AIR GEAR

To be fair when I started reading it first I kind of liked it. The characters were likeable and art was good. But soon the story took a turn and it became a jumbled and confusing mess. We have A-T or air treck a device so technologically advanced that it makes human fly. But after this is all shit. The thing is that wearing something on your foot doesn't give you powers. This most illogical aspect of manga was dragged to finish.

There were too much of unwanted things that were present in the manga which made the story look more un-charismatic.
I liked the art it was good and so did the characters they were fun to read and imagine.
In conclusion this is the longest manga i have read ever which i kind of hate that i was better not reading.

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


Genre :: Sport, Action, Adventure, Shounen, Ecchi
Description :: Minami "Ikki" Itsuki, is a student and a delinquent. Also known as the "Unbeatable Babyface", Ikki is the leader of the youth gang by the name of "East Side Gunz". Upon his return home after being humiliated by a street gang of Storm Riders called the Skull Saders Ikki discovers a secret hidden from him by his benefactors, the Noyamano sisters. The sisters belong to a group of Storm Riders who go by the team name of Sleeping Forest. Keen on helping Ikki to regain his confidence and pride, they supply him with a pair of Air Trecks and as time goes by, his skills improve as he uses them in combat against other users.

Story: 6.5/10 :: Was brilliant in the beginning, but the story is lacking these days...

Characters: 9/10 :: Some loveable characters in there, and great designs.

Artwork: 9.5/10 :: Very nice, action and movement is done well, it almost feel like its moving at times. But a few chapters had lacking art a while back, but thats fixed now.

Enjoyment: 8.5/10 :: I actually enjoyed it quite alot, it was a fun read from the start.

Pacing/Panels: 4.5/5 :: Some chapters seem kind of filler-ish, but apart from that it was all good.

Originality: 4/5 :: Battle manga, but with sports involved? That deserves it some points for mixing the two.

Who would like this manga? :: Shounen battle manga? Check. Ecchi? Check. Sports? Check. Well, there you have it, enjoy!

One of the hardest manga I’ve ever tried to read. It’s just so pretentious and nonsensical with its storytelling. Just one thing I’d like to address, and it concerns Air Gear's use of metaphors.

"Flying"

This manga throws out that buzzword as if it actually means something. At first, I thought it was just some metaphor to liken a character to an animal, but later on the characters began to use it as actual explanation for the nonsense that takes place.

Are they flying? Fuck no! They’re rollerblading for god sake!

Also, Ikki shitting out an EF4 tornado from his fucking shoes completely contradicts the law of conservation of mass. Where did that energy come from? The tiny motor inside his shoe? The manga's selective with what real world physics it wants to represent in its narrative—hence, I can’t engage.

Air gear is exciting because the story is not cliche. There is always a new surprise around the corner.
But it's too romantic for my taste. Beatiful girls only date pretty boys, yes the perfect couple pairing.
Ito Ogure tend to sideline characters as the story progress. So don't be surprised if your favorite characters are slowly fading away especially if they are not handsome or cool. The is too focused on few characters.
Some characters especially girls are solely motivated by love as if they have no life of their own. While the boys follow a cool guy as if they don't have nothing else to do and don't have their own needs and want, they are too busy caring for the cool guy' needs. In other words the character are shallow. Despite all that, the characters definetely leave a strong impression. Some are very interesting and you can easily relate to.
Fanservice is good, at the beginning the art was awesome but then it became awfull, it's like drawn by a different person. So get ready to be dissapointed, that's why i only gave score of 6 for art

Air Gear was a manga that derailed when it stopped emphasizing the main story and character, and started dealing with back stories, and characters arcs left and right. Back when we focused on Ikki, we had funny hijinks, badass ideas, and just general awesomeness. Now we have unimpactful-world views, friendship is magic, and a million subplots. The ending, I feel solved many plot hole for the (now-central) side characters (I mean, how else was I going to find out that Onigiri is now married to Sarome, who is somehow not dead form having her neck twisted 180 degrees, and Kazu finally goes out with Emily) but it really lacks what we were looking for, like Ikki getting to ride with Simca, or where everyone goes from there, or even WHERE DID IKKI COME FROM. They never really cover the plot holes with his natural talent (jumping off Tokyo Tower), his relation to Dr. Minami, or why he needed to be adopted in the first place. If it wasn't for the newfound conspiracy theory about how mangakas are ending their mangas to send a message to the greedy publishers, I would say that Oh!Great could have done a lot better. Considering his time span though... well, at least it wasn't Negima's ending :)

