Manga Review: Air Gear

Air Gear is a manga created by Oh! great which is a action sports comedy, while also being quite ecchi. It was created in May 2003 and is still ongoing with 23 volumes in total. Air Gear was then made into a TV anime series by Toei Animation which spanned 25 episodes and began from April 2006 and ended september 2006. The anime did rather badly overall as it is one of the best examples of a "rushed to close ending", where no questions were answered and fans were left "eh?" hence why I am reviewing the manga! Heck the manga did so well it won the 2006 Kodansha Manga award as it was recognised as a truly great manga among the rest.

The story centers on a guy named Itsuki "Ikki" Minami, who is a student and a delinquent. Ikki is the leader of a youth gang, which is actually just his friends. One day he gets roughed up by a gang wearing At's. Ikki goes home disgrunted but vows one day to become an AT Rider. At's are essentially rollerblades that runs on two wheels and are powered from an energy source and they move much like moterbikes. Thus with AT's or Air Trecks you can race eachother while wearing them, while racing up wall's, jumping or doing all arounc tricks. Thus the world is "Air Gear" where all the youths have At's and race eachother. If you are an AT rider then you ussually join a team, and once in a team you can battle against other teams. However that is for small fry. There are some riders who are named "kings" and these kings are the master riders of a known element like "fire", "fang" or "wind". Every AT riders dream is to become the "Sky King" which commands the entire sky and rules all under heaven. So Ikki wants to be sky king cool eh?

The story starts out simple it is a boy with a dream which is rather generic. However being applied to a sports manga, and where the sports is completely unique it can do quite well. All the characters fall into different teams and the manga consists of them battling. However that is not all there is to it, all the characters have their own mysterious pasts. I mentioned that there are characters who call themselves "kings" well these King At Riders are given special AT's which are far from normal ones. Their AT's has as much sophistcated technology like a space shuttle!. For example the Flame regalia actually causes flames, or the Fang regalia causes getsuga Tenshou's and such. So all these King riders are the best in the world, however they all wait for the person who is the "Sky King". The sky king is the greatest AT Rider in the world, and the Sky gear, well who knows what the hell it is! all we know is all the villians want it.

Itsuki "Ikki" Minami: Ikki is the primary protagnist of Air Gear, and the leader of the Air Treck team "Kogarasumaru". Ikki is a delinquent who does not take anything from anyone! he has no parents or family and he lives with the Noyamano family which consits of 4 sisters. Of course with them not being real sisters, Ikki always trys to tease them, leaving him with a large wound in his head in the aftermath. However to become sky king is his dream, he has the ability to see the "wing road" which grants him the ability to make tricks and maneuvers very easily on a battle field. However he also has amazing physical endurance and strength allowing him to sustain a great deal of damage. With his gifted abilites he is seen being one of the closest to the Sky King. He is by far the best AT rider of Kogarasumaru and has full confidence in his team mates.

Kazuma "Kazu" Mikura: Kazu is Ikki's childhood friend and whenever ikki gets into trouble, well you can bet Kazu will be the one to clear up the mess afterwards. He is always seen wearing that stupid hat, let me see your hair dammit! Well anyway his position in Kogarasumaru is the "racer" as he is easily the fastest AT Rider. He is so fast many people say he is like jet fighter soaring through the sky. When the plot turns and the world of Air Gear is no longer a childrens game, but life and death Kazu feels the pressure of the world on his shoulders. However Kazu is not alone and then he really shows what he is made of! Kazu is closest to becoming the "Flame king" and conquering the "flame road" as even without the flame regalia he can create flames across the floors and walls as he is causing so much friction the air is being set alight.

Akito/Agito/Lind Wanijima: Agito was originally apart of the SWAT team where they worked together to clamp down on AT Riders, as it is illegal to race all across town and through traffic. However after he meets Ikki, and after he rescues him he decides to join team Kogarasumaru. Agito actually has a split personality syndrome where he has a personality called Akito which is peacefull and non violent. Agito wears an eyepactch and when it is covering one of his eyes he shifts personalities. Agito himself is violent and very aggressive and constantly swears. His third personality only awakens when agito is about to die, but that is so late in the manga you won't have to worry about that anyway. Anyway Agito is the second strongest AT Rider of Kogarasumaru as he is the "Fang King" and in possession of the fang regalia which he attacks with getsuga Tenshous.

