Overview[]
Yuichi Kannami
-Yuichi is, as main characters often are, the lens through which the viewer can see the world of THE SKY CRAWLERS.
-Yuichi lands at a Rostock base called Urisu Base AKA Area 262 where he meets Sasakura, the chief mechanic whom the other pilots call “Mama”, and a friendly basset hound.
-Yuichi states that he has seen her face somewhere before (a hint at memories from a previous life).
-Yuichi is given a new plane (a Sanka Mk B) with some resistance on his part.
-Yuichi asks “Where is the previous pilot, shouldn’t he be here to hand over his plane?” Sasakura replies that he has to ask “the boss” about it (referring to the commanding officer).
-Yuichi pulls out, lights, and smokes a cigarette with one hand (a hint at memories from a previous life).
-Note: a skill like that takes time to master and he is clearly very young, although it is not stated directly how old he actually is.
-Yuichi enters the room of his commanding officer; who we learn is Suito Kusanagi, a young woman about his age, but she acts like she’s much older in her mannerisms and the way that she speaks.
-Yuichi is told that he will be staying in room 204 with Tokino and will be doing a test flight with him tomorrow. He wants to ask her about the previous pilot of his plane, but she gets a call and he is dismissed.
-After he leaves the building, he stops and looks back at her window, and then continues to walk to the barracks.
-Note: probably remembering something?
-After putting his things in his room, he enters the rec room where he meets Yudagawa and Uroyuki Shinoda, who explains that there are five pilots stationed on the base, including Kusanagi.
-Note: Yudagawa folds his newspaper a certain way, and Yuichi notices.
-Just outside a window, he meets Tokino.
-The movie cuts to the next day with Tokino testing Yuichi (whose callsign is Cairn). Yuichi states that he’s “been flying Mark B’s since I was Born.”
-The test includes riding the updraft of a dam and flying upside down over a small city with a factory
-They run into three Lautern bandits, and Yuichi takes out two of them with advanced maneuvers.
-Note: Again, a skill that takes time to master.
-When they get back to the base, they tell Kusanagi what happened. Tokino is dismissed, but Yuichi takes this time to ask Kusanagi about the previous pilot of his plane. He learns that his name was Jinroh Kurita, who was there seven months prior and flew sixty-three sorties. But when he asks about what happened to him, she refuses to answer.
-Note: She says “To be or not to be? That is only a question for human minds.” Implying she’s not.
-Yuichi asks her if she is a Kildren (the first time that word is brought up in the movie), to which she reacts with stunned silence.
-Yuichi notes that she smokes, and that he doesn’t trust a commanding officer who doesn’t smoke. He is dismissed.
-Later Tokino questions him on his skill, Yuichi replies that it was luck and that the pilots were rookies. He then asks where he was last stationed and he says that he doesn’t remember.
-Tokino takes Yuichi to Danielle's Diner, where they eat meat pies (Yuichi sates that they tasted familiar) and see what they did that day on the news. He says there are two reasons to come to the diner: the meat pies and the girls.
-Two women enter the diner, Kusami (who refers to Tokino as Naofumi) and Fuuko, who take them in their convertible to the place they (Work? Live?) and Yuichi states that the place looks familiar.
-Fuuko has sex with Yuichi and it is implied that Kusami had sex with Tokino.
-Fuuko states that if he is there, Jinroh is dead.
-Fuuko describes Jinroh by stating the similarities he had with Yuichi. She then implies that he loved someone else.
-Fuuko states that Yuichi talks like a kid, and Yuichi says, “That’s because I am a kid.”
-Note: This is right after he had sex with her.
-Fuuko states that she hopes he comes back an then he leaves.
-Back at the hanger, he runs into Sasakura. He asks her about Jinroh and she ignores the question.
-Time passes and Yuichi and Tokino fly again. He comes back with an oil leak. Kusanagi comes out to greet him, which is the first time he has seen her outside her office. He tells her Tokino will be late and she leaves.
-Yuichi runs into a little girl at the rec room, who introduces herself as Mizuki Kusanagi, much to Yuichi’s surprise. She then says that she’s Suito Kusanagi’s little sister.