I can't deny Oh! Great's skills when it comes to drawing, but he just can't write a reasonable story. His physics give me the creeps, and the way he draws women got boring and disgusting with all the overly sexistic scenes. Oh well, it's still looking good.

Even though I hate the main character Ikki, I must admit that his other characters are bit more intresting. The first impression of this manga was very captivating, but as the series got longer my intrest dissapeared. I do still enjoy reading Air Gear occasionally, but it's definately not among my favorite series.

In my opinion the story was perfect. Although there was a specific flaw that always caught my atention. It never blended right. All the way up until about half way through, I kept wondering what was going on.

The art is all just my opinion because there wasn't any mistakes or whatnot. It was just hilarious, sexy, or just plain eye catching at any given point. The illustrator Had the know how in martial arts and the technique of it. The regalia were also very creative looking.

The characters were pretty damn good, but it was all jumbled up together. Just like with the story, the character elements were individually extremely advance, and just plain genius, but there wasn't much thaughts put into the blending of all the different elements of manga.

I'll say that I have super high standards by now, but i enjoyed this anime alot. It was funny and (Somewhat) more realistic than others. The jokes and gags, were all hilarious, more than most anime. The over all complexity of the story drew me in.

Over all, it was most definitely worth it. I'm glad I read it all. It was also pretty inspiring.

The story is well paced and interesting; however, it fell into the same "character thinks he's great, fights someone better than him, gets better, repeat" cycle as so many manga. Air Gear's saving grace are the characters, technology, and comedy that keep it from getting boring.

Art was rather stylized, but it was still realistic enough to help bridge both serious and silly portions of the story. Oddly enough, the gratuitous fan service only helped. It kept the story from seeming too serious, which would have gotten boring very quickly considering the... repetitiveness of most archs.

The characters definitely helped set Air Gear apart from other anime. Although they all seem to fit into one trope or another, main characters and side characters alike were vibrant and fun; all are developed enough to be interesting or relatable and ridiculous enough to keep you wanting more.

Overall, repetition killed Air Gear for me. I loved the characters and art, and the story was good, but after 178 chapters I dropped the series.

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.

Warning:
1.this is my 1st review
2.the ending is quite hard to keep up with and like all animes or mangas there are a few loose ends
3.as the story goes on alot of ecchi is incorporated into the manga

The story is just amazing.I would have given it a 10 if the ending wasnt so hard to keep up with.So basically you have your main character ikki and his friends trying to reach the top of the stormrider world.The air treks are much based off of roller skates and stormriders ride on them obviously.If your thinking "oh,how lame roller skates" your going to be proved wrong.Everyone has a road to follow to the sky.A road in which to follow in the stormrider life.To each his own road of life and his own set of wings to fly with.Ikki soon creates a group with his friends called kogarasumaru and sets out on his own wings into the road that leads into the great never ending sky above where noone has ever been.

-STORY OVERALL 10

The art isn't very original.The art is very modernized and i believe is more set to appeal to guys.There is some ecchi and fight scenes were it is kinda hard to tell what is going on, but overall you can tell whats going on.There are troll expressions and anger expressions that totally changes how a person looks.The face expression isnt really changed,its as though the face itself changes and the person turn into someone totally different.That truly brings out the emotions of the characters.The backgrounds are well made as in they just dont show a bunch of outlines of characters in background.The drawings arent so sharp and the lines are loose giving the art the description of cool.One thing that i really hate is how most of the girls look alike and takes awhile to differentiate.

-ART 9

Ikki is basically the protagonist of this story.He can be very serious,but is most of the time very relaxed,calm,and confident.He will basically carry the story through his wings and take all the readers into the sky with him.

