As a followup to Planetes, I decided to watch Rescue Wings. I thought that perhaps they would be similar in many ways, and that I’d similarly share an overall positive review of it. However, this wasn’t the case, as Rescue Wings fails to save itself from its scattered stories and lack of focus.

Rescue Wings is about the Komatsu Rescue Squadron, a team of helicopter pilots and medics that are called upon in emergency situations. Of course, their services are only reserved for special situations that require aerial support, like a mountaintop retrieval of a mountaineer in need of immediate medical attention. If I had to name a main character, I guess I would choose Uchida Kazuhiro. My reluctance to do so will be addressed a little later on.

Uchida Kazuhiro is a brand new recruit in the squad, a complete rookie. He originally wanted to be a fighter jet pilot, but he failed at attaining his goal and was instead directed to be part of the rescue team. So begins his journey of acceptance of his new job, as well as coping with the new challenges that lie before him.

As he starts the job, he is still disappointed about his unwanted position. He attempts to simply accept it, but cannot. After taking a complete emotional beating from his new job, he falls into depression and loses his motivation to continue on. Cue in Megumi, the only reason I watched this show.

You and I both

No seriously. Being a rabid Noto Mamiko fanboy, I picked up this series just because I knew she was in it. In any case, Megumi and Uchida start going out, and she starts helping him through the rough times.

Sounds like a decent start to a series that will feature a lot of drama, if you ask me. Unfortunately, Rescue Wings didn’t feature a lot of drama. It featured a whole lotta SOMETHING, but it wasn’t drama, and it certainly wasn’t focus. The problem with Rescue Wings is that it tried to do too much at the same time, and eventually accomplished nothing.

As I said before, I think the beginning of the series showed a lot of promise. A man must battle with himself as he copes to a new and difficult job that pushes him to the limit. To aid him in his battle, he has a new girlfriend [who’s an old friend], but with the difficulties of a long distance relationship as well as the demanding nature of his job, can he possibly hold everything together? He must battle uphill and against all odds to conquer not just his new life, but also himself.

It’s a real shame this never actually happened.

Sure, Uchida struggled with his job. He eventually came to accept it as well. Heck, he even began to improve in his work. The only problem is that it seemed like the series didn’t even care about his story. As the series progressed, less and less airtime was being given to Uchida, and more and more time was spent on the backstory to events that required the services of the rescue squad. For example, an entire episode was devoted to a group of mountaineers and the events they experienced before the Rescue Squadron was able to intervine. By itself, concentrating on the backstories instead of the main character isn’t strictly a bad thing. Other anime series that followed that kind of outline would be Shinigami no Ballad and Jigoku Shoujo, where the main characters took a backseat to the new scenarios presented in each episode. The only difference is that Rescue Wings presents itself as a series with a central plot. A nonexistent one, apparently. Uchida’s journey of acceptance and self realization simply fades into the background, and instead we are bombarded with irrelevant stories of situations in need of rescue.

And if Uchida’s story becomes neglected, then Megumi’s must be as well. Surprise surprise, indeed it was neglected. I don’t understand why they decided to start going out, and I don’t understand why they stayed together. Megumi surprisingly got a significant amount of screen time, but most of this was her daily activities at her workplace, miles away from Uchida. Despite dating, the two rarely are able to spend time together, and rarely even talk. Due to this, I watched the entire series completely expecting their relationship to fall apart or at least hit rocky times. Here’s some spoilers for you: no such thing ever happened. They keep together the entire time without any hint of any problems. How it stays this way is nothing short of a miracle. Or perhaps it’s simply an introduced part of a story, only to be forgotten and unaddressed soon after. It just doesn’t make sense. If you’re going to completely ignore the relationship between Uchida and Megumi, why not just completely ignore Megumi as well? Why is she still a prominent character in the story and yet her relationship with another main character is completely ignored? Do all or none, don’t go halfway and hope for something good. It’s just not gonna happen.

If you want to make an anime series about the difficulties of becoming a new helicopter rescue pilot, then by all means, go ahead. If you want to make a series about a shaky relationship that ironically needs to be rescued from death, then go for it. If you want a series that follows the extravagant stories of those in dangerous situations in need of saving, then I support that too. Heck, if you wanted all three previously mentioned aspects in the same series, I would say that it sounds like a solid plan, and that I wish you the best of luck. But if you want to do all that, then don’t do a half-assed job on each aspect, and don’t try to do it in just 13 episodes. I beg of you.

I picked up Rescue Wings purely for Noto’s voice, but I certainly hoped for something more. Something more like Planetes would’ve been nice. Rescue Wings suffered from the lack of time to develop each aspect it introduced, which ultimately left it as an unfocused jumbled mess of a story where nothing truly happens.

Recommendation: Unless you’re a rabid Noto Mamiko fanboy that instantly foams in the mouth at the mere mention of her name, just pass on this series. And if you ARE a rabid Noto Mamiko fanboy that instantly foams in the mouth at the mere mention of her name, then seek professional help. Seriously, you freak me out.

…

…

…*foams*

//Soda