Powerful

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Having enjoyed Mamoru Oshii's cyberpunk classic 'Ghost in the Shell' I was intrigued to see this film where he tackles a different genre. 'The Sky Crawlers' is set during a war where young pilots battle in planes that look like their technology belongs in the Second World War despite them having a very different design. The film follows pilot Yuichi from his arrival at a new base until he confronts the enemy's leading ace. In this time we learn little about why there is a war and don't even know whether Yuichi is fighting for the heroes or the villains; he and his fellow pilots are just fighting because that is there job. When he arrives he is a little surprised that the boy he is replacing isn't there to greet him; after all he can't have been shot down as his plane is there in perfect condition. He asks his new commanding officer about him but she is reluctant to talk about him. Over the course of the film we learn why she was reluctant to talk about it and why everything at his new base seems rather familiar to Yuichi.If you are expecting non-stop aerial action you are likely to be disappointed as there is only a small amount of actual combat; although what there is is spectacular. Instead what we get is a character driven story where we gradually learn more about Yuichi and the other pilots; in particular why they are all so young. As their story unfolds it becomes more and more tragic. The animation was very good; while a lot of it was obviously CGI that didn't jar with the conventionally drawn characters. I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to older viewers; while there is little in it to make it unsuitable for younger viewers I suspect they might find the slow pace a bit boring.

The near future. Humanity has achieved some semblance of peace. To remind the masses of pain and suffering, and to inject wonder, gratitude and emotion into a world that has long calloused into apathy, multinational corporations stage elaborate wars fought by cloned fighter pilots called "Kildren". The corporations are named after German football teams. The Kildren do not age and remain in a state of perpetual adolescence."The Sky Crawlers" was directed by Mamourou Oshii, who cites Michelangelo Antonioni and Andrei Tarkovsky as influences. His film begins with Yuichi Kannami, one of many fighter pilot Kildren, arriving at a military installation. Everyone at the installation knows that Yuichi is simply a clone who's been assigned to them and died countless times before, but they nevertheless treat him as a "real" human being. It is a charade they're tired of maintaining."Why bother to grow up if I'm going to die?" Yuichi says early in the film, the line encapsulating his indifference to all things. Unfazed by the possibility that he may be bioengineered, a machine created for virtually no purpose, Yuichi spends his days drinking beer, playing war games, having sex and lazing about. He never questions who he is, why he's on the island or why he fights. He has no memory of what came before "now" and little regard for what will come next.Towards the end of the film Yuichi begins to develop some modicum of self-awareness. Seeking a kind of Sartrean authenticity, and desperate to end the charade he is caught up in, he takes to the skies. He is then mercilessly shot down by a fighter pilot called "the teacher". The following day (wait until the end of the credits) another clone of Yuichi appears at the military base. It then becomes apparent that each clone is destroyed or commits suicide prior to attaining self-awareness. For the Kildren, ignorance is bliss.The film is philosophically heavy, Oshii swimming in waters routinely visited by Antonioni. Today in Japan an estimate one million youths, or roughly one percent of the population, are classified as "hikikomori", which literally means "being confined". These are youths who have sequestered themselves in family homes and have little contact with the outside world. Having given up on the idea of being a contributing member of society these youths either remain unemployed or work in menial jobs, embracing stagnation and self medicating themselves with various post-industrial creature comforts. In addition to this, the number of students dropping out of school in Japan has doubled since 1990, and women are increasingly going on "womb strikes", refusing to have children. With this comes a shrinking work force and a fall in birth rates. An entire chunk of Japan no longer wishes to live.While many believe the "hikikomori" to be social misfits or psychologically damaged, it is better to think of them as an early warning signal. Like coal mining canaries, which were once used to detect toxic gasses, the "hikikomori" are a red flag, sensitive individuals who sense that something is wrong and so retreat to the wombs of their bedrooms to escape from a society they view as being toxic.Much literature has been written about the "hikikomori", but their existence essentially boils down to one thing: Japan is the world's first true post-modern nation. What you have in Japan is a conflict between East and West, between group and individual, between modernity and post-modernity. It is a country caught within a web of diametrically opposed forces, forces which are pressure cooked because of several relatively unique factors.So on one hand you have a country cocooned by walls of water. A country with a fixed national identity, heavy immigration restrictions, a rigid school curriculum, a homogeneous ideology, a society built on strong social mores, honour, tradition, hard work, loyalty, group-ism, specific aesthetics, a hierarchical structure emphasising the inequality between persons etc etc. And on the other hand you have a country which no longer believes in the myth of Progress. Which suffers the atomization of the family, the rampant feminization of men, which now heavily borrows and models itself after Western culture, and which, in the wake of the economic boom of the 1980s, finds the pursuit of material extravagance to deliver emptiness rather than inner contentment.Of course existential questions of meaningfulness and identity traditionally crop up in wealthy societies, as man's focus shifts from self-preservation to introspection. But Japan goes beyond this. Postmodernity is epitomised by relational identities, a loss of absolutes and widespread fragmentation. It abolishes the idea of fixed essences and leaves individuals to construct identities by appropriating from vapid, but always shifting, cultural and ethnic positions. End result: today the essence of the Japanese is "to have no essence", a stance which the "hikikomori" feebly rebel against.So at its core "The Sky Crawlers" is about a society of youths caught in limbo, refusing to grow up because they have nothing to live for. Stuck in stasis they become increasingly infantilized, soothing their pain with vices like anime, which in this film takes the form of "staged" or "theatrical" wars "fought by actors". Oshii, in other words, attacks the anime industry itself, an industry in which the same old thing is repeated ad infinitum, all with the same interchangeable boy pilot avatars. Resentful of a dead creative environment (see "Children Of Men", in which the future is literally sterilized) he urges his hero, and audience, to escape and strive towards something. Interestingly, this pursuit is seen to be suicidal. Dedicating the body to a cause is itself the decision to erode the body for that cause.Many complain that the film is too slow (even its dog fights are made banal), but those familiar with Antonioni will be at home here. The film isn't slow so much as it is beautifully nauseous. It's Antonioni's "Red Desert" with fighter jets.8.9/10 - Flawed masterpiece. See "The Tin Drum".

