It shouldn’t take long for an attentive viewer to catch what I’m hinting at.

A Sanka fighter arrives in Alice Base. Chief mechanic Sasakura walks out from the hanger, looking haggard and melancholic as usual, to greet the new pilot as he steps out of the plane. He doesn’t remove his goggles, but lights a cigarette and throws the matchstick away after snapping it.

Moments later, he reports to Kusanagi at her office, and identifies himself as Hiiragi Samu. Kusanagi looks up and replies firmly with a slight smile: “I’m Kusanagi. I’ve been waiting for you.”

~~~~

Read into the above what you want. Personally, I think it’s a great ending that provides much-needed closure to the story. If nothing else, it strongly implies a happy ending for Kusanagi.

RE: Themes
You’ve suggested a few interesting themes. Personally, after my second viewing (in the end, I watched the movie thrice at the cinema), I realised that the plot is actually meant to be more of a sci-fi mystery thriller than a war/love story. Which shouldn’t be surprising, given that it’s adapted from a novel whose author is best-known for writing mysteries.

Despite being told from Yuuichi’s perspective, the story actually revolves entirely around Suito Kusanagi. Who was Kurita Jinroh? What happened to him? How was he related to Suito?

The movie can be divided into roughly six or seven acts. In each part, we get closer to the root of the mystery, until we learn the truth about the Kildren, and see how that knowledge of eternal adolescence affects each major character.

Tokino, for example, is clearly aware of his fate, but chooses to be cavalier about it and live it up instead as a playboy. Mitsuya has also cottoned on to the truth, but refuses to believe that she is Kildren. Yuuichi was stunned by the revelation (as can be seen from his reaction to Yudachi’s replacement towards the end of the fim). But he copes with it the way most other Kildren do - by suppressing it until each day becomes a foggy blur.

Among them all, though, Suito is completely unique - no other Kildren has lived as long as she has. And no other Kildren has firsthand knowledge of the dreaded Teacher, the most likely father of her child.

So, in Suito, all hope for the Kildren’s future resides. In having given birth to her own child, Suito is more aware of her mortality than any other Kildren alive. When she watches Mizuki grow up, it’s with a mixture of joy (watch her face closely when she first talks to Yuuichi about Mizuki - she’s smiling, a genuine smile, very unlike her usual cynical smirk) and pained regret.

Because, you see, Suito was progressively falling apart throughout the film. It’s strongly hinted that she was spiralling deeper into what she felt was an inescapable depression. Kurita Jinroh’s coming and going was the straw that finally broke her back, and by the time we see her in The Sky Crawlers, she was already verging on suicide.

In Mizuki, she sees the person she can never become. Hence her rage at the monstrous system that created her - an impotent anger because she knows she is unable to change her fate.

Or, rather, she thinks she knows. By the end of the film, Yuuichi becomes the first person to break her out of the vicious circle.

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Well, all that comprises my interpretation of The Sky Crawlers. It’s by far the most accessible Oshii movie to date, which is in itself an achievement. Then, there’s the 3D animation and stunning dogfighting action. And the gorgeously designed planes.

But, in the end, Oshii is still Oshii. Newcomers to his body of work, including The Sky Crawlers, are bound to be stupifyingly bored by his plodding style of storytelling. I know I was as well, at least during my first viewing.

After all, Oshii movies tend to target the mind more than the heart. This has always been his biggest flaw as a filmmmaker, and it stays largely the same in The Sky Crawlers. Oshii, to put it mildly, is an intellectual snob who never deigns to make a mainstream movie.

But then, perversely enough, that’s also the reason why I like his oeuvre. ^^;