Ranked #1476

Air Master

The story of Air Master is a typical flimsy series of excuses to fit in as many fights as possible. This is not necessarily a bad thing since the real reason to sit through all 27 episodes of Air Master is for the enjoyment of the fight scenes.

The characters never get much depth, but they click in a way that makes the silly comedy work. Maki (main character) does get some flashbacks: I like her unusual fighting background. Mina might offend some people, but her proportions are so ridiculous that it's hard to take her for anything but the parody she is. Even annoying little girl Renge gets a few comedy moments that make her not quite as annoying.

Voice acting is pretty decent. Paku Romi was a great choice for Maki, and Mika Doi does a good job as the psychotic Kaori. Also featured are Yukana Nogami as Mina (Tessa in Full Metal Panic), Tomoko Kaneda as Renge (Chiyo in Azumanga Daioh) and Masumi Asano as Michiru (Hakufu in Ikki Tousen). The music isn't outstanding, but fits the show well, particularly the fast-paced OP and ED.

The art seems to be one of the biggest reasons people avoid this anime. However, after seeing the billionth show designed to have the cutest characters possible, it's downright amazing to have character designs that are willing to slap you in the face and kick both "cute" and "the norm" to the curb. It's also refreshing to see a female anime character that can kick butt AND looks the part. The character art isn't always consistent, but the animation does a great job of making the fights flow well and making the blows look real and painful, while using a variety of crazy fighting styles.

I recommend this show to anyone who wants to see some interesting fights that don't have much in the way of the typical copouts (like hurled energy beams or blurred strikes that are supposedly too quick to see). For those viewers, the key rating is 7 for enjoyment. People who don't care much about fights and want some real character development and substance to the story should look elsewhere. read more

"Air Master" is a satire and since a lot of folks don't "get" satire they gave it a "1". And those folks, by their reasoning, would be correct:
- the story is non-existent
- the art is all over the place
- the animation sucks
- the character design, well, the lead (except in flashback) is a hulking sort of Amazon; there's a "psycho supporter" lesbian who wears a bra with a cup size so large only Dr. Seuss could come up with a letter designation for it; a dwarfish creature that appears to have escaped from "Spirited Away" or, more likely, was exiled; and there's also "those two characters who are always hanging around the lead character"; and then there are the other characters who show up, disappear for no apparent reason and then resurface several episodes later for the same no apparent reason.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!

So it's understandable that the folks who watched "Air Master" assuming it was about an outsider girl "finding her way to acceptance by being the bad ass-est fighter on the street" would be upset and think it deserves a "1". It's also understandable that they missed the point entirely; they were clearly watching the wrong anime.

"Air Master" works on two levels: it's a satire but, also, in the grand tradition of "Usagi-chan de Cue!!", it's superbly silly. There is about one really decently animated fight sequence per episode along with quite a few good jokes including satirical comments about anime in general (note "the two characters who are always hanging around the lead character").

That's it nothing more, nothing less. "Air Master" is a fairly sophisticated satire presented as a silly action anime. read more