AIR GEAR

Air gear....hmm......first time I picked this up i thought it to be a sports shounen manga with a lot of EPIC HIP-HOP PUNK GOTHIC CULTURE and i wasnt wrong, it does have a lot of those elements in it, especially the clothing the characters wear (some of the r just amazing =3=)
and now the art, well, what do I have to say? Its Oh Great! I mean, hes only like the best manga artist I have ever seen when it comes to the art, and is definitely my favourite artist of all time. His art is flawless, and the style changed twice throughout this series. First it was alright, pretty shounen style, suitable for young people. Then it got realistic since he was working on tenjou tenge, during that time he used like a LOT of lines to draw the characters, and it got pretty realistic =3= and then after tenjou tenge was finished, his art style changed again, this time to a not-so-realistic but epic as hell art that is so extremely suitable for the pop cultre and was so freaken good
now the story, well, at the beginning it was just like any other shounen manga, there's nothing too special about the plot except for the fact that they ride on awesome roller blades that can climb walls and jump off buildings. Then something happened, and the plot got messy, at at one point i was about to drop this series because the plot was so pointlessly stupid. but then around volume 24, the plot started to rise back up and then, well, I personally loved the plot after vol 24, it was one of the best stories I have ever seen. However most people find the plot to be confusing and some people just find it to be plain stupid. I dont blame them, since you kinda have to think a bit to get the plot and ignore some of the "not so good" elements in the plot. I enjoyed it, but most people hated it =3=
now the characters....well....other than the fact that most character development arcs r like fillers, and the only characters memorable are the main characters. The other ones r, well, forgetful. I mean, okay so oh great tried to bring back all the characters at the end of the series and that, well, totally failed. But then towards the end there were some really good character development arcs especially the fight with Nike, and the final battle. But then it seemed like oh great didn't really plan out the characters and kinda just "put them in the story randomly and expected us to deal with their existence"
I definitely enjoyed this series, especially the ending arcs, and, well, I can't really recommend it after reading all the bad comments about it on the internet. Since not everyone will enjoy it like I did, and I know for a fact most of my friends think its boring =3=
i give this manga, a 9 out of 10

I enjoyed the anime a lot and wanted to continue from the manga. Never got to finish it and just skimmed the last chapter when it ended.

Story: The Air Treks, the characters, the plot. All of these started out great until Oh Great decided to smoke something iin the middle. Everything just started going all over the place. I stopped reading seriously in the middle of the gravity children arc. And the ending didn't really make much sense.

Character: They started out a tad crazy till they got a whiff of the coke that Oh Great was sniffing. They got high and started doing and saying crazy s*** till the end. There is some character development which was good, but eventually degraded along with the story.

Art: The only thing which was consistently good. If Air Gear was an artbook, it would be one of the prettiest shounen artbooks out there.

Enjoyment: I did find enjoyment in it even tho the story got whacked. The Air Treks scenes always looked cool and nice and I did like where the story was going for some of the characters. Sadly, the messy way it was presented turned me off to read it seriously.

TL;DR: If you've seen the anime and the OVA, that's all you need to see.

For the past ten years, Oh! Great (Ogure Ito) has created one of the most bizarre pieces to ever hit the shelves: Air Gear. To be blunt, it's bizarre because you just can't seem to figure out what Air Gear is trying to be. Is it a sports manga that's over the top? Is it a battle manga with the most peculiar choice of weapons? Is it a harem manga of sorts? Is it actually a comedy manga with ridiculous amounts of fanservice? The manga jumbles its focus on these genres as it goes on, and does so until its final chapter.

Nevertheless, I finished reading Air Gear. I just finished reading it out of sentiment; I still fondly remember the days when it was good, and continued reading hoping that the good times of Air Gear would return. Alas, it would not recover, but I read it anyway. I suppose this is the sentiment produced by reading long-running series; you just can't let go so easily. Anyway, let's get to the nitty gritty.

