In the world of Yukikaze, humanity has been at war with an enigmatic alien race known as the JAM for several decades. Kambayashi perfectly evokes the state to be experienced by the reader for the remainder of the book: numbly watching events from a distance as a passive, indifferent observer, without a shred of care about anyone who comes into view, let alone whether they live or die.

In a book so slap-happily eager to churn out allegory and extended metaphors, this piece at the very beginning is the most ingenious. Yukikaze is really about the reconnaissance plane and its pilot, who slowly circles over the carnage, dispassionately observing the destruction of his comrades before declaring the mission complete and returning to base, leaving the survivors for dead. None of the aforementioned events or characters actually matter to the narrative of this novel. The squadron leader can only grit his teeth behind his flight mask, as he watches most of his planes go down in flames. The strike appears to be a success, until, seemingly out of nowhere, enemy interceptors ambush the squadron, badly decimating the fighter-bombers in the chaotic dogfight that ensues. His only constant companion in this lonely task is his fighter plane, the sentient FFR-31 Super Sylph, call sign: Yukikaze.Chohei Kambayashi’s Yukikaze opens with a formation of fighter-bomber jets carrying out a pounding airstrike on an outpost of their mysterious extraterrestrial foes. Attached to Tactical Combat and Surveillance Unit 3 of the Special Air Force, his duty is to gather information on the enemy and bring it back to base-no matter the human cost. Now, in the midst of a war with no end in sight, Second Lieutenant Rei Fukai carries out his missions in the skies over Fairy. The task of finishing the battle was given to the newly formed FAF, a combat force created to go to Fairy and eliminate the JAM bases once and for all. Humanity, united by a common enemy, managed to repel the invaders, chasing them back through the passageway to the strange planet nicknamed 'Fairy.' Their ferocity was unquestionable, their aim unknown. Fighters from the mysterious alien force known as the JAM poured through the passage, the first wave an attempted terrestrial invasion. More than thirty years ago, a hyper-dimensional passageway suddenly appeared over the continent of Antarctica. A military scifi classic, by one of the modern masters of world science fiction.Ī military scifi classic, by one of the modern masters of world science fiction.

Yukikaze by Chōhei Kambayashi