The Battle of Britain, in which the Royal Air Force fought the Luftwaffe for supremacy over the skies of Britain in 1940, became famous for not only the heroism of the Allied defenders, who saved the country from Nazi invasion, but their high casualty rates, especially among the young, inexperienced pilots who flew more of the planes as the battle wore on.
Mamoru Oshii's new animation "The Sky Crawlers" may be based on a five-part sci-fi novel by Hiroshi Mori, but it reminded me of those legendary air battles in both its retro-future prop-engine fighter planes and the extreme youth of its pilots, who never age beyond their teenage years.
A big difference is that, where the RAF pilots were fighting for national survival, Oshii's pilots, known collectively as Kildren, are employees of a company, Rostock, that sells their air battles as entertainment to the peace-besotted masses. Their opponents are a similar outfit, Lautern, whose big drawing card is a deadly ace pilot, known as Teacher, who is the only adult in the air. In this war, there are no winners, since victory would end the show.