LAST EDITED ON Sep-02-14 AT 08:19 PM (EDT)
 
>They're in the movie. :)

The movie was just weird.

Making it about the jets was controversial enough, as the fandom was roughly divided between those who had been clamoring for years for them to show up (in fact, the fanon designs for P-80 were so standardized and widespread the studio had to bow to popular demand) and those who regarded the appearance of any non propeller-driven aircraft as the vilest of heresies.

On top of that, the whole thing was framed as an extended flashback, with the bracketing scenes set in 1986 (an obvious Top Gun homage) and featuring an aging F-4 educating her students, the about-to-graduate-high-school F-14, F-16, and A-10, about the roles played by her parents and aunts way, way back in the day.

Leaving aside the fact that it was an obvious cash grab (A-10 in particular had always had a cultlike following amongst the serious doujinshi crowd, and they positively leapt at the opportunity to actually buy a figurine of her despite her having all of ten lines of dialogue) and the fact they completely bolluxed up F-4s entire personality (reliable, yes; a martinet and strict, humorless academic, no, are you out of your goddamn minds?) the whole thing had some serious tonal whiplash. P-80, Me 262, and especially Meteor were alternately portrayed as wunderkind, the next generation of the family who are gonna show these old farts what it really means to fly and fight, and as temperamental, unstable nutcases who need to learn from the wisdom of their elders and throttle back some until they do.

While this is... not entirely historically inaccurate as a narrative, it didn't work on the screen at all. Rumors persist to this day of heated rivalries in the writers room and a last-minute uncredited script doctoring by none other than Masamune Shiro himself (lampshaded by the easter egg presence of an utterly anachronistic Bonaparte turret juuuuust visible behind a line of parked Shermans being used by one of the schools Tankery clubs; blink and you'll miss it!) but we may never know the precise details.

The movie is not without selling points; the jet girls had a fluid, interesting combat style visually distinct from their older sisters and parents, reminiscent of Strike Witches but without forcing people to stare at the panty-clad butts of pubescent girls for hours on end. And lord, did they blow the money on animation. But a lot of fans of the franchise were there for the subtle character moments; the rivalry between Spitfire and Me 109, Zero's "last of a dying breed" gung-ho Samurai attitude, the Russian stoicism of Yak-9 and Ilyusha. And they didn't get a lot of that in the movie; instead they got ninety minutes that might as well have been directed by Michael Bay on a good day.

Like I said. Weird.

-Merc
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