AIR GEAR
The MTV Generation needs something productive to do
Review by: M.H. “360-ollie-to-broken-wrist” Torringjan
Length: 26 episodes
Genre: X-TREME!!!, action
Watched: Entire series, subbed
Back when I was younger, I played the original Tony Hawks Playstation game, and while the game itself was addictive, I never got why anyone should make millions and millions of dollars as a professional skateboarder. While the tricks were pretty, and actually doing skateboarding was probably fun, giving someone enough money to buy a swimming pool because they can do pretty tricks seems to be needlessly obscene. I knew this series was going to fall under the same category, but at the same time, it featured hot chicks with large racks. We all know it doesn’t take that much to please me, and by god, they found one of those things that does.
Plot summary: Ikki is an active high-schooler who lives with his adopted family, and one day finds a pair of Air Trek hidden in his adopted sister’s room. Air Trek is a wild new sport that uses motor-driven roller-blades and riders compete to perform more wild tricks, or just battle for dominance. Recently, however, gangs of Storm Riders have been gathering together and staging brutal turf wars. Ikki, dreaming of flying, puts on the Air Trek and begins on the road towards becoming the best rider in the world, climbing the Trophaeum Tower to battle the Eight Kings.
Artwork: The series is pretty blatantly shonen, so the art style is accordingly sharp, emphasizing physical proportions (especially in the case of females) and fantastic action sequences. The artwork is fairly pretty, but it isn’t anything really special. As is often the case, the high quality of artwork employed in the manga is not translated as effectively into the anime medium. The character designs are individual, and the colors are nice, but the animation isn’t as smooth sometimes as it could be. Also, the physical proportions may be a bit overemphasized, with the muscles being unbelievable, the fat guys being really, really fat, and the womens’ breasts being slightly larger than Pamela Anderson after plastic surgery (not that I object to that).
Music: The soundtrack tries to be hip to make the mood upbeat and possibly to deepen the appeal to teens who like visceral series. A thick hip-hop beat with some techno sounds all right, but also makes the series sound like it’s trying too hard to be trendy. The opening track is a J-rock track that sounds like something Hoobastank was too lazy to put on their album, but still could be a decent listen. The soundtrack is playing strong to the target audience, and ends up being nothing special.
Characters: Ikki is the typical competition anime lead character: competitive, confident, willing to challenge authority, and ridiculously talented at what he does. He is new to the sport of AT, but quickly grasps tricks far above his experience level. He lives with a foster family, and is completely oblivious to the attraction of one of the sisters he lives with, Ringo, due to his devotion to the sport. Ringo is an experienced AT rider and a member of the team, Sleeping Forest. She has an obvious crush on Ikki, but is considerably less confident in her romantic skills than she is in her riding skills. She also is jealous of the new girls who have shown a liking for Ikki. Regardless of how angry Ikki can make her, she will always do her breast – err, best to protect him. Akito is a strait-jacketed, malicious... err... cute and fluffy ex-police officer who joins Ikki’s team. Akito has multiple personalities that show depending on the position of his eye patch. While Akito is the friendly, non-violent side who just yearns for freedom, Agito is the sadistic, violent personality that comes in handy in battles. Simca is a mysterious, extremely hot storm-rider who takes a liking to Ikki after she first sees him ride, confident that he is the next big thing in AT. She pushes him up the ladder in an attempt to make him the best that he can be. Fats Buccha is a former lone rider, the Night King, who joins Ikki’s team after being beaten. His extreme girth makes him a heavy hitter, and that couples with his extreme speed to make him a fantastic rider. The main characters all fit the mold of the competition anime, and there’s very little of character development done. But really, it’s a shonen series; how much of the audience is watching for deep characters versus big jugs, fights, and explosions?
Plot: From the very beginning, I could tell the direction this series was going in. It proceeded in an extremely predictable manner, with fairly standard plot devices and even standard characters. The premise itself is along similar lines, in my opinion, to YuGiOh and Pokemon. The similarity to YuGiOh lies in the act of making a leisure activity into a life-or-death situation, making a mountain out of a single atom. And, to be totally honest, they do a poor job of making me care about anything or anyone that’s going on. To make matters worse, the humor is all sight-based and fanservice-based, which makes this one of the most shallow series I’ve watched in a long time.
CHICKS!! While the rest of the series isn’t very impressive, I must admit that Oh! Great (yes, I shit you not, that’s the artist’s name) can draw some awesome chicks. We have the standard scorned childhood friend in the personage of Ringo, pretty much the same as all the other scorned childhood friends. She’s so devoted, despite the complete ignorance of the man she likes. All you have to do is show her how much better you are than said man, and you should be set for an athletic, hot chick for life! Simca seems to be difficult to please, but the mysterious aura surrounding her and the ridiculous curves also make her an admirable object of admiration.
Overall: Most of this review has seemed pretty down on this series, going so far as comparing it to YuGiOh and Pokemon, but I must admit, I’d have liked to see more of it made. The story is much longer than the anime series, as is the case with other series (Berserk, Gantz, etc.), and it seems to end in the middle of a story arc. While I will admit, this is about the worst series that I’ve watched this year, it is addictive, very much like other shonen anime series. There are a few funny moments, and the hot chicks would have been enough to keep me watching, no matter how stupid it had gotten. It’s been licensed already, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re out for a laugh.
In a nutshell:
+ Stupid, good for a laugh
- Artwork doesn't live up to manga
- Trendy music
- Stupid plot
- Bad characters
Final score: 5/10