Ringo is the MAIN herione of this story.She is a sister like figure of Ikki and they have lived together since childhood.While she harbors feelings for ikki is is quite indenile about it.

Kazu is ikki's childhood friend.He is ikki's rival at the same time.He doesnt have much self confident and lives a free flow life.He is all about speed.

Onigiri is also a friend of ikki's.He has ero power.Eveything he does is ero and his power even derives from it.

The characters are developed throughout the story as everyone in ikki's group finds their own road and learns to spread their own wings.

-CHARACTER 9

I just enjoyed the whole concept of wings,road,dreams,sky...because imma dreamer xD

-ENJOYABLE 9

Overall i give this manga a 9.Although i wish i could rate it an 8.5,because 8 would be an understatement,but 9 seems a bit of an overstatement as well.

Air Gear is one of those series that had a lot of potential but failed miserably. I already put reviews for the anime (which was really good because that was the best part of the series and after that it goes downhill) and I read through the manga many times. So here is my review

Story: 4

Air Gear's story goes from setting things up very nicely to failing miserably. The arcs that the anime went through were the best parts of Air Gear but then after that it fails. However there were some interesting things such as Sora's betrayal however there is a lot of things that should happen. The story itself doesn't make sense till through the end with all the things of people somehow alive but dead, Spitfire AI program, The Big Climax, Rika's brainwash, Tool Toul To, there is alot of things that are bad. To make this review quick it is very had to say all the problems of air gear.

Art: 10

The art was very good, Oh Great knows how to draw, a lot of the action scenes are really nice.

Characters: 4

Oh boy where to begin with this let's start with why John Omaha (Barack Obama the president of US) exist in the story.

Honestly I am just going to say the good characters and everyone else just assume is bad.

Good Characters: (not really great but okay)

Buccha, Agito/Akito, Kazu, Spitfire, Yoshitune(if spelled name wrong sorry)

Everyone else are pretty bad characters. Originally I was going to say Sora would be a good character but his whole thing about cutting of different parts of his body because he doesn't need them or doing it for the 99% of people was dumb.

Enjoyment: 5

There were some parts I enjoyed but after the Trident arc it starts to go down a bit but still enjoyable but after the Sora's Betrayal Arc it goes really bad.

Overall: 4

There were some good moments in Air Gear but the things with gravity children, and some parasite that controlled Rika, etc are the bad parts which is majority of the series.

-What can i say about this weird delightfull world of air gear? well, if i tell you a manga about roller skating in the streets can get nasty and cool at the same time, would you believe me?

-Every year i re-read and watch air gear, its one of my top 3 mangas ever made, not because its perfect, actually its the oposite, because of all the flaws, how it doenst take itself seriously, and how ikki is so fucking cool without trying, he is not try hard like most anime main characters, he has that charisma no other one has, ffs, i love this shit
sure, in the end the manga gets kinda all over the place, exposition like crazy, mountains of text and new info every page, BUT, it hells sure doenst take much of the amazing story we following, also, the ending of this manga is so fitting and came in the right moment, most mangas tend to not end when its supose to and just keep going.

I think everyone should read Air gear at least once, you will not be disapointed.

Reading long running series can be quite the daunting task to start on, but you can reap the awards of what long series bring, memorial characters and terrific long stories.
I'm referring to good stories like One Piece, FMA, and anyone who can actually write, Air Gear's award is the boobie prize of absolute disappointment, a benefit of the doubt that was brought about by a good start.

STORY: Oh Great! Isn't that quite the name to give yourself? Especially since you're definitely not so great at a lot of aspects, except artwork. It must really scream confidence to those who pick up Air Gear (Or Tenjo Tenge, but I'm not reviewing that), expecting something great, well I wouldn't blame them, Air Gear does start out pretty decent, good even, but fumbles around later and finally falls.
Air Gear is dumb, really dumb, that one kid in first grade who is sent to the corner in class and has to wear a dunce hat everyday kind of dumb. But like the teacher having to watch over that kid, you grow fond of the kid's antics, even if you know what to expect from him, that's the charm of that rascal in the works. But the kid eventually grows up into a complete dumbass, and he's not only the kind of dumbass who does stuff only jackasses would do, but also the kind of pretentious ass that can only pretend to be what he is obviously not, smart.

