AIR GEAR

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Alternatives: エアギア; エア・ギア; 飛輪少年; 飞轮少年; 에어기어; AirGear; ขาคู่ทะลุฟ้า (Thai)
Author: Oh! Great
Artist: Oh! Great
Type: Manga
Status: YES
Publish: 2003-01-01 to ?

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3.8
(27 Votes)
14.81%
55.56%
22.22%
7.41%
0.00%
0 Reading
0 Want to read
0 Read
Alternatives: エアギア; エア・ギア; 飛輪少年; 飞轮少年; 에어기어; AirGear; ขาคู่ทะลุฟ้า (Thai)
Author: Oh! Great
Artist: Oh! Great
Type: Manga
Status: YES
Publish: 2003-01-01 to ?
Score
3.8
27 Votes
14.81%
55.56%
22.22%
7.41%
0.00%
0 Reading
0 Want to read
0 Read
Summary
Itsuki Minami needs no introduction – everybody’s heard of the “Babyface” of the Eastside. He’s the toughest kid at Higashi Junior High School, easy on the eyes but dangerously tough when he needs to be. Plus, Itsuki lives with the mysterious and sexy Noyamano sisters. Life is never dull, but it becomes dangerous when Itsuki leads his school to victory over some vindictive Westside punks with gangster connections. Now he stands to lose his school, his friends, and everything he cares about. But in his darkest hour, the Noyamano girls come to Itsuki’s aid. They can teach him a powerful skill that will save their school from the gangsters’ siege–and introduce Itsuki to a thrilling and terrifying new world.

Won the 30th Kodansha Manga Awards for best Shonen.
Reviews (27)
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AIR GEAR review
by
sofiaxbh5
Apr 03, 2021
This manga screams 2000's shounen manga personally. Also I have read and reread the manga for the purpose of this review.

So my name is Aki and my format for manga reviews is usually initial thoughts, criteria summary, then summarize my thoughts.

So a light summary; our main character ikki is your usual tough guy with his antics and popularity as some sort of boss in a group. He has a harem filled life with his step sisters who adopted him and through certain circumstance was introduce to an Air Gear. If you didn't know what an Air gear is, think of it as roller blades with small engines (dont question it, its fictional).

Now initial thoughts are the story is really intriguing but as someone who reads a lot of manga when I was young till now I was never fond of heavy ecchi and this manga is definitely heavy on that but nonetheless that story continues to intrigue me and made me want to continue reading regardless.

Story 7.5
Now I feel like the story has ups and downs but overall it was very intriguing and I keep wanting to read it. Some arcs of the story feels like fillers or at the very least does not progress anything which is fine if done properly but at times had issues with it being to bland. I want to emphasize that the "Sports" genre in this manga is quite different formula from what people are used to but nonetheless have sports elements at the very least. To cut it short and simple, if you really like Shounen, action, and a bit of romance (of course Ecchi too) then this might be for you. But just because you dont like the genre doesn't mean you wont give it a try, id say at least read until ch 50-100 first since this is where I got into the manga.

Art 9
It definitely is reminiscence of the old style of drawing but it did age well (at least for me). Some manga's during 2000 didn't age too well and I would have a hard time reading them but Air Gear is definitely great art wise. Later on you will appreciate the good art style.

Character 8
So first lets talk about main cast of characters. All of them are really good with amazing personalities and are really interesting, some are quite lackluster in terms of character development but some have really great background story about their past. I wont spoil too much but my favorite character is definitely Agito and Kazuma later on the story. Ikki is your usual cool character of course but Kazuma is definitely someone you will like as the story progresses. Agito on the other hand without spoiling is a special character and has amazing background story (even better than ikki personally). But the rest of the cast are ranging from good to really good so you wont be disappointed too much. Only thing that lowers the score for me is they introduce characters with great importance but has little story time or worthless characters in general with big build up but maybe thats due to the Air Gear being a 2000 manga having a different story building/structure.

Enjoyment 9
Without spoiling the manga is definitely one of my favorites in the 2000's era. As a person who dont really like reading mainstream manga like the usual One Piece, Naruto, etc. I find this manga similar to them with its own twist in the story. That aside I appreciate the manga for what its worth, the build up is really good and while the Ecchi is at times disturbing or borderline too ecchi, it doesnt mean its poor or only tries to catch people with its ecchi drawing. Further in the story the ecchi stuff will subside and thats when I really liked the manga. The pacing was really good too, and like I said the build up each important chapter is really good which makes you want to crave for more.