Simca: Easily the best looking girl in the entire manga before she cut her hair. Anyway she is one of the female protagonists of the manga as she was the first inspiration for Ikki to take up Air Trecks and become an AT Rider. Simica was very intrested and even has a possible love intrest with Ikki and she treated him like a small bird. She oversee's ikki's potential as an AT Rider and was the first to notice his abilites and being potential sky king material. As a AT Rider all we know is she is of average level as she does not actually engage in AT battles much. However she is leader of the AT Team called "Genesis" which is the current most powerfull AT Team in the world. In her team called "Genesis" she has many "King" riders and hundreds of AT riders making them feared in the AT world. However she does indeed have a mysterious past.

Ringo Noyamano: Ringo is a kind, studious girl who wears thick glasses, always there to support Ikki since they were young. She started out with a sisterly affection for Ikki and now its a full blown teenage crush. Even though she is third oldest sister in her family she is the second strongest AT Rider. You see Ringo with her sisters actually make up the legendary team "Sleeping Forest". Sleeping Forest in the past was an AT team created entirely of "Kings" every single AT Rider was the best at their chosen road, that made them the most powerfull AT team in the world. However that is in the past now, the old leader used to be the oldest sister of the Noyamano family Rika, and it is now Ringo. Ringo is the "Thorn King" of the Sonia road and one of the strongest AT riders around as her regalia is able to produce super sonic whips.

Oh my god, if it is one thing Air Gear is great for, that has to be the art style. Oh Great! the author of Air Gear's art style has to be one of my favourites simply because of how detailed every single panel in the manga is. They jam pack so much detail in all the battle scenes and such that it sometimes seens way too much! I mean you will see every single gear drawn and moving in a clock tower, or every single intricate line drawn in the double page spreads. Double page spreads are some of the best you have ever seen, they always, without fail carry so much detail in 2 pages. If the plotline of the manga seems to be a bit thin, when you open a page you are thrusted upon pages and pages of perfectly drawn details, and perfectly shaded tones that keeps your eyes open! The amount of detail in this art style is simply amazing, it always leaves me in awe everytime I read Air Gear.

With such great detailed art style it would be a shame to waste it, and so the author Oh Great! draws many echii scenes. Actually for a sports manga this is a pretty ecchi manga as almost every girl are drawn with super model bodys, however that is quite common in manga's though at this sheer level of detail, it stands out. Air Gear seems to dabble on naked comedy, where you are suppose to find the characters being stark naked hilarious, which does work, but some times. However the ecchiness is not as bad in Air Gear as it is in another manga like Tenjou Tenge. Though even with this mind, Air Gear is still pretty ecchi compared to most manga's. There are many, many scenes when the female characters are all drawn either naked, half naked or scantly dressed, it gets worse as the story progresses. However this level of ecchi does not really distrupt the flow of the manga and should not really bother you, though it does need a mention.

Hmm... what to rate Air Gear, I will admit I thought it was a great manga in the early stages of the plotline. This is because the plotline was very easy to understand and you can follow it pretty easily as well. If this was the case it would get a 9/10, however currently the manga plotline has become much more deeper. Now in most cases this would be good, it shows that there is development of the plotline, however the current development is, well confusing. I mean at the beggining the manga was about a childrens game essentially, it is about teenagers riding around the place on Air Trecks. However currently it is a life or death situation with people dieing left and right, losing limbs. Well I might be overexaggerating it a bit, but for such a fun and simple manga, it has developed into a serious deep seinen. The manga tries to use it's ecchi comedic scenes to break the ice, but it just does not work for me. You might be different, and I hope you do enjoy it more, however in the end Air Gear is a good read.