Anime: Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta i6r37

Review
Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta (The Pilot's Love Song) is one of those shows that you rarely get to hate but also have little to love. Basically, it is a tale set in the same interesting world as Toaru Hikuushi e no Tsuioku (The Princess and the Pilot), a decent movie released in 2011. Within this bizarre setting, humanity is yet to fully explore lands beyond the sea and understand the world they live in. A ed exploration, however, is set to take many of the people across the Holy Spring and towards the end of the world.

Kal-el Albus, former prince of the Belsteros Empire, s this exploration under a fake identity, but his intention is only to exact vengance upon Nina Viento, leader of the revolution that destroyed his empire and killed his parents. This trip, however, will put his feeling to test as he soon falls in love with a girl that hides more than he could've imagined.

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1. An interesting setting
   The Pilot's Love Song is crafted around a very interesting concept of a fantastic world. Like Last Exile, the land is not a traditional globe, there is a heavy mixture of World War I elements with medieval hierarchy and social structure, there is also a good deal of magic, unnatural events, and so forth. The author had already established much of the building bricks of the world with The Princess and the Pilot, but here he has a chance to further detail the world and give more life to his ideas.
   
   The tale itself is rather simple
   Basically, Kal-el Albus unknowningly falls in love with his bitter enemy. The show tackles this issue at its core, as Kal-el must struggle with his past and his mind to decide if he forgives the enemy or if he moves on with his vengeance. This basic struggle offers a nice deal of teen romance while developing the tale with a decent pace. Sadly, there are just a few twists and turns to spicy things up, the show only manages to escape becoming boring because it is short and direct on what it wants to present.
   
   The cast is also decent
   Kal-el, Claire Cruz, Ariel and Ignacio are all plain and unexciting characters. They do enough to keep things interesting, but limited personalities and slow development make it impossible for the show to get amazing and unique. The character design also fails to aid, as they all look like every other school students or stylish bishounens we are tired of watching. This lack of quirks, however, is covered by a decent backdrop for most of the four, with some good personal traumas and a decent usage of their past witin the actual events of the show.
   
   A school...
   Maybe what really hampers progression for the tale and the cast is the school setting. The t exploration meets hostile foreign forces, battle against unknown enemies, and do many cool and exciting things, but every now and then we have dumb slice-of-life parts throwing in some forced japanese school elements. The interesting world with planes, uncharted land, and adventure feel is severely harmed by something forced as this.
   
   It has decent production values though
   Regardless of the generic character design, everything else has a good artistic flavor to it. Animation is also a powerful asset, with exciting airfights and good expressive power. All of that is backed by a decent voice-acting and sound direction. Nothing is breathtaking, but they get the job done.
   

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Comments
I enjoyed my time with The Pilot's Love Song. The setting is interesting, there's a decent medieval fantasy-inspired backdrop, and the feeling of having an uncharted world is something quite rare to get in animations. This felt to me as a light-hearted Last Exile, much like Allison to Lillia felt back in 2008. It's a kind of show that is rare, so it's always refreshing to see, although The PIlot's Love Song is perhaps the weaker of these three very similar experiences.

If you haven't watched The Princess and the Pilot, I recommend watching it before or immediately after, as it aids to supplement the show and is an overall better experience than this. If you are in for a decent adventure tale, perhaps you found a good watch. Be warned though, The Pilot's Love Song never truly shines because of some generic approaches and a fear of moving away from what typically pleases today's audience: which means cute girls, school setting, and so on.