AIR

Released by Key in 2000 with a script by Jun Maeda, AIR is a visual novel celebrated alongside Kanon and CLANNAD as one of Key's Three Great Tearjerkers. The protagonist Yukito Kunisaki is a wandering street performer who manipulates puppets to earn a living; one summer he drifts into a seaside town and encounters a girl named Misuzu Kamio, gradually becoming ensnared in a thousand-year curse haunting the winged maiden. The story unfolds across three chapters — DREAM, SUMMER, and AIR — shifting between a contemporary coming-of-age narrative, a mythological tale set in the Heian period, and a final return to the present. Kyoto Animation's 2005 TV anime adaptation brought the story to a wide audience, and the opening theme Tori no Uta has become an enduring icon of the era.