A mercenary is chosen to fly the princess of the nation he's currently fighting for, to a warship of the nation whose prince she's marrying. A lot of people aren't happy about it, because even though he's a native, he's of mixed ethnicity, with half coming from the nation his home country (and the prince's home country) are currently fighting (and being beaten by). This puts him at the lowest social class.
As a child, not do other kids pick on him, even adults insult and hit him. As a pilot, he's called a "sewer rat" to his face because of it, including by the officer who gives him the mission. It's at least heavily implied that he would not have been able to enlist, but then he catches shit for being a mercenary. When he explains he learned to fly by watching the pilots while he worked as a custodian at the airfield as a child, the guy sneers that he learned by stealing with his eyes, like a rat. Motherfucker, how do you expect someone to learn to fly? With their nose?
Charles is advised to only give "yes" or "no" responses to the princess, but that goes out the window almost immediately. They're flying through enemy territory, so Juana's got to watch their rear and (eventually) act as gunner. The attempt to give their flight cover with a massive daylight attack fails miserably due to poor communication security, so they're hounded and surrounded repeatedly.
The film has a mixed aesthetic for its machinery. They big ships are like Helicarriers, in that they can float on the sea, but spend most of their time in the air. Their homing missiles look like torpedoes. The single-engine aircraft resemble World War 2 designs - the enemy ace at the end is flying what looks like and I think is called a "Shiden", which was a Japanese fighter from very late in the war - but apparently run off a hydrogen fuel cell. Fine with me, that particular look is right up my alley, but it seemed an interesting choice.
The scenes of flight combat and evasion are pretty exciting and entertaining. Definitely my favorite part of the movie. Distinct lack of people telling Charles he's a piece of garbage during those scenes. The princess doesn't share the views of many of her people, which means the two characters can have pleasant conversation, which is nice. Makes the audience want those crazy kids to pull through. I'm not sure about having Juana and Charles having a previous connection, but I feel like the character arcs are erratic.
I think Juana has a decent arc about standing up for herself, rather than sort of gliding through life, letting people direct and position her, telling her it's for the good of their family/nation/war effort. She gets to actually do things to help her and Charles stay alive, and say what she thinks and feels without being criticized on how she does it. Charles, I'm less sure on. He gets her there, but is it because of his feelings for her, which he knows can't be returned, or because he believes that she really is that important? I guess by giving away his money for completing the mission he shows it wasn't just a job for him, and he can believe in his country, even if it's spent his entire life telling him he sucks.
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