Review of The Cockpit (1993)
Takahashi Ryōsuke (director), Kawajiri Yoshiaki (director).
Part 1: Alternate history. Germany has finished the ultimate weapon ahead of the Allies, and one brilliant fighter pilot gets the responsibility of guarding its transport.
Part 2: A scarred kamikaze pilot who failed once is given a new chance, in a brand new Ōka. It’s a plane built exclusively for suicide bombing.
Part 3: A very young motorcycle courier finds an engineer, just when the rest of that man’s unit is wiped out. The two survivors “race” to reinforce the airbase that sent the courier, but the Americans are way ahead of them, and they know it.
War story vignettes, three 20-minute episodes. All are set in WW2 and treat the personal tragedies of Axis soldiers. In contemporary animation, Reiji’s character design is tragically inept, but he has a fairly decent perspective. Just don’t expect depth, great plotting, or subtlety. The first part, Slipstream—the only one directed by Kawajiri—is the best.
References here: “Don’t mention the war!”.