That's what my experience with Air Gear has been like, and that's what the story amounts to, a smooth landscape that hides the grand canyon of falls. The story of Air Gear starts off pretty simple, Itsuki "Ikki" "Babyface" Minami, the strongest kid at his junior high school, is an orphan who lives with four sisters and is practicably a brother to them, the Noyamanos, Ringo, the series main female character and actually the most likable character, Mikan, the tomboyish and second oldest sister, Ume, the youngest and quirkiest of the sisters, and Rika, the oldest and bread winner of the family. But one day Ikki however fights the wrong crowd, and is slaugthered by a gang of roller skaters called Storm Riders, and from then on, Ikki is introduced to the world of Air Treks. Air Treks are super roller skates that let's you jump into the sky as if you're flying, enabling you to perform tricks that are otherwise, impossible without them (And magical BS, which I'll get to in a little bit).
The story is basically a sports battle shonen ecchi manga series with quite the strange concept, that starts off as good as anyone would hope for coming from the mastermind behind Tenjo Tenge (And just to clarify, I'm using the word mastermind very loosely, that word is too great for oh great). A lot of the early battles in the series are very entertaining, which the battles are actually various sports events (Mixed in with typical shonen style fights of course) that are quite interesting, and involves the main to use strategy (In terms of shonen strategy fights, it's up there with early Naruto). From racing and relay runs to standard 1 on 1fighting and survival king of the hill matches, this is one thing Air Gear continues as one of it's only constant qualities.

Other "qualities" however, might as well have never been considered as quality. Specifically, the story telling. As I figuratively explained earlier, The story does nothing but goes down a downward slope after sometime, from fun foolishness with the main cast, Including Ikki, and the rest of his storm rider team, the whipping boy and fastest member, Kazu, the fat pervert, Onigiri, Oh Great's interpretation of Bleach's Chad, Buccha, and the fucking split personalities boy who says fuck all the fucking time that it is his catch-phase, Akito/Agito. Other characters includes a couple of groupies that become useful over time, a cock tease, and several countless roller skaters.
The story was basically about a group of boys wanting to become the best roller skaters in Japan, that becomes a cheap pretentious mess. From killing off characters that had no importance to the overall story to just improve another character's air trek skills, to throwing in pointless characters, to over exaggerating the power of the roller blades to ridiculous proportions e.g. roller skates determine the fate of the world.
And from then on the series loses all of it's fun, I mean, it's ridiculous, specific roller skates with magical powers and only naked girls can repair them? It's fucking retarded to put it bluntly, they're nothing more than cheap devices to make ridiculous powers and cheap fan service, but Air Gear takes a simple concept and over inflates it with story telling that's obviously over oh great's ability.
It's a shame that this series grow too serious, and that it looses any redeeming qualities other than...

ART: The artwork, this is the one thing Oh Great does to earn his pretentious name. Incredible detail on everything, the character designs are borderline realistic, bodily proportions are over exaggerated at times (Muscles, titties, and other lustful body parts), but everything looks great, especially the personified shadows of the characters, with great detail on these creatures ranging from vicious beasts to goddesses and hellish armies.
However, at times, when the story does it thing, text boxes and word bubbles fill too much of the pages, and becomes almost as messy as the story is.
But the word great should only be implied here when speaking of Air Gear.

OVERALL:
The Good:
+ A dumb fun story with a unique concept that mixes shonen and sports elements.
+ Good comedy if low brow and ecchi jokes are your thing.
+ Great artwork that deserves the word great.

The Bad:
- Dumb story become a convoluted mess later on that goes way above the head of the author.
- Cheap ecchi, and even cheaper plot advancements.
- Completely ridiculous plot devices, and all the magical bs roller skates can apparently do.
- Terrible mood swings.

