(WARNING: Contains REALLY SLIGHT spoilers for Spring 2011 shows… but it’s not like we’re giving the ending away anyway though, so whatever.)
ORETACHI NI TSUBASA WA NAI ~ UNDER THE INNOCENT SKY (a.k.a. WE DON’T HAVE WINGS)
OP/ED:
Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai is an anime based off an eroge adaptation of the same name developed by Navel (Shuffle!, Soul Link, Tick! Tack!). The anime adaptation is being produced by the studio Nomad (Sola, Rozen Maiden, Kampfer) and is set to run for 12 episodes.
The story centers around the city of Yanagihara, where three stories are simultaneously told as they unfold: the first involves Takashi Haneda (VA: Hiro Shimono), a high school student; the second involves Shuusuke Chitose (VA: Hiroaki Miura), a struggling freeter (someone who switches jobs a lot) and Kakeru Ootori (VA: Satoshi Hino, played Saito Hiraga from Zero no Tsukaima, Yuuji Sakai from Shakugan no Shana, Yuuri Mito from Tayutama), an equally struggling author; the third one involves Hayato Narita (VA: Junichi Suwabe, played Archer from Fate/Stay Night and Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist), a freelance handyman who works on various odd jobs. The show also has a unique setup at the beginning where different characters are shown from the perspective of a television set being changed to different channels.
Each of the three stories involve different characters from the rest, and it’s unclear whether at some point these stories are going to overlap or not. The first story starts out as any normal harem storyline would go, with the (currently faceless.. gee where have I seen that before) protagonist for that specific story running to school with his sister cousin Kobato Haneda (VA: Ai Matayoshi), and running into some of his schoolmates, who, in case you still haven’t caught on, are all itching to jump his bones (Asuka Watarai (VA: Mayumi Yoshida), Naru Ohtori (VA: Yuko Goto, played Asahina Mikuru in the Haruhi Suzumiya series, Kaede Fuyou in Shuffle!), Hiyoko Tamaizumi (VA: Ryoko Ono, played Kazuha Migiwa in Yosuga no Sora)).
After the character introductions for the first story, we jump to second one, with Shuusuke and Kakeru (well, mostly Shuusuke) planning a mixed party at their favorite hangout, the Alexander, with their beloved barkeep, Karube Karuo (VA: Hideo Ishikawa), who apparently wants to go out with a bang before getting himself hitched to a girl he got pregnant. Two of the waitresses working there, Kinako Mochizuki (VA: Chiaki Takahashi) and Eriko Hino (VA: Kiyomi Asai), eventually get invited to the party after some humorous exchanges.
Jumping to the third and final story, we find Hayato, or “Dora” as some of his friends call him, roaming around the streets of Yanagihara, presumably looking for more odd jobs to work at. He then runs into two associates of his, Martinez, a foreigner peddling wares on the streets, and Alice (VA: Sayaka Aoki, played Kyon’s imouto in the Haruhi Suzumiya series, Lisianthus in Shuffle!), a little girl who… well, to be honest, I don’t know what the hell a foreign little girl who’s just learning Japanese is doing on the streets talking to and flashing at strange men. Oh well… I’ve heard Japan is safe that way anyway. Or not….
After a few (yet absolutely hilarious as proven above) hi-jinks with Alice, he runs into a few more people (with non-speaking roles so far, yet they get their own name labels as soon as they’re introduced on-screen, so I’m assuming they’ll have some bigger roles later on). He eventually comes across Kasuga Harue (VA: Hiromi Ohtsuda), a fiery crepe stand owner, who has a call for him… which Hayato hangs up on, since he finds out it’s from a client he doesn’t really like. Yep… even struggling “contractors” have standards also, people. After getting coerced into cleaning up for Harue, Hayato then makes it on to his other part-time job.
After then, we’re catapulted back to the first story, where we finally get a clearer look at Takeshi as he’s talking. That’s not the most surprising part of this scene though, as he suddenly drops a bombshell on us as the episode closes and the ending (and presumably the opening for the series as whole) then rolls in.
I haven’t played the Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai game yet so I don’t really have a convenient sort of comparison to make with how well the story is supposed to go, but I did find the inclusion of multiple characters and alternating storylines another refreshing sort of aspect to the romance genre, just like what was done in some other romance shows like the ef series. The animation done by Nomad is top notch once again, as I’ve really fallen in love with theirs works since Rozen Maiden, and their latest release doesn’t disappoint. There’s a lot of mysterious and perplexing elements going on from that opener as well, such as the constant buzzing of a television/radio transmission as each story switches on to another (with the DJ being none other than Tomokazu Sugita, one of my favorite male VAs), and the line dropped by Takeshi at the end.
It’s pretty unclear once again which of all of these elements are real at any time, but like I’ve learned with some other shows before, it’s too early to make a foregone conclusion with how things are going to pan out. That, for me, makes this a show that’s doubly interesting to follow, since for once we won’t only just be wondering about who ends up with who. If anything also, that shoutout to Sola near the end (“Look, the sky is connected to everywhere, isn’t it?”) just hints at some big things that may be coming as the series goes on, which could make it a good idea to stayed tuned in to this show.