Overall 8.5

Quick summary, its good if you enjoy shounen manga's, enjoy action, and has good storyline.

send me a message request if you want recommend me a manga you enjoy :)
AIR GEAR review
by
Jagory8
Apr 03, 2021
Warning: This review contains minor spoilers.

First impressions: When first hearing about Air Gear, I immediately thought the premise sounds really cool, despite the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of sports series. Fortunately, Air Gear’s one of the few exceptions to the rule, due to how successfully it jumps the shark (pun intended), in taking the idea of competitive roller skating and elevating it with the addition of an increasingly more insane superpowered battle-shounen dimension.

Story: 6/10
Air Gear goes from 0 to 100 extremely quickly, with the first chapters, up until around chapter 80 probably being the series’s peak. They not only do a great job of portraying the urban street punk nature of the setting, but they’re also when the series is at its most grounded and creative in how Ikki and his team strategize and employ different tactics in order to prevail in competitive matches against other storm riders. If you like high octane street fights, you may want to take note of this series.

Now where things start to take a nosedive is after Ikki and crew start making a reputation for themselves, despite not actually having done much by that point, or even being that skilled. It’s then that people in the local storm rider community start to think that Ikki’s destined to eventually become what’s called the sky king, the hero that will become the most powerful storm rider that ever lived and give humanity wings. At this point in the story, we’re also introduced to a rider team known as Genesis. Genesis being a conglomeration of numerous teams that have all united under one banner, resulting in the largest, strongest storm rider team in history. So to make a not so long story even less long, these people decide to go under Ikki and his crew, making Ikki their leader. And just like that, he gains a small army under him, who are committed to helping him in his rise to glory, with the provison that he will help them achieve their goal of defeating the team known as Sleeping Forest. It’s then that we also learn more about the setting and way in which the storm rider community is structured, letting the full premise of the series be revealed. Turns out Sleeping Forest’s mission is to protect the mythicized Trophaeum Tower, the location which practically all other storm riders aim to climb, making them enemies.

Additionally, Genesis’s second goal is also introduced, which is to collect all the regalias, a series of special ATs that grant their users incredible, but ridiculous powers, the strongest of which is housed in Trophaeum Tower as Sleeping Forest’s true target of protection, known as the sky regalia.

It then springboards into what can only be described as a clusterfuck. It decides to add, and just keep on adding things to the plot that just don’t fit, including, but not limited to a group of genetically altered at birth air treck master superbeings, a cheaper corresponding group with the formers’ personalities and memories copy-pasted into them, a years long conspiracy of one man's dream of ruling the world, tons of people getting killed, an aircraft carrier containing Obama, a zero-g battle in space, and the list goes on and on. It attempts to make the plot more interesting, but just completely loses focus, adding and compounding layers upon layers of nonsense, spoiling the simple, if not bizarre, but in reason story it had originally.

It needed not add anymore. It's like having the perfect sandwich made, only for some asshole to come in and add unnecessary shit for the sake of doing so, in the process, ruining what was there in the first place. If Air Gear could be described using the phrase “roller skating on crack”, well then, the amount of crack Oh! Great was on when writing must have been awe inspiring, to say the least. In fact, I’m surprised that the series had at least some level of story consistency to begin with considering. Even still, it manages to be a high octane action series with some nice themes, even without counting friendship as one of them.

One of the core themes of Air Gear is freedom, and what freedom means to each individual. For one person, freedom could mean doing whatever you want, whenever you want, while to another, it could mean being free of toxic relationships, or situations.
Maybe even realizing that worrying about things that are out of your control is unhealthy and letting loose.
Whatever flavor you want. Now as far as this theme’s exploration goes, it's concise and to the point. We should be on the positive side of freedom, that encourages people's lives to change, not only for the betterment of themselves but also for that of those around them, as opposed to the negative side, represented by the main villain, that uses their freedom as an excuse to commit morally deplorable acts in the pursuit of their dream.