Sigh... As easy as it is to drop Air Gear, I consider myself to be at the point of no return, but let this review be a warning to those wanting to invest into this mess of a series. Oh Great must actually be a sarcastic name, or should be used in an annoyed reply like, "Oh great... another chapter of air gear to read, woo whoo..."

So I stumbled across a few artworks by Oh! Great and was simply fascinated by his art. This really made me want to read his works so I started with Tenjou Tenge, although I put it on hold because I heard Air Gear is his best work.
Now that I've finished it, here is my review.

- S T O R Y -
The story is centered around Minami Itsuki as he gets introduced to the world of A-T and grows as a Storm Rider and he overcomes progressively increasing in difficulty challenges through practice, skill and sheer will.
It starts out fairly simple with a fresh concept not seen before in Sports manga but as the story progresses it becomes more and more convoluted.
The pacing is good, it's not too fast, nor does it drag on. Every moment has enough time to develop itself and not overstay it's welcome.

That aside, the story, while really enjoyable, is the weakest part of Air Gear for sure, the battles often rely on will and having to protect someone in order to be strong. While not necessarily a bad thing, it does do it a tad bit too often.
Sometimes it doesn't even try to make sense with some character's powers but that's not a problem Air Gear is an over-the-top Sports/Battle Shonen hybrid and does what it does really well. Air Gear was not made to excel in writing and be the Hamlet of the manga world, it was made to be cool and that's what it does best. Air Gear is the definition of cool, that's what it breathes and that's what it exhales.

While it has plenty of nonsensical moments, there are the occasional scientific explanations that makes what just happened seem plausible but they're far too few.


- A R T -
The best aspect of Air Gear for sure, the art is incredibly crisp, clear and incredibly detailed in places. It compliments the setting of Air Gear and it makes the characters shine.
Especially when they zoom in the A-Ts, the detail is mesmerizing.
Oh! Great's proportions make some pretty good fan service, for both guys and girls, Air Gear is riddled with hot guys and hot girls.

- C H A R A C T E R S -
While they're pretty archetypical, they show plenty of personality and do grow as characters, each of them has his own individual character arc and road.
Their motives are pretty clear and simple, they want to improve themselves.
Also, their interactions are one of the best thing about Air Gear alongside the art.

- O V E R A L L -
The story, while nothing special, it manages to make the best out of it's characters and setting, the action was great, the panel selection for each scene was perfect and it knew when to stop on a cliff hanger. It kept you on the edge. There is plenty of violence and fan service but none of it feels out of place with Air Gear.

- E N J O Y M E N T -
I really enjoyed Air Gear, especially because of it's action and fantastic art.

Let me give my review in just a few lines:
Good start.
Very good middle part.
Poor ending.
Very bad end.
The latter story-line, imho, is seriously flawed. As some reviewers said this manga has a number of loopholes making the latter chapters non-understandable. I don't know if I should recommend this manga. But let me give some notes, read it only as "just another enjoyable manga" without delving too much into the story else you will regret it like me. You've been warned. I repeat THE STORYLINE IS BAD!!

Air Gear is a Sports, Shounen, Comedy, Ecchi. This is a Manga is by Oh! Great, so intense violence, extreme fanservice, and an over-the-top story line, which for the most part makes no sense, are part of the package, but that is okay!

The story revolves around typical teenage delinquent Ikitsuki Minami. He is the epitome of the cliche, shameless badass, main character you see in almost all Shounen Manga. His life suddenly takes a turn from his dull everyday life, to something more, when he meets a girl who can fly, well not really, but with the help of her AT's (Air Treks) she is able to fly with high into the sky and pull off amazing tricks. Ikki becomes instantly intrigued by the AT world and relentlessly aims for the top of Tropheum with his Storm Rider team, Kogarasumaru, eliminating friend and foe alike.

One of attributes i find cool and unique about this Manga is the art it is simply amazing, I never get tired of looking at the vast landscapes and one-of-a-kind character designs. In my opinion whatever the story is lacking the art makes up for, so the art is definitely a plus for me. Another plus for me is the supporting characters they are just so cool. When i get tired of Ikki there is always a couple chapters of Agito or Kazu fighting. Without that balance of "page-time" (Manga equivalent of "screen-time") this Manga would be an utter and complete train wreck.