-After some idle conversation, Mizuki asks if Yuichi if he is a Kildren, and he says yes. Mizuki asks if it’s true that Kildren don’t become adults, and he says yes. She asks him why and he says, “It’s not that we can’t, it’s just that we don’t.”
-Yuichi gives Mizuki a tour of the base and Tokino returns.
-While Mizuki is distracted by welding sparks, Tokino and Yuichi talk. Tokino mentions that Mizuki is actually Suito’s daughter. This surprises Yuichi because Mizuki only looks a few years younger than Suito.
-The elder Kusanagi approaches and tells Tokino to file a report, and instead of leaving she stands next to Yuichi and states that when she sees her daughter, she hates herself. She then explains that she will be as old as her before too long and doesn’t know what to do when it happens.
-Kusanagi asks if he could lead a tour group that was coming later that day. Yuichi agrees.
-Yuichi sits outside the rec room with Yudagawa, who explains why tour groups sometimes come to the base. He then states that Kusanagi would like to open fire on all of them and that she always carries a gun.
-Yudagawa says that Kusanagi was the one that killed Jinroh. Before Yuichi can question him further the tour group arrives.
-When he was being interviewed, he was visibly uncomfortable, but he was also honest when he was asked questions.
-A Rostock plane crashes outside the base, at the wreckage Kusanagi asks Tokino and Yuichi what happened. Tokino says that it must’ve drifted in from another base. As the pilot was put into a bag one of the tourists was crying, and Kusanagi snapped at her, startling everyone present. She and Yuichi drive away together.
-Yuichi goes to Danielle’s Diner alone when he sees Lautern planes flying towards his base, including bombers, he immediately calls Kusanagi and informs her, she goes up in his plane to defend the base.
-Kusanagi and Yuichi leave to give theater management an earful, she says that he is there to drive back.
-They are greeted by a doorman who says he hates dealing with children, to which Yuichi says, “But do people who might die tomorrow have any need to grow up?”
-Kusanagi leads him to her guest house where “no one visits twice.”
-Yuichi takes the opportunity to confront her about shooting Jinroh, to which she replies, “Do you want me to kill you too?” *Scene fades to black*
-Yuichi and Yudagawa go on a sortie over the ocean.
-Note: it is not clear how long between the last scene and this one
-Yudagawa spots planes overhead and runs into the Teacher and is promptly shot down. Yuichi escapes but gets a good look at his plane, the Skyly J2.
-Note: This is the first we see of the Teacher since the first scene.
-Yuichi returns to the base and informs Kusanagi.
-Yuichi goes to the rec room, where Tokino explains that the Teacher is Lautern’s ace pilot and an adult.
-Kusanagi, Tokino, and Shinoda go on a sortie, leaving Yuichi behind. He waits in the hangar for them to return, but only Tokino and Shinoda return. She bugged out as soon as she saw the Teacher.
-Note: She crashed in a field outside Fuuko’s home.
-Fuuko brought her back to the base, Yuichi and the others were both relieved she was back and worried about her status.
-Fuuko tells Yuichi that she had seen her in that state before, she described it as “something plowed straight into her heart.” She went on to imply that she had sex with one of her clients.
-Kusanagi regains consciousness and asks Yuichi for a cigarette, and she passes out again.
- Sasakura tells him that there is a big mission coming up and that the pilots would have to move to another base.
-Yuichi asks Sasakura if “Mizuki’s father could be… you know?”
-The pilots and Kusanagi left the Urisu Base. Yuichi and Kusanagi lock eyes in the air.
-Note: Kusanagi is in the back seat of a Senryu.
-There was a small party at the base and Yuichi sees new faces, including twin pilots.
-Yuichi and Tokino have a conversation at a playground. Tokino talks about how he has never met a person he does not somehow recognize before, Yuichi talks about never seeing twin pilots before, Tokino says that there have been a few sets in the past, but one never comes back without the other.
-They meet the local female ace Mitsuya, who keeps giving Yuichi looks.
-All the pilots are debriefed on the mission and head out later that afternoon.
-In the middle of the mission, they are told to return to base.
-Mitsuya tells her commanding officer that she saw the Teacher, much to the shock of Kusanagi.
-Yuichi and Tokino leave and explore the city. They go to a bowling alley and Kusanagi joins them. Tokino breaks off from the group with three women.
