Adapted from a best-selling Japanese five-part novel series by Hiroshi Mori, The Sky Crawlers presents an alternative present in which global mega-corporations sponsor aerial dogfights using propeller-driven aircraft piloted by ageless adolescents who will never grow up. The aerial combats are not designed to bring lasting victory for one corporation over another, only to sate the psychological needs of the citizen/consumers with perpetual, inconsequential war beamed live into homes and businesses everywhere via satellite: the equivalent of conventional war, professional sports, and the Pepsi-Coke cola wars, all rolled up into one infotainment-friendly package for the citizen/consumer.

In typical Oshii fashion, The Sky Crawlers opens with an action sequence, in this case an aerial dogfight, then settles into a pattern of long, slow dramatic scenes interspersed with short sequences of intense action. Narratively, the drama is framed in the conventions of a noirish mystery: when adolescent fighter pilot Yuichi Kannami is assigned to a new airbase he discovers that he's replacing a pilot whose cause of death is a secret nobody's willing to divulge, and that his new base commander, the adolescent Suito Kusanagi, seems uncannily familiar as does much else around the base. Though the mystery is suitably wrapped up two-thirds of the way through the film, the resolution of the mystery is no more the aim of The Sky Crawlers than is the action. Beneath the mystery and beyond the action, The Sky Crawlers is at heart an existential melodrama about apathetically laconic, listless youth with little recollection of their past and no aspirations for their future.

Technically speaking, The Sky Crawlers is competent but not exceptional for a recent feature-length anime created for theatrical release. The action sequences are rendered in CGI comparable to that found in big-budget games for seventh generation consoles, while the dramatic sequences are animated by hand in a flat, economical style. The original Japanese and English voice acting works well, while samples of the English dub sounded acceptable. Finally, the score by frequent Oshii-collaborator Kenji Kawai is functional, but unremarkably conventional.

Presentation
Video:
Theatrically released in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, The Sky Crawlers is presented on DVD in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The image generally looks very good. Colors are intentionally muted, and there appears to be no video effects or flaws particular to the DVD release.

Audio:
Audio is available in the original mixed Japanese-and-English track or an all English dub, both of which are provided in 5.1 DD. Optional subtitles, translated directly from the original audio not from the dub, are available in English or French. The audio is dynamic with excellent directionality and deep base, but it's notably muddled.

Extras:
Extras include over an hour of behind-the-scenes documentaries about the film's animation and sound design. The languidly paced docs will be of particular interest only to hardcore Oshii enthusiasts, while everybody else will likely want to keep a thumb on the fast forward button of the remote control. Also included are preview trailers for seven other Sony anime films, though the trailer for this film is not included.

Final Thoughts:
In a video introduction to The Sky Crawlers shown on the festival circuit (but not included on this DVD), filmmaker Mamoru Oshii stated that the film's theme of perpetually-adolescent pilots used as pawns by mega-corporations was intended as an allegory about alienated young people today caught in arrested development by meaningless materialism. Though this theme was already a cliché long before the current crop of angst-ridden youth were even conceived it's no less relevant now than it's ever been and no doubt it will still resonate with many viewers, especially those for whom the critique is still novel.

The Sky Crawlers is recommended for Oshii's existing fans and for young adult anime enthusiasts looking for something psychologically deeper than the average action-adventure yarn. However, viewers looking for something action-packed, or something other than warmed-over Antonioni-esque existential angst should look elsewhere.