Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai, An Anime for Aircraft Lovers

Hello everyone and welcome to our shelter! 😀

So, this post is probably going to be the most niche I can get! I mean, Anime and aircraft… How many people out there can be interested in both so much to actually find this post? And, when I talk about aircraft, I’m not talking about psychedelic, out of this world, Sci-fi spaceships! No, I’m talking the good old, probably used around World War 2, airships!

Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai (The Magnificent Kotobuki) is about a group of girls who live in the world where the trade is made by airship, the ones from the Fantasy world where they are actually an air “ship”! These girls are bodyguards who protect these trade routes and will fight with their own airships, the ones that seem from world war 2.

As you can see from the paragraph above, my knowledge of airships or airplanes is zero! I don’t know models and probably just made a complete mess writing that last paragraph. Basically, they have airplanes and fight with them! Ok, that’s settled! But, only that does not suffice to make it an actual good Anime so…

Why Is Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai For Airship Lovers?

Ok… Just noticed while writing that title that I probably should have been calling it aircraft all along (?) Damn! This post is just getting better and better! But, well, let’s continue and think that I know anything about what I’m writing, okay? Thank you!

Basically, the best of this show has to offer are the actual fights! It’s extremely refreshing to see that our characters are not using any kind of power-ups or special attacks to fight. Nope, actually, it’s the more realistic you can get. You are able to see them go on and about using all type of maneuvers to try to get behind their enemies. Something that, from this episode, understood is the way you will win fights in an aircraft battle. Basically, my head just exploded and I can now understand why pilots undergo training where they do all types of beautiful maneuvers. No, it’s not to awww us, it’s actually how they fight! (Yes, I’m an intelligent person, I swear!)

For people, like me, who do not understand anything about this, let me try to explain. Let’s say you in a fighting airplane and you are being attacked from behind. For you to survive you have to, first, maneuver the airplane so you are not hit and, second, be able to put yourself behind the enemy and start attacking. Of course, this is probably more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it.

Well, Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai goes that route where it seems pretty realistic. From these type of maneuvers to hiding inside the clouds to hide from the enemy and get the advantage. At least for now, it is like this! Something that makes me believe that someone who loves airships/aircraft (?) will love this Anime!

What About The Rest?

Well, the rest is average (?)… To be honest, besides the aircraft battle I don’t remember much… Which is not a good sign, I know!

There is something very strange with the characters’ animation, that I remember! The girls are 3D, which, at this point, doesn’t surprise me anymore. What surprises me is that all other characters are 2D. Moreover, the girls sometimes also appear on 2D instead of 3D. Even more strange is that… It works! I mean, you would think that changing from 3D to 2D is going to be a mess, but strangely enough, it’s not. Honestly, I found it strange the first times because it is not something you are used to watch, but, after a while, things just started to blend and not feel off anymore. I mean, besides the 3D always feeling somewhat off in Anime. Oh, the aircraft is also on 3D. You can clearly see it’s 3D, but I think it works well for the matter.

The rest, I just can’t remember. In fact, I feel the time was not enough to be able to meet each girl. I can’t remember her names, not even their personalities, that much. Story-wise, there is also nothing to say since the episode was pretty much closed to introduce the world and the airships. In fact, it can actually be a cute girls do “cute” things (fighting with aircraft does not really enter into my cute definition, but you get the idea) type of Anime… I just wasn’t able to understand with only one episode.

And that’s it! If you are into aircraft fights, I highly recommend you to try this one out… If not, well, probably it’s a pass for you. Unless you are into cute girls doing “cute” stuff, then it MIGHT be something worth your while.