And now a negative. The one thing that pisses the shit out of me is the constant and blatant over-use of the metaphoric "wings"- what is this I don't even... it just leaves me in a state of awe at the stupidity and uselessness that these scenes serve, granted they are there for dramatic reasons and dramatic reasons only... I'll throw in one more for the heck of it, the fanservice is beyond the imagination, it boggles my mind how some of the scenes even occur. i.e. one scene the girl has her clothes on then wind blows *whoosh* suddenly her clothes are either gone or ripped to shreds.

Overall, Air gear is a great for all you hard core Shounen fans who really enjoy over the top action badass special tricks, and of course how could i forget, roller skates....

Oh great ... yet another bombastic manga, developing from its humble beginnings, into the convoluted mess I see before me. Anyone who has read most of it, or its previous incarnation Tenjou Tenge, will understand what I mean. Air Gear is an exciting Shounen, Sports, Ecchi, Comedy that takes extreme sports to a whole new level. Nevertheless this is an Oh! Great manga; so expect mind-numbing violence, x-rated fanservice and an absurdly over-the-top storyline.

As it follows Itsuki Minami (Ikki), a boy who comes across as your typical teenage delinquent, with no real purpose or goal in life; but that soon changes when he discovers the wonders of the popular extreme sport known as “Air Treck”. Now Air Treck is like if you took rollerblading and stuck it in a shounen manga like Hunter x Hunter. I know that not everyone will understand the analogy, but it is the only way one can even describe the latter 2/3rds of the manga.

Now the way that most shounen sports manga go, is by first introducing the protagonist to the sport and have said protagonist be met with an obstacle they must overcome through both training and sheer force of will, then come across an even greater obstacle. Rinse and repeat. Sure Air Gear follows this formula but there’s a number well-conceived concepts that give this manga an edge over others; like the formation of an AT team, the bonds between them and infinite possibilities of ATs. From then on the story continually develops by adding new elements (e.g. Regalia) to the plot. Unfortunately the deeper the story goes, the more it loses the original essence that once captivated the reader and in turn becomes such a convoluted mess that even I struggled to follow. Which isn't helped by the poorly written dialogue the characters spew, when explaining a trick/skill/ability that often consists of either: something random scientifically proven theory, some random ancient mythology or some random philosophy.

But one thing that never loses its essence in Air Gear, is the cluster of clichéd but cool characters that fulfil every single archetype imaginable. Yet I feel somewhat torn when it comes to evaluating the characters of Air Gear. Because on the one hand you have Ikki, the main protagonist, who we will follow as he struggles to get to the top and pretty much exudes "cool" whilst doing so. But it's not only him, as it is often nice to see his comrades develop along the way too, meaning that no one is left on the wayside. I in particular enjoyed seeing Kazu struggle to break free from Ikki's shadow and become truly formidable in his own right. Even side characters who seem unimportant at first are given enough time in the spotlight, for the readers to learn what motivates them all. Then on the other hand you have a certain character, who shall not be named, that drastically undergoes the most contrived transformation imaginable and then there's Barack Obama... nuff said. Which is why I feel torn, because there's an amazing cast of characters and then a few that kind of ruin it.

Yet I can be decisive in saying the artwork is the best thing about Air Gear, with its unique look and well thought-out design that sets it apart from all other shounen manga (except other Oh! Great manga). Not only are the characters fun to look at, with their distinct looks and their expressively drawn attitudes, but this is the first time I'll praise the SFX katakana for not only being noticeable but for enhancing those intense moments. The environments are also very detailed and it’s easy to see that a lot of time, effort and creativity has gone into illustrating every battle.

