Top-notch Japanese fighter pilot Yuichi Kannami has just been assigned to a new air base. He has only vague memories of his past, and knows only how to fly and fight. However, when he meets Suito Kusanagi, the beautiful girl in command at the base, a disturbing new awareness of the meaninglessness of his life starts creeping into his timeless soul.
Positioning this moral tale in the distant coldness of a video game, Oshii presents his images with a disturbing tactile quality. He confronts the audience with issues crucial to today's Japan, including the increased crime rate among adolescents. A modern ukiyo-e printed on celluloid, The Sky Crawlers haunts us with fantasies too close to scalding reality.