Ranked #415

Air Gear (Manga)

I do not fear to rate a manga low, but Air Gear is just great.

Let's see:
Story: The story seems unspectacular: A few High School kids playing with tuned Inline-skates. Boring? No, because oh!Great did an awesome job in the story development. At the end, they will have to win some kind of tournament and that's what more or less every sportsmanga is made of, but Oh!great mixed some very interesting and exiting plot-twists into the somewhat lame and old plot. Friends are going to be Kogarasumarus enemies. People who seem to be dead, are alive. New and strong enemies appear and fronts are build.

Art:
I've never seen a Manga-ka doing such a great job with his way of drawing. Simple as that and nothing more to say.

Characters:
There are many characters, but not as many as in Bleach or Mahou Sensei Negima and the characters are very different. Every person follows his on "road" and every person has his own style in every way, but there are some persons who are not the one they seem to be. You can bet there will be more than one surprise.
A negative Point: The female characters have really big breasts, ALL female characters. I can understand that there are readers (especially woman) who don't like that. I don't like that, too.

Enjoyment:
Well, everyone has to decide on this point on his own, because some people just don't like sports-manga, or some other points are just going on their nerves (eg: the big breasts of the woman).
I really do enjoy this Manga. Aside from the outstanding Art, the unexpected plot and the characters, there is more: The fights are really exiting. Yes, they are fighting with Inline-skates. When you start reading it, you can't stop, or at least I can't stop. The characters are loosing and NOT only winning. They are winning pretty much, but they are loosing too, so you have to be frightend that you favorite character might loose his next fight. There are strong allies, but even stronger enemys, but it's not a neverending story like One Piece, Bleach or Naruto. It is already long, but there is a storyline, that starts at the very beginning and all events belong into this one storyline and help to draw it further. No everlasting side-stories to rescue this character and doing that and and and.

I know people who just don't like sportsmanga and they don't like Air Gear. I can fully understand that, but I think if you like reading sportsmanga at least a tiny bit, you can give Air gear a chance. read more

Air Gear is an exciting Shounen, Sports, Ecchi, Comedy, which 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 over-the-top storyline.

Itsuki Minami (Ikki) is a typical teen delinquent, with no real purpose or goal in life but that soon changes when he discovers the joys and hardship of the popular extreme sport known as “Air Treck”. It’s true that most shounen sports manga have the usual guy, who is somehow introduced into a new sport and then quickly develops into a star. Sure Air Gear follows this idea but there’s a number interesting concepts that give this manga an edge; like the formation of the 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 but the deeper the story goes, the more it loses the original essence, it was once known for.

But one thing that never loses its essence, in this manga, is the cluster of clichéd but cool character archetypes. Ikki being the main protagonist is quite the shameless badass, with an outrageous sense of humour. It’s amazing how he and his team progress through this ever-changing story and his team in question aren’t just regular supporting characters, as they each have their own purpose in the story’s progression and some will become instant faves. There are also some other supporting characters that play a major role in the story, whilst others (especially the opponents) are somewhat generic. What’s also very unique about the characters is that most of them represent an animal or beast, giving a little edge to their personality.

To me the best thing about this manga has to be the artwork, with its unique look and cool design that sets it apart from all other shounen manga (except fellow Oh! Great manga). Not only do the characters look cool, with their expressively drawn attitudes but even the SFX text have a great graffiti style designs. The environments are very detailed and it’s easy to see that a lot of creativity has gone into designing the layout.

Overall Air Gear is exactly what you’d expect from an Oh! Great manga: really crude perverse humour, imaginative character designs and extremely ecchi fanservice. But it doesn’t change the fact that this is a hugely entertaining shounen manga to read. Even though the story becomes incredibly confusing later on, with all the Trophaeum Tower & Gravity Children nonsense, the heighten sense of tension and compelling drama you get is incredible. So if you’re looking for a hardcore manga or want more of what the anime had to offer, then this certainly a great read.

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