Overall Air Gear is exactly what you’d expect from an Oh! Great manga: really crude perverse humour, imaginative character designs, extreme levels of fanservice and an over-the-top story to tie it all together. Now usually serialized shounen manga will prolong their run by continually upping the stacks, whilst retaining the theme that originally sucked in the readers. However where Air Gear falters is that mangaka continually adds new elements to the plot, transforming it from a sports battle manga hybrid into a pure shounen battle manga, disregarding what originally sucked the reader in. Gravity Children, Brain Charger, Barack Obama... Just to name a few of the random things later added to the plot that give off the feeling that not much thought was put into how they'd affect the story as a whole.

In the end what is left is a story riddled with huge gaping plot holes, as far as the eye can see and no way to close them without completely abandoning your own sense of disbelief. But it doesn’t change the fact that this is still a hugely entertaining shounen manga to read, if you enjoy shounen manga. Just keep in mind that you may have to turn off your brain from time to time, which is a damn shame.

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.

Second, It's the start of my "reviewing" era, thus probably will be odd.
-----

Okay, since BBcodes disabled I shalt split thematics onto different paragraphs.
----
So Air Gear manga, I really loved the Anime, watched it twice and planning for another re-watch. But because I was reminded that anime OVA does a time skip, so I decided to pick up manga from the beginning.

Story (6)
Starting for probably with the weakest or most tedious part of this manga, which is STORY. What was great about the manga story was it was fun friends doing great rollerblades battles and learning different tricks. But at some point story starts escalating in quite a grand theme. Bringing in all sorts of odd things. Extreme superpower Air Treks, cyborgs, quite an odd technology and also a lot of plot turning points, which would been all fine, but it was made in way too confusing way. They started bringing in too many different story points, explanations and also too many characters. For a light reader as me (as I'm not particularly fond of reading) it was really difficult to grasp onto what was happening to the story. At some point I just couldn't remember most of the new characters that were brought in or how was story related to different aspects. Point being, as anime with "fillers" to explain things better. It would been amazing battle shounen anime. But as pure manga format, it felt rushed, tried too hard and too much was thrown in which made the story quite a weak link and led the whole thing astray. Story ended on an acceptable level.
TLDR; story - Starts with fun rollerblade battles, ends up way too chaotic and confusing.

Characters (7)

What can I say, hate or love. It had both. Most characters were kind of a "punks, thugs, energetic brats and so on.." which was fine for the most part. It made into great battle shounen and enjoyable stereotypes and cliches. Only specific comments I might add about characters would be that main team was fun. Very "nakama-power" heavy with bunch of really cool rivals, villains and gangs. As for female characters, they were quite hot. But some I did really dislike as they were really loose ***** and ******* whilst counterpart some guys/punks were quite rapey. But nevertheless I did enjoy the cast whilst still can't get over how one specific character was plottwisted (was in anime too) in a direction I wasn't hoping for. Aside that, only specific comment about characters I might add, would be Tuners. I'm still not sure whenever they were tweaking AT's or doing something indecent.

Art (9)
The strongest part of the manga. The art was really cool. Battle sequences were really nice. Background/scenery was done really niceley. Character designs were cool and female characters were really sexy and they managed to add the cuteness aspect as well quite well.

Enjoyment (8)
Since most of my review has the "enjoyment" aspect of review in each paragraph. I will only add few extra things here.
I wasn't yeah, particularly fond of some character stereotypes/personalities. As they pissed me off. Also yeah, anime was 10/10 and manga for some time also 10/10, the amount of stuff they threw in and the confusing I was given.. caused me to lower the score. Comedy was also great aspect, lot of references and randomness that I'm fond of.

Overall (8)
All I can say is, for a battle shounen anime It's quite cool. Nice world, interesting concept, epic battles, sexy girls, cool guys. Cool powers and so on, it's good Manga. But yeah, story confusion, the amount new characters being brought it makes it quite difficult manga to keep track on. Plus yeah, some characters being quite a ahem.

I personally LOVED this anime, the only real problem was that it was left dangling....

Like my review almost was just now.

In any case, the only good reason someone should watch this over reading the manga is to see the tricks in motion. The manga's way better.

A warning, though, there IS nudity in it, and it's not really wise to watch it when someone could be looking over your shoulder.