Ranked #628

Air Gear: Kuro no Hane to Nemuri no Mori - Break on the Sky

ahhhh Air Gear: Break on the Sky.....on one hand, I like the fanservice, strangely, and found the battles to be quite enjoyable....on the other, I despise how poor the story is, how strange the are characters, and how this seemly came out of nowhere.

Air Gear: Kuro no Hane to Nemuri no Mori or more awkwardly known as, Break on the Sky, is a collection of 3 OVA's that take place after the storyline of the animated series...I think; it looks like it is supposed to be more in tune with the manga which would explain why it didn't make a lot of sense.

Essentially, it is about Ikki and his team, Kogarasumaru, trying to enter a tournament that will help them to reach the top of the trophaeum. Ringo, as a member of Sleeping Forest, is now an enemy of sorts, and the team, for some bizarre reason, has to fight the original Sleep Forest team.....in cyberspace...I am not joking. The story seems like an after thought because they clearly didn't bother to introduce the audience to a slew of new characters that I assume are from the manga. It feels like a vessel for a ton of pandering.

Now to talk about something good, the art. The art is actually quite stunning and done infinitely better than the original, which is no surprise seeing we're comparing OVA's, made in 2010, to a series, made in 2006. The detailing of the characters looks great and where it really shines is in the aerial battles, which are undoubtedly the best part of the OVA's. Character's move fluidly, are well detailed, and fly around beautiful backdrops and settings.

Music is typical, nothing that stood out really. It does fit into the whole "Air Gear feel" though which is nice. One thing I do have to mention is the laughably bad moments where the voice actors say a line like "All for one and one for all." in English; they clearly haven't had a lot of experience with English.

It was strange for the producers to release an OVA that requires a fair knowledge of the manga. I've never read the manga, but I've seen all of the anime series; you would think that would be enough, right? The characters don't act like you would expect from the anime series because of this. Ringo is a lot more outgoing and Ikki is one giant douche....well more so than in the series.

On a visual level, it is awesome and I'd definitely recommend it for that. I would say it's for the type of person that say, watches Highschool of the Dead for the reason it was made. If your looking for something deep and meaningful, avert your eyes.
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Let me start off w/ this. I was in love w/ Air Gear right away after watching the first episode of the anime. After finishing the anime, I loved it and, wanting to keep it going, continued to go on into reading the anime. I liked the manga so much I just couldn't put off finding out what happens next so I read from ch 1 to ch 248 in about a day or two (yeah, I have no life). With that said, onto the actual review

Side Note: There will be a few slight spoilers, although....honestly, you probably shouldn't watch this unlike you're a big fan of Air Gear and have read the manga.

Story: 6/10
This OVA is real a letdown for me. I was really looking forward to it (my expectations were too high perhaps), and was eager to see the epic battle between Ikki and Ringo. I understand they were given only 20 minuts to fit in all that, but the feeling that everything was being rushed through was glaring. A lot of scenes that should've had much more impact or held more emotion was lackluster. Either that, or parts were left out. The part where simca gets attacked.....seemed much more powerful in the manga. n fact, Simca getting attacked and Ikki being shown getting angry all lasted around 2 min prolly. Hell, you prolly took more time reading that in the manga. They also cut out the part where Ringo chases Ikki and comments how she is having difficulty keeping up w/ Ikki, the same person who could barely even stand on ATs in the beginning of the series. They also cut out where Ringo destroys Ikki's weights so they can fight w/ no "handicaps". I liked those scenes and i felt they were powerful for showing how far Ikki has come. They also didn't really emphasized the part where Ringo's pain intensified throughout the battle due to the Sonia Road which takes away from the idea she's doing whatever she can to get her message to reach Ikki. In summary, it felt WAAAAY too rushed and some scenes just straight out lacked emotion.

Art: 9/10
If they did anything right....it would have to be the art. Wow...it was amazing. The series' animation were pretty good, but they just took it up 10 notches w/ this OVA. The way they flew through the air or grinded on a rail/wall looked very smooth yet dynamic. The sparks that came out of their ATs really impressed me as well. I only have praise for the art. Though unfortunately, this is the only category that'll get this treatment

Sound: 7/10
Meh, I don't have much to say about this. It was alright. Though, quite frankly, I hardly noticed it within the 20 minutes. I actually liked the original soundtrack, but that's just me. It wasn't so bad that it was just distracting, but it wasn't memorable either. Just....meh.

Character: 5/10
I'll start off by saying if not most, than all the seiyuus from the first anime series have been replaced so...this might put off some fans of the anime. Also....you bastards, what did you do to the Ikki I know and love! Ikki is supposed to be this headstrong, pompous and refuse-to-bow-to-anyone kind of mofo. He seemed so watered down in this OVA. He hardly even seemed mad when Simca got attacked. Yeah, so he gave Aeons a Falcon Punch to the face, but I think most people are just itching to do that to Aeons anyways (sorry aeon fans....if he has any). The change in seiyuus was very annoying for me. I really liked the original seiyuus of the anime series! Even Ikki's seiyuu lacked the pompousity that the former had that we all know and love. Kururu's voice adaption is quite disappointing ( she's like...my favorite vs. Ringo and Simca >:] ) anyways, disappointing.......but...i don't totally hate them.....i guess

Enjoyment: 6/10
Ugh....in the end, I'm biased and liked the OVA anyways despite the glaring flaws. I guess I'm just happy that there even is a OVA and....KURURU APPEARS read more