The Sky Crawlers

In an alternate timeline, the world has seemingly achieved peace. Bereft of international conflicts, wars are now waged between private corporations in place of peaceful nations. Yuuichi Kannami, a recent transfer in Area 262, simply does his job as a contracted fighter pilot. However, the more time he spends at his new base, the more mysteries come to light. The Sky Crawlers exhibits this reality through the eyes of Kannami as he endeavors to understand the "Kildren," humans genetically altered to be teenagers forever with faster reflexes, and his predecessor, the ace pilot known as "Teacher." However, what troubles Kannami the most is how all this connects to the base commander, Suito Kusanagi. Area 262 has the answers, but the truth comes with a price the young pilot may not be ready to pay. After experiencing several major wars, people have finally obtained peace. However, they are unable to appreciate peace without contemplating war and death from a safe distance. Therefore, they make a show business out of war. In this staged war, those who must fight each other are children called "Killdre". They remain forever young until they die in the sky.Kannami Yuichi is stationed at Uris, a frontline base in Europe. He has no memories of the past prior to arriving there, but he knows he is a Killdre, and knows how to operate a fighter.Yuichi's ability is soon acknowledged and he becomes an ace pilot. Then, he meets a girl, Kusanagi Suito, a commander of the base, who is also a Killdre and used to be an ace pilot as well. Although they are meeting for the first time, they feel as if they had known each other for a long time and soon they become close. However, one day, she asks him a surprising thing: "Can you kill me? Otherwise, we cannot escape from all this."