Story: 6/10

The story is about Minami Itsuki, referred to by his friends as "Ikki," and his story in the world of ATs. What are ATs? Think of over-the-top inline skates. That fly. And skate in the sky. With powers.

I actually hooked on to this concept, and thought that it would produce some of the most ridiculous sports manga ever. Air Gear, however, tries to attain a multitasking attitude, and attempts to do several genres all at the same time. What we end up with is a sports manga tied in with battles, romance, comedy, and fanservice. It juggles the concepts each time, and ends up with a bizarre mess most of the time. It does have its moments, though, although the mess really is more frequent. It was jumbled so much that the last 20+ chapters ended up being romantic, then more of a shounen battle, and finally finishing it up sports manga-style. It's confusing, but you tend to grow on it if you've been reading it for years.

Art: 8/10

I've always liked Air Gear's character illustrations. Details are pretty much just right where you need them. It's just puzzling, though, how the female characters don't seem to know the concept of "underwear." Or even "sports bras." Heck, sometimes, even "bras" too. Well, setting all forms of fanservice aside, the characters look great.

The battles look amazing as well. It's amazing how the artists envision all the powers of the ATs, and bring them to life as backgrounds each time the user of the AT uses the said power. Dragons, vines, typhoons--name it, they got it.

What sets me off, though, is the scenery. Sometimes, it's great, but often times, it's really messy. Setting that aside, everything else is pretty good.

Character: 5/10

Here's where the other problem of Air Gear lies: the characters are so plentiful they're cluttered and completely lack characterization. Most of the characters are cool and collected, or hot-headed sports jocks like our lead character, or some pretty girls with awesome sets of inline skates (and vital statistics). The only guys I remember so well aren't even the lead characters; they're just members of the group Ikki forms later in the story. If anything, you'd find strength in the characters not as individuals, but as a whole. Heck, even Ikki's personality was pretty uneventful.

Enjoyment: 9/10

Nevertheless, Air Gear was a pretty unique experience. You'd never thought you'd see genres so diverse in one single manga, and the author manages to execute the story while keeping the ridiculous instances at bay. (Sometimes.) The tricks and the ATs give life to the story, and keep readers on. You can even play favorites with your choice of the best ATs in the series. It's that catchy. Either that, of course, or you're really just interested in certain curves throughout the series. Or the almost complete ignorance of women's underwear. But hey, all's well that ends well, right?

Overall: 7/10

For the record, this is simply the average score of everything I've rated above. Overall, Air Gear brings about a story that's just as ridiculous as the sport where the entire story revolves about. Whether you're in it for the sentiments, or the women, or the tricks, or the powers, Air Gear remains to be quite an entertaining read. It's certainly not the best out there, but it's nice to read something to bizarre it's entertaining. I guess the bizarre nature of this manga is one of its strong points after all.

Roller-skates that doesn't just look cool, but have super power which can allow you to fly in the sky or slice whatever you dislike in half. Yes, this can totally be done and can only be found in Air Gear. The anime revolves around the protagonist, Ikki, who became interested in Air Treck (AT) when he was shown his first defeat by a gang of storm-riders. He formed a team called Kogarasemaru and had one goal; to conquer the Tropheum. The plot follows a typical story-line in which the main character starts out weak and become immensely strong by the end. Miracle do happen, right? And here is a heads up; If you try to apply physics to the tricks the AT perform in this manga, you might experience some chronic pain.

The flow of the story is alright. In the beginning, the story started at a microscopic level in a sense that it only focused on Ikki and his life at home, school, and with the East side gang. Then later it expanded to the entire town, and soon after the world of AT. The story continues to unfold many times over until the manga basically focused on the entire world. The was a noticeable and good quality of Air Gear. On the other hand, the manga had too much holes in the plot and those are too significant to ignore especially when it comes to the ending which did not flow very well with the rest of the story. Many questions left unanswered especially the relationships Ikki had with the girls. In the end, the manga chose to end the plot with action and left out some important genres which it incorporated earlier on in the story.