-Note: Kusanagi says that she wishes that she could line them up and knock them down like bowling pins.
-Yuichi and Kusanagi leave together to find a place to drink.
-Kusanagi begins to drink heavily.
-Yuichi asks her why she almost got herself killed; she tells him that the Teacher used to fly for Rostock and was her superior officer. Yuichi asks why he converted, she told him “things happened.”
-Yuichi asks her what it would change if she shot him down, she’s not sure and that id doesn’t matter because no one can shoot him down.
-Kusanagi asks if he knew why they were fighting, Yuichi describes it as a job, the same as any other business, the powerful one makes a profit and wins. However, he says that they, the pilots, are inefficient, just kids playing a game. And Kusanagi agrees with him.
-She goes on to talk about the philosophy of war, why it is necessary, and why people need it. If Misery is not on display, people cannot understand peace, and its significance would be forgotten. She says that the rule of this war is that they need an unbeatable enemy, the Teacher.
-Note: If the Teacher really is an adult, eventually he will whither away and die, for no one can escape death forever.
-Kusanagi goes to the bathroom and comes back wearing lipstick (which she barrowed from a random lady in the bathroom)
-Yuichi helps carry a drunk Kusanagi her car where she embraces him and points a gun at his head.
-She asks if he wants her to kill her or for him to kill her, she called it a favor. If he doesn’t then nothing will ever change for them.
-They kiss each other while Yuichi points the gun away from his head and forces his thumb between the hammer and the firing pin.
-When the scene changes, they return to Urisu Base with the Sankas and a few Someakas from the other base.
-Yuichi walks into the rec room were he finds a new pilot that looks an awful lot like Yudagawa named Aihara. It is only after he folds the paper like Yudagawa where he puts the pieces together: Aihara is Yudagawa remade, and that is the fate of all Kildren who die.
-Time passes, not sure how much.
-While Yuichi rested on his cot, Tokino warned him that if he slept with Kusanagi she would kill him like Jinroh, and that if he slept with Mitsuya he’d be like an ant in a trap. Before he left, he told him to watch his back.
-The next morning Mitsuya paid him a visit, asked him how long he was a pilot, but he did not give her an answer.
-She tells him that Kildren are the result of Rostock gene manipulation. No one knew about it when it happened, and if/when it was revealed no one believed it/would believe it.
-Note: The Dub said “if,” but the subtitles said “When.”
-She begins to break down questioning if she was a Kildren too, and Yuichi was very stoic through all of her monolog and tears.
-She then states that Yiuchi is Jinroh remade, and that everyone around him pretends not to notice, and that Kusanagi killed him as a mercy. Yuichi simply responds, “Interesting theory.”
-Later that night Yuichi hears a gun go off, and he rushed to Kusanagi’s office to find Mitsuya pointing a gun at her. With a bullet hole in the glass behind her.
-Yuichi negotiates with her to give him the gun, saying that he’d shoot Kusanagi for her, to which Kusanagi responds with “That’s a mighty fine idea.”
-She gave him the gun and stormed off, he lowered it but noticed that Kusanagi drew her own gun. She lights a cigarette while confessing that she killed Jinroh, and that he asked her to do it, and that she loved him. Then she asked him to shoot her, saying that it’s his turn to kill her, she even says “please.”
-She smiles and points her gun under her chin, but Yuichi shot first, breaking another window.
-Yuichi tells her that she has to continue living until she finds a way to change things. He runs to her and gives her a hug, and she starts to cry.
-Some time later Yuichi goes up again, but before he does, he salutes Kusanagi.
-Note: Did he know he wouldn’t make it back?
-He begins to monolog: “You can change the side of the road that you walk down every day. Even if the road is the same you can still discover new things. Isn’t that enough to live for? Or does that mean that it isn’t enough?”
-Mitsuya spots a J2 and Yuichi goes after it saying “I have to do this; I’ll kill my father.”
-After an impressive dogfight, Yuichi is killed.
End Credits scene
-A new pilot arrives with the callsign ‘Nofolk.’ He lights his cigarette with one hand.
-He goes to Kusanagi’s office, and introduces himself as Isamu Hiiragi, whom Kusanagi says she was waiting for. She smiles.