The Sky Crawlers

The Sky Crawlers is a Japanese novel series by Hiroshi Mori. First published by Chuōkōron-shinsha in June 2001 and spanning five books, it follows the journeys and tribulations of a group of young fighter pilots involved in dogfight warfare, and is set during an alternate historical period. The series is unlike other works by Mori, noted for his series of mystery novels. The art for the series is illustrated by noted mangaka Kenji Tsuruta. The series consists of 5 graphic novels namely: (In the order they were released.) The Sky Crawlers, None But Air, Down to Heaven, Flutter into Life and Cradle the Sky.

Well back in 2007 it was announced that the novel would be adapted into a animated movie directed by Mamoru Oshi. He was involved in writing the script for Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade and was involved in the supervision of Blood: The Last Vampire. And if you watched the trailer you would have noticed that it is being animated by Production I.G. (Hell yeah) Written by Chihiro Itō, feature character designs by Tetsuya Nishio, and music by Kenji Kawai.

The Sky Crawlers Trailer

Mori had stated that he felt The Sky Crawlers was the “most difficult” of his works to adapt, and had given his consent to the making of the film after learning of Oshi’s involvement as director. That being said when I heard that Oshi will be involved in this project it got me hooked line and sinker as I am a big fan of Oshi’s work especially of Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. The visuals in the trailer is absolutely stunning and I for one cant wait for this to hit our shores.