Nevertheless, the whole manga is concentrated with extended metaphors, so be prepared. Sometimes the metaphor, such as the wings that everyone is born with, makes sense and has a great message behind it. While others are you can't understand it at all, but they one of the most promising and prominent features about this manga.

The art of Air Gear is great, fabulous, outstanding, splendid, there is an infinite number of words that can be used to described the art. All the characters look so appealing and in a sense they look almost perfect. One thing that stands out other than the character art is the art for the AT avatar. When you first see them you will be astounded by the detail and complex. For this I applaud the art as well as the artists.

Well, let's talk about the characters; Ikki, Issha, Onigiri, Agito, and Kazu are the members of Kogarasemaru. Each member is characterized to as great extent and that is great since each character is individualized from each other, yet there is this feeling that all of the members except for Ikki are very similar to one another. Why? The reason is the manga is trying too much to make Ikki different that the other characters are left alone.

The manga was really fun to read, there was always a sudden twist and turn waiting for us at every corner. That is what makes Air Gear entertaining; you can never predict what will happen next, and is definitely a true quality of an action type manga. As I might have mentioned earlier Air Gear incorporates a lot of genre ranging from action to ecchi. Air Gear took a unique approach and it work out really well. The manga successfully use a majority of the genres it incorporated and designed a story that is both entertaining and meaningful.

Like what an AT rider would say; "Infinity Atmosphere" --- There is an infinite number of possibilities for Air Gear. Each one of those possibilities can be good or bad, but for me I have to say, Air Gear was worth the read.

A manga about Roller Blades. Oh!Great somehow thought he could make this into something enjoyable. And he was right. Where do I begin? Lets start with the characters. There are a lot of characters in Air Gear, many of them seem shallow and cliche. But thats the point. Unlike some other series, for instance Hunter x Hunter, which choose to go against cliches, Air Gear chooses to explore them and go deep into them, creating a cast of developing and interesting characters. Next, the artwork. Amazing. Air Gear is practically unsurpassed in its artwork, which truly gives the sense that you're flying. Sure, a good portion of it is devoted to more fanservice (it IS Oh!Great, after all) but nonetheless, credit where credit is due. Then, the story. The story began interesting but then slowly started getting confusing and boring. When I first read Air Gear, I ended up dropping it midway through because of this. Eventually I decided on a whim to continue reading. That's when it happened. The shocking plot twist, everything changed. I'm not going to spoil it, but it was unexpected and great. Everything got better afterwards as the plot furiously began progressing. The conclusion was great, the story was great. It's worth a reread after you finish it for the first time, because it will help everything confusing in the beginning make more sense. It's not a masterpiece, and maybe I'm overpraising it, but its just so hard to believe that this brilliant manga was made by the same guy who produced the trash known as Tenjou Tenge.

I'LL SHOOPDAWHOOP YOU TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN!
^This actually happens in the manga...

Enter the ridiculous world of Oh! Great (Ogure) manga: Air gear. If you are familiar with his other works (such as tenjou tenge) then you should know what to expect. A convoluted mess of absurd amounts of fanservice, a cast of cliches, a great deal of random events, amazing art and (as an added bonus for this manga) bullshit physics.

Air gear takes place in a world where highly advanced, state-of-the-art, motorized roller blades known as air treks are used by people to zoom around the town, partaking in territorial wars and other competitive events.

Pros:
-BOOBS! ASS!
-Awesome art!
-Great concept.

Cons:
-Characters are bland.
-Story is just a mess.
-Random stuff happens so frequently, you just have to accept it.
-BAD. PHYSICS. Anyone who gave a crap bout their grade 8 physics class would see a lot of mistakes in Ogure's "explanations"
-Did i mention the story is a mess?
-Bad inclusion of humor at inappropriate times. This would actually be a Pro if it wasn't so overused.
-And just so you know, the story is a down right horrid mess of crap.

