' Sound! Euphonium''. Earl ...

, written by

Fumihiko Shimo is a Japanese anime screenwriter and novelist, best known for writing the scripts for Kyoto Animation's anime adaptations of Key visual novels. Novels *, illustrated by You Shiina (July 2014, Famitsu Bunko, ) Screenwriting Head writer credit ...

, and features character design by Tomoe Aratani who based the designs on

Itaru Hinoue is the pseudonym of a Japanese artist from Osaka Prefecture, Osaka, Japan, who is one of the founding members of the visual novel brand Key (company), Key under VisualArt's. Hinoue's choice of her pseudonym stems from the manga ''C'' by Shō Kita ...

's original concept. The story follows the main character Yukito Kunisaki, a traveler who arrives in a quiet seaside town during summer since he does not have any more money to continue on his journey for now. He is on a search for the "girl in the sky" that his now-deceased mother told him about and was searching for too; Yukito has taken it upon himself to find this girl to finish his mother's journey. In town, Yukito meets three strange girls early on named Misuzu Kamio, Kano Kirishima, and Minagi Tohno, and Yukito begins to suspect that one of them may in fact be the girl he has been searching for. Thirteen episodes were produced by Kyoto Animation: twelve regular episodes, and a final

recap Recap may refer to: * Retread a resurfaced tire * Recap sequence * Dividend recapitalization * RECAP, archiving software for United States court documents *'' The Recap'' album See also * Summary (disambiguation) {{disambig ...

episode which summarizes Misuzu's

story arc A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of a plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing narrative, storyline in episode, episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strip ...

. On November 17, 2004, a teaser

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

named "Air prelude" was produced containing interviews with the cast, clean opening and ending sequences, and promotional footage of the anime itself. It was a limited edition DVD, with only 20,000 copies produced. The episodes aired between January 6 and March 31, 2005 on the

BS-i is a Japanese satellite broadcasting station headquartered in Akasaka Gochome, Minato, Tokyo. Its channel name is BS-TBS (formerly, BS-i). Channels *Television: BS-TBS is assigned BS161ch - 163ch. *Radio: BS-i had been assigned 461ch, 462c ...

Japanese

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

. After the conclusion of the anime series, a mini-series which added to the Summer arc of the story called ''Air in Summer'' aired on August 28 and September 4, 2005 a week later on BS-i. ''Air in Summer'' consisted of two episodes and was produced by the same staff as the anime series. A DVD released on March 31, 2005 called "Air Memories" contained promotional commercials for the series, staff commentaries, and clean ending sequences from the twelfth and thirteenth episodes, lasting ninety-two minutes in total. The episodes were released to six Region 2 DVDs between April 6 and September 7, 2005 by

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which distributes music, films, home video, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyo ...

in limited and regular editions containing two episodes per volume. A single DVD volume for ''Air in Summer'' was released on October 5, 2005 in Japan in limited and regular editions. Additionally, ''Air'' became one of the first anime series to be released in

Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...

format on December 22, 2006. A new version of the Blu-ray Disc box set was released on November 28, 2008 in Japan. The twelve main episodes and two ''Air in Summer'' episodes were licensed for

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n distribution by

ADV Films A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Gr ...

. The episodes were released on four DVD compilations between August 14, 2007 and November 27, 2007. The second DVD volume was sold in two editions, with the difference between the two being a series box all four DVDs could fit inside. In July 2008, the license for the anime series and film was transferred to

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

continued to produce them in North America in English. Funimation released a three-disc series box set of the ''Air'' anime on April 21, 2009. Two pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

are used for the episodes; one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is , and the ending theme is "Farewell song"; both songs are sung by

Lia Lia is a feminine given name. In the Spanish-speaking world, it is accented Lía. In English-speaking countries, the name may be a variant of Leah or Lea. Lia may be a diminutive of various names including Julia, Cecilia, Amelia, Talia, Cornel ...

and were the original opening and ending themes from the visual novel. The rest of the soundtrack for the anime series is sampled from the visual novel's

original soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured ...

. This includes one insert song used near the end of episode twelve, , which is also sung by Lia, and was originally an insert song from the visual novel.

''Air''

''Air in Summer''

References

External links

''Air'' anime official website
{{Key (company)

Episodes Episodes may refer to: * Episode, a part of a dramatic work * Episodes (TV series), ''Episodes'' (TV series), a British/American television sitcom which premiered in 2011 * Episodes (journal), ''Episodes'' (journal), a geological science journal ...