Characters: 6/10
So this series has a lot of characters, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll just talk about a few of the ones that tie more into the series’s themes. And what better way to start than with the one that expresses said themes the most. Enter the main character Ikki. While at first glance he may come across as this no-good street punk, that just likes to brawl and get into trouble, he’s a lot more than that.
He’s pretty much the perfect representation of the wind. Freedom, in the purest sense of the world. Ikki’s a very special kind of individual. One that doesn’t change, and doesn’t need to change, but rather just needs to, and succeeded in coming into his own, as his awareness grew and his inhibitions were removed, allowing him to become as he was ultimately destined to be. This is an arc that Air Gear accomplishes really well. He just flows past all the barriers around him, momentarily obstructed, but never stopped. It’s also because of this trait of his, to persevere and live freely that his character’s so great in context. The way that through his actions, he acts as a catalyst for other characters to find their way and develop as people, as any good battle shounen protagonist should.

Another character of note is Kazuma Mikaru, nicknamed Kazu, Ikki’s second in command. He was originally introduced as an introverted and underconfident character, partially due to his proximity to a character as capable and proactive as Ikki. This in turn causes him to feel inadequate, like he’s slowing the team down and isn’t worthy of the hopes that people place in him. His struggle to become stronger and create a sense of self-worth for himself is very compelling to watch play out, especially considering the length that the series has to develop and resolve it. Not only that, but the progression of his character arc of coming into his own and becoming a more confident person is handled very nicely.

Generally speaking, most of Air Gear’s characters go through something similar to either Ikki or Kazu, and even if they don’t have a full arc, they at least grow a bit. This holds especially true for most of the members of Ikki’s team, and some supporting characters.
What development they get is simple and to the point, and considering how off the rails the story ended up going, it’s quite shocking that the series accomplished doing at least that right. Although, in the grand scheme of things, most of the characters in the series range from interesting to rather cookie cutter. Fortunately, most of them still manage to be likable and entertaining, and at the end of the day, that's all that was both expected and needed from a series like this.

Art: 7/10
One thing I must give praise to is the art. It’s amazing, or its style is anyway. The quality and detail of the artwork over time dipped from good to average, with some of the fight scenes looking a little blurry at times, not to mention clunky, with little sense of flow from one action to the next.
This ends up hurting the series a lot, considering what a fundamental aspect of it the action is. Another aspect that shows a rather poor attention to detail is the backgrounds, that often times aren’t given as much detail as they should. While as the series progresses, the art does eventually start to consistently get better, it ends up being too little, too late.
I mean for crying out loud, many other mangaka can, and have improved by leaps and bounds in far fewer chapters, so why not this one? However, as stated previously, for as many negative things as there are about the art, the amount of style and personality that that art radiates more than makes up for them. It just has this incredibly intense street punk vibe to it. Another thing that deserves a thumbs up as far as art goes is the character designs. All the characters, with few exceptions in the series look so unique and interesting, something which is a true achievement considering the sheer volume of them.
Although some of the characters are more titillating than others, wink wink, nudge nudge. Not surprising, considering that Oh! Great was originally a hentai artist. And on that note, good to see he’s still got it.

Enjoyment 6/10
Air Gear’s a series that I found to be very enjoyable. There’s action, cool characters, fanserive, sex jokes, romance and comedy. The reason I enjoy the series is just so intrinsic, what with it having everything that appeals to me specifically, for better or for worse. What really hit me though was all the crazy shit that happens over its course, and honesty, I just really enjoy it when a series embraces the insanity. I mean it’s a story where roller staking can give you superpowers, to the point where there are scenes in which characters practically summon stands. It’s because of those to say the least, bizarre elements that I enjoy it as much as I do.

Overall 6/10
Air Gear is what I’d call a product of its time. The early 2000s were a period full of series that were really out there, and so over the top that they couldn’t possibly be mistaken as being from any other time period. It's very hard to describe why that is in words, but there’s just this feeling. I was to try and put my finger on it, I’d say it’s because from what I’ve seen, a noticeable amount of series from that period were really trying to mix it up by taking a bit from everything, so far as genres are concerned.
In the end, that resulted in some interesting series, as far as the meta goes, for better or for worse.
So if I were to recommend Air Gear to someone, I’d do so with the caveat that they’d have to go in with an open mind that’s able to embrace the insanity.
If you don't, you're going to find it a chore to get through, and I feel that the intent of Air Gear was for the reader to simply enjoy the spectacle anyway. But if you’re not into series that are kinda out there, fucking crazy even, then Air Gear’s sadly not for you.
Special thanks to my pain in Yu-Gi-Oh cards editor, Lonecrit.

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