Story: 3/10
Follow our protagonist as he dreams of soaring through the skies! Delve into the world of air treks and witness as the shit hits the fan!! The story starts off great but quickly takes a turn for the worst. Bad science + no clear direction + too much fanservice + even more yaoi fanservice + random mecha + president of united states = not very good. I ain't gonna spoil it for you and you can read the synopsis for more detail. And seriously... this is one of those manga's where you would benefit from skipping anything YOU, the reader, deems retarded and irrelevant. Why? Because it probably is.

Art: 9/10
Friggin' AWESUM! The art is just great! if only there was less fanservice and more focus on the story, this manga woulda been top-notch... The attention to detail, the fight scenes, the backgrounds... its all just so good!

Characters: 5/10
A massive cast of just about every cliche out there. I wouldn't give it a 1/10 cause it sticks to the nature of cliches... but no higher than 5/10 cause there really isn't any originality here. One big problem in my opinion is the characters age... way way way tooo young for what they look like and what they do.

Overall: 5/10
Read it if you want lots of Pseudo-Hentai with a story in the background. Maybe if you wanna check out some awesome art. But don't read it if you are looking for this super awesome concept executed with an amazing story and quality art... all you'll get is disappointment and quality art.

The following is a more detailed review. Don't bother if you don't want a giant wall of text full of my opinions.

Genre tags:
So! You should have a basic idea of what this manga is like. A few things I'd like to add to the genre tags would be "fantasy" or "science fiction" Why? Because the story starts with simple motorized roller blades and ends with super high tech parts that use vibrations in the air to trap people. Or techniques of breathing in to accumulate more nitrogen in your body, causing nitrogen bubbles that generate excruciating pain but also heighten the bodies senses. Even ways to skate on the water by creating so much heat that you generate a surface on the water... YEEEEAAAAAAH... Like i said, bad physics. Simply adding a genre tag other than "sports" would help the story do what it wants. But nope, Ogure chose to break his own rules. The "sports" tag is misleading. There's way too much bullshit going on for it to be regular sports.

Story:
See, it starts fairly simple. Guy wants to fly. Gets super-awesome skates. Flies around. Suddenly, he gets into a fight with a group. Suddenly, another group appears. Then suddenly, more information is given to us about the world of air trek... but... it was just so sudden... suddenly, people start executing techniques that are just absurd... stopping time with roller blades? WHAAAT!?WITH FRIGGIN' ROLLER BLADES!?!?!? Suddenly, wheels turn into whips (but don't hinder the riders mobility)... suddenly, falling from heights that would have killed someone in chapter 2 isn't a problem in chapter 15... Suddenly, some guy appears. Suddenly, he betrays the protagonist... Suddenly, this person dies... Suddenly hes alive (of course, cause... ya know... adding a motor to a pair of roller blades allows you to resurrect people by causing super sonic vibrations that resonate with the mitochondria in their cells causing the body to go into overdrive preventing them from losing their consciousness thus allowing them to remain alive...not) Then suddenly, the president of the United states of america appears (not kidding...). Then suddenly theres a body swap. Then suddenly giant robots destroying cities.

That is how to story goes. Suddenly something happens, we start getting crap explanations (if we are even lucky enough for one) and before you can even begin to wrap your head around it, suddenly something else happens and there are more explanations. Then the story ends... and you realized you just wasted a great deal of time and energy trying to give a crap about a bad story. And lets not forget, random bullshit is hiding at every corner. Every single time the story takes a turn, some giant pile of bullcrap comes raining down on the reader. Seriously... this manga makes less and less sense with every volume.

Oh and don't get me started on Oh! Great's naming sense. That's another clue the sports tag is uber misleading. You get attacks like "bloody killer fang," "Unlimited atmosphere," "Pile Tornado." Even titles like "gravity children"... Seriously, if this guy wasn't smoking something while coming up with incoherent bullshit, he would be deemed insane.

Art:
Like i said. The art is great. But there is way too much fanservice. Which is great if you like that.

