Just finished shoving Yukikaze 2002 down my roomates throats and it ended with misty eyes. It's really one of the best. Gets better on every rewatch with all the little details they got in there. Just an autistic guy and his plane wife acting as tools of the government for 5 episodes as the world crumbles around them. The anime is a perfect combination of everything I love. The unique scifi concepts and killer dogfights of the original book are spliced together mangaka Yumi Tada's super stylish, emo character designs as well as deeply sensitive storytelling sensibilities, all with studio Gonzo's ageless fighter jet cg (it's from 2002 but it doesn't look it! I swear! it's mind boggling!!!) It's actually very interesting to see how the work is interpreted across mediums-- The book has a pulpier, macho energy to it with the characters coming off more like badboys, actively saying the Fuck word and even gasp having...s-sex (in Rei Fukai's case, I refuse to believe this). Rei, while still socially inept, is much more vocal in the book and his conversations with Jack have a sardonic bounce in comparison to the anime's almost mother-and-son dynamic. In the manga's case, it's Yumi Tada pouring her entire soul out. Rei's crudeness is replaced with what looks to be a case of dissociative depression and the stories focus much more heavily on the tragic pasts and how they shape the characters. I was surprised to see that Yumi Tada, besides being the character designer, was credited with writing the script for the first episode. You can see the Chouhei, you can see the Yumi, and you can see Gonzo pulling out the best of both.
The sound design is beyond stellar in it does wonders building suspense. The angles are twisty and showcase the planes beautifully while giving appropriate attention to the character's expressions as they dance through various emotions in quick succession. When music comes in it's either sparse and unnerving or a deep low rumble that pulls the emotions right out of you. God, it hasn't aged a day.
It's a story of people's attraction to war; their distance from it; the quick development of weaponry; the automation of war; the way people escape and cling; the relationship to yourself and those around you. The lines between alien and human melt over time and the heroes keep walking, trying to understand their place in the divide. Rei Fukai loves his alien fighter jet. His alien fighter jet loves him back. And so they fly off with a steady resolve where no one else has gone yet, in a beam of light where they've found their place at last.