I'll admit, it was difficult to get into the right mood to watch "Sky Crawlers." I was expecting one thing, a war film, and while there were moments of that, I found myself confronted with a world full of characters with human concerns, and a strict atmosphere that called upon the audience to pay attention to the details. Having watched and enjoyed other films by Oshii (this one most resembling "Avalon" in tone and theme), I knew that I'd be in for something demanding and stoic, but I was also surprised by just how initially uncharismatic the two main characters were. However, as the film progressed, I found myself drawn in by their mysterious histories, and eventually deeply sympathizing with their tragedy. To explain the nature of the pilots is to spoil the film, but rest assured, every frustration and question you have concerning the characters is answered by the end –just make sure you sit through the end of the credits! However, whether or not you are satisfied in the end is another question entirely. While the chaotic, crowd-pleasing dogfights and strikingly rendered landscapes are sure to get a rise out of any audience, the mystery of the characters themselves is initially impenetrable and unwelcoming.On the other hand, Oshii's depiction of emotionally mature, personally tortured characters is a unique landmark in animation. While there have been other animated films concerned with serious character drama, few of them have chosen to completely eschew melodrama with the exacting discipline of this film.The film strikes a strange balance between frenetic action scenes and serious character exploration. It won't please everyone. But if you enter "Sky Crawlers" with an open mind, you may find something exciting, brutal, and heartbreaking here.

Locked in a long time battle, two waring factions look to gain the upper hand on one another. Kildren, eternally young pilots put their lives on the line for a conflict they don't understand to begin with.The Sky Crawlers is a deep film that draws you in with it's stunning aerial battles and complex characters. I immediately liked the main characters, if for no other reason than that they broke away from typical Japanese character clichés. They're layered and have back stories that propel them forward in the story and brings the viewer into their world.The animation is amazing throughout. The art is gorgeous. The plane fights were amazing. Each time a dogfight began, my heart would be racing and i'd be concerned for the characters involved. The music is very Mamoru Oshii. It felt a little odd, but did seem to fit well enough that it didn't distract me from what i saw.The pacing was skewed wrong. At times it felt subtle, slow and decisive with the characters, which is fine in it's own right, but when you open with an explosive dogfight, you leave the subtle approach coming off as sluggish. I would have preferred the character scenes to move a little faster and to be presented more aggressively.The ending is left me disjointed, however it fits the mood of the film so i won't count that against it.The Sky Crawlers is a beautiful and touching experience that's among the best of the year. My highest recommendation