Every girl gets naked here. EVERY ONE OF THEM. Oh... and so do some of the guys. We also have some serious (STORY RELATED) yaoi here. Every chapter is perverted. Every volume has ridiculous amounts of cleavage, boob-grabbing, ass-slapping, cloth-ripping and just plain on panty-shots. If you, like me, cared about the story then this would start to get in your way of enjoying the manga. But then again, the story is crap so this really is all you got going for you. Fanservice and fight scenes. The two things that don't need to make sense are the only reason you should read this manga.

Characters:
Boy oh boy oh boy. Main male protagonist is your average full of himself, "i-cant-define-cool-without-making-him-a-douchebag" douchebag... He's got a friend who's full of determination and self-doubt to the point that he is a normal person. Another friend who is just a complete and utter pervert. And one who's the fat guy who just don't stop eating. One is gay for the douchebag and has multiple personalities.

Then there are the female cast who all are very... "well-endowed" when it comes to the body department. NO LOVE FOR TEH PETTANKOS!! The majority fall in love with the douchebag main protagonist. What else did you expect?

How do these characters develop? Wellll... a lot actually. But they just sorta loop around to being how they are in the beginning with just more skills. Soo... not much i guess...

Facts, credibility and imagination:
You might be thinking, WTF IS THIS? well, i had to add this criteria simply because Ogure does such a wonderful job of making up total and utter bullshit and expects it to make sense to the reader.

As far as facts go, they go along with the world of Air gear then fall flat on their face. They last about... 3 volumes...

Credibility, just the same as facts. Everything goes along just fine, seemingly appropriate for the world of Air gear and the fancy high-speed roller blades known as air treks... then credibility fails Ogure as mystical, magical and down right moronic science kicks it to the curb.

Imagination, however, SHINES! There is a lot of imaginative material going on in the manga. And it really really really isn't bad. Like i said earlier, this manga has a fantastic concept. But the great ARTIST Oh! Great screws up big time and (probably started smoking something new) just gets too wild and crazy that the reader must begin to imagine that this is a good manga. Oh, and i capitalized the word artist because that is what Ogure is. He can't write a story for shit, but he sure as hell can draw some amazing things. Did i mention Ogure can't write a decent story? Just making sure you get my point...

Final thoughts:
Go dream up a better story involving motorized roller blades and i guarantee you that it will be a bazillion times better than air gear. If you are too lazy, then read Air gear. Feel free to skip the "SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS" since they just ruin stuff (unless you have no knowledge of anything physics-related i guess). Heck, it actually is BETTER to skip lots of the stuff past volume 5 to keep the story in the direction it's MEANT to go. You could literally skip 1/4th of the manga and you would have a more cohesive story. Would i recommend this? Maybe if you want lots of fanservice, or if you want to know what not to do to a story or just wanna check out some awesome art.

Hope you found this review helpful or at the very least enjoyable.

Since this favorite manga of mine is so underrated, I would give it a 10.
All I can say is that this masterpiece of Oh Great! is just GREAT.

What you can expect most in this manga is its creativity in a kinda similar sense to that of Yakitate!! Japan. Well, everyone is creative, even my 2 dogs, but I really mean it in this case. You will be kept being entertained by its creativity at any point throughout the story, particularly at the very beginning of every single chapter (especially since chap 50) in one of many possible forms: design, parody, pose, machine, feat, etc. Oh Great's style.

At many points, you will find the conversations a bit vaguely philosophical surrounding the topic of "to fly" but they are pretty enjoyable as you get used to them. No goosebumps at all! Those are the pauses necessary after all the exciting parts. There is no major twist in the plot but mostly side changing between riders on two sides of the fence. The protagonists Ikky and his gang move on, beating enemies and turn them friends, just to find more enemies.

The story transcends the topic of sportsmanship and brings you to epic wars with super high technologies which make the most sci-fi sense. The author is always trying his best to be both creative and contemporary. I was extremely delighted to see President Obama making his parody gender-bender show. Oh Great! also does a great job in gathering materials - there are a lot of small things you can learn to amaze your naive friends. I myself never ceased to be amazed reading every chapter of this series.